Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter

Subject: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Goater
Date: 13 Apr 99 - 11:03 PM

Does anyone know where/when/who wrote Riley's Daughter. I'm guessing that since I have heard several different versions (with some lyrics that just couldn't be posted in public) that it has been heavily basterdized and mutated, but does anyone know where the madness began?

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 14 Apr 99 - 04:04 PM

G. Legman, editing the Randolph collection of what were once considered "unprintable" songs, now printed by the University of Arkansas in two volumes: Roll Me in Your Arms and Blow the Candle Out, refers (in the first volume cited, pages 137-139) to an ur text titled "The Rover" which he dates to the 1790s. The more modern "One Eyed Riley" (in the version I learned in 1948, "One Ball Riley") text that he reports was collected from a Mena, Arkansas, fellow who had learned his "broad repertory" of bawdy songs during World War II or in the decade before it.

Legman tells us that his private archive contains over thirty examples of the song. He again refers to it as being derived from a "light-hearted eighteenth-century British ballad of erotic adventure."

See also page 228 of Ed Cray's The Erotic Muse, where he notes that a fragment of the song figures in the first act of T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party. Oscar Brand says the version included in his Songs of Raking and Roving is "at least 100 years old." I think there can be no doubt that what we have here is a traditional song of unknown authorship with a long history of oral transmission.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Tucker
Date: 15 Apr 99 - 01:08 PM

I just love Bawdy songs!

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 15 Apr 99 - 01:19 PM

Then you'd love those Randolph books! I got one volume via the used book web sites (ABE, Bookfinder, or Bibliofind), the other I bought (ouch) new.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Bert
Date: 15 Apr 99 - 03:35 PM

Tucker, Have you searched DT for @bawdy?

You'll get hundreds of great ones.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: GUEST,Pete Kosel
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 05:10 AM

On a serious note, a search of several online archives turns up no evidence of a tune called "reilly's daughter" or "riley's daughter" but a tune called "Wrecker's Daughter" can be found in the library of congress as sheet music starting around 1840. Wrecker's Daughter has portions of the modern "Reilly's Daughter" in it and one of the earliest versions was published by Riley as a pianop arrangement purportedly based on the original German text. Other versions were commonly described as being based on music played by marching bands, and Wrecker's Daughter is still alive in much it's original form in the repertoire of fife and drum corps players. Riley also published several collections of flute tunes in the same era.

Here's a link to the library of congress Wrecker's Daughter sheet music on line:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/mussm:@field(TITLE+@od1(The+wrecker's+daughter++))

And here's an ABC version based on a fifer's book, "American Veteran Fifer", published circa 1905:
X:121
T:Wrecker's Daughter *?
B:American Veteran Fifer #121
M:2/4
L:1/16
Q:1/8=240
K:D
aaa z aaa z|aaa z aaa z|E2A2 d2de|d2c2B2A2|bbb z bbb z|bbb z bbb z|B2d2 g2ga|g2f2e2d2|ccc z ccc z|ccc z ccc z|A2ce a4|A2ce a4|f2e2c2f2|.d3 z .d3 z|d6 z2:|e2e2f2e2|
c2c2d2c2|B2B2f2e2|c3GABcd|e2e2f2e2|B2B2 f2e2|A2 z2a4:|F4 A2d2|F4 A2d2|G4 B2d2|F4 A2d2|E4 G2B2|A4 d2f2|e2^gg g2g2|a2 z2 a4|f4 A2d2|f4 A2d2|G4 B2d2| F4 A2d2|E4 G2B2|A4 d2f2|e2AA B2c2|d2 z2 d4:|

Anyway, the point is that Reilly's Daughter may (or may not) be derived from "Wrecker's Daughter". Where the heck "Wrecker's Daughter" originated I am not sure - perhaps there was some military figure nicknamed "Wrecker"???

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 05:31 AM

Tucker you should try Ed Cray's ' Bawdy Ballads ' a serious study but containing all the best filth.
eric

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 01:51 PM

Thanks, Pete Kosel.
The Levy Collection also has several different printings of "The Wrecker's Daughter," earliest date 1838, but from a German piece. None has lyrics. The composer may be a German by name of J. G. von Rieff.

Subject: Lyr Add: O'REILLY'S DAUGHTER (Canadian)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 08:40 PM

Lyr. Add: O'REILLY'S DAUGHTER (Canadian)

A I was sittin' by the fire,
Drinkin' Reilly's rum and water,
I was taken by desire
To go and shag O'Reilly's daughter.

