Lyr Req/Add: Johnny Jump Up (Tadhg Jordan)

Subject: Anyone knows the words for
From: Svanen
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 01:34 PM

It goes something like this:


I'll tell you a story that happened to me
One day as I ... by the sea
For the sun it was up ...
...
I went into a bar, and I ordered a stout
I'm sorry said the barman all the beer is sold out
Buy whiskey ...
... I've heard that it's good

CHORUS: Oh never oh never oh never no more
If I live to be a hundred a hundred and four
I can't go to heaven they won't let me up
Till I bring him a bottle of Johnny Jump up.
Oh never oh never oh never again
If I live to be a hundred a hundred and ten
...


Or something like this.

There's a lot of verses, and it's about a man who drinks too much cider and ends his life on it.

Subject: ADD: Johnny Jump Up / Johnny Jump-Up
From: mmario
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 03:02 PM

JOHNNY JUMP-UP

1. Well, I'll tell you a story that happened to me
One day as I went out to Yaw by the sea.
The day it was hot. the sun it was warm.
Says I, "A quick pint wouldn't do any harm."
I went in and ordered a bottle of stout.
Says the barman, "I'm sorry, the beer's all sold out.
Try whiskey, young Paddy, ten years in the wood."
Says I, "I'll have cider; I've heard that it's good."

CHORUS: But I'll never, no never, no never again,
If I live to a hundred or a hundred and ten.
Well, I fell to the ground and I could not get up
After drinking a quart of the Johnny-Jump-Up.

2. After law in the third, I came out by the yard
Where I walked into Brofie, the big civic guard.
"Come 'ere to me, boy. Don't you know I'm the law?"
I opened me fist and I shattered his jaw.
Well, he fell to the ground with his knees doubled up.
'Twas not I that what hit him, but the Johnny-Jump-Up. CHORUS

3. The next thing that I met down by Yaw by the Sea
Was a cripple on crutches, and he said to me,
"I'm afraid for me life I'll be hit by a car.
Won't you help me across to the railwayman's bar?"
But after drinkin' a quart of the cider so sweet,
He threw down his crutches and danced on his feet. CHORUS

4. Well, I went down the Lee Road a friend for to see.
They call it the Madhouse in Cork by the Sea.
But when I got there, sure the truth I will tell,
They had the poor bugger locked up in his cell.
So's the guard tested him, "Say these words if you can:
'Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.'"
"Tell 'em I'm not crazy; tell 'em I'm not mad.
'Twas only the sip off the bottle I had." CHORUS

5. A man died in the Union by the name of McNabb.
They washed him and they laid him out on a slab.
And after O'Connor his measurements did take,
His wife took him home for a bloody fine wake.
Well, about twelve o'clock and the beer it was high,
The corpse sits up and says he with a sigh,
"I can't get to heaven; they won't let me up,
'Till I bring them a quart of the Johnny-Jump-Up." CHORUS (2x)

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From:
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 03:21 PM

mmario

Great transcription - particularly if it was from Jimmy Crowley of Cork, whose accent is difficult enough for us natives!

"Yaw" is "Youghal" (pronounced Yawl), a coastal town in East Cork.

"Try whiskey, try Paddy..." makes more sense - "Paddy" is a brand name of a whiskey produced in the area.

"madhouse in Cork by the Lee" - Lee is the river through Cork.

Song probably based on one about cod liver oil, of which there are several versions.

Regards

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: MMario
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 03:44 PM

I cannot tell a lie --- all I did was pull the lyrics from the Minstrels of Mayhems' site.

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 08 Oct 98 - 06:27 PM

You'll never make President!

Regards

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: O'Boyle
Date: 09 Oct 98 - 04:13 AM

Just a little historical note...As I understand, the song is based on a true time earlier in the century, I believe in the 20's, when a bad batch of cider was out there and people, although aware of the risks involved, continued to drink it. It poisoned some, killed others, and made other's temporarily mad. earlier this year when I heard about people overdosing on heroin in Canada it made think about this song, plus sommes change....

Rick

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: sbook
Date: 12 Oct 98 - 02:44 AM

Thank you all for the answers. I've heard the song millions of times, but found it very hard to get the words. Now I understand you have to be almost local, to know about names of places and all. Anyway thanks.

Svane / sbook (my name changed overnight??)

