Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me to Sing the Wild Rover

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T ASK ME TO SING THE WILD ROVER
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 03:21 AM

Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover (Endah Kenny)

Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
I don't have to try to be green
I'd rather you drove me right over the edge
Of the high rocky cliffs of Doneen
I've left all that behind me now
I'm not homesick any more
And I don't need you to remind me
Of Paddy's green shamrocks shore.

Do you ever stop to ask yourself
Just why it is you left home
What have you seen of the places you've been to
Since you started out for to roam
Is it Mass every Sunday
The pub every night
And five different bands
That all play the same shite
Like Donegal Danny and Dirty Old Town
And a "fine girl you are" in the old Holy Ground.

How many friends have you made over here
Whose accents are not like your own
How is it every time I get to hear you
You're talkin' of going back home
Well I won't be found
Where your sorrows are drowned
With plastic shamrocks and beer
Cause I've chosen to live in Australia
Not in "Ireland Over Here".

Endah Kenny is one of my favourite singer/songwriters. I'll submit the Midi when I can find where I've stored it. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: alison
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 03:51 AM

Nice one John,

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: HåvardR
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 04:52 AM

Just reminded me of the last verse a friend of mine adds to "the Wild Rover" whenever a drunken crowd requests it:

I've been a folk-singer for many a year
Can you schiing "The Wild Rover"? (drunken voice, soft Irish "R")
Is all that I hear
So now I'm retiring to live on the dole
and I NEVER will play that "Wild Rover" no more

Incidentally, has anyone heard Eric Bogle's "Plastic Paddy's Pub"? It's generally the same sort of song, but there are a few pieces I haven' figured out yet.

Håvard

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Paul S
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 09:05 AM

There was a band in Kingston, Ontario, called the Mahones. They're a bit famous as a bar band, now. They used to sing a song that went, "The Unicorn, The Unicorn, We hate that f***ing song". Wasn't the best song in the world, but it stopped all of the yahoos from requesting The Unicorn.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Magpie
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 09:16 AM

I was at a session a while ago, and the inevitable question popped up. I said I didn't really know the song, but maybe some of the other musicians might. An English fella agreed to do it, and this was his rendition:

I'VE BEEN A HELL'S ANGEL FOR MANY'S THE YEAR
AND I'VE SPENT ALL ME MONEY ON BLACK LEATHER GEAR
BUT NOW I'M RETURNING, AS ME ARSE IS QUITE SORE
AND I NEVER WILL BE A HELL'S ANGEL NO MORE!

Needless to say, we all cracked!

Magpie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Sam Hudson
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 06:36 PM

Only a pernickety point, but it's 'Enda'. No 'h' at the end.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Oct 99 - 10:45 PM

...and "Dirty Old Town" was written about Salford in England, by Ewan McColl. An ignorant audience will assume it's Irish because they once heard it sung in what they believed was an Irish accent. Sad. If I get asked for "Wild Rover", I pretend to have forgotten the words, but offer to accompany the requester if s/he is prepared to sing it. Usually works.<>Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From:
Date: 09 Oct 99 - 08:28 AM

John and Alison

My wife agrees with you both, she thinks Enda is fantastic. We are fortunate in that his home is not far from where we live so she is able to hear him fairly often.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: poet
Date: 09 Oct 99 - 06:31 PM

Why not!!

I am fortunate my band still plays it as a finishing song and one should do something the audience wants to hear now and again as a change to what we in our wisdom think they want to hear.

Magpie I love the verse we'll add that if you don't mind.
Malcolm Dirty old town was sung by an Irish Band and the Irish Wanted to Adopt it what's wrong with that it certainly fits some towns in Lancs and in Ireland 20 years or so ago.

Graham

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Oct 99 - 09:50 PM

Graham

Fair enough; I was probably a bit snappish about that. The Dubliners' recording of "Dirty Old Town" (I guess that's the one you meant?) is the one a lot of people remember, and it's understandable if they imagine it was meant to be about Dublin. As an Anglo-Scot, and long-time pub-session player, I do get a bit annoyed when people just assume that everything they like must be Irish; the music, good and bad, is shared pretty evenly between the nations. When I'm playing with a band, incidentally, I'll play DOT, or anything else the audience wants. If it's a session, then I'll please myself!

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: poet
Date: 10 Oct 99 - 07:07 AM

Malcom I overreacted too my Apologies.

Graham

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: alison
Date: 10 Oct 99 - 07:16 AM

Poet...

there are more verses to the "hell's angel" version.. it's in the database.. have fun. there was also a long thread on other versions of the wild rover in the last year or so.

