ADD/Origins: My Husband's in Salonika^^

Subject: My husband's in Salonika
From: Liz Jenkinson
Date: 24 Jun 98 - 05:30 AM

Does anyone know the rest of this song?

My husband's in Salonika I wonder if he's dead I wonder if he knows He's got a kid with a curly head

So write away, so write away So write away Salonika, write away me soldier boy

Subject: Lyr Add: SALONIKA^^
From: McGrath
Date: 24 Jun 98 - 04:48 PM

SALONIKA

My husband's in Salonika I wonder if he's dead
I wonder if he knows he has a kid with a foxy head?
So right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

Now when the War is over what will the slackers do?
They'll be all around the soldiers for the loan of a bob or two.
So right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

Now when the War is over what will the soldiers do?
They'll be walking around with a leg and a half and the slackers they'll have two.
So right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

They taxed the pound of butter, they taxed our half-penny bun (pronounced; haypenny)
But still with all their taxes they can't beat the bloody Hun.
So right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

They taxed the Coliseum, they taxed St. Mary's Hall
Why don't they tax the Bobbies with their backs against the wall?
So right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

Now when the War is over what will the slackers do?
For every kid in America in Cork there will be two.

For they takes us out to Blarney and lays us on the grass
They puts us in the family way and leaves us on our ass.

So right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

There's lino in the parlour and in the kitchen too
There's a glass back chevonier that we got from Dicky Glue.

Now never marry a soldier, a sailor or a marine
But keep your eye on the Sinn Féin boy with his yellow, white and green.

So right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

During the Great War (WW1), the Munster Fusiliers fought a long and bloody battle against Turkish forces in Salonika, Greece. The wives of these fuisliers got "seperation" money from the British Army in addition to the soldiers pay. Men in Cork who "avoided" the war for political or other reasons became known as "slackers". This song is a "slagging match" or a ball hopping contest between a "slackers" wife and a "sepera", the wife of a Munster Fusilier.

Words, music and extra notes can be found in "Jimmy Crowley's Irish Song Book", published by The Mercier Press in 1986; ISBN 0 85342 773 9

Regards
Frank McGrath
Nenagh Singers Circle

Subject: RE: My husband's in Salonika
From: Liz jenkinson
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 03:05 AM

I'm most grateful. Thank you

Subject: Salonika
From: GUEST,Petter Fuhre
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 05:42 AM

I'd like to get the lyrics on Salonika, as performed by e.g. Dublin City Ramblers. Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonika
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 08:19 AM

The source there is Jimmy Crowley's song book and I should have added that the song appears more or less identically in Tomas O Canainn's Down Erin's Lovely Lee - Songs of Cork, perhaps not surprisingly as Jimmy Crowley was one of his sources for it.

Mick

Subject: RE: My husband's in Salonika
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 08:59 AM

Should read ' A lovely glass back chiffonier, we got from Dicky Drew '

eric

Subject: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: Davetnova
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 03:20 AM

I was given a cassette compilation recently with no info about its contents. One of the songs which I've taken I liking to is a live recording, very poor quality, of a song I think is called Salonica. The chorus I hear as - Right away, right away, right away Salonica, right a way my soldier boys. Probably wrong, it is a very poor recording. Does anyone know anything about this song, words, singer, writer, anything? I've tried googling but can't find a thing. Thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: Paul Burke
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 03:37 AM

Salonika

It was in a lyrics add request a few years ago, but never made it to the DT. And the search is buggered at the moment, it just comes up with irrelevancies.

I recall the song being very popular in West Cork back in the 70s. I assume it refers to the WWI Salonika campaign to assist Serbia. Casualties from battle were light (for WWI), but many died of disease, including most famously, the poet Rupert Brooke.

The song was apparently performed by the Dubliners, though I don't remember it- they were thought a little below the salt back then in our circles. No doubt they claim they wrote it too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 04:03 AM

It's on the Dubliners 25 Year Celebration album.

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 04:15 AM

Hamish Imlach also did this song on a CD called Sonny's Dream, issued by.