Chorus:
Idi-i, idi-i, idi-i-ai,
Idi-i-ai with a one-eyed Reilly,
One, two, balls to you.
Dig-a dig-a rig tres bon.

Now up the stairs and into bed,
There I threw my right leg over,
She didn't mind a goddam bit,
She laughed like hell when the shag was over.

As I was comin' down the steps,
Who should I meet but the one-eyed Reilly,
With two pistols in his hands,
Lookin' for the man who shagged his daughter.

Now I grabbed O'Reilly by the neck,
Shoved his head in a pail of water*,
Rammed two pistols up his ass,
A damn sighter faster than I shagged his daughter.

A very mild bawdy version, being Canadian. *usually sung 's---'
Anthony Hopkins, 1979, "Songs From the Front and Rear, Canadian Servicemen's Songs of the Second World War," Hurtig publishers, Edmonton, p. 158,

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 01:45 AM

BTW, Ed Cray's book--the first serious study of the bawdy song to be published--is titled "The Erotic Muse"

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 08:47 AM

Here's a link to a Victorian melodrama, 1836, called "The Wrecker's Daughter" that may have inspired the song: Click here for website

Great graphic but no song in text.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 09:11 AM

Since early melodramas by definition included a musical score, the "Wrecker's Daughter" tune could well have originated with the play.

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 11:58 AM

Lighter-

I was thinking along the same lines myself. The tune of "The Wrecker's Daughter" to my hearing doesn't sound similar to the tune I'm familiar with for "Riley's Daughter."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: meself
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 12:11 PM

Reminds of one time in my misspent youth when I was sitting on the living-room couch with my guitar, learning to play and sing Riley's Daughter from a Clancy Brothers songbook. My stern Presbyterian of a father happened past, and I was surprised to hear him later grumbling to my mother about me singing "cleaned-up barracks-room ballads". I hadn't realized that there was a bawdy version, much less that my father would ever have allowed himself to have been exposed to such a thing. (I must have assumed they spent their spare time singing nothing but hymns in the barracks of WWII).

Subject: RE: Riley's Daughter question...
From: Jacob B
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 01:08 PM

The version of the lyrics from Q, above, is closer to the version I first heard than any other I've ever seen in print. However, it is missing the last verse:

Now all you maidens gather round
And answer me now, bold or shyly.
Do you want it straight and true
Or the way I give it to the One-Eyed Riley?

chorus:
Tory ooley, tory iley
What's the matter with the One-Eyed Riley
Tory ooley, tory iley
Tres beau

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Aug 23 - 04:59 PM

Believe it or not, a rewritten, bowdlerized, and augmented swing version was recorded by Billy Cotton and His Band in 1940.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHsfjlyyACg

And ditto, it was covered in 1951 by Danny Kaye!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxq-ocI4Y0U

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Aug 23 - 06:16 PM

Further thought made me skeptical that Cotton's "Riley's Daughter" could have appeared so early as 1940, no matter what YouTube says.


Two minutes of research revealed that the true date was October, 1951 - long after the song's popularity in WW2:


http://www.musiktiteldb.de/Label/Dec_F09.html

Danny Kaye's version was released the following month:

https://www.45worlds.com/78rpm/record/27822

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Aug 23 - 08:39 PM

I still like the Clancy Brothers' version best.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 12:58 PM

The Rover

[woodblock image of man holding a hooked
walking stick]

When I was a wild and rambling boy,
Always in the alehouse boozing,
The landlord he prov'd kind to me,
The gallows old whore was always a growling.

THe landlord he went out one day,
Left me in the alehouse bawling,
Three virgins they came flocking in,
Surrounding me like bees a swarming.

One of them was kinder than the rest,
She was one of my own chusing,
I clapt my hand below her waist,
And caught her by the band of Music.

I went up stairs unto my bed,
The chamber door was open,
Now, said I, it is my time,
To shut all doors that I find open.

I pull'd my shoes from off my feet,
And gently stept into the chamber,
With kisses sweet and compliment,
Have you any lodging for a stranger?

The fair maid made me this reply,
I fear young man you are a Rover,
The Devil a word this young man said,
But cry'd my dear, lie further over.

He instantly jumpt into bed,
And immediately threw his leg over,
The Devil a word this fair maid said,
But lay and laugh'd till the game was over.

Then I heard a d---- noise,
Who should it be, but her mother,
Caught me between her daughter's thighs;
The gallows old whore sung out murder.

She said, young man, my daughter you smother,
Your daughter I will surely wed,
Provided I could get no other,
Then nimbly jumped out of bed.

