Lyr ADD: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!

Subject: Does anyone know this song?
From: GUEST,Mick Davis
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 06:43 PM

Does anyone know the rest of this song? It goes to the tune of Yankee Doodle, which I have been told is an old English tune, and these rather rude words (among many others) were sung to this tune before the famous words were put to it.

"Be I Bekshire? Be I buggery,
I comes up from Fareham.
Our milkmaid's got calico drawers and
I knows 'ow to tear 'em."

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 07:34 PM

I have heard the yETTIES sing this
Of course they sing it as Dorset.

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 07:51 PM

Fareham is in Hampshire so it ought to be:-
Be I Hampshire , be I buggery I comes up from Fareham
Where all the girls wear calicao drawers and I knows how to tear 'em

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: CraigS
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 08:16 PM

Sod off Tel;

Be I Berkshire, be I buggery,
I comes up from WAREHAM
I know a gal with calico drawers
And I knows how to tear 'em

Rip me knickers away, me boys, rip me knickers away ...

I have a copy of the words, but I don't have immediate access to them. There were two paperback books of Rugby Songs published in the late sixties, and records by the male section of the Black and White minstrels posing as the Jock Strapp Ensemble - they sometimes turn up at car boot sales. My friend, Dr Dick Frost, has this song, and will always part with a part of what he terms "The Bucks Erotica" for a pint of beer. I've never heard it sung to "Yankee Doodle", though!

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: GUEST,Billy
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 12:33 AM

I have both "Rugby Songs" volumes but learned this song when I was playing rugby. The tune is "Yankee Doodle" but we used to sing it:
"Be I Bekshire? Be I buggery,
I comes up from Wareham.
The girls down there wear paper drawers
And I knows 'ow to tear 'em."

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: The Shambles
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 12:34 AM

Lyr Req - I be Berkshire etc.

Cantains another link to a thread called 'Bawdy Song'.

Subject: Lyr Add: BE I BERKSHIRE BE I BUGGERY
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 05:50 AM

The original song is Turmut (Turnip) Hoeing. The version that your talking about is call "The Fly" and has lots of floating verses starting with the one which CraigS has posted.

Be I Berkshire, be I buggery,
I comes up from Wareham
I know a gal with calico drawers
And I knows how to tear 'em

Chorus: The Fly, the fly, the fly be on me turnips
            And its all me eye that I do try
            To keep the fly off me turnips

Oh come into the Garden love
And don't be too particular
We've done it horizontular
Now we'll do it perpendicular

I wish I was a golden ring
Upon my truelove's hand
Then every time she scratched her xxxx
I'd see the promised land

I wish I was a little mouse
In my truelove's bedroom creeping
I'd crawl under the covelets
And have her while she's sleeping

Some folks uses Vaseline
And some folks uses lard sir
My old man just spits on his
Then he rams it in right hard sir

You can add all sort of other floating verses such as:

My neighbour bought a ton of bricks
To build his chimney higher
Just to stop my old tom cat
from pissing on his fire

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 06:13 AM

My dad has always sung this as "Be I Berkshire...... comes up from Fareham". So that's the county/town version I know.
He also has the rather sweet verse "Be I Berkshire? Be I buggery! I do come from Fareham, my old wife's got fifteen kids and she knows how to rear (rhymes with rare) 'em".
I think I prefer the more ribald versions though........

Kris

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: BanjoRay
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 07:11 AM

"Be I buggery" means "No I'm not", so the town mentioned is not in the county mentioned. I've heard it sung as:
Be I Bristol? Be I buggery
I comes up from Sarum
etc
Cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: Does anyone know this song? - Be I Bekshire
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 09:49 AM

I have a tape of Robert Graves singing this, which must be a bit of a collectors item.
His first line, to the best of my recollection, was:

I dont come from Wales nor Zummerset
I comes up from Fareham.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,miketarrant
Date: 18 Feb 14 - 09:39 AM

Antlers Rugby Football Club used to sing:
Be I Berkshire, be I buggery. I comes up from Wareham. I knows a girl with calico drawers and I knows how to tear 'em.
and immediately followed (as a non sequitur) with:
So rip my knickers away, away. Rip my knickers away. I don't care what becomes of me, as long as you play with my C.U.N.T.
So rip my knickers away, away. Rip my knickers away. Talk of joy, talk of bliss, there's fuck all like this. So rip my knickers away.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,c.g.
Date: 19 Feb 14 - 08:02 AM

Be I Bideford, be I Barum...

Barum being the old name for Barnstaple.