Lismor Recordings,
27-29 Carnoustie Place
Glasgow G5 8HP

Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: The Admiral
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 04:55 AM

I think you'll find that it was a Cork street song and was first recorded on an LP of the same by Jimmy Crowley of the same city... I have the LP at home but if you want to know more I can post it later.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: ard mhacha
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 05:13 AM

Jimmy Crowley`s versin is the best I hve heard, I know it`s a Cork City song but I have heard it performed in and around Armagh fifty years ago.
My father who was in the Connaught Rangers during WW1 sang a verse or two of this song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 06:00 AM

'Salonica' or 'Salonika' is, of course, Greece's second city, and capital of the province of Macedonia, 'Thessaloniki'. Apparently, it was named after the daughter of one of Alexander's generals and means 'Conquest of Thessaly' (I bet she would have preferred 'Jane' or 'Susan'!).
During the 1st World War an allied expeditionary force was sent to Salonica but, as a previous poster has pointed out, didn't get to do a lot of fighting, mainly because the Greek government of the day couldn't decide how much involvement it wanted in the war (they were bound by treaty to let the force land).
If you want to know more about one of the world's most amazing and tragic cities try reading Mark Mazower's recent book 'Salonica: City of Ghosts', HarperCollins, 2004. This contains a fairly extensive account of the Salonica campaign.
I think I've heard a Clancy Brothers recording of the song 'Salonica' but I am having trouble tracking it down.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 06:42 AM

Ask George Papavgeris aka Mudcatter El Greko, he was born there after all!
Giok

Subject: Lyr Add: SALONIKA (from The Dubliners)
From: Marion in Cornwall
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 03:35 PM

Here are the lyrics taken from the Dubliners songbook:


SALONIKA
Trad.

Oh me husband's in Salonika and I wonder if he's dead
And I wonder if he knows he has a kid with a foxy head,
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

When the war is over what will the slackers do?
They'll be all around the soldiers for the loan of a bob or two
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

And when the war is over what will the soldiers do?
They'll be walking around with a leg and a half and the slackers they'll have two
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

And they taxed the pound of butter and they taxed the ha'penny bun
And still with all their taxin' they can't bate the bloody Huns
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

They taxed the Colosseum and they taxed St. Mary's Hall
Why don't they tax the Bobbies with their backs again' the wall
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

When the war is over what will the slackers do?
For every kid in America, in Cork there will be two
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

They takes us out to Blarney and they lays us on the grass
They puts us in the family way and they leaves us on our arse
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika,right away me soldier boy.

There's lino in the parlour and in the kitchen too
And a lovely glass back chiffonier we got from Dickie Drew
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: muppitz
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 04:22 PM

That song always brings back funny memories.
Any catters who have done the Tap & Spile at Whitby for New Year's eve will know about the song game, you are given the lyrics to one song and the tune to another, you have to try and fit the words to a completely different song.
New Year 2003/2004 the team I was with were given the words to Salonika and had to try and fit them to the tune of Summer Holiday.
Barmy stuff!

muppitz x

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: Paul Burke
Date: 02 Feb 06 - 03:21 AM

Have you tried House of the Rising Sun to Teddy Bears' Picnic?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Salonica
From: muppitz
Date: 02 Feb 06 - 05:53 PM

Never heard that one but also at my visit to the Tap, someone had to do Spancil Hill to the tune of Rawhide.
Equally funny!

muppitz x

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 03:13 PM

So, am I the only one who doesn't understand what's "a kid with a foxy head"?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 04:15 PM

Red hair?

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: Declan
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 04:49 PM

Red hair would be correct. And I suspect the husband's hair is not red!

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Nov 08 - 04:57 PM

Kind of like the outcome in the far older American "Joe Bowers."

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 08:37 AM

Loudest, roughest and very best recording ever of Salonika is by the late and large Gordon Hall on As I Went Down To Horsham and also on one of VT's tapes.

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: goatfell
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 11:25 AM

And also Foster and Allen and Hamish Imlach does the the song as, well not Hamish Imlach cause he's dead but when he was alive

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: Musket
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 11:28 AM

Nostalgia being what it is... I think John Coy used to sing it around the clubs many years ago?

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 05:23 PM

The furniture dealer was indeed known as "Dicky Glue" - presumably from his habit of mending and selling secondhand furniture.
KYBTTS

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: MartinRyan
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 05:56 PM

And a glass back chiffonee-er that we got from Dickie Glue" is the usual version. He was a pawnbroker and moneylender . (c.f. "Songs of Cork" by Tomás Ó Canainn)


Regards

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 02:07 PM

'Red hair would be correct. And I suspect the husband's hair is not red!'

So what? People with red-headed forebears can have a red-headed child even though their own hair is some other color. It's just a question of which genes come together upon oonception.

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: MartinRyan
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 02:44 PM

Try explaining that to a man with a wooden leg and a rifle!

Regards

Subject: RE: ADD: My husband's in Salonika^^
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Nov 08 - 05:25 PM

Just a saying, Dicky was also know for his having a hard time collecting on what was owed him

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: GUEST,LuthLew
Date: 16 Apr 10 - 12:51 PM

Saw Jimmy Crowley sing this in April, 2010. He said he'd recently learned that it's "Write away..write away Salonika...". Salonika in this line being the nickname of a Corkman who wrote letters for women who were illiterate.

