Geordie song - whats a bubbly body

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 27 Feb 22 - 03:02 PM

Yes Geordies say "bubble" for cry, but that doesn't really fit with "body." My guess is that it's nothing more meaningful that the word bubbly rhymes with ugly. There's not a lot else rhymes with it, apart from maybe "snugly," which definitely wouldn't fit. Perhaps "bubbly" is supposed to be visually descriptive, i.e. a body covered in unsightly lumps?

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,Black Jake
Date: 27 Feb 22 - 10:45 AM

And another

Ah thowt ah'd marry a Dutchman tae tek us o'er the seas,
But Ah hev married a keelman an' Ah'm allus on me knees,
Ah thowt Ah'd marry a sojer tae live on steady pay,
But Ah hev married a keelman an' he drinks the bugger away!

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,Black Jake
Date: 26 Feb 22 - 05:27 PM

Well, when I was young and fluent in Geordie and Pitmatic (that's about 85 years ago) 'bubbly' in the sense it is used here in the song, meant someone prone to 'bubble over' i.e. lose their temper easily.

There's another verse I know

Ah thowt ah'd marry a pitman to fill me grate with coal,
But ah have married a keelman an' he's always on the dole,
Ah thowt ah'd marry a Frenchman to love me night and noon,
But ah hev married a keelman. an' mornin's nivvor too soon.

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 06 Jan 14 - 12:55 PM

'Howay in a manger' LOL Jim! My old dad was forever saying "Howay!" and "Why aye!" to us girls. He also called us 'Pet' which we didn't much like. It made us sound like a dog or a cat.

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 06 Jan 14 - 12:48 PM

Well I'd totally trust anything you got from Betty & Norman (RIP) Mc Donald- no better exponent of Geordie somgs

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 06 Jan 14 - 11:57 AM

MacLeod, BTW... And I have no idea why it posted twice...and I got an error message as well.

Linn

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 06 Jan 14 - 11:54 AM

I got my words from Betty and Norman plus a small addition from Joyce and Danny McLeod.

I sing, right or wrong, "an ugaly [3 syllables] body, a bubbley [3 syllables] body, an ill-faced hideous loon"...

Linn

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 06 Jan 14 - 11:54 AM

I got my words from Betty and Norman plus a small addition from Joyce and Danny McLeod.

I sing, right or wrong, "an ugaly [3 syllables] body, a bubbley [3 syllables] body, an ill-faced hideous loon"...

Linn

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 06 Jan 14 - 06:33 AM

not much doubt in my mind that the phrase 'bubbly body' is just as stated- a frequent order to whingeing kids on Tyneside in my youth would be 'aw howay, stop bubblin'... by the way on a recent visit to Newcastle I was quite taken by the name of a new Christmas real ale in the area, called 'Howay in a Manger'!

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,george henderson
Date: 06 Jan 14 - 05:38 AM

I have always sung "Ill faced hideous loon" Bob Davenport used to sing a much longer version with the parson replacing the keelman. I have recording of that somewhere. Bob often adapted songs so it could be his own if you know what I mean.

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jan 14 - 01:10 PM

Oh thanks, Dave. If it's used to describe a spoiled child who has tantrums, then it that makes perfect sense in this song. :-)

Also, I like "hideous" better than "Curious," and I wonder whether I've been mishearing it all these years.

Joe, do you remember which album has the A L Lloyd version? That may well be where Betty and Norman got the tune. Have a nice trip!

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 05:23 PM

Eliza and the unnamed Guest are closest with him being constantly whinging and complaining - probably when he couldn't get his own way thus the description of him being "bubbly", a term more often used to describe a spoiled child prone to turning on the tears when things were not going their way. Also from the late sixties a number of the North East singers started using the line "ill fared hideous loon".

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 03:35 PM

I have a version printed by Marshall of Newcastle c1800 in The Newcastle Songster, a chapbook of 16 well-known Tyneside songs. All of the versions I have access to have pretty much the same text, 5 sts and chorus as already given. Of the 20 or so publications I have with it in, all derive from print sources, and I'd guess it wasn't popular in oral tradition until the current revival started. It was published in Catcheside-Warrington's second volume of 4 and would have become popular on Tyneside due to this. It was published in nearly all of the Tyneside Songsters but this is a print tradition rather than reflective of oral tradition.