He caught her by the gallows old shoulder,
And shov'd her head behind the door
And left her there to curse her daughter,
For all that had happen'd to her before

Pg 235-236, Later English Broadside Ballads edited by John
Holloway and Joan Black. 1975. The broadside has no date and no
printer. Holloway & Black do not date this broadside.

See here: https://archive.org/details/laterenglishbroa0001holl/page/234/mode/2up?view=theater


The Holloway & Black text seems to be from Madden Ballads microfilm
Reel: 03, Frame 1802 according to this PDF which lists "The rover" title
and the first line "When I was a wild and rambling boy".

Although Legman dates this broadside to 1790s, did the original have
the long "s" which would have been used ?

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 07:26 PM

One Eyed Reilly

While sitting in my easy chair
Viewing the landlord's daughter,
I took a notion in my head
I'd like to feel her hind quarters.

Chorus:
Turi-a-dink, to-i-lee,
turi-a-dink, and a one-eyed Reilly.

Young Mary went up to her room
Just like I was hoping
After leaving me hint
To fill all cracks I found open

I took my boots up in my hand
And crept to Mary's chamber
"Oh, Mary, Mary. Dearest Mary,
Have you logging for a stranger?"

I took her dainty hand in mine
And threw my left leg over
We fucked and tossed all over the bed
And I lay in her lap when the jig was over.

As I was leaving Mary's room,
I met her damned old mother
She threw her hands up in the air
And hollered rape and bloody murder.

As I was going down the stairs,
I meet her damned old father
With a sword and pistol in his hand
To kill the man who'd fucked his daughter.

I grabbed him by the seat of his pants
Stuck his head in a pail of water
I shoved the pistol up his ass
And I fucked the mother of his daughter.

As I was leaving Mary's house,
Shook my prick at the old dawg towser
The old tom cat came round the bend
A-making forty miles an hour.

The old tom cat ran through the yard
And under a pile of lumber,
I still had my prick out in my hand
So fucked the hole the cat ran under.

As I was going down the road,
I heard from every quarter
There goes the one eyed son of a bitch
Who fucked O'Riley's wife and daughter.

From the 2004 Slippery When What?!? cd by "Slippery Dick".


A remarkable performance.


Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkyrw7VKDA

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 08:38 PM

Harding B 14 (92), dated to 1839:

                PADDY WILL YOU NOW.
      
Once I was a roving blade,
   And often with girls went a cruizing,
My landlady was kind to me,
   But my landlord he was always a busing, [sic]                                  Tow, row, row, Paddy will you now
Take me while I'm in the humour that's just now.

My landlord he went out one day,
   And left me at his house a calling,
The girls they all come tumbling in,
   Like bees that's in summer swarming,

Now there was one amongst the rest,
   Her name was Eliza Kenwick,
I put my arm around her waist,
   And placed my hand on her band of music,

As I was going up the stairs,
   I saw this fair maid's door [l]ie open,
Says I my love, tis just my trade,
   To stop all doors that I find open,

Then quickly I laid her on the bed,
   And gently put my right leg over,
The deuce of a word this fair maid said,
   But wriggled herself till the job was over.

To my surprise I heard a noise,
   Who should it be but her cross old mother,
She caught me by her daughter's side,
   And arrah blood an ound you've kilt my daughter.

Quick I leaped off the bed,
   And seized the old girl by the hind quarter
Then rammed her up against the bed
   And served her as I served the daughter.

As I was going down the stairs,
   The cross old fool come tumbling after,
And at every step she took she cries,
   Their [sic] goes the man that kiss'd my daughter.

As I was passing through the door,
   Who should I meet but the sly old father,
With a brace of pistols in his hands,
   To shoot the man who'd kiss'd his daughter.                           

To put an end to this gay sport,
   I soused his head in a pail of water,
And rammed his pistols down his throat
   And left him to cure his wife and daughter.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 09:00 PM

Don't know why that "Tow row row..." got shoved to one side....

The tune identified as "One Eye'd Riley" in Septimus Winner's "Excelsior Collection for the Flute" (N.Y., 1864) is an unmistakable variant of "Paddy Will You Now?" in P.M. Haverty's "One Hundred Irish Airs," III (N .Y., 1859).

Winner's is the earliest printing I've found of a tune so titled. His and Haverty's both rather resemble the "Riley" tune used by T.S. Eliot in his 1949 play "The Cocktail Party."

