Mousey Brown

Up the tall white candlestick went little mousey brown. He tried and he tried but he couldn’t get down. 

See Mousey brown climb the candle and call for grandma and grandad who are busy at the art gallery, Zumba class and riding a Harley Davidson motorbike.

Origin:
Mousey Brown (aka Mousie Brown) is a traditional nursery rhyme from China, originally known as the little mouse. It was first published in English in 1901 by Isaac Taylor Headland in his book: “The Chinese Boy and Girl”
Headland also recorded how he discovered the rhyme while visiting Courtenay Hughes Fenn – an American missionary to China and author of a pocket Chinese-English dictionary. Headland wrote: 

“ One hot day during my summer vacation, while sitting on the veranda of a house among the hills, fifteen miles west of Peking, my friend, Mrs. C. H. Fenn, said to me:  “Have you noticed those rhymes, Mr. Headland?”  "What rhymes?" I inquired.  “The rhymes Mrs. Yin is repeating to Henry.”  “No, I have not noticed them. Ask her to repeat that one again.”  Mrs. Fenn did so, and the old nurse repeated the following rhyme, very much in the tone of, "The goblins 'll git you if you don't look out." 

He climbed up the candlestick, 
       The little mousey brown, 
To steal and eat tallow, 
       And he couldn't get down. 
He called for his grandma, 
       But his grandma was in town, 
So he doubled up into a wheel, 
       And rolled himself down. 

 I asked the nurse to repeat it again, more slowly, and I wrote it down together with the translation.  “

The song also has actions:
Put one arm up vertically from the elbow to represent the candlestick and the walk the fingers of the other hand up your arm for “up the tall white candlestick”. Shake your head for “couldn’t get down” and cup your hands around your mouth to shout for grandma (in your best squeaky mouse voice). For “rolled himself in to a little ball” curl yourself up, then tumble your arms in front of you for “rolled all the way down”.

For the little woolly vision version, we have included grandad and had the grandparent mice get up to things you expect grandparents to get up nowadays. Grandma is visiting the art gallery and going to Zumba class while granddad wearing his favourite “boomtown rats” band t-shirt while fixing his Harley Davidson motorcycle before taking it for a ride. 

Lyrics:
Up the tall white candlestick went little Mousey Brown.
He tried and he tried but he couldn’t get down.
So he called for his grandma,
Grandma! Grandma!
But grandma was in town
So he rolled himself in to a little ball
And rolled all the way down
Up the tall white candlestick went little Mousey Brown.
He tried and he tried but he couldn’t get down.
So he called for his granddad,
Granddad! Granddad!
But granddad was not around
So he rolled himself in to a little ball
And rolled all the way down

Video Credits:
Produced by Sarah Simi & Ed Hartwell (Woolly Vision)
Animation and Direction: Ed Hartwell
Art Direction: Sarah Simi
Mouse Puppets by Kathryn Ross (@cottonfairyuk)
Sets by Sarah Simi and Ed Hartwell
Music performed by Gemma Storr, Recorded by Steve Pretty

Music available on all major streaming platforms now:
Apple Music: (USA) https://music.apple.com/us/album/mousey-brown/1706520965  (UK) https://music.apple.com/gb/album/mousey-brown/1706520965
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4ueUD6akLiamBNHfuXnX3U
Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/albums/B0CHMWL7HP
Deezer: https://link.deezer.com/s/31f9fbFxqVdGN9FtZPlmv
TIDAL https://tidal.com/track/315243205/u