Talk:Derby Kell

I have come across this Phrase as part of a music hall song “Boiled Beef and Carrots”. The chorus goes:

Boiled beef and carrots. Boiled beef and carrots. That's the stuff for your 'Derby-kel' Makes you fat and keeps you well Don't live like vegetarians on stuff they give to parrots From morn to night, blow out your kite, On boiled beef and carrots

Here, Derby Kell is shortened and hyphenated to “Derby-Kel”, presumably to fit the music. I think “Derby-Kel” is a reference to the “Belly” in cockney rhyming slang. The penultimate line of the chorus is varied at the end of some verses to fit the sentiment of the verse. In one verse the line runs, “Gentiles and Yids bring up your kids”. The term “Yid” is considered extremely offensive these days (and no offence is meant here) but in the context of the song “Gentiles and Yids” appears to mean “everyone”. The song now shows the changing attitudes to our food, as vegetarians are ridiculed, and our use of language.