Heard the above explanations before. Both are acceptable depending on how many pints I've had and who I wish to impress. Remind me of a story . . . Last year I was performing with The Diggers in Ann Arbor, Michigan at a pub called Conor O'Neill's.

During our break we were approached by a trio who brought in their instruments and who complimented us on our performance. I asked them what kind of music they performed and they replied "Celtic". When pressed further they said, "Celtic traditional acoustic." I exclaimed, "Ah, so you play deedle-dee-dee music!"

They gave me puzzled looks. "Deedle-dee-dee?", one asked. "What s that?" And I told them that amongst those who sang in pubs, the more traditional performers were refered to as playing "deedledee-dee" because that's the way the music sounds to us, as in "deedle-dee-dee-dee, deedle-dee-dee-dee...". They understood.

Perhaps 50 years from now someone may claim that deedle-dee-dee" refers to Irish Gaelic terms for an instrumentalist. Who knows? But such an explanation would contain a tiny grain of truth.

Len Wallace