Lyr Req: Manura Manyah (Matt McGinn)

Subject: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: GUEST,Keith Maxwell
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 06:40 AM

I recently heard a song about a Glasgow council worker who was retrenched in the early 1900's when the "horseless" carriage replaced the Clydesdales he used to have to pick up after.

The chorus is Wi' manure manyah, (not sure about the spelling of manyah)Wi' manure manyah, Wi' manure, manure, manure manyah.

I've looked for it in the database and only got two hits, neither of which is the one I'm looking for.

I live in a little place called Birregurra, in Victoria Australia.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Callie
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 07:36 AM

Hello Keith

A man with a very deep voice called Bill (the man, not the voice) who lives in Canberra sings this song often. I know snatches of the song, but couldn't recite the entire thing.

The streets of the toon Were all covered aroon By some stuff that was beautiful, (something) and broon It was put there of course By a great clydesdale horse and it's name was manura manura manyah

That's about all I can remember. Except that before the final chorus, Bill is want to exclaim "one more time, with feeling!"

Perhaps other folk will fill in the gaps.

Good luck!

Callie (Sydney)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 07:57 AM

G'day Keith,

Maunura Manyah was written late '50s / early '60s by Matt McGinn "a young Glasgow workingman" and is the second track on Pete Seeger's Strangers and Cousins (c. 1964), which I have on CBS Stereo LP SBP 233242.

I will stoke up the old vinyl player and have a listen. If nobody else gets in first, we might make it an all Australian rendition of an American 'translation' (Pete's word) od a fine 'Glesca' song.

REgareds,

Bob Bolton

Subject: Lyr Add: MANURA MANYAH (Matt McGinn)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 08:23 AM

G'day again,

I had a listen and this is what I hear:

Manura Manyah
Matt McGinn

I've heard men complain
O' the job that they're da'in',
While howkin' the coal
Or diggin'a drain;
But whoever they are
There is nane to compare
Wi' a man that is shovellin'
Manura Manyah.
CHORUS:
Wi manura manyah, wi' manura manyah,
Wi' manura, manura, manura manyah.

Oh, the streets o' the toon
Were all covered aroon
Wi' stuff that is lovely
An' golden and broon.
It was put there, of course
By a big Clydesdale horse
An' its name was manura, manura manyah.
CHORUS:

I followed its track
Wi' a shovel an' sack
And as often as not
Wi' a pain in my back.
It was all for the rent
An' the beautiful scent
O' manura, manura, manura manyah.
CHORUS:

But I'm feelin' so sore
For my job's been took o'er
An' everything now is mechanical po'er
An' there's nowt left for me
But the sweet memory
O' manura, manura, manura manyah.
CHORUS:

O' manura, manura, manura manyah.
CHORUS:

Enjoy,

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Callie
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 08:26 AM

what a load of crap!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 08:28 AM

G'day yet again,

I should check the DT more carefully: it is there under a slight variant spelling )(Manyura Manyah?) and thus didn't show up to a direct search on Pete Seeger's spelling.

This one has (presumably) more authentic Braid Scots, Glasgow version, and has a copyright date of 1964 ... which is not exactly what is suggested by the Seeger recording, but perhaps he did not copyright immediately.

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: MartinRyan
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 10:25 AM

Would I be right in guessing the air is "The Kerry Recruit" - to which the chorus is "With me toor-i-mi-niah, with me toor-i-mi-niah, me toor-i-mi- toor-i-mi toor-i-minyah!"?

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: GUEST,Keith Maxwell
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 07:25 PM

I've now got the words. Thanks to all who took part in this thread. I'm amazed at how quickly it all happened. Thanks particularly to Bob Bolton I now have both the words and the source of the song. Callie, I know Bill the man you speak of, he is Bill Arnett from Canberra and I saw him at the National Folk Festival over the Easter Weekend, will also get in touch with him.

Thanks again to all of you.

Cheers

Keith Maxwell

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 07:45 PM

G'day Keith and Diana, really nice to have met you in Canberra. I have the score in one of the Sing Out Reprints, but the time signature is really weird and doesn't make musical sense to me. I actually notated it as one of the tunes missing from the DT about 9 months ago but didn't ever submit it - I don't know the song. When I dig the music out I'll give you a buzz (you gave me your card). Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: GUEST,JenEllen
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 08:08 PM

is the Kerry Recruit correct then?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 10:31 PM

I don't believe that it is the version of Kerry Recruit that I know. I'll post the tune as soon as I can. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Metchosin
Date: 26 Apr 00 - 11:03 PM

Thanks Bob, your lyrics came at an opportune time. I had my two nephews out working for me on the Easter weekend, "shifting a few tons of this earthly delight" by hand and I just sent them the words in an email to remind them "city kids" why they're so stiff and sore this week.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Callie
Date: 27 Apr 00 - 12:03 AM

Bill Arnett does the best version of the song I've ever heard. Partly on account of his voice being so deep!