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: alison
Date: 10 Oct 99 - 07:22 AM

Here's the earlier thread wild rover with quite a few parodies......

and here is Hell's angel

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: poet
Date: 10 Oct 99 - 06:18 PM

OOh ta very much.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Penny S.
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 01:17 PM

I've been a school teacher for most of my life,
But now teaching's nothing but trouble and strife.
For now the inspectors are here at the door,
I intend that I'll never go teaching no more.

Chorus

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Nogs
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 02:04 PM

In the Hells Angel parody, several stazas in:
But I'd only just started when in from of me eyes
I saw two great big jackboots with black shiny toes!

Shouldn't the first line be 'nose'? Or am I not accounting for regional pronunciation differences?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 02:49 PM

The wild folk-singer according to Lackford!

I've been a folk singer for most of me life.
And that's not pleased many especially the wife.
But now I've decided that I'd better quit
To much booze, many fags and me voice sounds like s**t
(or grit –if polite!)

And it's oooh arrr forever.
Oooh arr ever no more
Will I play at folk singing
You're happy I'm sure.

I went to a folk club I used to frequent
And I sat there and sung though my g'tar neck was bent
Three strings out of tune and two of them broke
The audience thought that I was a huge joke.

And it's oooh arrr forever.
Oooh arr ever no more
Will I play at folk singing
You're happy I'm sure.

They swore and they cussed and then they threw me out
But I shouted right back " I am better than nowt"
"I've got rhythm, charisma and songs in great store"
but they still won't let me in that folk club no more

And it's oooh arrr forever.
Oooh arr ever no more
Will I play at folk singing
You're happy I'm sure.

I fell on the floor me guitar broke in twain
but when I tried to play it, it sounded the same
the street was all hard and me arse it was sore
and I never will play at folk singing no more.

And it's oooh arrr forever.
Oooh arr ever no more
Will I play at folk singing
You're happy I'm sure.

I'll go home to the wife, tell her what they said
And I'll take up clog dancing and do that instead
I'll go round the streets with bells on my clothes
And my face all blacked up (ha!)so nobody knows.

And it's oooh arrr forever.
Oooh arr ever no more
Will I play at folk singing
You're happy I'm sure.

Freshly penned? Typed? Written in response to the Wild Rover. Thankyou, goodnight! Eric the Viking.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Magpie
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 02:53 PM

I've been a school teacher ... - Oh PENNY I LIKE IT! Right up my alley, or should I say profession. I'll sing it to my pupils one day!

Magpie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 03:00 PM

Sorry for the lack of puncuation in "I've ben a folk singer" but I thought it would display as written! And I'm hurrying because I have marking and planning to do!! I've been a school teacher for too many years and I've mark books and papers coming out of my ears......... Bye.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 05:13 PM

Nogs

Yes - "nose" makes more sense, and is what I thought I had typed originally!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Penny S.
Date: 11 Oct 99 - 06:48 PM

Thank you Magpie. There were a lot more verses last night as I drove home! And I've put another parody in the Bedstead Men thread, this time of "The Gasman Cometh" Our inspection began today, I've been observed twice, once fairly good, once not so, and I've had an interview with the leading inspector on IT, better than last time. Three days to go. The inspectors seem less confrontational than last time (I was in tears at one stage then). We are all building up morale with chocolate biscuits.

Penny

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 12 Oct 99 - 11:35 AM

No doubt this is the folk equivalent of the old New Orleans jazz venue sign:" Requests $5, 'Saints' $10!
(That's dollars if the signs didn't transmit).
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Penny S.
Date: 12 Oct 99 - 12:40 PM

'Twas some years ago that they started to act,
To take pleasure from lessons, to Gradgrind each fact,
They laid down the hours that each teacher worked,
And if we didn't do double they'd say that we shirked.

When that wasn't enough they contracted all hours,
From midnight to midnight, the workload just towers,
With curriculum changes arriving each day,
But never, no never, an increase in pay!

Penny, bearing up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Penny S.
Date: 13 Oct 99 - 10:53 AM

I was there in the classroom, by the screen I was sat,
Laughing out loud at verses I found on the 'cat.
In comes the Inspector, "Now what's this about?
Subversives like you we can well do without!"

Penny

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Penny S.
Date: 14 Oct 99 - 12:18 PM

And now that it's over, I have to come back,
To treat them more fairly, things don't seem so black,
Now I've heard the report, picked myself from the floor,
I shan't think of retiring, not never no more.
And it's no, nay, never, No nay never, no more, Will I think of retiring, no never, no more.

Not 'till retirement age, or the lottery comes up, or my ship comes in ........

