The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #10325   Message #4179816
Posted By: Lighter
24-Aug-23 - 10:35 AM
Thread Name: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
I hear "And oh, Lord God, but was she charming!"

More importantly, "played the same tune o'er and over."

Also "doors," which may be "door" unconsciously influenced by "drawers." After all, he's still outside the chamber, and he next mentions "shutting" things.

"Bunch of" is surely wrong. I seem to hear "Dutch," but I can't make much sense of it. Conceivably it's "bolted holes."

Alan Lomax collected a version from Ed Thrasher, of Round Lake, Mich., with a similar chorus, in 1938. In place of Harding's "Eliza Kenwick" it has "Kitty Norey" (from another bawdy song).