Dylan and Brennan on the Moor

Subject: Dylan and Brennan on the Moor
From:
Date: 13 Oct 96 - 08:26 PM

I've been long familiar with Brennan on the Moor, a rousing ballad that the Clancy Brothers have done many times. The other day I overheard someone playing the Dylan Bootleg CDs (I think that's the name of the set). On the album was a song with exactly the same tune as Brennan... but with all new lyrics.

Does anyone know the song and the history behind it? (This isn't a quiz. I'd be interested to know. Maybe it's written on the album jacket)

Larry Latour

Subject: Lyr Add: RAMBLING, GAMBLING WILLIE (Bob Dylan)
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 04 Apr 97 - 01:12 PM

Larry...Hope you're still around to read this. Found this oldie while browsing unanswered queries. I heard the Clancys just a few weeks ago and they did BOTH versions, kind of intertwined. It is indeed from the Bootleg CDs. Here's the Dylan version.....Tiger

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RAMBLING, GAMBLING WILLIE-Words and music by Bob Dylan
c.1962, 1965 Music Corporation of America, Inc.

Come around you rovin' gamblers and a story I will tell
About the greatest gambler, you all should know him well.
His name was Will O' Conley and he gambled all his life,
He had twenty-seven children, yet he never had a wife.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

He gambled in the White House and in the railroad yards,
Wherever there was people, there was Willie and his cards.
He had a reputation as the gamblin'est man around,
Wives would keep their husbands home when Willie came to town.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

Sailin' down the Mississippi to a town called New Orleans,
They're still talkin' about their card game on that Jackson River Queen.
"I've come to win some money," Gamblin' Willie says,
When the game finally ended up, the whole damn boat was his.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

Up in the Rocky Mountains in a town called Cripple Creek,
There was an all-night poker game, lasted about a week.
Nine hundred miners had laid their money down,
When Willie finally left the room, he owned the whole damn town.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

But Willie had a heart of gold and this I know is true,
He supported all his children, and all their mothers too.
He wore no rings or fancy things, like other gamblers wore,
He spread his money far and wide, to help the sick and the poor.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

When you played your cards with Willie, you never really knew
Whether he was bluffin' or whether he was true.
He won a fortune from a man who folded in his chair.
The man, he left a diamond flush, Willie didn't even have a pair.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

It was late one evenin' during a poker game,
A man lost all his money, he said Willie was to blame.
He shot poor Willie through the head, which was a tragic fate,
When Willie's cards fell on the floor, they were aces backed with eights.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

So all you rovin' gamblers, wherever you might be,
The moral of this story is very plain to see.
Make your money while you can, before you have to stop,
For when you pull that dead man's hand, your gamblin' days are up.
And it's ride, Willie, ride,
Roll, Willie, roll,
Wherever you are a-gamblin' now, nobody really knows.

Subject: RE: Dylan and Brennan on the Moor
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 05 Apr 97 - 11:19 AM

There's no history. Dylan, like Woody Guthrie and countless others, heard a tune he liked and appropriated it.

"When 'Omer smote 'is bloomon' lyre 'E heard men sing on land and sea And what he thought 'e might require 'E went and took---the same as me."

(rudyard Kipling)

Subject: RE: Dylan and Brennan on the Moor
From:
Date: 05 Apr 97 - 03:16 PM

Amen