Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?

Subject: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 04:43 AM

I found myself singing these song fragments, which my mother used to sing. One is mocking Irish poverty, though it can't have been seen as offensive - our family is largely Irish in origin. The second appears to refer to the Battle of the Boyne from the Protestant side. The tune of both is Brighton Camp. Anyone know any more lines, or their origin?

(1)

My father died a month ago
And left me all his riches:
A piece of chuck, and a savvery duck(*)
And a pair of calico breeches,
A coffee pot without a lid,
A jug without a handle,
A tea pot without a spout
And half a farthing candle.

(2)

My Uncle Mick, he had a big stick
And he took it to the slaughter
And he killed then thousand Irishmen
At the battle of the boilin' water.

(*) a sort of cheap sausage I think.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Emma B
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 05:01 AM

Can't help with the lyrics but a "savry duck" or savoury duck is a form of rissole delicious in a rich gravy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 05:03 AM

Savory Ducks aka Faggots, BTW faggot is a Latin word for a bundle. You transponders can make what you like from that one!
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 06:49 AM

If 'chuck' is a food reference, then it would be 'chuck steak'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: GUEST,squeezeboxhp
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:25 AM

our dad used to sing the first one to the tune of barnacle bill the sailor and brighton camp to the second, can't help with words but it tickled my memory

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Flash Company
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:39 AM

Ewan MacColl had the first one as follows:-

Me father died a month ago
And now I'm full of riches,
A barbed-wire fence and fourteen pence,
And a pair of wooden britches,
A broken spout for pouring out,
And a cup without a handle,
An old tom-cat and a furry hat
And half a ha'penny candle.

My late lamented Mother, when out to shock, would sing to the tune of 'The Girl I left behind me':-

Oh Mick struck Mike with a ball of s---e
At the battle of the boiling water...

Alas, no other words!

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Snuffy
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 09:42 AM

Probably not specifically Irish, s it seems to have been quite well known in England too.

Great Wolford Mummers Play collected 1913, Warwickshire England
In comes I Fidler Wit
My head's so large, me wits so small
I've brought me fidler to please you all.
Toll-de-roll the tinder box
Father died the other night
And left me all his riches,
A wooden leg, a feather bed,
And a pair of leather breeches,
A coffee pot without a spout,
A jug without a handle,
A guinea pig without a wig,
And half a farthing candle.
Sing brothers sing.

Stony Play, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire England
(To the tune of 'The Red Flag')
Father died the other night and left me all his riches
A wooden leg, a feather bed, a pair of leather breeches
A coffee pot without a spout, a jug without a handle
A guinea pig without a wig, and half a farthing candle
Sing brothers sing

Not knowing which tune was originally used, the Shakespeare Mummers sang it to Yankee Doodle, but now use Brighton Camp instead

I believe there is a much longer song on a similar subject in the DT but I can't find it

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: jeffp
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 09:44 AM

Chuck was a term which meant, simply, "food." As in chuckwagon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 12:32 PM

Surely those were "woolen britches" not wooden, above.

Jeffp: that's interesting about chuck meaning simply food. Thus, to vomit is "upchuck."

No doubt this helps explain why one of the most useful cuts of beef for ordinary folk is called beef chuck or chuck roast. I use it for lots of things: beef stew, pot roast, beef cooked in beer, spicy orange beef, Fancy French pot roast, lunch meat when sliced thin. No doubt this list could go on and on.

Now I think I'll try to find a MIDI for Brighton Camp.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Micca
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 12:42 PM

I remember a (possible another) verse from when I was young in Ireland to the "Brighton Camp" tune ( I was very surprised later in life to discover that it was called Brighton Camp)

"as I looked over Murphys wall
I saw two asses* fighting
I picked up a stump
and I hit him on the rump
and away he ran like lightening"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 08:51 PM

There are a great many humorous snatches set to that tune, but they aren't necessarily related in any other way.

No real evidence that the first song is particularly "Irish", though it has been found there; as well as in England, Scotland and Canada. It appears in the Roud Folk Song Index at number 8248. Iona and Peter Opie (Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes no. 155, mention that it was sung to 'Brighton Camp' / 'The Girl I left Behind Me' in Warwickshire, and to 'Merrily Danced the Quaker's Wife' in Scotland.

Kenneth Peacock (Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, I, 55-56) prints a long text set to a very different tune. He certainly thought that the humour was Irish, but that may have been partly because the example he met mentions St Patrick's Day in the first verse. The tune is vaguely familiar, but at present I can't place it.

Paul's feeling that the song "mocks Irish poverty" is probably wrong (though there were certainly plenty of humorous 19th century songs on similar lines, many of which were written in cod rural dialects including "Irish"); it actually seems to be a parody of a London stage song of the early 19th century, 'Country fashions', which was set to the tune of '[the] Mon at Mester Grundy's', a slightly earlier song written in a form of Lancashire dialect (though as like as not also a London stage song). See  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

Country fashions

Th' mon at M[este]r Grundys

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 02:08 AM

Brighton Camp and The Girl I LeftBehind Me are the same tune, aren't they?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 03:33 AM

Since Brighton is now the gay capital of England, or Camp Brighton, no doubt the girls still get left behind...