Any more?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 05 Apr 14 - 04:04 PM

The version I know used to be sung after dart matches by the darts team of THE QUEEN VICTORIA in South Bersted, and went as follows...
Be I Hampshire, be I buggery.
Be I comes from Fareham.
My old girl had sixteen kids and she knowed how to rare 'em.

Where be yon blackbird be,
I know where he be, Bugger!
He be up yon wurzle tree,
And I be after he, Bugger!

I sees he and he sees me
Buggered if we don't see 'tother, Bugger
Get off that bleed in' gate mate
Get off that bleed in' gate mate
If you don't get off that bleed in' gate
You'll be too bleeding late mate!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,Old rugby singer
Date: 06 Apr 14 - 03:40 PM

There was a refrain back end (so to speak) we used which went:

Rip my knickers away x2 then -

(Shouted)
Round the back! Round the front! Rip my knickers away!

Um, you can guess the rest. It rhymes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Apr 14 - 09:51 PM

Remembered from St Andrews University, 1959:

Be I Berkshire? Be I buggery!
I comes up from Pusey.
Yesterday I fucked a cow --
Buggers can't be choosy.

The chorus, IIRC, was

One, two, three, .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Apr 14 - 08:29 PM

There was supposed to be a groan after "three", but the elbows I used caused it to disappear. Make that "One, two, three, {groan}" (or do braces mean something too?).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,Jeraldo
Date: 30 Apr 14 - 11:43 AM

I remember this as a chant rather than a songs from my rugby days in Portsmouth:

Be I Berkshire, be I buggery
I comes down from Wareham
Where all the girls wear calico skirts
And I knows how to tear 'em.

Where be thy grandfarthy?
He be up a worzle tree
I knows he and he knows me
And he knows I be after 'ee

Ten long years I lived this town
And never more ****** (forgotten rest of words)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: bubblyrat
Date: 01 May 14 - 09:05 AM

In the Navy generally, it formed part of a trio of songs , viz "Be I 'Ampshire ,Be I Buggery , I comes Up From Wareham" followed by "I know Where That Blackbird Be " etc then,invariably "And We'll All Go Back To Oggieland " etc. What the Crabs or Pongos sang is anybody's guess !! ( Sorry, Terry !).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,Robert James
Date: 05 Nov 15 - 06:15 PM

In south Hampshire us always sang/ chanted it as " Be I Berkshire be I Buggery, I be Hampshire and I comes up from Fareham, where my old woman had fifteen kids and her knew how to rear em. The rest is unprintable.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 06 Nov 15 - 03:31 AM

I hope to be including a set of "I Know Where There's a Blackbird's Nest/Be I Somerset?" which I recorded from the Cantwell Family of Standlake, Oxon. on a forthcoming Musical Traditions CD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: bubblyrat
Date: 06 Nov 15 - 10:04 AM

"Fareham ; gateway to the south" as per the song by Sean Kennedy, late of HMS Collingwood and other dubious places. No, I think not ; it should always be WAREHAM , not Fareham.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,Chris
Date: 25 Jul 21 - 09:13 AM

I heard this version about 1965 from a groundsman at my boarding school in Somerset. I always thought he made it up on the spot, but I just heard that a version of it is traditional in the Royal Navy:

“Be I Zummerzet? Be I buggery?
I comes up from Fareham,
Where the girls wear calico drawers,
And I knows how to tear ‘em.”

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: Bob Hitchcock
Date: 25 Jul 21 - 04:30 PM

I heard a version in Dorset back in the 70's that went:-

Be I Berkshire be I buggery,
I come up from Fareham,
I bought my wife one pair of drawers,
But she never has time to wear'em.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Nov 21 - 08:58 AM

I originally heard this in the early seventies, from a friend who was a rugby player. I think the locations change to suit the locations of the singers (us). The tune was definitely Yankee Doodle. My memory of the lyrics is :

Be I 'Ampshire, be I buggery
I comes up from warum
I gotta gurl with calico draws
'An I be goin a tear 'em
Rip my knickers away, rip my lily-white knickers away. . . . . .

It was sung in an accent that was intended to portray the south-west. Combine 'arvesters 'an all.
Jolly times. Today somebody will be offended.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Be I Berkshire? Be I Buggery!
From: GUEST,Robbie
Date: 06 Feb 23 - 10:43 AM

Mick Softley used to sing the Berkshire/Wareham/calico /tear'em version in the sixties in the Cock Inn, St Albans I have never been able to sing in tune but when once in Darjeeling I was challenged by some Tibetan youths to sing something I thought 'this'll save me' and it did. Even got a round of applause. R