Versions: So Be Easy and Free When You're Drinkin'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 09:10 PM

As Fat B-asterisk has pointed out in one of the older posts,
the Pogues covered this song on Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash.
It came out ever so slightly different than the title of this thread. Instead of
"So be easy and free when you're..."

Cait O'Riordan sang
"So be easy and free when ye dhrink up wi' me..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 09:36 AM

The version I do on my recent CD, Ireland's 32, Vol. 2.

A MAN YOU DON'T MEET EVERY DAY
(Collected by John Ward)
       G          D            G            C
I've a neat little cabin that's built out of mud,
          G          D         G/D7
Near the Curragh in County Kildare.
         G       D            G          C
I've an acre of land where I grow my own spuds;
       G            D          G
I've enough, and a little to share.
       Em                     Bm
Sure, I've not come over here seeking your jobs,
    C            Am       D7
But just a short visit to pay;
       G         D                G          C            
So be easy and free when you're drinking with me,
       G       D                G                        
I'm a man you don't meet every day.

             G            D          G               C
Chorus: Come fill up your glass, and drink what you please,
         G       D          G/D7
And whatever the damage I'll pay.
       G       D                G          C
So be easy and free when you're drinking with me,
       G       D               G
I'm a man you don't meet every day.


When I landed in Liverpool, O what a sight

Met my gaze as I lit on the shore;

There was Mickey McCollum and young Dinny White,
               
Michael Lane and big Rory O' Moore.
            
And they all burst out laughing when they saw me walk down,
               
But they treated me in a fine way;
   
Says I "You young spalpeens, I'll stand you a round,
      
I'm a man you don't meet every day."

Chorus:

         
And there on that quayside not three days ago,
      
We went for a drink in the Star,
            
And the first man I met was oul' Pat McEnroe,
            
With a pint of best ale at the bar.
   
I spoke to him kindly, shook him by the hand,
                  
And these words unto him I did say,
         
"Be easy and free when you're drinking with me,
      
I'm a man you don't meet every day."

Chorus:

                  
There's a neat little colleen who lives around here,
               
And it's her I've come over to see;
         
Next Saturday morning I'll marry my dear;
                     
Then she'll come back to Ireland with me.
      
And if you come over a twelve month from now,
      
It's this I will venture to say,
                  
We will have a smart lad, and he'll say of his dad:
            
"He's a man you don't meet every day."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 09:38 AM

I entered the chords correctly above the lyrics, but they appear to have gotten jumbled in the transmission.. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 09:40 AM

"For to shoot" is a typical Irish construction

It's much more widespread than that.

Wiktionary citations

Seems to have peaked (in print, anyway) around 1815:

Ngram since 1800

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 11:11 AM

Was going to say the same. It occurs in "Ye Jacobites by name", the subject of another current thread, Robert Burns poem, written late 18th century. "A weak arm and a strang, for to draw".
Also in the song, The Nightingale. "They both sat down together, for to hear the nightingale sing".
Really quite common, and not specifically Irish.

Back on the song, a number of versions mentioning various rivers that he went out by, Tay, Spey, Kildare.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 11:13 AM

And Seamus, chord formatting often goes to pot on here! Best to put the chords in brackets before the word to which the chord change pertains: then they can't move!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: Helen
Date: 07 Feb 17 - 02:13 PM

Hi all,

I never realised until I bought a 5 CD set of The Pogues albums that the tune for Jock Stewart is the old Irish tune called Ned of the Hill. The Pogues do a version called Young Ned of the Hill on their Peace and Love album. There is a song called I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day on their Rum Sodomy and the Lash album which is just an alternative title for Jock Stewart.

The tune is here:

O'Neill's Music of Ireland - a wonderful resource, by the way. I have the O'Neill's book and on that webpage I can also hear the midi files of the tunes as written in the book and copy the sheet music into other documents etc.

Helen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 08 Feb 17 - 06:55 AM

In Ireland it's known as 'A Man You Don't Meet Every day' Scots tend to call it 'Jock Stewart' And their are various tales re it's origin on line. Great Audience Chorus song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: So Be Easy and Free When You're. . .
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Feb 17 - 07:27 AM

Is it obvious that the tune for "Ned of the Hill" is Irish? I can't find any more reliable source than Grattan Flood to back that up.

It might well be, but it doesn't sound much different from many other tunes of the period which are known to be English or Scottish.

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