02 Aug 13 - 06:21 PM (#3544841) Subject: Barley mow From: breezy I learned a version when in Leeds in 64 and beyond Not dissimilar to the one in the DT but differnt neer the less The version I recollect started at Here's good luck to the pint pot Good luck to the Barley Mow jolly good luck to the pint pot gd lk 2 the BM oh the pint pot, half a pint, gill ?. half a gill, quarter gill, nipperkin and the round? bowl , Heres god luck , goodluck Good luck to the B Mow acumalating until Company Brewer the drayer the slavey the daughter the landlady landlord the barrel the half barrel the gallon the half gallon quart pot pint pot half a pint gill ? etc half a gill quarter gill nipperkin and the round/brown bowl heres good luck = good luck good luck to the B mow can anyone confirm this version please ? cheers |
02 Aug 13 - 06:25 PM (#3544843) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: breezy guess it must be 'gill pot' for starters so is is round or brown bowl |
03 Aug 13 - 03:30 AM (#3544989) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Mo the caller Round bowl / Brown bowl Surely it's whatever the company sings. Isn't that what the folk process is all about? (Unless it's published in some little booklet that you sing it out of) My memory says brown bowl. |
03 Aug 13 - 03:32 AM (#3544990) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Mo the caller My memory isn't sure if I heard 'good luck' or 'good health' or maybe both. |
03 Aug 13 - 05:29 AM (#3545025) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: MGM·Lion Always been 'rum bowl' to me. Certainly 'gill-pot'; which raises again a linguistic difference ~~ a gill is a half-pint in a northern pub, but a quarter-pint down south. Generally. Wiki - 'a unit of measurement for volume equal to a quarter of a pint'; but northerners of my acquaintance would ask for a gill in a pub when they wanted a half-pint. ~M~ |
03 Aug 13 - 07:48 AM (#3545057) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: GUEST,c.g. Exactly the version I remember from Exeter in the 1970's. The missing word, I think, is gill pot, but sung fast it's difficult to make the words clear. For examplt, we actually sang 'Nipperkin anner rown bow' |
03 Aug 13 - 07:51 AM (#3545059) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Steve Gardham That's just about what I've been singing in Hull since the mid-60s. Gill pot and brown. The only difference is the order I now use but that could have been my own altering over the years. Company Brewer drayer slavy landlord landlady barmaid barrel half barrel gallon half gallon quart pot pint pot half a pint gill pot half a gill quarter gill nipperkin and the brown bowl |
03 Aug 13 - 10:33 AM (#3545100) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: GUEST With the addition of 'daughter' after Landlord, with suitable raised fist action. Didn't sing 'barmaid'. Sang 'slavy' there instead. This was the version I learned in Cornwall in the 60s. Recent addition is 'drayer..... and his horse'! shouted by the audience, breaking the rhythm but giving the singer time to draw an extra breath. Occasionally an audience member would sing 'Here's good luck to the singer' last, but they had to be able to finish it! Tone |
03 Aug 13 - 12:22 PM (#3545132) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: The Sandman breezy, i have heard your version , i think the tito gobbi of the balls pond road , used to sing more or less the same version as you |
04 Aug 13 - 09:58 AM (#3545425) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: breezy Hi GSSCH did you really hear my version ? and me singing it? or the version I have posted? -smile now. thanks all. I would think the order descending is Landlord , landlady, daughter - suitable gestures inc The company refers to the assembled throng or the Ltd Co . Again who gives a toss anyway Thanks for joining and contributing Good luck, good luck |
04 Aug 13 - 12:19 PM (#3545461) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Steve Gardham breezy, Here's a little historical snippet you can add to your intro if you do such things. The original 17th century song had bugger-all to do with barley or mowing. It was 'bella moy' (belle ami) presumably the butler (good friend) handing the drinks around. Oh, and the bowl was at that time black not brown. Cheers. |
04 Aug 13 - 12:29 PM (#3545464) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: MGM·Lion Ah, now. I have always taken it that The Barley Mow was the name of the pub where the song was being sung & all those drinking vessels were in use and all these people were to be found; and the 'company' were the drinkers present. It is, still, a common pub name ~~ google "Barley Mow pub" and see how many come up. barley mow public house -- About 29,100 results (0.19 seconds) Hic* ~M~ *except that I don't actually drink' but you know... |
04 Aug 13 - 12:31 PM (#3545467) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: MGM·Lion I mean, note the brewer, drayer, landlord, landlady, barmaid -- where would you find them all, now? |
04 Aug 13 - 01:07 PM (#3545478) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: MGM·Lion And no need to look for arcane phrases which the term is a corruption of ~~~ Oxford Dictionary online:- Definition of barleymow in English Pronunciation: /ˈbɑːlɪməʊ/ noun archaic -- a stack of barley. |
