Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley

Subject: Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley
From: celticblues5
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 10:52 PM

I posted this as part of a note at the end of another thread, but apparently that thread had played out, as no one answered, so am putting it under perhaps a more appropriate heading to ask again.


Some years ago I heard Jean Redpath (maybe on PHC) sing a medley of traditional kids' street songs, starting with "Up Against the Wall, the London Ball," and ending with "I've a Laddie in Americay." In between was a little bit of a song that had to do with a child who was taking her dad some dinner - wonder if anyone knows the complete lyrics - all that I can remember are little bits -

"[name] stole me new topcoat, me new topcoat, me new topcoat, [name] stole me new topcoat, and [name] tore the linin'"

and "ah ha ha, ye needna run, ye needna run, ye needna run, ah ha ha, ye needna run, for ye'll get yer licks in the mornin'

and "My mother says that I must go with my father's dinner-o" and something about a "bawbee bake."

Possibly these are two different songs and I'm just merging them in my memory. Can anyone help with the lyrics to this (these)? Also, I was under the impression that a bawbee was a coin - ? Did I hear the word incorrectly in the Redpath song, or are they two different words or the same word with two different meanings or was my impression just wrong in the first place?

Thanks for your expertise!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 12 Sep 04 - 11:29 PM

A bawbee was a coin, yes; but there is no mystery here. A "bawbee bake" is a bake that costs you a bawbee. It is not cooked currency.

See the DT file I'LL TELL MA

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 10:03 AM

At least part of the medley you want was recorded on her album with Folk-Legacy. If you get on their web site, I'm sure Sandy and Caroline Paton would be glad to sell you a copy. It is an excellent recording.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 05:01 PM

The Opies, in "The Singing Game," discuss the rhyme group "Up Against the Wall," which includes "I'll Tell Mother" and others that commonly were put together to make a game. Some are based on once popular songs. A number of them are known on both sides of the Atlantic.

I haven't heard the medley, but the first and last mentioned by celtic blue5 suggest that Redpath, starting with a 'wall' verse and ending with a lad in 'americay,' may have been thinking of the migration of these rhymes across the ocean.
The Opies mention one of the "Up Againt the Wall" group collected in America in 1886:

"I like coffee and I like tea,
I like boys and the boys like me.
I'll tell my mother when I get home,
The boys won't let the girls alone.
O sweet beans and barley grows...."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley
From: celticblues5
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:05 PM

Hi, Q -

Thanks for your contribution. When I saw that the I'll Tell Ma version mentioned above included the bit about the dinner, I was wondering if the Tell Me Ma chorus might not be one of those floating ones that pop up here and there, since the version I'm most familiar with (the one the Rankins and so many others do) DOESN'T have the dinner bit.

Interesting to see your 1886 rhyme, and speculate whether it was the basis for the old standard "I like coffee, I like tea, I like the java jive and it likes me...."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 01:32 PM

Quite likely the inspiration. I will post.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jean Redpath's street song medley
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 01:39 PM

I love coffee, I love tea
I love the boys and the boys love me
Rich girls wear ruffles on their pants
Poor girls wear them plain
If youy don't wear none at all
You should be ashamed.

My mother taught me this when I was about five. Her parents were English and Scottish.