{"id":8063,"date":"2021-01-08T12:21:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T12:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=8063"},"modified":"2025-12-16T07:04:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:04:26","slug":"knees-up-mother-brown","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/knees-up-mother-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Knees up Mother Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1939<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>RH Weston, Bert Lee, I.Taylor<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN23634<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Elsie and Doris Waters<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
Cooper, Lena 1966 England : Kent<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I've just been to 'ding-dong' down dear old Brixton way\nOld Mother Brown the Pearly Queen's a hundred years today\nOh what a celebration! was proper lah-di-dah!\nUntil they rolled the carpet up, and shouted 'Nah then, Ma'\n\nKnees up Mother Brown! Well! Knees up Mother Brown\nUnder the tables you must go\nEe-i-ee-i-ee-i-oh\nIf I catch you bending\nI'll saw your legs right off\nSo, knees up, knees up\nDon't get the breeze-up\nKnees up Mother Brown.<\/em>\n\nAnd fat old Uncle 'Enry quite enjoyed the fun\nThe buttons on his Sunday pants kept bustin' one by one\nBut still 'e kept on dancin' another one went pop\nHe said'I'm goin' to keep on till me 'round-me-houses' drop, Ooh\n\nThen old Maria Perkins, she danced wiv all 'er might\nEach time she kicked her legs up we all shouted with delight\n'Lift up yer skirts Maria - my word yer doin' fine\nAnd we can see yer washin' 'anging on the Siegfried Line, Ooh\n\nWe 'ad no 'pigs-ear' glasses, but still we didn't mind\nWe drank it out of 'vauses' and whatever we could find\nWe toasted good old Nelson there 'anging by the door\nAnd as we blew the froth at him he shouted with a roar, Ohh\n\nBill drove up on 'is barrer - just like a proper swell\nAnd Mother Brown said, 'Come inside and bring you're moke as well.'\nIt nibbled Grandad's whiskers, then started kicking out\nAnd as Ma Brown went through the window we began to shout, Ooh\n\nAnd then old Granny Western - she'ad a good 'blow out'\nShe 'ad two pints of winkles wiv some cockles and some stout\n'I might 'ave indigestion,' she murmured with a grunt\n'But lummy, up to now, it's all quiet on the Western front! Ooh\n\nA crowd stood by the winder - they 'ad a lovely time\nThe kids sat on the railin's, thought it was a pantomime\nPa went round wiv 'is 'titfer' - collected one and three\nWe shouted 'Come on, Mother, show 'em your agilitee,' Ooh<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The source of too many parodies to list them all, but some are: Who ate all the pies?; What a rotten song;<\/em> Monty Python’s Knees upon the ground<\/em> – theme song of the Spanish Inquisition; and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The earliest reference to the song I have found so far is in April 1918, in The Daily Mail<\/em>, which under the heading After Three Years<\/em>, published a description of women workers in a munitions factory on their dinner break: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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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.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Daily Mail<\/em>, Sat. 13 Apr 1918<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Elsie and Doris sang it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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