Penny

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: GeorgeH
Date: 15 Oct 99 - 10:30 AM

Penny . . if you've really just been Ofsteaded (rather than recreating the experience from seared memory) then have a PARTICULARLY excellent weekend!

Now I just need to compile your verses for my various still-teaching friends. (Our neighbour's school has - seriously - three staff who've announced their intention of leaving at the end of the year as a result of their recent OFSTEAD . . and he assures me they're all excellent teachers.)

George.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Penny S.
Date: 15 Oct 99 - 12:57 PM

George, thanks very much. It was this week, we came out well, my department, ICT, was good (last time abysmal), I was quite good, too, so the jaundiced start has worn off a bit. I sang this, and the Gasman parody (Bedstead Men thread) in our end-of-week staff meeting, and they went down well, although the head had a funny look on her face when I got to the last verse above! Do pass it around. And post any more verses it triggers! I find that once the tune is in my head, everything starts to scan to it!

Penny (cheering)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 23 Oct 99 - 10:52 PM

For Penny S.
Now they've made me a principal (headmaster?) ... hallelujah
With a dollar pay increase and a small Honda car
All of a sudden it is not so bad,
When I think of Head Office jobs still to be had.

Yes, I know it needs some work! On the original topic ... I like doing popular numbers.
After all, I can sing for myself at home.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Penny S.
Date: 24 Oct 99 - 07:53 AM

And I have got a raise!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Marion
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 04:02 PM

I once heard the Wild Rover sung at an Irishish pub, and each time the band sang "No, nay, never..." the crowd would chant "Right up your kilt!"

A bit of a non sequitor maybe, but it was fun and it neatly filled in those empty beats in the chorus.

Marion

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Richard
Date: 25 Oct 99 - 06:35 PM

Graham,Malcolm and all, Hi Your comments re: what the audience wants can get tricky...VIZ, in a bar in Stavanger, Norway, a guy comes over and asks us to play the Wild Rover, or the Irish Rover...I forget,and after he wandered off the chap on the table nearest to us, who was enjoying our less obvious material says in low but firm tones, ' whatever he offers you to play that, I'll give you double if you don't!'.....hmmmmmmmm Cheers Raichard

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 08:10 AM

Richard:
Good point! No doubt whatever you sing, someone will not
like it, and (hopefully) someone will.
I have always liked sad songs, but have had to modify what
I sing because some other members are unpleasantly affected
by sad songs. As we are singing for fun, I feel it is fair
not to unduly subject people to what they don't like ...
but I still slip in the odd tear-jerker.

Shimbo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: alison
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 09:11 AM

Marion,

We always sang "Right up your kilt", at the appropriate times....

Same thing in "It's a long way to Tipperary"... "it's a long way to go (without your trousers)"... and "to the sweetest girl I know (God bless her)"

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Gint
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 04:18 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: Blackcat2
Date: 27 Oct 99 - 09:44 AM

Greetings yall

I've discovered that sometimes I have trouble differentiating the beginings of Wild Rover and the Moonshiner - I've tried to solve that by starting Moonshiner with the chorus, but by the time I'm willing to sing either of those songs it is late and my fluid level is closed to being topped off!

pax

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From:
Date: 07 Jul 01 - 11:07 AM

Here's another link to replace Alison's for the Hell's Angel parody

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2579

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Don't Ask Me To Sing The Wild Rover
From: GUEST,Niall
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 08:27 PM

Hi

does anyody have the Guitar tab to Enda Kenny's

"Don't ask me to sing the wild rover"

cheers

Subject: Lyr Add: WILD TEACHER (parody of WILD ROVER)
From: Dead Horse
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 09:52 PM

Apologies to all, cleaned it up a bit.

WILD TEACHER

I've been a school teacher for most of my life,
But now teaching's nothing but trouble and strife.
For now the inspectors are here at the door,
I intend that I'll never go teaching no more.
CH.
Twas some years ago that they started to act,
To take pleasure from lessons, to Gradgrind each fact,
They laid down the hours that each teacher worked,
And if we didn't do double they'd say that we shirked.

When that wasn't enough they contracted all hours,
From midnight to midnight, the workload just towers,
With curriculum changes arriving each day,
But never, no never, an increase in pay!

I was there in the classroom, by the screen I was sat,
Thinking out loud that Baker's a pratt.
In comes the Inspector, "Now what's this about?
Subversives like you we can well do without!"

Now our school's failing, whatever that means.
We slipped down the charts and the Head's making scenes
The Mums are all taking their brats clean away
And the men from the ministry seem set to stay

My P.A.s on strike for a decrease in hours
The playground's been dug up and planted with flowers
Computers are crashing, software overload
And I'm heading off to the school down the road