Brief History: This nursery rhyme starts off with a list of church bells in London and ends with the lines, “Here comes a candle to light you to bed, And here comes a chopper to chop off your head! Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead”. This includes a game just like London Bridges where the last person under the folded hands of two other people gets their head “chopped off”. The reason for the “Oranges and Lemons” is because several of the neighborhoods within the poem were places where fruit was either imported or sold. Earliest versions weren’t quite this dark, mostly just giving aspects of London near each church bell, but some believe this is related to the movement of the plague through the city one of the many times it held the people hostage. There are also theories that the earlier versions were a metaphor for marriage and the “chopper” was a reference to the awkward wedding night. One final theory involves the tour of neighborhoods trying to warn of things needing avoidance like crime and drugs.
Analysis: First time I ever heard this rhyme was probably in the 1951 film Scrooge, but I never really noticed it. Places where I did notice it were the book 1984 by George Orwell, the original Wicker Man Film, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and the episode of Doctor Who entitled the God Complex. All of these aspects of media do no bode well for uses of this song. Need another example? How about a 1940s thriller/horror film called 7th Victim? It’s about a young woman who moves to the city after her successful and beautiful older sister goes missing. The main character is signing the final lines to a group of smiling elementary children. Oh yeah and it the first movie to try taking a serious look at Satanist cults. . . just saying. Do I really need to analyze this.
Blame It on the Victorians: Sooooo the addition of the bit about chopping off heads was first recorded during the Victorian era. What was wrong with them?
Final Thoughts: That’s right! I’m torturing all of us with a song about a tour of London. Someday we will be able to leave our houses again. Someday.
