The fiddle tune that is popularly known as The Red Haired Boy goes by several other names, but when the title changes, the words do too. I first heard it called The Little Begger Man and sung by Ian and Sylvia; "I am a little beggerman a begger I've been For three score or more on this little Isle of green." I've heard Jamie Snyder sing a Newfoundland version called The Old Ragadoo: "I'm a hearty Newfoundlander Michael Chaser is my name I was born on Green Island I'm a fisherman by trade." John Carter remembers his dad, from the Ottawa Valley singing The Old Soldier With The Wooden Leg: "There was an old soldier and he had a wooden leg And he had no tobacco so tobacco he would beg." I've heard some contemporary singer/songwriters use this tune for songs of their own - Washboard Hank has one that I can't recall right now. The tune is sometimes called Gilderoy, which is a anglicized version odf the Irish for Red Haired Boy.
|