Knees up Mother Brown

AKA
First Published 1939
Writer/composer RH Weston, Bert Lee, I.Taylor Roud RN23634

Music Hall Performers Elsie and Doris Waters
Folk performances Source Singers
Cooper, Lena 1966 England : Kent		 

I've just been to 'ding-dong' down dear old Brixton way
Old Mother Brown the Pearly Queen's a hundred years today
Oh what a celebration! was proper lah-di-dah!
Until they rolled the carpet up, and shouted 'Nah then, Ma'

Knees up Mother Brown! Well! Knees up Mother Brown
Under the tables you must go
Ee-i-ee-i-ee-i-oh
If I catch you bending
I'll saw your legs right off
So, knees up, knees up
Don't get the breeze-up
Knees up Mother Brown.

And fat old Uncle 'Enry quite enjoyed the fun
The buttons on his Sunday pants kept bustin' one by one
But still 'e kept on dancin' another one went pop
He said'I'm goin' to keep on till me 'round-me-houses' drop, Ooh

Then old Maria Perkins, she danced wiv all 'er might
Each time she kicked her legs up we all shouted with delight
'Lift up yer skirts Maria - my word yer doin' fine
And we can see yer washin' 'anging on the Siegfried Line, Ooh

We 'ad no 'pigs-ear' glasses, but still we didn't mind
We drank it out of 'vauses' and whatever we could find
We toasted good old Nelson there 'anging by the door
And as we blew the froth at him he shouted with a roar, Ohh

Bill drove up on 'is barrer - just like a proper swell
And Mother Brown said, 'Come inside and bring you're moke as well.'
It nibbled Grandad's whiskers, then started kicking out
And as Ma Brown went through the window we began to shout, Ooh

And then old Granny Western - she'ad a good 'blow out'
She 'ad two pints of winkles wiv some cockles and some stout
'I might 'ave indigestion,' she murmured with a grunt
'But lummy, up to now, it's all quiet on the Western front! Ooh

A crowd stood by the winder - they 'ad a lovely time
The kids sat on the railin's, thought it was a pantomime
Pa went round wiv 'is 'titfer' - collected one and three
We shouted 'Come on, Mother, show 'em your agilitee,' Ooh

This song from the Halls is perhaps what many British people think of when they think of Cockney Music Hall songs and is associated with a riotous dance… It was tremendously popular at the end of the First World War. It’s been suggested, that “knees up” could refer to the position of a woman during sex or childbirth, which gives the song a whole different meaning…

The source of too many parodies to list them all, but some are: Who ate all the pies?; What a rotten song; Monty Python’s Knees upon the ground – theme song of the Spanish Inquisition; and many more.

The earliest reference to the song I have found so far is in April 1918, in The Daily Mail, which under the heading After Three Years, published a description of women workers in a munitions factory on their dinner break:

Away in one corner of the yard are two lines of merry dancers, their arms linked, dancing their favourite “Knees up Mother Brown” while sturdy women, obviously picked for their strength and size for heavy machines, standby with folded arms and nod to each other with a smiling “it-does-your-heart-good-to-see-them” look.

The Daily Mail, Sat. 13 Apr 1918

Despite its popularity at the end of the Great War, the song doesn’t seem to have been published until 1938 when it was credited to RH Weston (?-1978), Bert Lee. and I Taylor. R.H. (Harris) Weston was the son of RP Weston, who wrote so many songs with Bert Lee. The song was revived at this time by comedians Elsie and Doris Waters.

As Elsie and Doris sang it:

Sources: