Lyr Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Old Donnelly

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: There is only one river / River of Jordan
From:
Date: 03 May 05 - 05:44 PM

Sorry i have'nt a clue how this thread thingy works...I am hoping someone will see this and reply!!!!! Years and years ago I sang a song about a Tinker (Traveller) anda noble woman.....it was a bit bawdy ...and concerned a man called brave Donnelly......
Part of the lyrics went as follows...

The is a noble lady and shes going to a ball
and she spies a jolly tinker
hammering cans against the wall
with your brave O'Donnelly
fair enough said she
There's good men like young Donnelly
he is the boy for me...

He sauntered through the kitchen
and he sauntered through the hall etc...

I would really like to obtain the rest of the lyrics.....

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Donnelly
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 May 05 - 07:50 PM

I moved this over from a thread on a Peter, Paul, and Mary song. Not much chance of getting a response there, so maybe this new thread will help. I tried to find the song through the usual resources, but didn't have any luck. Apparently, there's a song about a "Brave Donnelly" who was a boxer. That's not the one.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Donnelly
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 May 05 - 03:23 AM

Aaaagh! isn't there a Clancys song with a similar structure?

"..and it's 'deed I am,
Don't you know I am
With me whack-al-oor-aladdy
But indeed I am"

There's a similar verse too.

Regards

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Donnelly
From: GUEST,Declan
Date: 04 May 05 - 05:19 AM

This song, or something very similar was recorded by Stockton's wing on their first album, about 1977 or 1978. I'll post the lyrics if I get a chance.

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Donnelly
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 04 May 05 - 12:25 PM

It was a common enough song in its day, and still turns up from time to time; not infrequently in much-condensed (and sometimes frankly obscene) forms. You can trace it back to a London broadside song of the second half of the 17th century, Room for a Jovial Tinker, in which the hero is only disguised as a Tinker in order to get into the house without attracting suspicion. In later forms the subterfuge is dropped and we get instead a real Tinker and more sex.

Number 863 in the Roud Folk Song Index; examples are listed from most English-speaking countries. For various texts and more background (including links to broadside editions), see thread Duchess and the Sailor.

I don't know how that Donnelly fellow got into a version of it, but all sorts of strange things happen with songs like this.

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Donnelly
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 May 05 - 01:56 PM

Yeah - "The Jolly Tinker" is what I was t(h)inking of!

Regards

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Donnelly
From: nutty
Date: 04 May 05 - 02:08 PM

The broadside of The Jovial Tinker circa 1670 can be seen

HERE

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Donnelly
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 04 May 05 - 10:30 PM

There was a noble lady and she dressing for the ball,
When she spied a jolly tinker hammering pots against the wall.

And it's brave Old Donnelly,
Good enough ! says she,
There's good blood in that Donnelly
And he's the boy for me !

He sought her in the kitchen and he sought her in the hall,
He sought her in the parlor mid the servants great and small.

Then she pulled out a whistle and she blew it loud and shrill,
And forty fat policemen came a running o'er the hill.

The tinker was arrested, and he was thrown in jail,
She paid a hundred pounds to get another man out on bail.

...Or so I remember it from many years ago. I learned it indirectly from Liam's Brother.

Not only has Donnelly the prizefighter apparently gotten into the song; stanza 3 has been adapted from Robin Hood ballads.

Subject: ADD: Brave Old Donnelly
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 May 05 - 12:45 AM

That's the hint we needed, Lighter. I wonder what's beocme of Liam's Brother (Dan Milner), now that we rarely see him any more. Must be tough on him, working for a living and all...

Brave Old Donnelly

It's of a noble lady and she coming from a ball,
And she spied that jolly tinker hammering pots against her wall.

CHORUS
And it's brave old Donnelly,
"Good enough, "says she.
"There's good blood in that Donnelly
And he's the boy for me!"

He sauntered through the kitchen and he sauntered through the hail. And he sauntered through the parlour over nobles great and small.
CHORUS

She then went up the stairs all for to make the bed,
But in two steps he was after her and he tapped her on the bed.
CHORUS

She then went down the stairs for to bolt and bar the door
And in two steps he was after her and he tapped her on the floor.
CHORUS

She then took our her whistle and she blew it loud and shrill
And twenty fat policemen came a-running down the hill.
CHORUS

She then had him arrested and he got six months in jail
Then she went in behind his back, let another man out on bail.
CHORUS

It's of a noble lady and she coming from a ball,
She spied that jolly tinker hammering pots against her wall.
CHORUS

Source: A Bonny Bunch of Roses: Songs of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Dan Milner & Paul Kaplan

Milner's notes: John Beggan, a singer and mandolin player from Dublin, taught me this great version of "The Jolly Tinker." I once recorded it with Declan Hunt in Boston, but mercifully our rendition was never issued. The song goes well in either jig or polka time.

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Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Old Donnelly
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 05 May 05 - 08:06 AM

Thanks, Joe. I knew something was missing. Memory loss is the soul of tradition.

Subject: RE: Req: Noble Lady & Tinker & Brave Old Donnelly
From: GUEST,Declan
Date: 05 May 05 - 09:05 AM

The Stockton's Wing version I referred to above is essentially the same as the one Joe posted above except that Mr Donelly 'knocked' her rather than 'tapped' her.

I suspect neither verb is the same as the original!