I'd assumed it was mock-Irish because Mum always sang it in an Oirish brogue, and because I associated it with the other snippet. But since she also remembered the Pendlebury May song that I posted a few years ago, perhaps it was from a local mummer's play.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 05:59 AM

There's always the tune "The Irish Washer Woman", with the mock-Irish lyrics:

Oh, McTavish is dead and his brother don't know it
His brother is dead and McTavish don't know it
They're both of them dead and they're in the same bed
And don't one of them know that the other is dead
McTavish he suffered from chronic arthritis
His brother he suffered from peritonitis
They both of them died and then oh how we cried
Cause not one of them knew that the other had died

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: Lyr Add: COUNTRY FASHIONS
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jul 06 - 12:54 AM

Here's the song mentioned by Malcolm Douglas above. From Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Harding B 28(17):

COUNTRY FASHIONS
Sung by Mr. Tayleure, at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool.
Tune—"Mon at Mester Grundy's"

My father died a year ago and left me all his riches:
His gun and volunteering cap, long sword and leathern breeches,
A bit of land at my command, a horse both lame and blind, sir;
You'd swear he'd in a trap been catch'd, he wur cropp'd so close behind, sir.

I mounted then my charger bold, and trotted off for life, sir.
So smart and gay I rode to town, to look out for a wife, sir.
In doors and out, all round about, my eyes in each direction,
At last I spied a bonny miss, the pink of imperfection.

She was so lady-like, d'ye see, and such a dab at larning,
She'd rather sit & bite her thumbs, than stocking-hole be darning.
Though she can make conundrums, and verses she is good in,
She just as soon could make a moon, as a bit of suet pudding.

She went to market t'other day to fill my money bag, sir.
I mounted her on Dobbin's back with butter, cheese & eggs, sir.
For fear the sun should spoil her face, for parasol instead, sir,
She stuck her whip in a cabbage leaf, & held it o'er her head, sir.

'Cause ladies fine do wear rich veils, she long for one did grieve, sir;
And now she's hung before her face the bottom of a sieve, sir.
She's two genteel pockets to wear. At nothing she will flag, sir.
So ecod! she's made a ridicule* out of a pudding bag, sir.

Her head so ornamented is, like bell-horse she appears, sir,
And then she's got two curtain rings a-bobbing in her ears, sir.
Besides, to keep my lady cool, for ornamental use, sir,
She's made herself a pretty fan out of the wing of a goose, sir.

Since such a wife now I have got, though she can't get the pelf, sir,
I think that you'll allow she is gentility itself, sir.
If any friend or neighbour here be bless'd with such another,
We'd better give the Devil one to run away wi' t'other.

[*ridicule = reticule]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: GUEST,Caz
Date: 26 Nov 19 - 11:58 AM

My grandad used to sing it to me.
I always assumed it was a Lancashire folk song (that's where the "sav'ery duck" or savoury duck comes in - it's a traditional Lancashire dish and can still be bought at Bury Indoor Market, on the food stalls, along with Rag Pudding (steak in gravy wrapped in suet pastry) and the famous Bury Black Puddings.

He sang it as:

Oh me father died a week ago and left me all his riches:
A lump of Chuck and a sav'ery duck and a pair of leather britches
A teapot without a spout
A jug without a handle
A pepperpot without a lid
and ha'penny farthing candle
Oh knock at the door, ring on the bell,
see what you give me for singing so well...

Lancashire was pretty poor too, maybe it was used by some as a begging song?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 Nov 19 - 02:23 PM

Caz,
Could you tell us what the tune was please?
Brighton Camp and Merrily danced the Quaker's Wife are very well-known and you should easily find a recording online if you don't know them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: clueless don
Date: 27 Nov 19 - 07:16 AM

Different song - but I have heard a recording of a song (possibly recorded by the McNulty Family) with a chorus (it actually changes somewhat from repeat to repeat) that goes something like

Here's to me Grandfather Brian.
I wish he was livin', oh sure!
and everyday he'd be dyin'
and leave me ten times as much more.

The verses describe the several items that the singer inherited from her grandfather, consisting mainly of junk. Reminds me of the opening verse mentioned by the original poster.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: mayomick
Date: 27 Nov 19 - 02:58 PM

verse 2 for Paul Burke .How I remember it anyway :
My Uncle Dick, he had a stick
And he took it to the slaughter
He killed ten thousand Irishmen
At the battle of the Boyne water
One fell here and one fell there and one in every quarter
And one poor soul got a bullet up the hole
At the Battle of the Boyne Water

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: GUEST,Lancs
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 04:18 AM

This is what my mother used to sing 60 years ago. The Second verse somewhat different. My family had no Irish connections and we had no idea where it came from.

My uncle Micky had a stick
And he took it to the Slaughter
He killed 5000 Irish men
In the battle of Boiling Water

Some were dead and some were alive
And some were shouting’murder’
So he upped with his stick
And he knocked them sick
In the Battle of Boiling Water

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 08:27 AM

I am reminded of a mondegreen of mine from the Ould Orangle Flute:

Kick the Pope and Boil Water it freely would sound...

I thought Boil Water was an Orange song mocking the catlicks for having so many babies! I laughed a LOT when I read the real lyrics (Boyne Water) here on Mudcat back in the '90's...

The song I know that mocks Irish poverty is Weela Wallya.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 10:33 AM

That's very interesting, Mrrzy 'mocks Irish poverty'. In what way do you think it mocks Irish poverty? Of course I'm sure you know that it is a relic of a seventeenth century ballad which was written as a warning to well-heeled young ladies to avoid liaisons with the male servants.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Any more of this Irish parody?
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 11:57 AM

You'll find a version of the 'Uncle Mick' snippet on the Folkways LP of the 'Elliotts of Birtley' from 1961.

They added another line at the end..

'For I hit wor Mick with a shovel and a pick
and I made him join the army'