Old Dinas

Old Dinas,
We sail the seas together;
Old Dinas,
In any kind of weather;
When your trawling days are over,
And the crew are all in clover;
Through you, old faithful pal o' mine.

Hurry up, old fellow, for the cod sets in tonight;
Hurry up, old fellow, for the hake is there all right.
The Skipper's chasing the crew around;
Another good haul, and we're homeward bound -
Through you, old faithful pal o' mine.

This fragment was collected by Mike Huntington (who also sings the song in the Final Trawl) in the Strawberry Gardens pub, Poulton Road, Fleetwood (co-incidentally the new home of Fleetwood Folk Club); his tune follows his anonymous source's rendition. The original song on which Old Dinas is based is "Old Faithful Pal of Mine", a country song adopted as an anthem by supporters of the Hull rugby team. Mike's tune is slightly different from the original, which I later got from Jim Eldon on a rare visit to Fleetwood. "Old Faithful" cropped up in the introductory sequence to John Byrne's BBC TV series "Your Cheatin' Heart", so I'm assuming the song had a fairly wide popularity in the '50s/'60s. If I still have recordings of that, they'll be on Betamax and possibly out of reach.

Original version of "Old Faithful":-

OLD FAITHFUL (HORSE'S PRAYER)
(Michael Carr - Jimmy Kennedy)
« © '46 Shapiro-Bernestein Co, ASCAP »

Old faithful we rode the range together
Old faithful in every kind of weather
When your roundup days are over
There'll be pastures white with clover
For you old faithful pal of mine

Hurry up old fellow cause the moon is yellow tonight
Hurry up old fellow cause the moon is mellow and bright
There's a coyote howlin' to the moon above
So carry me back to the one I love
Hurry up old fellow cause we gotta get home tonight

Old faithful we rode the range together...
For you old faithful pal of mine

And the Carter Family version:-

OLE FAITHFUL

Ole Faithful, we've rode the range together
Ole Faithful, in every kind of weather
When the roundup days are over
There'll be pastures white with clover
For you, Ole Faithful, pal of mine


Hurry up, old fellow
    For the moon is yellow tonight
    Hurry up, old fellow
    For the moon is mellow and bright
    There the coyotes howl at the moon above
    Oh, carry me back to the one I love
    Hurry up, old fellow
    'Cause I got to get home tonight


Ole Faithful, we've rode the range together
Ole Faithful, in every kind of weather
When the roundup days are over
There'll be pastures white with clover
For you, Ole Faithful, pal of mine


And the Hull FC (Rugby League) anthem:-

Old Faithful

Old Faithful we roam the range together,
Old Faithful in any kind of weather,
When the round up days are over,
And the Boulevard's white with clover,
For you old faithful pal of mine.

Giddy up old fella cos the moon is yellow tonight,
Giddy up old fella cos the moon is mellow and bright,
There's a coyote crying at the moon above,
Carry me back to the one I love,
And you old faithful pal of mine.

(The Boulevard is the Rugby Club's ground)


Ross

Just (7th Jan 2013) found tapes of John Byrne's "Your Cheatin' Heart" (6 episodes on VHS) so may be able to recover the recorded version of "Old Faithful Pal o' Mine" eventually (no recorder hooked up at the moment).