J. C. Alter & R. J. Dwyer, eds.,"Journal of Captain Albert Tracy [1858] in the "Utah Historical Qly". XIII (1945): “The rich strains of our Band, then were wasted somewhat, except to our own ears, upon these echoing, empty streets and tenements [of Salt Lake City]. ...[T]he adjutant, to break the monotony of more regular marches, directed the Band to strike up that most inspiring, if less reputable air y-clept ‘One-Eyed Riley.’ The men, unfamiliar with the notes now given to the breeze, kept step as they rarely had done before, and general sense of ‘the humor of the thing’ came to prevail.”


The modern song unquestionably descends from "Paddy, Will You Now?"

In Eliot's version Riley is the narrator, not the father.

John Martin, a sailor on board the whale ship Lucy Ann (Wilmington, Del.) noted the "song" title "One eyed [sic] Riley" in his journal for Feb. 16, 1842, as being the curtain-raiser of a shipboard "concert" off the coast of Brazil. It was followed immediately by the naughty "There was a Sheppards daughter Kept sheep on yonder hill" (Child 110) and "I hit her right on her stinking machine." Stuart M. Frank lists the entire "programme" and attempts to identify the songs (most of which seem to be tamer than these opening numbers) in his 1986 Brown University dissertation.

Martin's may be the oldest reference to a song about a "One-Eyed Riley."

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 09:17 PM

The Kentucky fiddle tune "One-Eyed Riley," played by John Masters in the '70s, seems unrelated to any of the tunes mentioned:

https://www.slippery-hill.com/content/one-eyed-riley

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 11 Aug 23 - 09:22 PM

Kansas City Star (May 13, 1914):

“In the dances before the Civil War, the repertoire of the [Indiana] country dance fiddler was made up of ‘Hell on the Wabash,’ ‘Old Zip Coon,’ ‘The Stump-Tailed Dog,’ ‘The Devil’s Dream,’ ‘One-Eyed Riley,’ and ‘Go to the Devil and Shake Yourself.’”

The Winner-Haverty-Eliot tune family doesn't seem very well suited to dancing, though Masters' tune does.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 08:16 AM

PADDY
WILL YOU NOW.

Once I was a roving blade,
And often with girls went a cruizing,
My landlady was kind to me,
But my landlord he was always a busing,
   Tow, row, row, Paddy will you now,
Take me while I'm in the humour that's jut now

My landlord he went out one day,
And left me at his house a calling,
The girls they all come tumbling in,
Like bees that's in summer swarming.

Now there was one amongst the rest,
Her name was Eliza Keswick,
I put my arm around her wait,
And plac'd my hand on her band of music,

As I was going up the stairs,
I saw this fair maid's door lie open,
Shay I my love, tis just my trade,
To stop all doors that I find open.

Then quickly I laid her on the bed.
And gently put my right leg over,
The deuce of a word this fair maid said,
But wriggled her self till the job was over.

To my surprise I heard a noise,
Who should it be but her cross old mother,
She caught me by her daughters side,
And arrah blood nn ound you've kilt my daughter. [sic]

Quick I leaped off the bed,
And seized the old girl by the hind quarter
Then rammed her up aainst the bed,
And served her as I served the daughter.

As I was going down the stairs,
The cross old fool come tumbling after,
And at every step she took she cries,
There goes the man that kiss'd my daughter.

As I was passing through the hall,
I met the fair maid quite contented,
Says she I've lost my maidenhead,
And dearest Pat I don't repent it

As I was passing though the door,
Who should I meet but the sly old father,
With a brace of pistols in his hands,
To shoot the man who'd kiss'd his daughter.

To put an end to this gay sport,
I soused his head in a pail of water
And rammed his pistols down his throat,
And left him to cure his wife and daughter.

The boardside sheet (in full color) is available here:

https://proxy.europeana.eu/media/2059213/data_sounds_7665/6756fc8bc3b220019ebd54113658455e?disposition=inline


This has one extra verse than Harding B 14 (92) broadside.


Two songs on the sheet the other is "The Wild and Wicked Youth." The printer is listed as "Watts, Printer, 14, Snow Hill, Birmingham".

Thomas Watts (1838-1855)
Watts, who began, like many ballad printers, as a newsagent, served three months' imprisonment at Warwick in 1834 in default of paying a fine of £5 for selling newspapers unstamped: that is, without the statutory tax of 4d. per copy. At the time he had premises at 179 Livery Street, though he worked mainly at 14 Snow Hill (1838-55)...

According to this website: https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/birming4.htm

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 09:15 AM

Lighter the Harding B 14 (92) broadside is available online here

http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/view/edition/14620

The printer is "T. Watts, Printer, 14 Snow Hill, Birmingham." So the same printer
as the above europeana.eu text.

