The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4551   Message #25061
Posted By: Bruce O.
03-Apr-98 - 06:13 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Irish folk songs
Subject: RE: irish folk songs
One contributor of a few verses to Robert Gordon in the 1920's said "I'm a man youse don't meet every day" was a song they were all singing in 1890. I didn't copy that version, but another in Gordon's manuscripts, gotten in the 1920's or 30's goes:

I've a nate little cot that is built out of mud,
In the beautiful county Kildare
I've an acre of land and I grow my own spuds
But I've always a shilling to spare
Don't think for a minute I'm out of a job
It's only a short visit to pay
So be aisy and free when you're drinking with me
I'm a man you don't meet everyday

Then flll up your glasses and have what you will
What ever's the damage I'll pay
So be aisy and free when you're drinking with me
I'm a man you don't meet every day

There are also versions in Randolph's 'Ozark Folksongs' and John Ward's 'Collection of Irish Songs', Oak Park Illisnois, 1947. It's obviously an old Irish, not Scots, song.