Lyr Req: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: PeadarOfPortsmouth
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 04:56 PM

Kizmit!!! There's been a bit of the Tin Pan Alley kind of songs being thrown about our session in the last few weeks, and I was just starting to pick away at this one from the aforementioned Kilkenny CD.

New tag line for the site: Mudcat makes life easier.

Peter

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 03:43 PM

To "katlaughing:"

Thanks. You are quite correct about Perry Botkin. I think he was the composer, while Foster most likely served as the lyricist. When I get home, I'll try to get the lyrics out of my archives and post them.

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 03:37 PM

They have them in the Nova Scotia archives, not available online though: clickety

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: Peace
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 03:24 PM

I can't find lyrics anywhere else, guys and gals. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 03:10 PM

According to a discography, the co-author was Perry Botkin.

You can hear Bing singing it at Rhapsody.

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 03:02 PM

My grandfather worked on the railroads with Bing Crosby's father..they both ended up in Tacoma..I have seen the actual house Bing at least lived in for a while although he was also in Spokane...my grandfather died when my father was only young and I wonder if he could have had a musical effect on young Bing..he was said to be a great singer. Bing's mother was Irish I think but not his father although I could be mistaken. I think he was an auditor for the railroads. mg

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 01:36 PM

This just brought on a deja vu attack! When I first moved to San Diego, in 1967, I encountered an older gentleman walking on the beach one afernoon. I said hello, we spoke for a few minutes and went along our respective ways. He was the late actor, Preston Foster - a very nice man, unfortunately dying of cancer when we met. Fast forward two years. My roommate was dating a young lady who was a live-in assistant to an elderly widow. I was invited over to visit one day and found Mrs. Preston Foster greeting me at the door. During our visit, I was recalling movies and a TV series in which he had appeared, "Waterfront." She asked, "Did you know he wrote music too?" She then pulled out the sheet music for "Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan," which he had autographed some years earlier. I still have it. It was co-written, and I forget the other party's name. They were friends of Bing Crosby, which no doubt accounts for the recording he made.

Subject: Lyr Add: TWO-SHILLELAGH O'SULIVAN
From: GUEST,Wolfgang
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:08 AM

I've made a best-guess version making use of all of your posts and my part-of-song transcription. It can't be right yet, but it looks an improvement to the version from Peace's link.

Wolfgang

TWO-SHILLELAGH O'SULIVAN

SPOKEN: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan, hah! He was a mighty man. Listen to what I'm telling you now: mighty, mighty man, Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan.

1. There's many a man that rode a horse across the western plain.
There's never been one like the Irishman, O'Sullivan was the name.
He never packed a shooting iron. The need he never felt,
With two shillelaghs always there, a-hanging on his belt.

CHORUS: Yippee ky i o, me buckos, begorrah and yippee ky o,
Two shillelagh O'Sullivan, he'd give any man a go.

SPOKEN: Hah, the shillelagh! Hah! As you know, we call it the Tipperary rifle. You never have to reload it.

2. This bronco-busting Irishman from the heart of Erin's isle,
He was after living peaceful-like. He always wore a smile,
But when the smile was leaving him, in a fight he'd come unwound.
That says for any crossing him they'd wind up on the ground. CHORUS

SPOKEN: Why, he was so strong, O'Sullivan, he could put his right hand in his own left hip pocket, and he could hold himself out at arm’s length. (No man could do that.) It's O'Sullivan I'm talking about. (Oh, well, he could.)

3. At throwing the rope for branding calves, he was a mighty man.
At throwing his two shillelaghs now, the fastest in the land.
‘Twould ’a’ been a sad mistake, me boy, to reach for a 44.
Before you could get the hammer cocked, he'd have you on the floor. CHORUS

SPOKEN: Did you know O'Sullivan played the Irish Harp? No, o sure, and he did. he put 75 strings on his two shillelaghs, he'd stretch them out 24 feet, and he had four leprechauns dancing on them to make the music. Oh, the wonder of it! Sure and he would charm the coyotes out of the hills.

