The Owd Woman From Yorkshire ~ Trad. Arr. casetone2514

One take - no production - raw video - warts and all.

This is a traditional folksong found all over the British Isles and beyond. You may now it as Marrowbones or (if Irish folk is your background) The Old Woman From Wexford. It tells the story of an unfaithful wife who tries to blind her husband so she can drown him and marry another but the old man is a "crafty bugger" and foils her plot which backfires and ends up with her being the drowning victim. Quite how eating Marrowbones makes one blind I don't know, but they appear to be the active ingredient in most of the versions of this song.


More often than not, the chorus is nonsense verse or gibberish in most versions of this song and, at first hearing, may appear to be the same in this version, but it's not. If you don't know what the chorus means, Google it and be amazed!

Chorus
D
Yan Tan Tethera
G
Mether Pip Azera
D A D
Sezar Akkera Contera Dick

D
There was an old woman from Yorkshire A7
As I ave eard em tell D
She loved er owd man dearly but A7
Another man twice as well singing

She went to see an owd witch
To see if she could find
Anything in the ole world
To make er owd man blind, singing

She said you give m marrowbones
An mek sure e eats em all
An when es finished ell be so blind
e waint see thee at all singing

But t owd man e were a crafty bugger
ed seen it all afore
An when ed ate em e said me dear
I cant see thee at all singing

Ill take missen to the harbour
An there missen Ill drown
Towd lass says Ill come wi thee
To see that tha dunt fall down singing

An there they went all hand in hand til they
Come to the harbours rim
The owd lass turned and went behind
An ran to push him in singing

The owd mad e were a crafty bugger
e swiftly stepped aside
The owd lass tripped and fell in an was
Swallowed by the tide singing

How loudly she did hollah
An did for mercy call
But the owd man yelled I am so blind
I cant see thee at all singing

Category:

Music

Tags:

• the
• old
• woman
• from
• yorkshire
• yan
• tan
• tethera
• counting
• sheep
• ukulele
• ukelele
• uke
• casetone2514
• traditional
• folk
• song
• wexford
• marrowbones

[trcmn09]

I love all these traditional songs Tony, they remind me of the folk clubs I used frequent a lot in the 70's. There's no folk clubs around my neck of the woods these days that I'm aware of.....more's the pitty. Anyway, excellent job Tony!!!

[casetone2514]

@trcmn09

Thanks very much - the traditional folk club seems to be dying a slow and agonising death unfortunately. Wee need another Seeger-esque revival.

[mctrmt]

Yea, you're pretty crafty. Pretty crafty.

[casetone2514]

@mctrmt

Thanks M-A

[Urgyboy]

Very nice folksong. I never heard it before and it's already in my ear after hearing it one time.

[casetone2514]

@Urgyboy

Thanks very much

[daniellezaraman]

my kids now ask to watch this over and over and they know all the words! You are their new pop idol!

[daniellezaraman]

I love this song! I'm going to start counting my kids in Yorkshire speak now! Great uke playing and lovely to hear a familiar accent too. Thanks.

[truckubuddy]

What a fun little song!

[sofiankrt]

You have a wonderful voice! As a bit of a linguaphile, I'm now very interested in regional UK languages. I was once quite obsessed with Welsh for a while.

[9overkill]

realy funny keep it up

ur realy cool

[casetone2514]

@Mbarnardexperience

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Thanks