Anthony Newley - Pop Goes The Weasel

1961 Pop Goes The Weasel/ Bee Bom (Decca F11362, reached #12 in UK) - interpretation of the nursery rhyme

Mentioned in the video (and, which is perhaps more likely for a poem from the East End of London), if "pop goes the weasel" is taken as Cockney rhyming slang, the "weasel" that goes "pop" is an item of value that the worker pawns, probably after spending the week's wages (always given on a Saturday). The "serious" Cockney uses "pop" to mean pawning or the redeeming of a pawned item, while the word "weasel" means "coat" (derived from "weasel and stoat"). Cockney slang also uses 'pop' to mean 'go away' ("Pop off!") or 'to hit' ("I'll pop you one!"). Another possibility is that "weasel" is a corruption of "whistle" and means "suit" (in this case being derived from "whistle and flute"). In either interpretation, the rhyme describes the pawning of the worker's only valuable items — the "Sunday best" clothing — after exhausting the week's wages on the food items such as rice and treacle, which, though cheap, were and are fundamentally useless to anyone if the buyer is poor and has nothing to eat them with. It is thought, however, that early "quack" doctors would have prescribed treacle as a sort of medicine, and gullible purchasing workers that were prone to illness due to exposure would doubtless have spent their savings on trying to maintain their and their children's health.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Nursery Rhymes
• Anthony Newley
• Joan Collins.

[PICTOM]

he was just great....

[minutegongcoughs]

@PICTOM and I know David Bowie would agree also.

[chitlika]

A superb witty beautifully sung interpretation of a childrens rhyme

Tied to a clever and instructional slide show Well done you ! and wasn't Joan a fabulous looking bird back in the day........

[minutegongcoughs]

@chitlika She certainly was. My wife is Chinese and she say's Joan would be a style icon in China.....If she was Chinese!! As for Tony, what a talent he was.

[GrezH]

When I was kid I always used to sing "Pop goes the Weas-all together now" to the disdain of my nursery teacher.

Thanks to Tony and my mum who had the record.....

[minutegongcoughs]

Anyone who winds up a teacher is alright in my book.

[telecaster1963]

this guy sings like hell. What a voice and sense of division.

[xwsftassell]

This is the first record I ever owned. I must've been about 0 years old at the time. Funnily enough, that pub The Eagle is just 'round the corner from where I live now, and I'm more inclined to be popping or pawning my weasel there rather than anywhere else locally, as they have really good ales and a shed with burners out the back so you can have a harry rag/salmon & trout, whatever. *****

[alan59able]

Saw Tony in concert in Catford, London over 20yrs ago, so few seats sold he called all the audience to the first three rows, came down from the stage and did the whole show a few feet from me..he serenaded an old lady who was in tears at the end of his song...a true entertainer..a memory that will always remain with me..

[bazz15946]

what memories a song can bring, my late mum loved as did i.

[simcock321]

Absolutley love this!!

[lasaboteuse]

His "l" is so Cockney. It's almost a "u."

[sexypoetry]

i want to join the existing pole shift survival group or start the new one.

[ultrakool]

@glortw oh! you pretty things. no wait, that's bowie. same shit

[glortw]

I just discovered this/Anthony Newley when the weird Princeton university station played it late at night on Christmas. Any other good Newley songs that anyone can recommend?...hmm, it seems that this page hasn't been visited so recently. But, if anyone happens to see this..