Lyr Add: Another 'Jolly Tinker'? / Merry Wedding

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Another 'Jolly Tinker'? / Merry Wedding
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 08:56 AM

tinkers wedding . my name is joem ii first heard this song sung by willy kemp, a scots singer from scotland. this recording was made in 1935 and in that time no scottish folk would know this song when it was first written in the 1840s by will watt. i found out on my 24th birthday when i got a bothy songs cd from my mum. my friend martin did the talking parts to a song called jolly tinker in a band we were in together. there's also a song to the same tune from the 1940s called ryders in the sky by stanley jones. watt is refernced in the sonng bonny tinker by davey stuart. and it's more well know by the rothesay o tune today. sometimes i like to improvise my own words to these too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Another 'Jolly Tinker' (Merry Wedding)
From: Amos
Date: 03 Oct 14 - 10:26 PM

I asm sorry to report that John Mehlburg's website at "immortalia.com" appeasrs to be defunct. Does anyone know what became of his collected postings there?

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Another 'Jolly Tinker' (Merry Wedding)
From: Amos
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 11:02 AM

I returned to this thread in 2014 nine years after Joe Offer solved the mystery (in 2005). I came back (and found his answer) because Joe and Abby and I had gone with Dani to Lisa Null's house last week before the Getaway to share bawdy songs with two members of the Library of Congress staff, and the song came back to mind.

I am delighted to learn that the mystery surrounding the song was my own bad memory of "tinker" instead of "grocer" and that the Merry Wedding is in fact the piece that lurked in memory lo, these fifty years and more.

Joe, you are a champ. (Of course, if your own memory were impeccable you would have remembered this when it came up in 2014!). But I am indebted to you for your work, as usual, sir.

Ain't the Mudcat a remarkable thing? Three different members of the Library of Congress staff in the American Folklore department have sworn to us that they use it every day and love it. We are renowned in high places!

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Another 'Jolly Tinker' (Merry Wedding)
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Feb 12 - 01:56 PM

"The Jolly Tinker II," the notorious rugby fave, used to have its own tune(s). Now it usually goes to Stan Jones's "Ghost Riders in the Sky," a big hit in 1949.

Presumably the change began in 1949. But what's the earliest that anyone can actually remember the "Ghost Riders" tune as being the standard? (1972 is the date to beat.)

In fact, if anybody can post or name one of the older tunes, so much the better.

Oscar Brand's somewhat sanitized 1961 version credits John Runge. Brand's tune is a simplified "Dear Old Donegal" (Steve Graham, 1942).

Subject: DT Correction: Jolly Tinker 2
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Nov 07 - 02:33 PM

The DT version of "Jolly Tinker 2" is taken from
Traditional American Folk Songs, Warner and Warner
Collected from Lena Bourne Fish
The Warner book has one additional verse:


THE JOLLY TINKER 2

I am a jolly tinker That goes from town to town,
I will mend your pots and kettles If you'll only bring them 'round.

Chorus:
Tu-ra-laddy, tu-ra-laddy,
Tu-ra-laddy hi-row.

I know how to solder And I can mend a pot,
I can also stop a hole So it will not leak a drop.

I can mend umbrellas And I can tinker a clock,
The housewives are all smiles When they see the tinker stop.

A tinker never marries, Has a girl in every town,
And they shower me with kisses As they bring their kettles down.

They feast me and regale me With choicest meats and wine,
At whatever house I stop at I can always sup and dine.

So many wait my coming, For I have many friends,
I never stored much gold, Yet I have a lot to spend.

My life is wild and free And I do not seek renown,
I'm just a jolly tinker With a girl in every town.

From Traditional American Folk Songs, Warner and Warner
Collected from Lena Bourne Fish, 1940
@work @rambling
filename[ JOLITNK2
TUNE FILE: JOLITNK2
RG^^ (I see that Susan found my correction in the "attribution" thread)

---

You'll find the song on the recording titled The Jolly Tinker, by Jeff Warner.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Another 'Jolly Tinker'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 May 05 - 02:52 AM

So I guess Amos didn't want the Jolly Tinker after all. The traditional Ballad Index divides the various "tinker" songs into three:

