The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53150   Message #816615
Posted By: Alice
02-Nov-02 - 12:10 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Whistling Thief (Samuel Lover)
Subject: Lyr Add: The Whistling Thief
I am looking for any corrections and chorus in versions you may know of the following song, which one source I found on the 'net says was written by Samuel Lover.

I have the song on a tape by the Johnsons, sent to me by a Mudcatter (thanks a bunch). I found these lyrics on a google search. The song on tape has a CHORUS of something like
With me fal lala la lala
Me fal lala la lalay
With me fal lala la
Rum diddle dum dow
Me fal lala la lalay.

The only other mention of this song in a Mudcat search was by Phillipa in a thread back in '98 about songs of the young and old.

I would like to know if anyone can confirm that it was written by Samuel Lover and if these lyrics are correct.

The Whistling Thief
Site says this version from an album by Danny Carnahan and Chris Caswell called, New Leaves on an Old Tree


There's Pat come over the hill
His darlin' fair to see
Not whistlin low but shrill
His signal sure to be
His signal sure to say
If you're mother it won't allow're
then come steppin out side to steal
a kiss behind the barn

There's Mary beside the door
a-waiting for her dear
Her mother's beside the hearth
The whistlin's caught her ear
Oh, Mary, listen now,
There is somebody whistlin sure
Oh, Mother it's only the wind
a-whistlin through the door

I've lived for quite a long time
in this old house, my dear
But the wind to whistle like that
I never yet did hear
But Mother you know the fiddle
It hangs close beside the chink
And the wind upon the strings
is playin a tune, I think

The dog is howling now
The fiddle can't play the tune
But Mother - the dog is only
howlin at the moon
But how can he see the moon
when he is old and blind?
Blind dogs don't howl at the moon
and fiddles don't play in the wind

And now I hear a pig
uneasy in its mind
But mother you know they say that
pigs can see the wind
That's true enough by day
but then you may remark
A pig no more than we
can see anything in the dark

I'm not the fool that you think
I knew all along that it's Pat
Go home, you whistlin thief
and do get away after that
And Mary go to bed
don't play upon me your tears
I may have lost my youth
I haven't lost my ears!

So lads when courtin go
and for your sweethearts wait
Take care - don't whistle too loud
in case the old woman you'd wake
For the day when I was young
sure forget it I never can
I learned the difference between
A fiddle a dog and a man.

.
Alice Flynn