4. Across the range from morn till night, he rode for days and days,
A-fixing fences here and there, and a-picking up the strays.
A cattle spread he really built, as big as Ireland,
Where he could range a million head, and a shamrock be his friend. CHORUS

SPOKEN: A bit of his lip, the back of his hand, the toe of his shoe to boot is, Oh, Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan. Now if you're ever riding through the sagebrush wilderness, and you suddenly come upon acres and acres of shamrock sprinkled with stardust, well, you'll be after knowing, that you've just arrived at the O’Sullivan spread, known as the Lazy Leprechaun's spread. Stop in, won't you? Sure and they'll give you a belt of Bushmill’s.

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: GUEST,Wolfgang
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 06:20 AM

Thanks all,

Peace, how did you make it that the very same site that yesterday only said they were not allowexd to show lyrics show a a bit awkward version now? You must be a wizzard.

Snuffy, you're right with begorrah and.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: Snuffy
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 04:22 AM

It looks like those lyrics have been translated into whatever language they speak on "Herrons Isle" and back again!!!

Anyway, I'm sure you'll find that me (gorahan) is actually "begorrah and".

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: Peace
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 05:44 PM

http://www.lyricszoo.com/bing-crosby/two-shillelagh-o'sullivan/


Lyrics there.

Subject: RE: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 04:53 PM

Yipee ky i o me buckos, ky i and yipee ky o,
Two shillelagh O'Sullivan, he'd give any man a go...

there were also spoken interjections, such as
"He was so strong he could put his left hand in his right pocket and hold himself out at arm's length"
"No mam could do that"
"Ara, 'tis the O'Sullivan I'm talking about"
"Oh, well he could...."
And it was indeed recorded by Bing Crosby. I regret that beyond this perfectly useless information, I know nothing.

KYBTTS

Subject: Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Sep 07 - 01:43 PM

It is a tiny bit of a lyrics add, a larger bit of a lyrics req, and a tiny bit of tech, so I did not choose a category.

Somewhere in the medley of American Irish songs titled "Green fields of America" on the CD "Kilkelly" by Moloney, O'Connell, Keane there is a snippet of the song "Two-Shillelagh O'Sullivan" obviously elsewhere sung (written?) by Bing Crosby.

Here's what I hear in that tiny part of the whole song

TWO-SHILLELAGH O'SULLIVAN

....
There's many a man who rode a horse across the Western plain,
there's never been one like the Irish man, O'Sullivan was his name.
He never carried a shooting iron, the need he never felt
with two shillelaghs alwqays there a-hanging from his belt.

Chorus:
Yippie Cry-I-O me buckle, me (gorahan) yippie-I-O (the "gorahan" part is just a rough indication of the sound)

....
At throwing a rope for branding cows he was a mighty man,
at drawing his two shillelaghs now the fastest in the land.
You'd be a sad mistaken boy to reach for a 44,
before you could have the hammer cocked he'd have you on the floor.
...

Perhaps not the finest of songs but I had always wished to know more of its lyrics so I looked for them now and then on the web.

Last week I found a website promising to have the lyrics. However, they don't display them for copyright reasons. The funny thing is that when I clicked on the translate button the not available lyrics were translated for me. I wonder how that can happen (tech question). The translation is of little help of course. Just for your fun I have used the "retranslate" option and you'll find below the "lyrics" of that part I have transcribed above.

The "gorahan" bit in the chorus is in German rendered as "Bizwickel" which leaves me cueless as it would mean something like "twofold crotch/gusset/penditive".

Wolfgang (puzzled)

"Lyrics"

There “much s a man, who” s rode a horse, over the western
Even, there “one like the Irish man s never been,
O Sullivan was the name.
It never packed a shooting iron, the necessity, which it never felt with
two shillelaghs, which hang always there, hanging on its belt,
O yippee AI O my curvature, Bizwickel yippee AI O,

At throwing the rope for burning driving cabs, he was a powerful man,
to its two shillelaghs now throw, the fastest in
Country.
It would know a sad error been its my boys to reach to for 44,
before you could receive the hammer strained attention, you wear
the floor, O yippee AI O my curvature, Bizwickel yippe AI O.