In the above post I said that the europeana.eu broadside has an extra verse. This is incorrect.
The broadside of Harding B 14 (92) you posted above omits
the text of the stanza "As I was passing through the hall, I met
the fair maid quite contented...". This stanza *is* present in Harding B 14 (92).
So Harding B 14 (92) matches the europeana.eu broadside with the exact same 11 verses.

Also note Harding B 14 (92) is a later printing as it missing "l" in "lie"
on line 15. The "l" in "lie" is present (but damaged and mislocated) in the
broadside I typed out above.

See the earlier printing here:

https://proxy.europeana.eu/media/2059213/data_sounds_7665/6756fc8bc3b220019ebd54113658455e?disposition=inline

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 11:00 AM

Wild. He's off, he's sound--he may sleep sounder
soon--would Michael Howe here. I have a
weight upon my mind,--Stephen! let me not think of
him--Agatha, too, I must drive away these thoughts--

AIR.--"For 'tis now."

I am a brisk and sprightly blade,
And always in the ale house bozing;
The landlady proves kind to me
While the landlord he is soundly snoozing.
Tow! row ! row!
Take me, while I'm in the humour;
For tis NOW!

[While this is singing, Bes-ni-long, & conceal
themselves in the chests, &C. about the room; ....

November 30, 1831, "Drama of Van Diemen's Land", page 3, Colonial Times (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia).


See here: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8646188#

Far right column, 1/3 of the way down the page.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 11:40 AM

Van Diemen's land : an operatic drama, in three acts / by W. T. Moncrieff,
Esq. author of Monsieur Tonson...&c. ; printed from the acting copy, with remarks,
biographical and critical...

Publication date [18--?]
Publisher London : John Cumberland, 2, Cumberland Terrace, Camden New Town [London]


See here: https://archive.org/details/vandiemenslandop0000monc/page/72/mode/2up?q=%22landlady+proves+kind+to+me%22


Although not dated, the play would have been performed a year or two before appearing in the Australian newspaper.

So this gets this fragment in the play to 1829 or 1830.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 05:17 PM

I have tried to find the Madden Ballads online. I can only find
reference to the Gale microfilm of 1987. The closest library to me
that has the microfilm is in Notre Dame.

Jonathan you have access to academic resources both digital and
personal. Would it be possible for you to get a print out of Madden
Ballad microfilm Reel: 03, Frame 1802 "The Rover" ?

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Aug 23 - 06:44 PM

John, I've requested a copy of the image.

We'll see what happens.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Aug 23 - 01:10 PM

Maj. William Child, M.D." A History of the Fifth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, in the American Civil War, 1861-1865" (1893):

“[On March 17, 1862] marched ten miles, forded streams several times. The colonel ordered no delay at these fords and would enliven the passage through the water by a tune from the band, which tune was familiarly known as ‘One-eyed Riley.’ It was a lively and inspiring air; the men must keep time to the music, hence they crossed without delay.”

Presumably Winner's tune, or something quite close to it.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Aug 23 - 07:35 AM

1862, graduation program parody in "Alumni Record 1857-192"2 (Appleton, Wis.: Lawrence College, 1922):

“MUSIC – ‘One eyed Riley.’ | EXHORTATION. | MUSIC – ‘Hog Eye Man.’ ”


******************

1870 "Ottawa [Ill.] Free Trader" (Sept. 30, 1870):
“One [‘of four prominent young gentlemen of our city’] was singing the ‘Doxology,’ another ‘Daisy Deane,’ and another ‘I want to be an angel,’ and still another was doing his ‘level best’ on ‘One eyed Riley.’ In the meantime, they took a drink between times.”

******************

1871 "Des Moines Registe" (Apr. 1 ):
“Our ‘Professor’ at once commenced playing some of the old…music, such as ‘Arkansaw Traveler,’ ‘Irish Washerwoman,’ ‘Soap Suds over the Fence,’ ‘One-Eyed Reilly,’ and other airs of the same kind.”


******************

1880 Columbia [College] Spectator, VI :

“Ah! an evil thought comes in my mind,
Like that which dawned upon the One Eyed Riley.”

*******************

1886 Nassau Herald (Princeton U.) XXII:

“In his checkered career as a detective he has made one coup, that is the discovery and committal (to memory) of ‘One-Eyed Riley.’ He has introduced ‘One-Eyed Riley’ to every Freshman class since he was himself a Freshman, and sprung it on the great and glorious class of ’90.”

