"Boiled Beef and Carrots" is a comedic

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

song published in 1909. It was composed by Charles Collins and Fred Murray. The song was made famous by Harry Champion who sang it as part of his act and later recorded it. The song extols the virtues of a typical English, and particularly

Cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...

, dish. Chorus: "Derby Kell" is old

Cockney rhyming slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhymi ...

for belly ("Derby Kelly"). "Blow out your kite" means "fill your stomach". It uses the word ''kite'' (also ''kyte''), a dialect word, originally derived from an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word for the womb which, by extension, came to mean the belly.''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd edition, 1989, vol. VIII, p. 471.

References

{{authority control British pop songs Comedy songs 1909 songs Music hall songs Songs with music by Charles Collins (songwriter)

See also

References