The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127487   Message #3730922
Posted By: Lighter
17-Aug-15 - 01:03 PM
Thread Name: lyr/Origins: Pretty polly (Knife in the Window)
Subject: RE: lyr/Origins: Pretty polly (Knife in the Window)
I would be very interested in seeing what you come up with, Steve.

BTW, Harris's "tune" is hardly more than a rhythmic, guitar-backed recitative.

Judging from its reported range and the fact that it used to be unprintable, this song must once have been extremely well-known in certain circles.

Lloyd's tune is a modal variant of Bunting's Irish "Hares on the Mountains" tune, which Peadar Kearney employed almost unchanged for his nationalist "Down by the Glenside," apparently ca1920.