Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: Ian
Date: 29 Oct 24 - 11:28 AM

Yes, I do about once a year. I last heard it by some one else on Sunday in Hull. It does not matter which tune you use it still attracts the infectious clap.

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 06:15 AM

Kim C, back in 2008, mentioned the other version, as have others since, and yes, the tune is very similar to “Her Mantle so Green”. The words are fairly similar too, but there are no “No, nay, Nevers” to worry about!
Mick West, Scottish singer, does a very fine version.

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 12:49 PM

Here are the lyrics I have for what I call the "traditional" version, though not sure of its provenance:

THE WILD ROVER

1
I have been a wild rover, this many's the year,
And I've spent all my money, drinking ale and strong beer,
But now for the future, I will take better care,
In case that misfortune shall fall to my share.

Chorus:
Wild roving I'll give it over, wild roving give o'er,
And I ne'er will be called the Wild Rover no more.

2
I went into an alehouse, I used to resort,
And I told the landlady, my money was short,
When she heard of my story, to me she did say,
I can have many customers like you any day.

3
I put my hand in my pocket, some money to find,
And I pulled out the fill of my two fists, five times,
When she saw that I had the money, and money go leor,
When she saw that I had the money, she called me her stór.
She says, "I have the whiskey, and that of the best,
And the words that I have spoken, were only in jest."

4
If I had all the money, I have placed in your care,
It would till all my lands and, my family rear,
It would thatch all my houses. It would build me a barn.
It would buy me a coat for to keep my back warm.

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 01:15 PM

lots of nice words & other versions, but try & persuade non-folkies to change the habit of a lifetime & refrain from the clappy clappy/table banging version & you'll come a cropper- it's called the real world

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Oct 24 - 05:07 AM

They don’t if you sing to this totally different tune: that’s for real too.

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: Thompson
Date: 31 Oct 24 - 05:58 AM

Singing has changed. When I was a kid it was still usual for people to sing at home, and in a lot of workplaces people sang too, often in chorus. Milkmen and coalmen and bakers' deliverymen and building workers whistled tunefully and skilfully. There were professional singers, and amateur performers, but singing was also a personal thing, practised at parties and at home. All gone now. Recording has enriched us, but has also robbed us.

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 24 - 01:40 PM

I went to a toilet I used to frequent
And I told the attendant my penny was bent.
I asked him for credit he just shook his mitt
Said 'if you've no penny you'll get no cred......it

   (memory of Matt McGinn singing this?)

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: GUEST,IS
Date: 01 Nov 24 - 04:44 PM

Hamish Imlach had a good pastiche too:

I'll go to a folk club, take a shotgun along
And I'll shoot the first bastard who asks for that song
And the hangman will say as I fall through the floor
"Now you never will sing The Wild Rover no more"

Subject: RE: Wild Rover - do folks still sing this song?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 03 Nov 24 - 09:56 AM

> in a lot of workplaces people sang too

At one place of work I was in, one of the cleaners used to sing as he worked, which was by then unusual enough to attract notice. Someone instructed him to not sing, as it was disturbing some scholars' concentration; a while later, someone else told him he *should* sing, as it was good to hear someone being cheerful around the place.

The cleaner eventually solved this conundrum by moving to another department, where presumably they appreciated his taste in happiness better. Being happy to order is awkward .... which brings us back to the subject.