Subject: ADD: Scrumpy (another cider song)
From:
Date: 13 Oct 98 - 03:56 AM

'Because of the general shortage of materials during the first World War cider was stored in casks which had been used for maturing whiskey. The cider drew the spirit from the wood and the result was 'Johnny', a cider so potent, as the song tells us, that it was a sure ticket to heaven. 'Up the Lee Road' implies much more than it says to Cork people, as the Mental Hospital is situated up there. (Notes Jimmy Crowley, 'The Boys of Fair Hill', 1977)

This thread reminds me of another song about cider. Nothing known about the background, though. Sung by Iain MacKintosh in 1979, who learnt it from Chris Foster. - Susanne

SCRUMPY
(Trad)

In the year of sixteen forty-two, in a little cider mill
A poor old dog lay down to rest 'cause he was feeling ill
He chose a most precarious perch above the apple press
An in his sleep he tumbled in and perished in distress

This caused his master for to grieve likewise his mistress too
Until their sorrows were relieved when they sampled of the brew
A-ha, cried farmer Attwater, The likes I ne'er did sup
So he summoned all the neighbors in and bade them take a cup

And every man who drank that night got drunk as drunk could be
They wondered how the scrumpy had acquired such potency
But the farmer kept his council and took another drop
When all at once the poor old dog came floating to the top

A silence fell upon the room and every man did frown
The recognised old Bendigo though he was upside down
The Squire lost his colour and collapsed upon the floor
And the vicar lost his britches in the rush to reach the door

Fear not, cried farmer Attwater, For in all his life I vow
He never bit no man nor dog, and he'll not bite no man now
And this shall be his epitaph, Here lies our faithful Ben
Who perished in the scrumpy vat and quickly rose again

So if ever you're in Devon and you go into a bar
Ask for Dead Dog Scrumpy its the best there is by far
Refuse all imitations and you'll sleep just like a log
You can always recognise it by the hair of the dog

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: sbook
Date: 13 Oct 98 - 04:23 AM

Hi skw@ Great song. Does et go by any known tune? Or can I find any recordning?

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From:
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 04:28 AM

I haven't come across the tune elsewhere, and I am notoriously badly equipped both with hardware, software and with brains for sending tunes. However, if I manage to find some helpful soul to post another tune for me I'll send this one along.
I've got it on an Iain MacKintosh album (I think it was 'Live in Glasgow', back in 1979), but I don't think it's commercially available any more. Sorry! - Susanne

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 05 Dec 99 - 10:06 AM

By sheer chance, I have a test MP3 of me trying to sing the first verse of Dead Dog Scumpy here. It's not a great recording but it should be enough to give the tune.

Jon

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: Melbert
Date: 05 Dec 99 - 01:42 PM

Verse 2 line 1 should be, I think:
"After lowering the third I went back to the yard" (i.e. after drinking my third pint I went back to work)

Subject: RE: Anyone knows the words for
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 05 Dec 99 - 01:52 PM

My version (Christy Moore with Barney McKenna accompanying on banjo) has that line as
"after lowerin the third I went straight for the yard"

Jon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Johnny Jump Up
From: GUEST,Jamer Turnip
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 04:36 PM

This song be Dead Dog Scrumoy written by Trevior Crozier RIP

A scrumoy and Western classic from the Westcountry.

Yer best chance a hearing it is ta order a Yetties CD - Well worth the investment

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Johnny Jump Up
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 06:05 PM

The tune is basically "Erin Go Bragh".

Oddly, I've heard "Johnny jump-up" given a quite different meaning - in Glasgow it used to mean people who would fill a glass with milk, jump up to a gas lamp, smash the mantle off, bubble the (coal) gas through the milk, and drink it to get high on the dissolved hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Some way downmarket of gluesniffing. Never heard of a song about it, though.

Subject: RE: req/ADD: Johnny Jump Up
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Dec 08 - 02:49 PM

Anybody have background information on this song? There's not much in the Traditional Ballad Index:

Johnny Jump Up

DESCRIPTION: Beer is sold out; the singer tries cider. Never again. Falling-down drunk after a quart, he fights a policeman. A man on crutches dances and a friend goes to the mad house after cider. A corpse at a wake asks to take a quart for admission to Heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: drink talltale
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 72-73, "Johnny Jump Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [27 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "The title of the song is the name of a cider made in Clonmell and well known for its potency, due to being stored in whiskey barrels." - BS
File: OCan072

---

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*OCanainn -- Tomas O Canainn, Songs of Cork (1978).

Subject: RE: req/ADD/Origins: Johnny Jump Up
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Dec 08 - 03:06 PM

Last evolution of "Doctor De Jong" (sometimes "Doctor Dear John") and his cod liver oil, as far as I know. I don't recall any written references to original date etc. offhand.

Regards

Subject: RE: req/ADD/Origins: Johnny Jump Up
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Dec 08 - 03:11 PM

The O'Canainn book referred to is "Songs of Cork", BTW.

Regards

Subject: RE: req/ADD/Origins: Johnny Jump Up
From: MartinRyan
Date: 06 Dec 08 - 03:16 PM

Ooops! Didn't realise the details were at the foot of Joe's post.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Johnny Jump Up
From: GUEST,Paul Bennett
Date: 27 Oct 13 - 07:00 AM

Good morning all. I've just come across this thread.
The song was written by Tadgh Jordan, my grandad. He wrote it in 1934. I've heard the song by different artists sung in different ways. Recently I received a recording of my granda singing it in his own words. I've also come across the song written by him amoung many other poems and songs that he wrote. I'll post the original lyrics as soon as I have a chance.
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Johnny Jump Up
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Oct 13 - 03:10 PM

Very interesting, Paul! Please do post as soon as you can.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Johnny Jump Up
From: GUEST,Paul Bennett
Date: 27 Oct 13 - 04:08 PM

Found this link. http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/j/johnjump.html
It's just as it's sung on the recording that I got. The recording that I got must be 35 years old. I must have a look through the copy books that are in my aunts to see how he wrote it.

