Maybe to the English players this comes as no surprise, but I never realized the most haunting tune plaguing the ears and minds (and pets) of Mahogany Hall regulars was actually a real nursery rhyme! Nor I had any hint of its actual significance, if Cracked.com is a reliable source (haha, like internet is a safe place for finding true facts…). Anyway, the article might be of interest to Fallen Londoners: The disturbing origins of 5 common nursery rhymes, #2
Cracked’s theory is one among many, as I understand it, but the song itself is as old as the hills - it predates the Fall of London - and has indeed had many new lyrics added to it for performances, dances and children’s games, just as it’s used at Mahogany Hall. It’s hard to imagine such a simple little tune centrepiecing a '90s music-hall act - but, that said, with some inventive lyrics, I can see it being worked into, say, a particularly involved drag act, to great effect.
For me, the most baffling part is that I actually heard the tune about ∞-1 times, but I didn’t know the lyrics nor the title, so when I read of Pop! goea the weasel in Fallen London, I thought it was just a prank.
edited by streetfelineblue on 5/23/2012
I was familiar with both the song and the lyric, but that may be because I’m a bit older (I was born in the 1950s). I’m American, by the way.
I grew up (in southeast London) with:
half a pound of tuppenny rice
a penny’s worth of treacle
mix it up and make it nice
pop goes the weasel
We also sometimes sang:
up and down the City Road
in and out the Eagle
that’s the way the money goes
pop goes the weasel
and others remember:
every night when I get home
the monkey’s on the table
get a stick and knock him off
pop goes the weasel
There is evidence of the song being used in London theatre performances, so I believe. I also thought it was very popular in America, but maybe not in the same way as it survived in English playgrounds.
I have also heard it in America, but I don’t remember the words. Something about a mulberry bush?
Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia has all the answers. Pop Goes the Weasel - Wikipedia
Wow, I never knew that =O That being said, English isn’t my first language and we have different songs where I come from…
Likewise, I’ve heard that song, being from the East Coast of the US, but never really paid attention to the lyrics. I’m still lost to as why having this tune in your head seems to be fatal to your weasels. Is there some dark connection between this song and Mahogany Hall and Fallen London? Or did they simply need another menace? It’s not like being disgraced to the Tomb Colonies was bad enough, they had to take our bloody weasels. Thankfully it’s easily curable.
POP goes the weasel!
It’s relatively well known in America and in our popular culture. Commander Data is trying to whistle it when he first meets Riker on the holodeck, for example.
However, if you would ever like to drive sane men to the brink of madness and beyond, whistle the first three bars of the song and then stop. Leave out the “pop goes the weasel” part. Then watch as everyone in the room gets completely on edge waiting for you to finish. I cannot be held responsible for bodily harm should you attempt this.
[quote=Nigel Overstreet]It’s relatively well known in America and in our popular culture. Commander Data is trying to whistle it when he first meets Riker on the holodeck, for example.
However, if you would ever like to drive sane men to the brink of madness and beyond, whistle the first three bars of the song and then stop. Leave out the “pop goes the weasel” part. Then watch as everyone in the room gets completely on edge waiting for you to finish. I cannot be held responsible for bodily harm should you attempt this.[/quote]
“POP! Goes the weasel”: trolling people IRL since before it was cool :)
I’m from the American South, and I learned it as:
Round and round the mulberry bush,
the monkey chased the weasel,
the monkey cried 'twas all in fun,
POP! goes the weasel.
So the exploding weasels were not a complete surprise. (POP!)
I just tried this alone in my apartment, and it is painful to leave it unfinished. It’s like the auditory equivalent of [link] this comic.
I think I’m going to go play something with some nice resolved chords now.
edited by Kaesa on 6/9/2012
I’m American, and fairly recent crop. I heard this song on occasion growing up with these lyrics:
All around the cobbler’s bench
The monkey chased the weasel
The monkey thought it all in fun
Pop! goes the weasel
[quote=Jack Vaux-Harrowden]I’m American, and fairly recent crop. I heard this song on occasion growing up with these lyrics:
All around the cobbler’s bench
The monkey chased the weasel
The monkey thought it all in fun
Pop! goes the weasel[/quote]
A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle.
That’s the way the money goes.
Pop goes the weasel.
And those are the only two verses most people in North America know.
I’ve heard both “mulberry bush” and “cobblers bench” and the verse about the spool of thread. I’m in Canada.
I’m in the states, born in the wonderful and gloriously renowned Year of Our Lord 1988. As a child I absolutely adored nursery rhymes, and repeated them/sang them so often that I still remember pretty much every one I ever learned.
Here’s what I know, including different wording for sections.
All around/('round and 'round) the mulberry bush/(cobblers bench)
the monkey chased the weasel
The monkey thought twas all in sport
POP! Goes the weasel
A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle/(an easel)
That’s the way the money goes
POP! Goes the weasel
Right, here seems the most relevant place to put this. I was just minding my own business, when I had the sudden desire to work out how the Neath’s version of the song went.
What I currently have it this:
(round brackets) indicate lines, made up by me
[square brackets] indicate impromptu, made up, lines; according to Neathy extracts
Half a pound of Rubbery Lumps,
a pennyworth of beetles,
give the spoil to Mr Wines,
pop! goes the weasel
Half a pound of tuppenny 'shrooms,
a copper’s got the measles,
(That’s the way the pennies go,) (In the dreams of Mr Spices)
pop! goes the weasel
All around the Labyrinth coils,
in and out New Newgate,
take a bat from Mr Veils,
pop! goes the weasel
Under all the chapel eaves,
all the roofs and steeples, [on St Fiacre’s steeple]
(hide the spies of Mr Stones,) [that’s the way the Masters Fly,]
pop! goes the weasel
Every night when I get home,
there’s L.B.s on the ceiling,
grab the broom and knock them off,
pop! goes the weasel
Has anyone found any other verses or lines; or can work out what the missing lines may have been? I had thought each verse related to a Master, until I found the last one…
edited by fitz on 10/4/2015
Plagued by a Popular Song is increasing…
[Each and every meal you eat
by the light of candles
climbing back to give the Name
pop! goes the weasel]
edited by Gonen on 10/4/2015