The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #154794 Message #3634775
Posted By: MGM·Lion
20-Jun-14 - 12:18 AM
Thread Name: all around my hat
Subject: RE: all around my hat
There is an Irish nationalist version in which the singer wears 'a tricoloured ribbon' for political reasons. It is on one of Frank Harte's records.
There was a C19 cockney variant which is a lament for a girlfriend transported for stealing; contains lines something to effect: "All around my hat until death comes to me, Cussed be the judge what sent my true love a-vy" [i.e. 'away' in C19 cockney]. IIRC some elements of this theme remain in Brian Peters' version I mentioned above.
~M~