Lyr Req: October Brew

11 Oct 15 - 12:09 PM (#3743082)
Subject: Lyr Req: October Brew
From: Phil Edwards

Anyone got the lyrics for October Brew, as sung by Peter Bellamy on "The Tale of Ale"?

According to a poster on this thread it's another name for Blann's Beer; I don't know how this one got started, as Blann's (a completely different song) is featured on the same album.

This post by Murpholly from last year gives lyrics, but they're not the same as the version sung by Bellamy - on the album the second verse is different, and there's no final refrain.

Googling for lyrics to October Brew, or for phrases from the lyrics that I can make out, brings back... nothing at all, apart from that post from Murpholly.

Any ideas?

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11 Oct 15 - 02:14 PM (#3743108)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: October Brew
From: GUEST,#

Track 39 (a sample of it) is at

http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-tale-of-ale-the-story-of-the-englishman-and-his-beer-mw0000584625

That may jog someone's memory.

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12 Oct 15 - 12:40 AM (#3743211)
Subject: ADD: October Brew
From: Joe Offer

I thought I should add a couple of pertinent messages from the County Songs thread:

Thread #155456   Message #3657419
Posted By: Murpholly
05-Sep-14 - 01:11 PM
Thread Name: County Songs
Subject: ADD: October Brew

Hi Mudcatters, I'll try and answer your queries. I have known October Brew for a very long time. It is sung to the tune Bonny Green Garters which is a Bampton (Oxfordshire) Morris Tune so assume that is where it originated - probably at a Morris Feast (and its better than the Spotted Cow.

OCTOBER BREW
(Songwriter:???)

All ye who will drink and yet stop on the brink
Of the chasm twixt drunken and sober
Cast out to the slums all your brandies and rums
And stick fast to good honest October
Your Frenchman is famed for his frothy champagne
His Burgandy and his Bordeaux Sir
But the staggering part of October I warrant
Would send all to hell and below Sir

Your Claret and Hocks and your surgeon and box
May be all very well when when your ill sir
But I venture to think that old Pollypool's drink
Is the brace old October brew still sir
We find you for sure sat so snug in the bar
A man who is often in here sir
Away from your wife and the trouble and strife
Come settle content with your beer sir

Settle content with your beer sir
Settle content with your beer sir
Away from your wife and the trouble and strife
Come settle content with your beer sir

Musket you know very well there are 32 counties and as you missed this week's Ep'th Folk you missed the very interesting discussion regarding the Scottish referendum and if it is a yes whether all the Plantation Scots will go back to Scotland leaving the six counties for Dáil Eirinn.

Greg, the Barnes poem was originally written in Dorset dialect and I chose it as it was a favourite song of Eric Payne who founded Ep'th Folk one of my local haunts. Lots of others I could have chosen.

Have Polly Oliver from Staffordshire with the connection to the Jacobites and participation of Staffordshire regiments. Can't remember which site I picked that up from but remember reading lots about it.

It has been a fun exercise and no doubt there are many queries but I chose songs I could sing and that I liked rather than any other reason.

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12 Oct 15 - 12:41 AM (#3743213)
Subject: ADD: October
From: Joe Offer

I think this one answers Phil's question. Bellamy sings almost exactly the Punch Magazine lyrics.

Thread #155456   Message #3666482
Posted By: Jim Dixon
05-Oct-14 - 10:30 PM
Thread Name: County Songs
Subject: Lyr Add: OCTOBER (from Punch, 1877)

These words appeared in Punch, Vol. 73, Oct. 20, 1877, page 169:

OCTOBER

All ye who would drink,
And yet stop on the brink
Of the chasm 'twixt drunken and sober,
Throw out to the slums
All your brandies and rums,
And stick fast to good honest October!

Your Frenchman is vain
Of his frothy champagne,
Of his burgundy and his Bordeaux, sirs!
A staggering pot
Of October, I wot,
Would soon send all the lot down below, sirs!

Your clarets and hocks
And your sour German bocks
May be all very well when you're ill, sirs,
But I venture to think
That old Johnny Bull's drink
Is the brave old October-brew still, sirs!

Where find you for muscle,
Or pluck in a tussle,
A man who with Bull is compeer, sirs?
And if you'd know why,
'Tis because when he's dry,
He's content with a draught of good beer, sirs!

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12 Oct 15 - 03:15 AM (#3743220)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: October Brew
From: Phil Edwards

Oops - don't know how I missed that!

Thanks Joe and Jim. Nice bit of folk-processing in Murpholly's version, btw ("surgeon and box", "old Pollypool").

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