*******************

1916 in W. V. Tilsley, "Other Ranks" (1931) [British Army]:

        I sat down by Old Riley’s fire,
        Winking at Old Riley’s daughter.
        Suddenly a thought came into my head —
        I’d like to kiss Old Riley’s daughter.
        Iddy I-ay, Iddy I-ay, Iddy I-ay
        To the One-eyed Riley
        Iddy I-ay, Iddy I-ay,
        Jig-a-jig-jig, très bon!

*******************

1943 in Mack Morriss, "South Pacific Diary" (1996):

"[On Guadalcanal] they sing 'One Ball Riley (Here Comes the Goddam Son of a bitch [sic])."

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 14 Aug 23 - 02:54 PM

[3803]
December 14, 1931

THE ONE-EYED REILLY

Sittin' by the fireside, drinkin' rum and water
Suddenly a thought come to my mind;
I'll go and shag O'Reilly's daughter,
The nearest girl that I can find.

Tiddle-aye, aye. Tiddle-aye, aye.
Tiddle-aye, aye, for the one-eyed Reilly,
Boom, boom, boom,
Balls and all,
Jig-a-jig-a-jig. Tres boom!

Went upstairs an' got in bed,
First I threw my left lag over;
What d'ye think the lady said?

She laughed like hell 'til the fun was over.
Comes a knockin' at the door,
Who should it be but the girl's ol' man,

Pair of pistols at his side,
An' a big stick in his han'.

Took the big stick from his hand,
Shoved his head in a pail of water;

Stuck the pistols up his ass
A dam' sight further than I shagged his daughter.

"Originally heard sung by an Irish stoker on a Squarehead
freighter off Belize, about 1920. Since then in various places
about the States. This version from the "Slime Sheet", Paris,1930."

Godfrey Irwin

Gordon "Inferno" Collection, #3803.

See here: https://archive.org/details/1917gordoninfernocollection/page/3/mode/1up?q=3803

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Aug 23 - 04:11 PM

Irwin printed an expurgated version of the above in his "American Tramp and Underworld Slang" (1931).

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Aug 23 - 04:42 PM

"Jig-a-jig-jig tres bon!" sounds to me like a 1914-16 addition.

"Jig-a-jig-jig" was Anglo-French pidgin for usu. commercially provided sex.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Aug 23 - 05:29 PM

The name "One-Eyed Riley is often found in the decades after the Civil War as a nickname, especially for criminals (presumably with one eye).

Joel Chandler Harris used it in about the same way as the modern "Joe Blow." From "Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings" (1880):

“Dish yer man mout hev a name, en den ag'in he moutn't. He mout er bin name Slip-shot Sam, en he mouter bin name ole One-eye Riley, w'ich if 'twuz hit ain't bin handed roun' ter me.”

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Aug 23 - 10:07 AM

John, I've received an image of "The Rover," and indeed the printer used the "long s" as appropriate throughout.

But according to Wikipedia the Encyclopedia Britannica was using the "long s" as late as 1817.

"Gallows" in "gallows old whore" appears to match Oxford's sense 1, Fit to be hanged; villainous, wicked," which goes back to the fifteenth century.

But in "gallows old shoulder" it's more like sense 2, a mere intensive, which Oxford dates only from 1789. (Hence Legman's date.)

So the actual date is uncertain. My own guess would be somewhere between 1785 and 1820, with "ca1800" being a good compromise.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Aug 23 - 10:24 AM

"Band of Music" appears to mean "buttocks," but I don't find the application anywhere else.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Aug 23 - 05:32 PM

The Clancy Bros. & Tommy Makem popularized a bowdlerized version (as "Reilly's Daughter") on their LP "A Spontaneous Performance Recording!" (Columbia CS8448) in 1961.

It includes a stanza of how "The colonel and the major and the captain sought her."

The same version, with two or three words different, had been recorded (as"The One Eyed Riley”) by Robert Irwin & Wynford Reynold’s Sextet in H.M.V. B9523 [UK] in 1947.

On the flip side was “The Oyster Girl," essentially as sung later by Oscar Brand.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 22 Aug 23 - 07:31 PM

The Robert Iwrin 1947 recording is available here:


https://archive.org/details/78_the-one-eyed-riley_robert-irwin-wynford-reynolds-sextet-dillon-collinson_gbia0455396a

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 06:40 PM

TIM O'BRIEN'S SONG
(Tune: "O'Reilly's Daughter")

Time O'Brien is my name
Drinking gin my occupation,
Shaggin' dames my claim to fame
Jesus Christ is my salvation.

(CHORUS)

Tiddley ay ay, tiddley ay oh,
Tiddley ay ay the one-eyed Reilly,
Rig-a-jig-jig, balls and all,
Rub-a-dub-dub, shag on.

