Annotation:Molly Brooks

Back to Molly Brooks

MOLLY BROOKS. AKA and see "Marlbrouk," "Malbrou(c)k," "We Won't Go Home Until Morning." Old-Time, Play-party and Dance Tune. The play-party song and dance tune was collected in the Appalachians, Illinois and the Ozarks, and is a variant of the old English "Marlbrouk," which itself is a variant of an older French song that begins: "Marlbrough s'en vaten guerre." Varying degrees of antiquity have been attached to the melody. Richard Chase (American Folk Tales and Songs, 1956, p. 205) records that in Virginia these verses were sung to the tune:

Molly Brooks has gone to the war, and I fear she'll never return,
Molly Brooks come out of my orchard, and leave my apples alone.
Moll Brooks, come out of the water, until you learn to swim.

Also in Virginia a play-party game was accompanied by this rhyme sung to the tune:

Oh my mother and father were Irish, and I am Irish too.
Oh we bought a peck of potatoes, and they were Irish too.
Oh we kept a pig in the parlor, for it was Irish too.

An American hymn version of the tune is sung under the title "Jesus Preached in Galilee."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Tradition TLP 1007, Richard Chase - "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]