> The Young Tradition > Songs > The Oyster Girl
The Oyster Girl
[
Roud 875
/ Song Subject MAS304
; Master title: The Oyster Girl
; Laws Q13
; G/D 2:304
; Henry H725
; Ballad Index LQ13
; Bodleian
Roud 875
; Wiltshire
424
; DT OYSTRGAL
; Mudcat 125891
; trad.]
Katherine Campbell: Songs From North-East Scotland Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann, John Moulden: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger: Travellers’ Songs From England and Scotland John Morrish: The Folk Handbook Roy Palmer: Songs of the Midlands
Phil Tanner sang The Oyster Girl in a BBC recording made on 21 December 1937 at Llangennith that was included in 1968 on his eponymous EFDSS album Phil Tanner. and in 2003 on his Veteran CD The Gower Nightingale. Roy Palmer noted in the latter album’s booklet:
The very mention of oysters—long reputed to be an aphrodisiac—would have been enough to prepare the listener for some kind of amorous intrigue. The song’s earliest appearance in print seems to have been as The Eating of Oysters in a garland (booklet) with seven other texts issued by M. Randall of Stirling in Scotland, c.1794-1812, under the overall title of A New Patriotic Song. With the help of further broadside printings, The Oyster Girl spread through Britain, Ireland and the USA, and remained in oral tradition until late in the twentieth century.
Sam Larner sang The Oyster Girl in 1958-1960 to Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. This recording was included in 2014 on his Musical Traditions anthology Cruising Round Yarmouth. Rod Stradling noted:
According to Gavin Greig (who noted no fewer than 13 versions of this song) “It is a lively ditty and very popular. The sum stolen from the gentleman varies in different copies from five hundred to ten thousand pounds.” The song appears to have been first printed in a Stirling chapbook of eight texts called A New Patriotic Song, by M Randall, c.1794-1812, under the title The Eating of Oysters. Roud shows 98 entries, mostly from England (Essex to Northumberland) and Scotland, including 24 sound recordings.
Chris Willett sang The Oyster Girl in 1962 to Ken Stubbs. This recording was included in 2013 on two Willett Family anthologies, A-Swinging Down the Lane on Forest Tracks and Adieu to Old England on Musical Traditions.
Caroline Hughes sang a fragment of The Oyster Girl in between 1963 and 1966 to Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. This recording was included in 2014 on her Musical Traditions anthology Sheep-Crook and Black Dog
Heather Wood sang The Oyster Girl—“probably learned indirectly from Hamish Imlach”—at the Young Tradition concert at Oberlin College, Ohio, on 17 November 1968. A taped recording of this concert was published in 2013 as the Fledgling CD Oberlin 1968.
The Union Folk sang The Oyster Girl in 1969 as the title track of their Traditional Sound album A Basketful of Oysters.
George Dunn of Quarry Bank, Staffordshire, sang The Oyster Girl in December 1971 to Bill Leader. This recording was released in 1975 on the Trailer LP George Dunn. An earlier recording made by Roy Palmer on 7 June 1971 was included in 2002 on Musical Traditions’ George Dunn anthology, Chainmaker. Roy Palmer and Rod Stradling noted:
Here, as so often, George Dunn sings with infectious zest. The song is reported from oral tradition in England, Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland. George’s version was one of several collected in the seventies. Others were sung by Nelson Ridley, George Spicer, Duncan Williamson, and one came from Douglas Dowdy in 1982. No other CD version appears to be available.
The song’s earliest appearance in print seems to be as The Eating of Oysters in a garland of eight texts issued under the title of A New Patriotic Song by M Randall of Stirling (c.1794-1812), which may help to account for the thirteen versions noted a century later in north-east Scotland by Greig and Duncan. Some nineteenth century broadsides headed The Oyster Girl give a completely different song, beginning “Many a knight and lady gay”.
George Spicer sang The Oyster Girl to Mike Yates at home in Selsfield, West Hoathly, Sussex, in 1972-74. This recording was released in 1974 on his Topic album Blackberry Fold. Mike Yates noted:
For some reason early collectors confused this song with The Basket of Eggs and many stated that it was seldom encountered. Today it turns up again and again from singers who no longer feel it improper to sing such songs in ‘respectable’ company. The Oyster Girl belongs to a large class of song, Riding Down to Portsmouth and Jock Hawk’s Adventures in Glasgow being two others, and it first appeared on a broadside printed by Walker of Durham in the 1830s. Seventy years later it was still available on a sheet issued by the Such family of South London and it is from this sheet that most of today’s versions stem.
Mary Ann Haynes sang The Oyster Girl to Mike Yates in Brighton in 1972-75. This recording was included in 2003 on the Musical Traditions anthology of gypsy songs and music from South-East England, Here’s Luck to a Man.
Robbie Ellis sang The Oyster Girl in 1979 on the Fellside album of songs and tales in Cumbrian dialect, Canny Cumberland.
Bob Roberts sang The Oyster Girl in 1981 on his Solent album Breeze for a Bargeman.