Jolly Tinker (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The tinker comes to town to mend the pots. He observes that "A tinker never marries, has a girl in every town...." "I've never stored much gold, but I have a lot to spend." "My life is wild and free, and I do not seek renown. I'm just a jolly tinker..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: work sex rambling
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner 72, "The Jolly Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLITNK2*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tinker"
Notes: Tinkers had a reputation for wantonness, and a large bawdy repertoire built up around them. It is often difficult to decide if the songs are related or not. Since this song is "clean" and "The Tinker" is dirty, I decided to separate them. But I'm not confident about it.
Warner for some reason links this with Laws F24, "The Peddlar and His Wife" -- but that is a song about a murder! - RBW
File: Wa072

---

Tinker, The / Jolly Tinker (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The lady of the manor sends for the jolly tinker, who services her, her staff (including the butler) and then rides off, "little drops of semen pitter-patting at his feet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: adultery bawdy Gypsy lover sex tinker
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England,Scotland) US(MA,MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray, pp. 29-36, "The Tinker" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 113-117, "The Jolly Tinker" (3 texts, 1 tune)
DT, JOLITINK JOLLTNK3
Roud #863
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279]
cf. "Clout the Cauldron"
cf. "The Jolly Tinker (I)"
cf. "The Jolly Tinker (III)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Highland Tinker
The Jolly Tinker
Notes: Randolph-Legman provides a detailed history of this ballad. - EC
This song can be told from "The Jolly Tinker" by its description of the tinker's, um, improbable physical attributes. - RBW
File: EM029

---

Jolly Tinker (III), The

DESCRIPTION: A London lady tells a tinker she has kettles to mend. He asks if there are holes that need blocking; they fall to work. She bangs a pan "to let the servants know that he was hard at work." Refrain: "And I'll be bound she had (he could, they did, etc.)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Billy Dickeson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A London lady, desiring the company of a tinker, writes and tells him she has kettles to mend. He comes, asking if there are any rusty holes that need blocking; she leads him to the bedroom and they fall to work on the feather-bed. She picks up a pan and he bangs it "to let the servants know that he was hard at work"; she pays him, saying they'll have another round. Refrain: "And I'll be bound she had (he could, they did, etc.)"
KEYWORDS: sex work bawdy tinker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland),Ireland(South)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 177, "The Jolly Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLLTNK4* JOLLTNK3
Roud #863
RECORDINGS:
Thomas Moran, "The Jolly Tinker" (on FSB2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tinker" (plot)
File: K177

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2005 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

---

Of the songs in the Digital Tradition:

The Tinker comes from Sedley's Seeds of Love
   I am the bravest tinker that lives beneath the sun
   If you have any work to do, you shall have it well done

The Jolly Tinker 2 comes from Warner & Warner, Traditional American Folk songs
   I am a jolly tinker That goes from town to town.
   I will mend your pots and kettles If you'll only bring them 'round.

Jolly Tinker 3 does not have an identified source - it's similar to the Clancy version posted above, but certainly not the same as what the Clancys sing.
   I am a jolly tinker, At a door I chanced to knock
   And said: `Have you any kettles Or some rusty holes to block?'

Jolly Tinker 4 comes from Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, Kennedy.
   A noted London lady O she loved a tinker-man
   But she couldn't get in his company But a little now and then

Subject: ADD: The Merry Wedding
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 May 05 - 02:24 AM

Say, Amos, after all this time, I found your song - at John Mehlberg's Website. Apparently, it's from Volume III of Ed McCurdy's recording, When Dalliance Was In Flower and Maidens Lost Their Heads. It didn't make it onto the "Dalliance" CD compilation that came out in 2003.
Not that our man is a "grocer" in this one.
-Joe Offer-

The Merry Wedding

A jolly young grocer of London town
Fell deeply in love with a maid;
But often he courted her to lie down
But she told him that she was afraid.

He tried to enthuse her
But still she refused
To consent to his wicked will;
She said, "You must tarry,
Until we do marry,
And then you shall have your fill."

And so it did seem that he could not obtain
The blessings that he pursued,
For though he had tried again and again
She vowed that she would not be lewd.

At last he submitted
And thus he permitted
The parson to enter the door;
He knew not his bride
Had been tested and tried
By one that she loved before.

And after the marriage had been declared
The drums and the fiddles arrived;
And oh what a thumping and bumping was there
To please his lovely bride.

There was fiddle, come fiddle,
With a hey, diddle, diddle,
And while the music played
There was kissing and loving
And heaving and shoving
To capture the heart of the maid.