--Callie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From:
Date: 27 Apr 00 - 02:29 AM

Hi John This is facinating how quickly results happen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 27 Apr 00 - 02:40 AM

Martin Ryan, you are correct. Matt McGinn's song was a Glesca parody to the tune and chorus of the Kerry recruit, (Dubliners'version). For a related film, check out Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx starring Gene Wilder and Margot Kidder circa 1970 .
All the Best
Seamus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 27 Apr 00 - 02:58 AM

I've mailed the MIDI of Manyura to Alan who will post when he's able. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: georgeward
Date: 27 Apr 00 - 03:03 AM

Matt McGinn was a wicked song satirist and parodist, a radical heart and a dear friend. First person I ever saw do an entire concert unaccompanied...for a bunch of college students in rural Vermont who had never concieved of such a thing. They were transfixed - by his wit, his politics, his chutzpah. Bless him, he was also the first person I ever saw drink a bowl of raw eggs to cure a hangover.

He toured in the States a few times in the sixties. Don't know if he ever made it to Australia.

The last time we saw him was in Glasgow in 1971. He and his family put us up overnight, took grand care of us and toured us around (what felt like) every venue in the city where a man could stand up and roar out a song. He did 'em all. As we left, he was arranging for a boat to row him downriver to sing for striking workers who had taken over part of the John Brown Shipyards, which were threatened with government closure. He died prematurely shortly after.

For another of his songs - that Pete Seeger also did, and that I still delight in doing - check out "Grigaloo" in the DT. -George

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 28 Apr 00 - 07:03 PM

This is Matt's own story of how the song came about, from the collection of his songs and writings, 'McGinn of the Calton':

[1987:] Leading off the singing [at the Marland Bar] one Saturday evening was my friend Hamish Imlach, a genial bright-eyed and heavily built man and Peter Ross, a young law office worker.
Wi me toorininya wi me toorininya wi me toorininyoorin in yoorin in ya.
They sang 'The Kerry Recruit' in a haunting manner which lingered even after the company had moved on to, 'We're gonna roll the Union on'. With a drink in me I murmured something about none of them being in a Union and within a few minutes Hamish was roused from his normal joviality to a fiery rage in which he was threatening to carry me outside the pub and do all sorts of things to my snozzle and I suddenly sobered to the fact that this man was no flab but a physical power-house who could have massacred me with a couple of punches. I was pleased when he was asked by one of the staff to leave the premises [...]. At ten past ten as I was being emptied from the pub with the rest of the spillage, Hamish came rushing at me from the other side of the street where he had been waiting all this time for me to have 'a discussion'. [...]
At home in Fernhill I said, 'To hell wi' them and their toorininya ....' But I decided to do a real job on the 'to hell wi'' and wrote
Wi' manura manya, wi' manura manya, wi manura manura manura manya.
The chorus should be sung sweetly and with feeling. [...] You will have gathered that this is a protest song about the transport revolution which has transformed Glasgow into a one horse town. Pete Seeger snatched up the song and sang it at the Newport Festival on the conclusion of his world tour, and according to Luke Kelly of the Dubliners who was there it set the place ablaze. Later Pete recorded it at Carnegie Hall and I still get an occasional tenner from Japan for this. (MoC68f.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: JenEllen
Date: 29 Apr 00 - 04:36 AM

Thanks John and Alan, look forward to a listen. ~Elle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 03:48 AM

G'day,
Thanks to John in Brisbane the tune for "Manyura Manyah" can be found here at the Mudcat MIDI site.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Megan L
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 01:25 PM

Matt gave us many pure dead brilliant songs from gentle 'Red Yoyo' to some bitingly accurate satirical but Does anyone else agree that The Ibrox Disaster is the most poingant he ever wrote.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 30 Apr 00 - 09:55 PM

Don't know - I think the ones about his wife are very poignant, too! - Susanne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: GUEST,Denis Drewsky of Barongarookski
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 09:10 PM

What a great song for Chad to sing?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Wi' Manure Manyah
From: Jim I
Date: 25 Nov 11 - 09:52 PM

The words posted by Bob in 00 are the ones I know and very occasionally sing but just reading them again I had another couple of lines pop into my head from I know not where, and I would appreciate if anyone can point me in the direction of another, possibly lost, verse.

...
...
And the roses that grow, hae nae odour, oh no
Wi'oot manyurah, manyurah, manyurah manyah.