The Barrin' o' Oor Door- Kilbride (MA) 1953 Flanders
Get Up and Bar the Door (Child 275)
Child stresses in his headnote to "Get Up and Bar the Door" that the domestic quarrel behind this song, or quarrels quite like it, have formed the basis of a host of folk and popular tales from Europe and Asia. (See Aarne-Thompson, Mt. 1351.) It has also been known, usually in a ribald form, among British and American college students for many generations. However, even though all this is true and even though it appeared in a number of nineteenth-century songsters, it is not much of a favorite with the American folk. The usual American form of the ballad is the Scottish Child A, and the texts in Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 318; Greig and Keith, 216; and the Flanders Collection all parallel that version closely. See Coffin, 145-6, for a start on an American bibliography. It has been printed in many musical anthologies. Of particular interest along this line is the burlesque in Delehanty and Hengler's Song and Dance Book of 1874.
As sung by Mrs. Frances Kilbride of Brookline, Massachusetts, who learned it from hearing her father, Frank MacGregor, sing it. Mr. MacGregor was born in Scotland, and came to this country with his daughter, Mrs. Kilbride, who was twenty-four years of age at the time. Mrs. Kilbride was born in Glasgow. When three months old she was taken by her parents to the North Coast (outside of Aberdeen), at which place she remained, until coming to America. Mrs. Kilbride says, "This used, to be one of my father's favorite songs."
M. Olney, Collector September 21 , 1953; Structure: A B CD (4,4,4,2); Rhythm B; Contour: undulating; Scale: pentachordal; t. c. B flat. Note the repeated tone at the beginning. For mel. rel. see FCB4, 112; MF, 320; BES, 318; GCM 371 (All very close)
The Barrin' o' Oor Door
It fell aboot the Martinmas time
And a gay time it was then-O,
When oor guidwife had puddin's to mak;
She boiled then in the pan-O;
CHORUS: And the barrin' o' oor door, weel, weel, weel,
And the barrin'o'oor door, weel!
The wind sae cauld blew south and north
And blew into the floor-O;
Quoth oor guidman tae oor guidwife,
"Get up and bar the door-O!"
They made a paction [1] 'tween them twa;
They made it firm and sure-O,
That the first word whae'er should speak
Should rise and bar the door-O.
Then by came twa gentlemen
At twelve o'clock at nicht-O
And they could see neither hoose nor hall
Or coal or cannel-licht-O.
"Now what if this be a rich man's hoose,
Or what if it be a pair-O?" [2]
But ne'er a word wad ane of them speak
For barrin'o' the door-O.
And first they are the white puddin's
And then they are the black-O,
Though muckle thocht the guidwife to herself
Yet ne'er ane word she spoke-O.
Then said the ane untae the ither,
"Here, man, tak ye my knife-O,
Dae ye tak off the auld man's beard
And I'll kiss the guidwife-O.
"But there's nae water in the hoose
And what will we do then-O?',
"What ails ye ar the puddin'-brew
That boils in the pan-O?"
O up then got oor guidman
And an angry man was he-O.
"Will ye kiss me wife afore my een
And sca'd me wi' puddin'-brew-O?"
Then up started oor guidwife,
Gi'ed three skips on the floor-O.
"Guidman, you've spoken the foremost word,
So get up and bar the door-O."
Footnotes:
1. paction: pact.
2 pair: poor.