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 02:56 PM

The song can be found in A collection of songs, comic and satirical, chiefly in the Newcastle dialect. By mess. Thompson, Shield and others (1819)

also in The Tyne Songster: A Selection of Songs in the Newcastle Dialect (1840)

No music notation in either one, unfortunately. I can post the notation from A.L. Lloyd, but probably not until the end of next week. I'm off traveling again.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,Ferrara
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 01:52 PM

Nope, leeneia, what I posted is from an official Newcastle-on-Tyne website. It's also in several other sources, always as bubbly.

Betty and Donald sang "ill-fared, curious loon." Also, they sang "Since I married a keelman, all me good days are done." Fits better with the tune they used. I haven't found any sheet music for it yet but they were very good with their research -- and they were from the Newcastle area -- and I suspect theirs is definitely trad.

Norman passed away some years ago. I still miss him, and miss seeing both Norman and Betty during their US tours.

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 11:58 AM

Ferrara, 'bubbly' is probably just a mistake. There was some word there that the singers didn't recognize, so they shrugged their shoulders and said, "Sounds like bubbly. Let's go with that."

Variants of 'buggery' and 'bloody' come to mind...

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 08:03 AM

In that case, Allan, 'ill-faired' would subsume both aspects, would it not? I still prefer another disyllabic pejorative for reinforcement!

~M~

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 05:25 AM

The Concise Scots Dictionary gives the definition of "ill-faured" as meaning "ugly" when talking about appearance but gives the definition as "unpleasant" or "ill mannered" when talking about temperament. So the line could be saying "bad tempered ugly"

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Jan 14 - 12:27 AM

Re the chorus, BTW: "ill-fared ugly loon" is surely tautologous -- 'ill-fared' means ugly. I remember hearing it sung [by Isla Cameron, I think] as "ill-fared coaly loon".

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jan 14 - 07:38 PM

Thank you, this is all helpful. Body is definitely person, I agree. Have always thought so. But now I can see various ways "bubbly" can fit here. Crying and runny-nosed go together, so does whining ie constant complaining.

I really don't expect to get a definitive answer! Looking more for connotations than denotations, as my 11th grade English teacher would have said.

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Jan 14 - 05:15 PM

Not how I've always read it and I spent a lot of time up on Tyneside.
A body (bod) is simply a person and 'bubbly' meant then exactly what it means today, somebody easily excitable.

Subject: RE: Geordie song - whats a bubbly body
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 03 Jan 14 - 04:50 PM

My father was a Geordie from North Shields. Bubble means to cry or weep, as in 'Why, dinna bubble!', stop crying. But a turkey is a 'bubbly jock', and that could refer to the wattles hanging down its neck. (ie wrinkly, red and leathery) Neither seems to fit the case here. Maybe others can shed some light?

Subject: ADD: The Sandgate Girl's Lamentation
From: GUEST,Ferrara
Date: 03 Jan 14 - 04:22 PM

I heard this sung by Betty and Norman MacDonald. Their version is a little different but here is what seems to be the standard version. My question is, What's a bubbly body???? Betty said it meant runny-nosed. Any other guesses? Or is that it?

Sorry if I missed another thread on this somewhere...


THE SANDGATE GIRL'S LAMENTATION

I was a young maiden truly,
And lived in Sandgate street;
I thought to marry a good man,
To keep me warm at neet.
        Some good-like body, some bonny body,
        To be with me at noon;
        But alas I married a keelman,
        And my good days are done.

I thought to marry a parson,
To hear me say my prayers;
But I have married a keelman,
And he kicks me down the stairs.

CHORUS: He's an ugly body,a bubbly body,
                An ill-far'd ugly loon;
                And I have married a keelman,
                And my good days are done.

I thought to marry a dyer,
To dye my apron blue;
But I have married a keelman,
And he makes me down sorely rue.
        CHORUS


I thought to marry a joiner,
To make me chair and stool;
But I have married a keelman,
And he's a perfect fool.
        CHORUS

I thought to marry a sailor,
To bring me sugar and tea;
But I have married a keelman,
And that he let's me see.
        CHORUS

---

Note from Joe Offer: these lyrics are exactly the same as those found in Lloyd, Come All Ye Bold Miners (2nd edn.) pp.110-111