Lyr Req: She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas

Subject: Lyrics? -- Cabbages & Peas
From:
Date: 14 Aug 97 - 02:29 AM

Can anyone assist me with the lyrics to the song (a version of which was done by Oscar Brant) that begins

Oh she sits among the cabbages and peas . . .

Thank you, as always.

Subject: Lyr Add: SHE SITS AMONG THE CABBAGES AND PEAS
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Apr 06 - 06:13 PM

SHE SITS AMONG THE CABBAGES AND PEAS

Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas
With a pretty little peapot 'tween her knees
She's a whiz at shelling peas
So she sits and shells with ease
Till the pretty little peapot's full of peas.

Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas
And she talks to all the little bugs and bees.
They climb up her legs and arms
And all round her other charms.
They see lots of things nobody ever sees.

Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas
With her little dress away above her knees.
All the boys that pass her way
Stand and stare and wish that they
Were that pretty little peapot 'tween her knees.

Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas
And the little birds are singing in the trees
Waiting till she falls asleep,
Then fly down and take a peek
At her pretty little peapot full of peas.

Oh, among the cabbages and peas she sits,
And her pretty little dress so tightly fits
When she stoops to take a pea
That's the time that you can see
That she's got a pair of very lovely hips.

Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas,
But one day she felt so very ill at ease.
She was sitting on a hole.
In that hole there was a mole.
It's no wonder that she felt so ill at ease.

[As sung by standup comic Neil Hamburger on "Raw Hamburger," Drag City CD #139, 1998.]
[You can download the archived radio program that contains this song at http://rubberroomradio.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=53589#. The song begins about 4 minutes and 12 seconds from the beginning of the program.]

Subject: RE: Lyrics? -- Cabbages & Peas
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 03 Apr 06 - 05:45 AM

Is it the Marie Lloyd song?
BLICKY

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: She Sits among the Cabbages and Peas
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 06:11 PM

From MusicWeb-International.com:

I'll give you £100 if you can show me the words and music of 'a Marie Lloyd song called She Sits Among The Cabbages and Peas or Leeks' It may be a good story but it just aint true.
Max Tyler.
Historian and Archivist. British Music Hall Society

The story he was reacting to was this:

Marie [Lloyd] once had a song about gardening called "I Sits Among My Cabbages and Peas" but when the Lord Chamberlain, effectively the theatre censor, saw the words he was outraged. Such vulgarity would not be allowed, she was told by his office. Quick as a flash, Marie changed the words and the song became "I Sits Among My Cabbages and Leaks". The Lord Chamberlain's blushes were spared, the crowd roared and Marie Lloyd marched on. Soon she reverted to the original, of course.

Different versions of the story have circulated, and can be found on the Internet, and at Mudcat. Sometimes it's "…Lettuces and Leaks."

Unfortunately, I can find no information about the origin of the song that Neil Hamburger sings. I suspect it's a recent composition inspired by the Marie Lloyd story.

However, I did find this, at immortalia.com:

A RURAL BALLAD

Tempt me not away to mountains, to lakes or shady dell,
Nor to the sea shore where the sands are full of fleas;
But take me [to] the country, the place I love so well,
'Mid the hay fields, and the cabbage and peas.

Tempt me not with lovely ladies, with their husbands left at home,
And a bunch of bathers basking at their knees;
I prefer the dairy maiden upon her native loam,
In the land where grows the cabbages and peas;

Where the hay upon the meadow gives a fragrance to the air;
Where the cow and calf are browsing 'neath the trees;
In the golden glow of evening I would greet the maiden fair,
As she sits among the cabbages and peas.

--from "The Book of a Thousand Laughs," by "O. U. Schweinickle," 1928.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: She Sits among the Cabbages and Peas
From: Mr Happy
Date: 04 Apr 06 - 06:15 PM

Can be sung to same tune as

'If the sergeant drinks your rum, never mind'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: She Sits among the Cabbages and Peas
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Apr 06 - 08:31 AM

The initial post was probably a reference to Oscar Brand, not Oscar Brant.

Quite a charming little ditty! And excellent notes!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas
From: GUEST,Whyperion
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 12:14 PM

I think the song could be , Dear Old Uncle Joe ( or Muckin'(g) About The Garden. Recorded by a number of artists in the UK, , one on Zonophone , written by Q Cumber and sung by sometime Pantomime Dame Clarkson Rose in the 1920s.

The Marie Lloyd reference dates back at least to the 1980s when I heard it mentioned on radio , possibly by Cosmotheka , but could have been on a radio documentary on Marie Lloyd.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas
From: GUEST,Anon
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 12:16 PM

Line from the refrain Being , He Sits among his Cauli's and Leeks , Watching His Onions Grow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas
From: Snuffy
Date: 06 Feb 13 - 04:54 PM

This one has peas, but no cabbages: THE GREENFIELDS OF DUNDEE