Seated by the fireside
I was drinking gin and water,
Suddenly it came to mind
I'd like to shag old Reilly's daughter.

(REPEAT CHORUS AT WILL)

Up the stairs and into bed,
Suddenly I thro m' left leg over,
Nary a word the maiden said,
Laught like hell till the fun was over.

Down the stairs and in the street,
Who should I meet but the one-eyed Reilly,
Brace of pistols at his side,
Looking for the man who shagged his daughter.

Grabbed old Reilly by the neck
Stuck his head in a pail of water,
Jammed those pistols up his ass
A dam sight harder than I shagged his daughter

Pg 10, The Three Hats vol 2, undated [c1951]. [Compiled & edited by Dick Boutelle, President of the Fairchild Aircraft Corp]


See online here: https://archive.org/details/1951thethreehatsvol-2/page/10/mode/1up



The above text is probably derived from the following.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 06:42 PM

TIM O'BRIEN'S SONG

Tim O'Brien is my name,
Drinking gin my occupation,
Shaggin' dames my claim to fame,
Jesus Christ is my salvation.

CHORUS:
Tiddely ay ay, tiddley ay oh,
Tiddley ay'ay the one-eyed Reilly,
Rig-a-jig-jig, balls and all,
Rub-a-dub-dub, shag on.

Seated by the fireside,
I was drinking gin and water,
Suddenly it came io mind,
I'd like to shag old Reilly1s daughter.

Up the stairs and into bed,
Suddenly I threw my left leg over,
Nary a word the maiden said,
Laughed like hell till the fun was over.

Down the stairs and in the street,
Who should I meet but the one-eyed Reilly,
Brace of pistols at his side,
Looking for the man who shagged his daughter.

Grabbed old Reilly by the neck,
Stuck his head in a pail of water,
Jammed those pistols up his ass,
A damn' sight harder than I shagged his daughter.

As I go walking down the street,
People shout from every corner,
"There goes the goddam sonofabitchl"
The guy that shagged Old Reilly's daughter.

Febuary, 1945, Aloha Jigpoha, [compiled by Robert D. Thornton]. Pg. 57.

Aloha Jigpoha is the songbook of the Navy linguists during WWII. Jigpoha is an intentional corruption of JICPOA (Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Operation Area). It was a translation, interpretation, intelligence office within Nimitz's Commander In Chief Pacific (CINCPAC). Between 1942 and 1945, the Navy and Marine Japanese Language Officers in JICPOA (trained in Navy Japanese Language Schools located in Tokyo [1910-1940], Berkeley and Harvard [1941-42], Boulder [1942-1945] and Stillwater [1945-46]) translated and interpreted captured enemy documents and intercepted radio traffic, and interrogated Japanese POWs. These linguists frequently were sent out with the fleets as part of invasion forces and to translate aboard carriers and flagships.


See online here: https://archive.org/details/1945alohajigpoha/page/57/mode/1up?q=daughter

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 23 Aug 23 - 08:04 PM

I WENT DOWN To NEW ORLEANS

As I went down to New Oreleans
To get a glass of porter
The landlord and the landlady
Had just sat down for to eat their supper

Chorus:
Tur-a-had-lick-a-one-high-high
Tur-a-had-a-lick-a one-eyed reilly

The girls, the girls,
Came flocking in
Like to bees to swarming
There was one among the crowd
[. . . . ] was she charming


This pretty fair maid
She went to bed
She left her doors unbuttoned
Well I knew I might shut
The bunch of holes I found opened

I carefully pulling off my shoes
I went into her chamber
Say pretty fair maiden are you awake
Have you lodging for a stranger?

Oh you be gone, replied this maid
I fear you are some rover
I looked so sweek and kissed so neat,
Til I go her to turn over

And I fished and boxed around the hole
Till I got it open
I ramed my due-nick in nine inch
Never touched the bottom

And I heard a rumbling up the stairs
Who should come but her old mother
Saw me leave between her daughters thighs.
Threw her hands and cried out murder

I quickly made a sudden spring
I did her by the shoulders
I took rammed her ass against the wall
[.......... ]


And I heard another rumbling up the stair
But who should come but her old father
A brace of pistols in each hand
To shoot the man who fucked his wife
And shagged his daughter

I quickly made a sudden spring
I siezed him by the collar
Rammed his pistols up his ass
Fucked his wife and shagged his daughter


And I went out into the country
There the boys they called me rowser
Fucked his wife and shagged his daughter
Shook my prick at his old dog towser

Jonathan, an unsual tune. Listen to recording please.