More historical and collecting notes here:

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Apr 10 - 04:48 PM

I heard Jimmy sing it here in California, just last night. I asked him to sing it because I associated the song so much with Good Old Barry Finn, who died last October.
But last night, he referred to Salonika's geographic location in Greece....I was the only folkie in the audience, so the joke wouldn't have been understood.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 16 Apr 10 - 05:13 PM

"I recall the song being very popular in West Cork back in the 70s. I assume it refers to the WWI Salonika campaign to assist Serbia. Casualties from battle were light (for WWI), but many died of disease, including most famously, the poet Rupert Brooke."

Rupert Brooke died during the preparation period for the Dardanelles campaign in April 1915. The Salonika landings didn't take place until October of that year.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 05:45 AM

Jimmy Crowley's Cork accent might seem impenetrable to many, but "tuning in" rewards the listener with a fund of songs, many of which he rediscovered and brought back to life in his '70s recordings. As can be seen from the above thread, they have been adopted and spread by many better-known singers and groups. Hearing Barry Finn sing "Salonika" at Scarborough Seafest last year was a surprise and pleasure.

Some of Frank O'Connor's short stories are set in Cork in the WWI era, and give more background to the various factions described in the song.

Ross

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: GUEST,Ena Ronayne
Date: 17 Jul 11 - 11:35 AM

Just found this thread and I am so pleased that my granny (Helena Ronayne) had such an affect on this most amazing song. Who would think to remember a few words and pass them on (to Jimmy Crowley in this case) would have such an affect! Thanks for the memories...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 20 Mar 13 - 05:35 AM

Old thread, but an explanation may be helpful to those who come searching and revive the dead.

This is a back-and-forth song, with republican women mocking 'separation women' (women married to soldiers in the British Army, who were commonly thought of as having joined for the 'separation money', a pension paid to their families).

'Slackers' was the mocking nickname given by unionists to men who would not join up.

So verse 1: the kid with the foxy head - the republican woman is mocking the idea that the husband is away, and a child of suspicious provenance has been born to his wife. A fine insult, as it manages to insult both the gulled soldier and the wife of dubious morals.

Verse 2: when the war is over, what will the slackers do? The separation woman is mocking the republicans with the fact that they'll still be poor after the war, and will be sucking up to the soldiers for a loan of their pension.

Verse 3: when the war is over, what will the soldiers do? The republican woman comes back with the riposte that he may have money but will be crippled by war injuries.

Verse 4: they've taxed the pound of butter and they've taxed the ha'penny bun, and still with all their taxing they can't beat the bloody hun. Yes, Frau Merkel.

Verse 5: ...why don't they tax the bobbies. The eternal plaint of the PAYE worker against the privilege of public servants.

Verse 6: when the war is over, what will the slackers do, for every kid in America, in Cork there will be two. Ah, those fertile slackers at it again, more foxy heads. Or maybe this time it's the soldiers being fertile, not sure.

Verse 7: They takes us out to Blarney. Yes, that's what soldiers do.

Verse 8: Lino in the parlour. How sweet it is to have a soldier's pension and be able to buy linoleum. Classic mockery of the petty bourgeois ambitions of Sgt Bucket's wife. Dickie Drew being the pawnshop owner.

Verse 9: Sinn Fein boy in his yellow, white and green. Triumph for the republican side. Yoohoo!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 20 Mar 13 - 07:04 AM

> They've taxed the pound of butter and they've taxed the ha'penny bun, and still with all their taxing they can't beat the bloody hun. Yes, Frau Merkel.

Brilliant!!!

Subject: RE: ADD/Origins: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Sep 14 - 07:38 AM

somebody should put a bun in frau merkels oven.

Subject: RE: ADD/Origins: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Nov 22 - 07:09 PM

Interesting page on "Salonika": https://thelongestsong.fandom.com/wiki/Salonika

Subject: RE: ADD/Origins: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: DaveRo
Date: 22 Nov 22 - 03:35 AM

Now never marry a soldier, a sailor or a marine
But keep your eye on the Sinn Féin boy with his yellow, white and green.

See this thread about the Parnellite tricolour:

In 1883 a Parnellite tricolour of yellow, white and green, arranged horizontally, is recorded.

This phrase "is recorded", which appears in every online reference to the Parnellite tricolour, suggests it was uncommon - was it? Or is it used here because 'green white and orange' doesn't rhyme ur scan and 'orange white and green' is not in the usual order.

Subject: RE: ADD/Origins: My Husband's in Salonika^^
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 22 Nov 22 - 09:53 AM

Jimmy Crowley told me he got it from a member of his old band 'Stokers Lodge' who had it from his family.