The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95516   Message #1860854
Posted By: Lighter
16-Oct-06 - 07:56 PM
Thread Name: Origins: origin of Moonshiner
Subject: RE: Origins: origin of Moonshiner
Bob, yes, dagnabit, those two lines do sound like "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" sped up. It also reminds me a little of the verse of "Solomon Levi." (Midi at this great site: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~ef/music/tunes/jigs.htm)

"Tiger" transcribed the Clancy version as follows on an earlier thread:

I've been a moonshiner for many a year.
I spent all my money on whiskey and beer.
I'll go to some hollow and I set up my still,
And I'll make you a gallon for a ten-shillin' bill.

CHORUS (each stanza)
I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler,
I'm a long ways from home,
And if you don't like me,
Well, leave me alone.
I'll eat when I'm hungry,
And I drink when I'm dry,
And if moonshine don't kill me,
I'll live 'til I die.

I'll go to some hollow in this country,
Ten gallons of wash, I can go on a spree.
No women to follow, the world is all mine,
And I love none so well as I love the moonshine.

Oh, moonshine, dear moonshine, Oh, how I love thee.
You killed my old father, but you are good by me.
Oh, bless all moonshiners and bless all moonshine,
Oh, their breath smells as sweet as the dew on the vine.

That's how I remember it too, except I'm certain I heard them sing, for "but you are good to me,"

Now daur [i.e., dare] ye try me !

Is this precisely the Galvin version too ?