04 Aug 13 - 03:12 PM (#3545534) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Steve Gardham It was 'Barley Mow' by the end of the 18th century, Michael. At least 2 quite different broadsides. The 1609 (Deutromelia) with tune version doesn't include any personnel except for the butler (bottler). It's all drink measures but accumulative like most modern versions. I drink very little myself nowadays. Your dictionary entry says 'noun archaic'. Wonder how far back the phrase/word can actually be traced. If it is indeed old then it's easy to see how quickly 'bella moy' would become 'barley mow' amongst the plebs like me. |
04 Aug 13 - 03:31 PM (#3545539) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Steve Shaw The original post is almost the same as the one we used to sing in the 70s, though I think we stopped short of "the company". Also, I think I used to sing "round bottle" instead of "round bowl", but I guess that was my mishearing. Folk process, y'know! |
04 Aug 13 - 03:48 PM (#3545541) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: GUEST,John Routledge "Gill pot" scans better and is what was sung in North East in 60's Thanks for reminding me - will sing it on wednesday :-) |
04 Aug 13 - 03:58 PM (#3545544) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: GUEST,Ian Gill The original post is the same version Taffy Thomas used to sing at the Painter's in the 70's, also Tony Rose sings more or less the same on 'Exe'. Perhaps more interestingly does anyone else know the term 'stick' for a quarter pint ? Old Black Country folks used it, including the esteemed George Dunn. |
04 Aug 13 - 08:45 PM (#3545615) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Bert If that is the way that you sing it Breezy, then I'll confirm it. Everybody sings it differently and somebody once told me I was "singing it wrong". Just like the Seven Dear Old Ladies, the CORRECT version is YOURS. |
04 Aug 13 - 09:19 PM (#3545630) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: KT I have no idea which is correct or most common, but - ever since seeing the title of this thread yesterday, I've had our own Seamus Kennedy's version playing in my head-and a wonderful version it is! Check it out! |
05 Aug 13 - 04:26 AM (#3545686) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Tradsinger Here's the last verse of the Gloucestershire version I sing: I drank out of the sea, me boys, good health to the barley mow Here's success to the pub, good health to the barley mow It's the sea, the river, the canal, the brook, the barrel, the bucket, the gallon, the half gallon, the quart, the pint, the half pint, Tip it in and we'll have a drop more Here's good health, good health to the barley mow. Learnt from an old boy in the "Cheese Rollers" pub in about 1975. Tradsinger |
14 Nov 13 - 06:49 AM (#3575503) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Mr Happy Just a niggling query: the chorus consists of diminishing measures of beer until the 'brown bowl' Is this a smaller measure than the 'Nippikin'? |
14 Nov 13 - 12:16 PM (#3575589) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Mr Happy Doesn't anyone know? |
14 Nov 13 - 12:32 PM (#3575594) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Tug the Cox A nip was always a third of a pint, which is more than a quarter gill. |
14 Nov 13 - 12:41 PM (#3575598) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Tug the Cox So obviously Nip and Nipperkin aren't the same The nipperkin is a unit of measurement of volume, equal to one-half of a quarter-gill, one-eighth of a gill, or one thirty-second of an English pint. In other estimations, one nip (an abbreviation that originated in 1796) is either one-third of a pint, or any amount less than or equal to half a pint.[1] but some brewers also bottled in nip (1/3-pint) ( Both from wiki) |
14 Nov 13 - 01:05 PM (#3575602) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Tug the Cox The 12 terms between landlord and round bowl are English units—particularly units used to measure the volume of alcoholic beverages. These are sung in descending order from largest (barrel) to smallest (round bowl). Round bowl (sometimes sung brown bowl) indicates either a humble, wooden bowl, or a person's hands cupped together into the shape of a bowl.(wiki) |
15 Nov 13 - 05:26 AM (#3575843) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Mr Happy T the C, Cheers! Now here's Good Luck to the litre?? |
15 Nov 13 - 10:23 AM (#3575924) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: breezy c off |
16 Nov 13 - 05:39 AM (#3576166) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Eldergirl So all of us who had a little bottle of milk at morning break in primary school were in fact having a Nip of cow juice? Hmm. |
16 Nov 13 - 05:43 AM (#3576169) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Eldergirl And thinking about it (ooh the strain) most bowls are Round. At least, till the recent trend for Square dinnerware. Don't mind me, just exercising my human gift for stating the obvious.. |
16 Nov 13 - 07:43 AM (#3576199) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: GUEST I always knew it as "nipperkin, hand-around bowl..." - something like a communal quaiche containing ale instead of whiskey? |
16 Nov 13 - 09:02 AM (#3576218) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Mr Happy Sounds like a mondegreen! |
19 Nov 13 - 08:50 AM (#3577005) Subject: RE: Barley mow From: Mr Happy ........& in the DT version the 'nippikin & a brown bowl' have morphed into 'give us a little bit more' - more mishearings? |