Buttercup Joe

AKA	Be I ‘ampshire, Be I buggery!
First published	?

Lyrics

Daniel Moore

Music

Daniel Moore

Roud

RN1635

Lyrics as sung by Harry Garrat (probably)
Now I'm a flysome sort of chap.
Father comes from Sparham,
Mother's got some warlike boys.
She well knows how to rear 'em.
Some chaps they call me bacon fists,
And other turnip yed,
But I'm quite as sharp as other chaps,
Although I'm country bred.

I can guide a plough, and milk a cow
Or I can reap or sow;
I'm as fresh as the daisy in the field,
And they call me Buttercup Joe.

You hearty swells may laugh and chaff,
To see us eat fat bacon,
But you would not touch our country beer
But that's where you're mistaken.
On Moet and Shandon you regale,
And drink it at your ease,
But give me a glass of home-brewed ale,
And our crust of bread and cheese.

Baint it prime in summer time,
When we go out hay-making,
The lads and lasses, we us chaps,
Freedom will be taken.
Don't they giggle, and make us laugh,
Of course its harmless play,
They like to get us country chaps,
And rolls us in the hay.

Now you should see my young woman,
They calls her our Mary,
She works as busy as a bee,
At farmer Johnson's dairy.
And baint her suet dumplings nice,
By gosh! I mean to try,
And ask her, if she'd like to splice,
A rustic chap like I. 

This was a Music Hall song, one of many which poked fun at agricultural workers, but which was widely adopted and loved by rural folksingers. It was collected a number of times from source singers in England in the early 20th century, though later singers may well have picked up the song from Albert Richardson’s Regal Zonophone recording from 1928.

There was one contemporaneous publication of the lyrics, it appeared in the New Prize Medal Song Book (No.9), published in June 1872. The New Penguin Book of Folk Song suggests the song was sung in the Halls by Harry Garratt in the 1870s, but that the author of the piece was unknown at the time of writing.

Ads and reviews in The Era confirm that the comic vocalist Harry Garratt performed in Halls in the North and Midlands of the UK throughout the 1870s, but do not give any detail of his repertoire so do not confirm that he sang the song. Its likely that he did sing it, as a broadside of Buttercup Joe held at the Bodleian Library states that it was Sung by Harry Garrat Favourite Comic.

My searches in The Era have suggest that the song was written by Daniel Moore, who placed regular notices promoting himself as the writer/composer of this and other songs in 1872. So The Era (May 12, 1872) carried an Advert for “Daniel Moore, renowned coloured humorist, legitimate instrumentalist and star dancer in conjunction with GREAT LITTLE FRENCH.… [Moore is ] author and composer of “Hot Peas” “My Brave Militia Boy” [and] “Buttercup Joe”… Its reasonable to accept this as evidence that the he did write it – it was clearly a well known song and his multiple ads were not challenged (Music Hall songwriters and performers, including Daniel Moore, were quick to challenge claims of authorship and ownership – as testified in The Era‘s letters page!). Here’s another example:

It is perhaps possible that some of these notices were posted by Moore in response to the pirating of his song in the New Prize Medal Song Book ….(this is pure speculation!)

There also is a possibility that Moore’s Buttercup Joe is a different song, but the reports of the singing of Buttercup Joe in the 1875 from The Era indicate it was at the very least a song with a similar chorus… The line I can reap I can sow is quoted (see the cutting below)…

Based on 30 or so cuttings from The Era we know that Daniel Moore (Junior) was an actor and blackface comedian, sometimes known as the “Black Koh-I-Nor“. There is no evidence he was related to GW ‘Pony’ Moore or any of the other Moores associated with the Moore and Burgess Minstrels . We know little or nothing about his early life, but he first comes to the attention of The Era as an actor at the Effingham Theatre in 1864, though records then dry up until he hits a relatively short period of success (1870-74). In this short period he appears to have toured the country, leading blackface duos and trios that he managed and wrote material for. He appears widely in the halls across England and Scotland, and is often proud to post notices emphasising how far into the future his bookings stretch. In this short period he built up a reputation as a songwriter, selling songs to some big name performers like Arthur Lloyd, Victor Liston (eg Clara the Barmaid) and Alfred Vance (eg Shout Boys). As far as we can tell from the titles of the songs and other hints , these songs are not influenced by his onstage persona as a blackface comedian – though blackface comedians did sing all sorts of different songs, not just ones which drew on racist black stereotypes. He was keen to establish his right to be named as author of his songs , and wrote several times to the editor of The Era and posted notices to deter anyone he thought was infringe on his claims. He seems to have died unexpectedly in the first half of 1874, perhaps without ever securing a publishing deal (none of his songs appear to have lived on in sheet music in the world’s libraries…). Sadly, I cannot find any pictures of him.

Returning to the history of the song, …..

[Inserted update, 27/08/2: The first indications of a song called Buttercup Joe being performed in the halls predate by a few months Moore’s attempts to establish his authorship. Notices in The Era suggest it was sung in Liverpool and Dublin by “characteristic comedian and vocalist Ernest Robson” (The Era, Feb 25, 1872; May 5, 1872.)]

The Era (October 1873) has Buttercup Joe being sung by Charles Laurie (sic) at The Canterbury: “a comic singer of more than ordinary merit, pleased the people greatly with a personation of a country chap called “Buttercup Joe” and dancing“. This could be Charles Lauri Snr (1823-89) or Charles Lauri Jnr (1848-1904), both members of the sketch group, The Lauri Troupe.

It was clearly widely sung at that time as only 2 years later, The Era (May 30, 1875) describes a disappointing performance by Mr Will Barnes at the Royal in London, suggesting that “Buttercup Joe” has been “done to death“:

A search of 19th-century UK local newspapers show the song being regularly sung by amateur singers in events like smoking concerts, starting in 1875 until the turn-of-the-century. (There doesn’t seem to be a particular geographical pattern it appears in Bristol, Ipswich, Aberdeen and all points in between). It was clearly a popular song in that period, but the fact that it doesn’t appear before 1875 again implies it’s reasonable to assume that it originated in the early 1870s.

It may be that the song was revived around 20 years later as part of a ventriloquist act. Between 1891 and 1895 The Era carries an advert for a ventriloquist T W Newton, “the latest Butterfly Joe“, and later “Buttercup Joe, the walking figure“. His act is reviewed in 1895 when he appeared at Hammersmith Varieties “Mr TW Newton’s wooden headed family are the cause of much hilarity, the walking figure, Butterfly Joe, is a clever piece of mechanism“. If Newton did sing the song as part of his act, it’s quite possible that by this time he would not know its ill-fated original author.

By the time it was commercially recorded in 1928 by Regal Zonophone, it was of course described as “traditional” .

Albert Richardson sings:

Sources:

• Lyrics: Ballads Online
• New Prize Medal Song Book (No.9) (Jun 1872) (VWML `Miscellaneous Popular Songs’ p.238)
• Steve Roud, The New Penguin Book
• The Era, 1850-1900
• Mudcat discussion on Buttercup Joe
• VWML
• George Frampton on Albert Richardson, Folk Music Journal 2007, Vol 9, No. 2 pp149-169
• Ballad Index

Last Updated on March 16, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: February 19, 2020