Ceolbeg sang Oysters in 1984 on their eponymous fist album Ceolbeg. They noted:
A song dating back to the time when oysters were sold in the taverns of Scotland. In this case the unfortunate English protagonist ends up paying £500 for the privilege. An original setting to traditional words taken from the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection edited by Patrick Shuldham-Shaw and Emily Lyle.
Duncan Williamson sang The Oyster Girl at home in Fife to John Howson in August 1991. This recording was included in 2014 on his Veteran album Put Another Log on the Fire.
Brian Peters sang The Oyster Girl in 1992 on his Harbourtown CD The Seeds of Time. He noted:
Despite misconceptions to the contrary, women in traditional song are not merely the passive substrate for men with oversized threshing machines and ‘sporting guns’. Lovely Joan and The Oyster Girl are sisters adept at outwitting males with inflated self-esteem. The former is an alternative to the The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs version, with a nasty hint of threatened rape, and comes from the Sussex singer Bob Lewis; the latter was collected by Roy Palmer from George Dunn in 1971 and published in Palmer’s Songs of the Midlands.
Derek and Dorothy Elliott sang The Oyster Girl in 2002 on their PJS album with Chris Parkinson, Ship to Shore.
Andy Turner learned The Oyster Girl from Roy Palmer’s 1972 book Songs of the Midlands, as collected from George Dunn. He sang it as the 9%nbsp;July 2015 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.
Rosie Upton sang Oyster Girl as the title track of her 2014 CD Basket of Oysters. She noted:
My old friend John Dix from Matlock introduced me to his artist friends Chris and Judy Jensen who lived in Tideswell, Derbyshire. I learnt this cautionary tale from the singing of Judy’s Father, a Methodist minister, in The Three Stag Heads at Wardlow Mires near Tideswell.
David Stacey sang The Oyster Girl in 2015 on his Musical Traditions album Good Luck to the Journeyman.
Kim Lowings & the Greenwood sang The Oyster Girl in 2017 on their CD Wild & Wicked Youth.
Anna Baldwin sang The Oyster Girl on Amsher’s 2018 album of Hampshire songs collected by Lucy Broadwood in Oxfordshire, Patience Vaisey at Adwell 1892. Bob Askew noted:
This song is about a robbery by a female oyster seller. In another version there is a sexual encounter, but this version was equally popular. It seems to have originated in the later 18th century, and it spread through Britain, Ireland and the USA.
Tunes
Harry Cockerill fram Askrigg, Yorkshire played The Oyster Girl to Mike Yates in 1972. This recording was included in 2004 on the Musical Traditions anthology The Birds Upon the Tree. Mike Yates noted:
This is quite a popular and well-known tune. There are a number of songs bearing the title, the best known being the one sung by singers such as Phil Tanner (Veteran VT145CD) and George Dunn (MTCD317-8)—which is listed as Roud 875 and Laws Q13. The present tune probably comes from one of the other Oyster Girl songs that was printed on Victorian broadsides. Arthur Marshall, a Yorkshire melodeon player, can be heard playing his version of The Oyster Girl on the Topic CD Ranting & Reeling - Dance Music from the North of England.
Harold Covill played the jig The Oyster Girl at his home in Cambridgeshire in August 1972 to Tony Engle. This recording was released in 1973 on the Topic album English Country Music From East Anglia. This track was also included in 1984 on the Le Chasse-Marée anthology Chants de Marins IV, in 1994 on the Le Chasse-Marée anthology CD Ballades et shanties des matelots anglais and in
Martyn Wyndham-Read and company played the tune The Oyster Girl on their 1998 Country Branch CD Maypoles to Mistletoe.
Jackie Oates played the tune The Oyster Girl in 2011 on her ECC album Saturnine.
Lyrics
Phil Tanner sings The Oyster Girl
“O oysters, o oysters, o oysters,” said she,
“I’ve got some of the finest oysters that ever you did see.
𝄆 O ’tis three a penny I do sell, but four I’ll give to thee.
For to bargain for the basket of oysters.” 𝄇
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he,
“Have you got a little private room for the oyster girl and me?
𝄆 Where we both may sit down and so merry, merry be.
While we bargain for the basket of oysters.” 𝄇
“O yes sir, o yes sir, o yes sir,” said he,
“I’ve a got a little private room for the oyster girl and thee,
𝄆 Where you both can sit down and so merry, merry be.
’Til you bargain for the basket of oysters. 𝄇
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he
“Hath you seen that little oyster girl that came along with me?
She hath pick-ed my pocket of all of my money,
And left me with my basket of oysters.
She hath picked my pocket of eighty pound or more
And left me with my basket of oysters.”
“O yes, sir, o yes, sir, o yes, sir,” said he,
“I’ve seen that little oyster girl that came along with thee.
𝄆 She hath paid all the reckoning so now you can’t go free,
For to travel with thy basket of oysters.” 𝄇
I’ve travelled through England, through Ireland, through Scotland and France.