But ere three months had passed away
A thumping baby was born.
"Confound you!" he was heard to say,
With bitterness and scorn.

"You're a strumpet," cries he;
"You're a cockold," cries she;
And finding himself betrayed,
There was hitting and fighting
And spitting and biting.
His jewel had proved a jade.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Another 'Jolly Tinker'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Oct 04 - 08:24 AM

Sorry, Malcolm, but it looks like the answer is "no." And posting more lyrics IS more interesting than that.

I recognize the song Fulurum posted above. It's one Ed McCurdy sang on one of the albums in his series "When Dalliance Was in Flower and Maidens Lost Their Heads." I think his principal source for that series was Thomas D'Urfey's anthology of songs and poems called "Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy" from 1719. I also know McCurdy often "tinkered" with the songs a bit, matching lyrics to different tunes, adding choruses borrowed from other songs, etc., but in general, I think he did a good job of keeping the songs true to the period.

Subject: RE: Another Jolly Tinker
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 09:29 PM

Just mention a tinker round here, and somebody will inevitably post yet another set of words of that very old one (it goes back at least to the 17th century). Hey, it's got willies and stuff in it, so it must be more interesting than trying to answer the question. The songs are completely unrelated, except insofar as they both include the word "tinker". Can anybody add anything that's actually relevant to what Amos asked?

Subject: RE: Another Jolly Tinker
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 06:17 PM

Well, as it happens, I know that one too, and have been known under the right volume of stimuli to ssing the two of them back to back -- or perhaps belly to belly -- when the occasion warranted. Oh but--when I was much younger, of course!!.

Looks like the first one is a rare bird indeed. I'll have to track it down.

A

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TINKER
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 05:41 PM

Not that one, but, FWIW, here's another one not yet in the DT. It was sung at St Andrews University, Scotland, in 1958. Very spirited and (beware!) *much* bawdier.

THE TINKER

A jolly old highland tinker was walking down the strand
With his ballocks p'er his shoulder and his penis in his hand,

With his jolly old kidney-wiper and his ballocks hanging free
And a yard and a half of foreskin hanging down below the knee --
    Hanging down (INCHES THICK!)*
    Swinging free (WHAT A PRICK!)*
And a yard and a half of foreskin hanging down below the knee.

    *Shouted. Alternatives: ALL AGLOW!/WHAT A SHOW!
                              WHAT A BEAT!/FEEL THAT HEAT!

The lady of the manor was dressing for a ball
When she saw the highland tinker pissing up against a wall.

She wrote to him a letter, and in it she did say,
"I would rather be fucked by you, sir, than my husband, any day."

The tinker got the letter, and when it he did read,
His balls began to fester and his prick began to bleed.

He went up to the manor, he strode into the hall.
"God save us!" cried the butler, "He has come to fuck us all!"

He fucked them in the parlor, he fucked them in the hall,
But the time he fucked the butler was the finest fuck of all.

When he fucked the butler, 'twas such a fucking farce --
The heat of the fucking fucking fucking decomposed his arse.

The tinker's dead and gone now; he's buried in St Paul's --
It took four-and-twenty bastards just to carry in his balls.

(Sexual & grammatical athleticism: getting that word in three times in a row, as adjective, noun, & adverb.)

Subject: RE: Another Jolly Tinker
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 12:41 PM

I would like to re-ask the original question, on this wise:

I found the traditional Jolly Tinker in the DTDB; but I did not find this one, and wonder if anyone can tell me its proper name or its source. I remember this set of words from learning them some forty years ago.

Am I really to suppose no-one in the breadth of Mudcatlandia has heard this song?

A

Subject: Jolly Tinker Help!!!
From: paddyc
Date: 06 May 00 - 12:12 PM

Anybody got the chords for Jolly Tinker?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE JOLLY TINKER (Clancy version)
From:
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 05:00 AM

THE JOLLY TINKER

As I went down a shady lane at a door I chanced to knock.
"Have you any pots or kettles with rusty holes to block?"
"Oh, well indeed I have. Don't you know I have?
To me right-fol-tooral-addee, well indeed I have."

The missus came out to the door and she asked me to come in,
Saying, "You're welcome, jolly tinker, and I hope you brought your tin."
"Oh, well indeed I did. Don't you know I did?
To me right-fol-tooral-addee, well indeed I did."

