The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #51212   Message #781186
Posted By: GUEST,Steve(Dungbeetle)Gardham
11-Sep-02 - 09:05 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Songs by Harry Clifton (1832-1872)
Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
Hi! No need to write, storyteller. I'm here now.I have masses of folk-song texts from books, all major broadside collections, a sizable collection of original 19th century sheet music, all indexed and cross-referenced. I too am surprised at disparaging comments on Kilgarriff. It doesn't pretend to be comprehensive but as a first port of call on the origins of a popular song I find it pretty indespensible even with the resources I've got. I first became interested in Harry Clifton when I found out he had written a fairly scarce song I collected in my own area back in the 60s, 'My rattling old black mare'then I discovered he'd also written or been associated with popularising, quite a few songs that were currently being sung in the folk clubs. I then started collecting original sheet music by him, and of course versions of his songs often appeared on the later broadsides c1860 onwards. On the sheet music for 'Rocky Road to Dublin' the lyrics are credited to D.K. Gavan,The Galway Poet. Many of Harry's tunes were adaptations of popular melodies of the times, but he was the bees Knees in the early 1860s so anything he performed soon became thought of as his. He did write a helluva lot of songs though. If there is sufficient demand I'm willing to post a list of his better known stuff on the Forum.Hope this is helpful. I'll try to stay in touch,Steve.