Lyr Req: Come Out Ye Black and Tans

Subject: Looking for the lyrics to 'Black and Tans'
From: elfdreams
Date: 27 May 99 - 09:57 PM

Yes, yet another person desperating looking for the lyrics to some obscure traditional song. The only title I know for it is "Black & Tans", but the first line goes "march ye black an' tans, come out and fight me like a man". From there the words get 75% unintelligable. I would appreciate any help.

Subject: RE: Looking for the lyrics to 'Black and Tans'
From: Don Meixner
Date: 27 May 99 - 10:07 PM

Head your search engine to Digital Tradition, you'll find Come out Yea Black and Tans there,

Don

Subject: Lyr Add: COME OUT YE BLACK AND TANS
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 28 May 99 - 07:50 PM

I must be in a good mood.... Here are the lyrics just in case you are idle like me and can't be bothered to look in the d.b.

COME OUT YE BLACK AND TANS

I was born on a Dublin street where the Royal drums do beat
And the loving English feet they tramped all over us,
And each and every night when me father'd come home tight
He'd invite the neighbors outside with this chorus:

chorus:
Oh, come out you black and tans,
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA
Made you run like hell away,
From the green and lovely lanes in Killashandra.

Come let me hear you tell
How you slammed the great Parnell,
When you fought them well and truly persecuted,
Where are the sneers and jeers
That you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of sixteen were executed.

Come tell us how you slew
Those brave Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely slew each one
With your sixteen pounder gun
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.

The day is coming fast
And the time is here at last,
When each yeoman will be cast aside before us,
And if there be a need
Sure my kids will sing, "God speed!"
With a verse or two of Steven Beehan's chorus.

You can find this and more here Prof's Irish Pages
www.prof.co.uk/irish1.htm
Cheers
Mick

Subject: RE: Looking for the lyrics to 'Black and Tans'
From: Reiver #2 (inactive)
Date: 29 May 99 - 08:18 PM

Mick,

I have this song on a cassette tape that I copied from an LP record of the Wolfe Tones, called "Let the People Sing." It's a great song. The Wolfe Tones verses are nearly identical to the ones you've printed here -- a few, mostly fairly small differences in the words and phrases -- but basically the same song.

R#2

Subject: RE: Looking for the lyrics to 'Black and Tans'
From: Reiver #2 (inactive)
Date: 29 May 99 - 08:24 PM

Forgot to say, if elfdreams wants the Wolfe Tone lyrics, let me know and I'll try to write them out. As I said, they're very similar to the lines Mick printed, but some of the Wolfe Tones phrasing is a little easier to fit into the tune in my opinion. (Probably only because I've heard them sing it.)

R#2

Subject: RE: Looking for the lyrics to 'Black and Tans'
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 29 May 99 - 08:37 PM

Reiver#2... what a strange handle if you don't mind me saying
I find that the "beauty" of traditional (and I use that word lightly) songs.. i.e. the various interpretations you can find.
Even the most illustrious of sources are "guilty" of changing the odd word/phrase here and there to suit their own purposes. Have you ever heard Paddy O'Reilly's version of "The Hills of Kerry".. and it's not just confinded to folk/old/traditional songs.. Soodlums have changed a few of the words to Phil Coulter's "Town I Loved So Well".. I put the blame in the latter case firmly on the typesetters. (Though I could be wrong).
Mick

Subject: RE: Looking for the lyrics to 'Black and Tans'
From: elfdreams
Date: 01 Jun 99 - 07:03 PM

Thank you, everyone, for the help. I really appreciate it. I look forward to being able to help you all some day find the lyrics or music to some elusive song.

Subject: RE: Looking for the lyrics to 'Black and Tans'
From: Reiver #2 (inactive)
Date: 05 Jun 99 - 06:06 PM

Mick, I agree with you... that's one of the things I love about trad. songs. You hear several versions, then use the one you like the best, or put them together in the best "fit" for you. I DO like to find "original" versions when I can. Interestingly, though, someone like Woody Guthrie changed his own songs when it suited him, and never seemed to feel that his "original version" was sacrosanct. And, no, I haven't heard Paddy O'Reilly's version of "The Hills of Kerry." I'll have to look for it.

As for the "strange handle", that's a story in itself. I used to sing with another bloke up in British Columbia. We did mostly only Irish and Scottish trad. songs and called ourselves The Reivers. He heard about the Mudcat Cafe a few months ago from a friend, and told me to check it out (I was checking out words to the Ballad of William Bloat) so I did! Then I found he'd entered a Personal Page for me, listing me as Reiver #2. So I kept it. I'm assuming he decided that he was Reiver #1 -- and I can't argue with that as he's a far, far, better musician than I am. I just love that kind of music is all.

Reiver #2 Bryce Babcock