She took me through the kitchen and she led me through the hall,
And the servants cried, "The Devil! Has he come to block us all?"
"Well, indeed I have. Don't you know I have?
To me right-fol-tooral-addee, well indeed I have."

She took me up the stairs, me lads, to show me what to do,
And then she fell on the feathery bed and I fell on it too.
Oh, well indeed I did. Don't you know I did?
To me right-fol-tooral-addee, well indeed I did.

She then picked up the frying pan and she began to knock
To let the servants know, me lads, that I was at me work.
Oh, well indeed I was. Don't you know I was?
To me right-fol-tooral-addee, well indeed I was.

She put her hand into her pocket and she pulled out twenty pounds,
Said, "Take this, me jolly tinker, and we'll have another round."
"Oh, well indeed we will. Don't you know we will?
To me right-fol-tooral-addee, well indeed we will."

Well, I've been a jolly tinker now for forty years or more,
Oh, but such a rusty hole as that I never blocked before.
Well, indeed I didn't. Don't you know I didn't?
To me right-fol-tooral-addee, well indeed I didn't.

Sung by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem

Subject: RE: Another Jolly Tinker
From: _gargoyle
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 02:47 AM

This is a VERY busy time of year for most musicians. (the busiest....if we don't "make book" now.... we will probably not see summer.)

Hang in there, someone will know it.

Subject: RE: Another Jolly Tinker
From:
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 02:20 AM

Nobody cares.

Subject: Lyr Add: JOLLY TINKER
From: fulurum
Date: 21 Dec 99 - 11:32 PM

Can't help you with your question, but I can give you another version of the song.

The Jolly Tinker

A comely dame of Islington had got leaky copper.
The hole that made the liquor run was wanting of a stopper.
A jolly tinker undertook and promised her most fairly
With a thump, thump, thump and a knick, knack, knock to do her business rarely.

He turned the vessel to the ground. Said he, "A good old copper,
But it well may leak for I have found a hole in it that's a whopper.
But never doubt a tinker's stroke but though he's black and surly.
With a thump, thump, thump and a knick, knack, knock he'll do your business rarely.

This man of mettle opened wide his budget's mouth to please her.
Says he, "This tool I've oft employed about such jobs as these are."
With that the jolly tinker took his stroke or two most kindly.
With a thump, thump, thump and a knick, knack, he did her business finely.

As soon as he had done the feat, he cried, " 'Tis very hot-o.
This thrifty labor makes me sweat. Give me a cooling pot-o."
Says she, "Bestow the other stroke before you take your farewell.
With a thump, thump, thump and a knick, knack, knock and you may drink a barrel."

Don't know anything about this one either.

---

Note: Ed McCurdy sings these exact lyrics on the CD compilation called When Dalliance Was in Flower (and maidens lost their heads).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Another Jolly Tinker
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 21 Dec 99 - 08:51 PM

Refresh. What, absolutely no responses? Surely we can do better than that to end 1999. Regards, John

Subject: Lyr Add: JOLLY TINKER
From: Amos
Date: 21 Nov 99 - 08:18 PM

I found the traditional JOLLY TINKER in the DTDB; but I did not find this one, and wonder if anyone can tell me its proper name or its source. I remember this set of words from learning them some forty years ago.

THE JOLLY TINKER

A jolly young tinker from London Town
Fell deeply in love with a maid.
How often he courted her to lie down
But she swore she wouldn't be laid.
And still he pursued her, and still she refused
To consent to his wicked will.
She said, "You must tarry, until we are married,
And then you may have your fill."

And when he saw he could not have
The jewel he had pursued,
Although he had tried again and again,
She had vowed she wouldn't be lewd.
At last he submitted, and thus he permitted
The parson to enter the door.
He knew not his bride had been tested and tried
By one she had loved before.

And when the wedding had been declared,
The fifes and fiddles were played.
And oh, what a thumping and bumping was there
To win the heart of the maid.
There was Hey-Diddle and Jackie-Come-Fiddle,
And while the music vied,
There was scratching and thumping and leaping and bumping
To win the heart of the bride.

But ere three months had pass'ed by,
A bouncing baby was born.
"You vixen!" he was heard to cry,
With bitterness and scorn.
"You're a harlot," cried he. "You're a cuckold," said she,
And finding himself betrayed,
There was kicking and fighting and scratching and biting;
His jewel had proved a jade!