But never was I, in all my life, served out by such a dance.,
𝄆 By a bold English girl who her voice it was so clear,
She hath teached me the way to sell oysters. 𝄇
Sam Larner sings The Oyster Girl
Chorus:
“O oysters, oysters, o oysters,” said she,
“I have the finest oysters that ever you did see.
I will sell them to you with a one, two and three
I pray, do you want any oysters?”
A nice little lady stepped up to the ground,
I took her in the parlour to bargain for me crown
I bargained for my oysters, and then we had a spree,
O she left me with a basket of oysters.
“O Landlord, o Landlord, o Landlady,
Have you seen that pretty girl that came along with me?
She have pickéd my pockets and stole all my money,
And she’s left me with a basket of oysters.
Spoken: Can you read it?
Chris Willett sings The Oyster Girl
As I were a walking down fair London street
^
Now, such a pretty oyster girl I chancèd for to meet
^
Now, I asked her how she sold them And “Three a penny,”” she said,
^
“And five I’ll give to you, If you’ll bargain for me basket of oyslers.”
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he,
^
“Now have you got a private room for the oyster girl and me?
^
So as we may sit down and so merrilie, merrilie be,
^
‘Til we bargain for the basket of oyslers.”
Now I hadn’t been in this private room but half an hour or more,
^
When up she got and down the stairs she flew.
^
She had digged in my pocket of all my money
^
And she left me with a basket of oyslers.
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he,
^
“Now have you seen that oyster girl that came along with me?”
^
“Yes, she’s paid all your reckonings and now you may go free
^
And you toddle with your basket of oyslers.”
Now I’ve been through Ireland, through Scotland, through Spain.
^
Now such a pretty oyster girl I shall never meet again.
^
For to think an Englishwoman Would take a Frenchman in by chance
^
And to learn him how buy English oyslers.
Caroline Hughes sings The Oyster Girl
“O good morning, Sir, good morning, Sir, good morning“, I did say.
“Well have you got a private room for that oystry girl and me?
She picked up in my basket, with all my money in
And she’ve left me with a basket of oystlers.”
“O Landlord, o Landlord, will you answer me?
For have you got this private room for that oystrie girl and me
For the baby that is born and it got nobody here,
And she’ve left me with a basket of oystlers.”
Diddles tune.
Spoken: Is that it?
George Dunn sings The Oyster Girl
As I was a-walking down fair London street,
A charming little oyster girl I chanced for to meet,
And so into her basket so nimbly I did peep
For to see if she had any oysters.
“O oysters, o oysters, o oysters,” said she,
“Three a tenner I’m selling them, but four I’ll give to thee;
Three a tenner I’m selling them, but four I’ll give to thee,
If you’ll bargain for my basket of oysters.”
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he,
“Have you a little private room for the oyster girl and me,
That we can sit down and so merrily, merrily be,
While I bargain for her basket of oysters?”
“O yes,” says the landlord, “O yes,” says he,
“I have a little private room for the oyster girl and thee,
That you may sit down and so merrily, merrily be,
Whilst you bargain for her basket of oysters.”
We had not been inside the room for half an hour, you see,
Before she picked my pocket of all my money;
Then around the room she tripped and she gave to me the slip,
And she left me with her basket of oysters.
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he,
“Have you seen the little oyster girl that came along with me?”
“Yes [spoken] and she’s paid me your reck’ning, sir, so you may go free,
So it’s ’ook it with your basket of oysters.”
Mary Ann Haynes sings The Oyster Girl
“O oysters, o oysters, o oysters,” cried he,
“Have you seen that pretty gal who come along with me?
O she’s picked all my pockets, took all my money,
And she’s left me with a basket of oysters.”
Was it “O landlord, o landlord, o landlord.” said me.
“Have you got a private room for this oyster girl and me?
So we might sleep merrily, and merrily we’ll be,
And she’ll learn me how to bargain for oysters.”
O not long in the private room, a-just an hour or more,
Out of the bed and down the stairs she flew.
She’ve took all my money and me gold watch too,
But she’s learnt me how to bargain for oysters.
“So, oysters, o oysters, o oysters,” cried me.
“Have you seen that little girl, she come along with me?”
But don’t I call it a shame, she’s took a French man in but [for?] trade,
And to learn him how to bargain for oysters.
David Stacey sings The Oyster Girl
Now as I went a-walking down fair London street
A pretty little oyster girl I chancèd for to meet.
Into her basket so nimbly I did peep
For to see if she had any good oysters.
“O oysters, o oysters, o oysters,” said she,
“I’ve got some of the finest oysters that ever you did see.
Now I sell them three a penny, but four I’ll give to thee
If you’ll bargain for me basket of oysters.”
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he
“Have you got a private room for this oyster girl and me?
Where we may be merry and merrily we’ll be,
And she’ll learn me how to a bargain for oysters.”
Now we hadn’t been in that private room no more’n hour or two
Before she leaped out of bed and down the stairs she flew
She’s took all me money, me gold watch too
And she’s left me with a basket of oysters.
“O landlord, o landlord, o landlord,” said he
Have you seen that oyster girl that come along with me?”
“O she paid all the reckoning and you may go free
For to travel with your basket of oysters.”