The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #1513   Message #3315234
Posted By: GUEST,Moone Family pirates
29-Feb-12 - 03:25 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Red-haired boy/little beggar boy
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Begger Man
Dennis,

Here is the full song...

I am a little beggarman, a beggar I've been
For three score years on this little isle of green
I'm known from the Liffey way down to (don't know how to spell it, sounds like sagu)
And the name that I'm known by is old Johnny Dhu

(B part)
Of all of al trades a-goin' I'm sure beggin is the best
For when a man is tired he can sit him down to rest
You beg for your dinner and you've nothin' better to do
But to toddle around the corner with your old rigadoo

I slept one night in a barn in Coorabagh
T'was a wet night comin' on, so I slept 'til the dawn
With holes in the roof and the rain comin' through
And the cats and the rats were playin peek-a-boo.

{B} When who should awaken but the woman of the house
In a white spotted apron and a calico blouse
She began to frighten when I said "Boo!"
"Ah, don't be afraid m'am, it's only Johnny Dhu."

I met a little flaxy-haired girl one day
"Good mornin', little flaxy-haired girl." I did say
"Good mornin' little beggarman, and how do you do
With your rags and your tags and your old rigadoo?"

{B} I'll buy you a pair leggings and a collar and a tie
And a nice young lady I'll fetch you by-and-by
I'll buy her a pair of gogles and color them blue
And an old fashion lady I will make her too.

So it's over the roads with me pack on me back
And it's over the hills with me great haversack
With holes in me shoes and me toes peeking
Singing skitamarink-a-doodle with me old rigadoo
(by the way, "skinamarack-a-doodle-idle-eedle-idle-doo" isn't Irish, it's scatt (or a folk/traditional version it))

{B} I must be going to bed now, it's getting late at night
And the fire's all stoked [sp?] so it's out goes the light
And now you've heard the story of me old rigadoo
So it's good-night and God be with ya', says old Johnny Dhu.