July 21, 1941, "I went down to New Orleans" (aka The One-Eyed Reilly), sung by Lewis Winfield (b. 1865?). Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946.



Recording: https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/2PNPAIZXBMH368C/M/b256-73adb.mp4?dl



Permalink to library: https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/4B3CLCK6XESJK9A

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 09:09 AM

The mode varies among stanzas, but especially at the start the tune seems related to "Seventeen Next Sunday" - whose theme is vaguely similar, if much less sociopathic. "The Gypsy Davy" might also be an influence.

It rather resembles the tune in Eliot's "The Cocktail Party." Eliot gives only the first stanza (involving "a little Dutch inn") and the chorus - which is a bit like Moody's but not much like the one familiar today.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: GUEST,cnd
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 09:25 AM

and e, some minor corrections to the above, to my ear:

I WENT DOWN To NEW ORLEANS

As I went down to New Orleans
To get a glass of porter
The landlord and the landlady
Had just sat down for to eat their supper

Chorus:
Tur-a-had-lick-a-one-high-high
Tur-a-had-a-lick-a one-eyed Reilly

The girls, the girls, came flocking in
Like to bees to swarming
There was one among the crowd
And oh, Lord, God, now wasn't she charming

This pretty fair maid, whe went to bed
She left her drawers* unbuttoned
Well I knew that I might shut
The bunch of holes I found opened

I carefully pulling off my shoes
I went into her chamber
Say pretty fair maiden are you awake
And have you lodging for a stranger?

Away, be gone, replied this maid
I fear you are some rover
I hugged so sweet and kissed so neat,
Til I go her to turn over

And I fished and boxed around the hole
Till I got it open
I run my due-nick in nine inch
Never touched the bottom

And I heard a rumbling up the stairs
Who should come but her old mother
Saw me leave between her daughters thighs.
Clapped her hands and cried out murder

I quickly made a sudden spring
I did her by the shoulders
I rammed her ass again' the wall
Played the same til her own ran over **

And I heard another rumbling up the stair
But who should come but her old father
A brace of pistols in each hand
To shoot the man who fucked his wife and shagged his daughter

I quickly made a sudden spring
I seized him by the collar
Rammed his pistols up his ass
Fucked his wife and shagged his daughter

And I went out into the country
There the boys they called me a rowser
Fucked his wife and shagged his daughter
Shook my prick at his old dog Towser

* This could still be doors, as you had, rather than drawers, the undergarment. Both make sense, if you think of a spring-loaded button lock on a door (my old house growing up had this style), but I think drawers makes slightly more sense.
** I'm less sure about this verse. It's pretty mumbled.

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 10:35 AM

I hear "And oh, Lord God, but was she charming!"

More importantly, "played the same tune o'er and over."

Also "doors," which may be "door" unconsciously influenced by "drawers." After all, he's still outside the chamber, and he next mentions "shutting" things.

"Bunch of" is surely wrong. I seem to hear "Dutch," but I can't make much sense of it. Conceivably it's "bolted holes."

Alan Lomax collected a version from Ed Thrasher, of Round Lake, Mich., with a similar chorus, in 1938. In place of Harding's "Eliza Kenwick" it has "Kitty Norey" (from another bawdy song).

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 12:10 PM

Everybody wants to get into the act:

"Carbon County Chronicle" (Red Lodge, Montana) (July 16, 1901):


"Me name is Riley, de original one-eyed Riley dat dey sings about."

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 12:40 PM

Movie "The Halls of Montezuma" (1950) in context of USMC, Pacific, 1945:

                As I was sitting in O’Reilly’s bar,
                Listening to tales of blood and thunder,
                Came a thought into my mind,
                “Why not love O’Reilly’s daughter?”

                Fiddly-eye-o, fiddly-eye-ay,
                Fiddly-eye-o for the one-eyed Reilly [sic],
                Rub-a-dub-dub, kiss and hug,
                Rub-a-dub-dub, love on!
                
                I grabbed that sea-witch by the hair...

Tune is essentially "Polly-Woddle-Doodle."


Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW) (Aug. 19, 1951) (review of the movie):

"A touch that might be missed by many is the singing of about half a verse of the age-old ditty 'One-eyed Riley's Daughter' by a marine.

"This ditty is as well-known to marines as the famous parody on 'Colonel Bogey' is known to Australian troops."

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 23 - 12:52 PM

Am pretty sure this is it:

"And bolt such holes as I found open."

Subject: RE: Origin: Riley's Daughter / Reilly's Daughter
From: and e
Date: 25 Aug 23 - 06:34 PM

The "Halls of Montezuma" fragment is online here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C14yPwv-FR8