Subject: Lyr Add: JOHNNY JUMP UP (Tadhg Jordan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Oct 13 - 02:29 PM

Lyrics and notes copied from MySongBook.de (and punctuation added by me—JD):


JOHNNY JUMP UP
(Trad / Tadhg Jordan)
(as sung by Jimmy Crowley)

CHORUS: Oh never, oh never, oh never again
If I live to a hundred or a hundred and ten!
I fell to the ground and I couldn't get up
After drinking a jar of the Johnny Jump Up.

1. I'll tell ye a story that happened to me
One day as I went out to Youghal by the Sea.
The sun it was bright and the day it was warm.
Says I, "A quiet pint wouldn't do me no harm."
I went in and I called for a bottle of stout.
Says the barman, "I'm sorry; all the beer is sold out.
Try whiskey or Paddy, ten years in the wood."
Says I, "I'll try cider; I heard it was good."

2. The next thing I met down in Youghal by the Sea
Was a cripple on crutches, and says he to me:
"I'm afraid o' me life I'll get a belt of a car.
Won't you help me across to the Railwayman's Bar?"
After drinkin' a quart of the cider so sweet,
He threw down his crutches and he danced on his feet,
So we ordered two more and a toast we drank up
To the world's finest doctor, old Johnny Jump Up.

3. Sure after a while sure I felt well enough
So says I, "Fill another; that cider's great stuff."
After drinking the third, sure I made for the yard
And I bumped into Brophy, the big Civic Guard.
"Come here to me, Mac; don't you know I'm the law?"
I upped with my fist and I shattered his jaw.
He fell on his back with his toes turned up,
But it wasn't I hit him; 'twas the Johnny Jump Up.

4. I was brought up in gaol for being drunk on the street.
After two pints of porter, I was out on my feet.
Said the guard testing me, "Say these word if you can:
'Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.' "
When I managed that fine sure he asked me to state
That 'I rattled my bottles outside Malachy's gate',
But the 'British Constitution' fairly bottled me up,
And I got fourteen days without Johnny Jump Up.

5. I went up the Lee road a friend to see—
They call it the Madhouse in Cork by the Lee—
But when I got up there—I don't like to tell—
They had the poor sod sore tied up in a cell.
Says he, "Hello, Jordan; to see you I'm glad.
Tell 'em I'm not crazy; tell 'em I'm not mad.
All that I had was a slug from a cup
Of that lunatic soup they call Johnny Jump Up."

6. A man died in Cork Union by the name of McNabb.
We washed him and we laid him outside on a slab.
O'Connor came up then his measure to take,
And his wife took him home to a bloody fine wake.
'Twas about twelve o'clock and the beer it was high.
The corpse he jumped up and says he with a sigh:
"No, I can't get to heaven; they won't let me up
Till I bring them a jug of th' old Johnny Jump Up."

7. So come all you young fellows and ladies as well.
Beware of that stuff that they brew in Clonmel,
For God only knows whether you'll wind up
In a madhouse or gaol after Johnny Jump Up.

[Youghal, pron. 'Yawl' - coastal town in East Cork]

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

[1977:] Because of the general shortage of materials during the first World War cider was stored in casks which had been used for maturing whiskey. The cider drew the spirit from the wood and the result was 'Johnny' a cider so potent, as the song tells us, that it was a sure ticket to heaven. 'Up the Lee Road' implies much more than it says to Cork people, as the Mental Hospital is situated up there. (Notes Jimmy Crowley, 'The Boys of Fair Hill')

[1984:] Came to me from Jimmy Crowley from Cork, who I first heard singing it upstairs in a tent. (Christy Moore Songbook 53)

[1998:] During the Hitler war, rations and restrictions were an everyday event. In the best spirit of recycling, Bulmers of Clonmel stowed a new run of cider in old wooden whiskey barrels not realising that a delicious intercourse between the fresh young cider and the slumbering spirit would ensue. This is the original version given to me by its author, Tadhg Jordan of Cork. Another story goes that Tadhg wrote the song to secure the threatened job of a friend who worked for the famous brewery. Sales soared evidently after the success of the song and subsequently the post was saved! (Jimmy Crowley, notes 'Uncorked!')

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Johnny Jump Up (Tadhg Jordan)
From: crism
Date: 01 Dec 23 - 11:44 PM

Paul Bennett, are you still around? Do you have any biographical info about your grandpa Tadhg? Did he write any other songs worth singing?