The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #30118   Message #386567
Posted By: Stewart
31-Jan-01 - 12:22 PM
Thread Name: modern lyrics for traditional tunes
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAID BEHIND THE BAR
Peter Cooper in "Mel Bay's Complete Irish Fiddle Player" gives lyrics to the fiddle tune (reel) "The Maid Behind the Bar" that one of his students (Barbara Lester) made up in order to help learn the tune by ear.It works great to play the fiddle tune and then sing the song

Oh, there was a maid behind the bar and that was where she stayed
Though her friends all cried "Come out! Come out!" they never could persuade
The maid behind the bar to move - she never would come out,
Her sole purpose on this earthly plane was serving mugs of stout.

Oh, unambitious serving maid, she's overworked and underpaid
Has she no longing to be free? no existential agony?
While serving beers and stouts to ungrateful drunken louts,
Oh, is it too late to change her fate, the maid behind the bar?

Cheers, S. in Seattle