Lyr Add: Delaney's Chicken (Sweeney, Barrett)

Subject: Lyr Add: DELANEY'S CHICKEN (P. Sweeney, L. Barrett
From: mayomick
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 07:58 AM

DELANEY'S CHICKEN

1. Delaney from the market bought a fowl a month ago.
If he meets the man who sold it, he will kill him with a blow.
He said it was a chicken of a plump and tender breed,
But of a more deceitful bird you'll never hear nor read.
When they settled down to pluck it, all their efforts were in vain.
Their hands were torn and blistered and their muscles had a strain;
So dressed in all its feathers, they put it down to stew.
If you want to drive Delaney mad, shout Cockle doodle doo.

CHORUS: Oh, this bird must have crown when they built the tower of Babel,
Fed by Cain and Abel,
Lived in Noah's stable.
All the shots that were fired on the field of Waterloo
Would not penetrate or dislocate
This elongated, armour-plated,
Double-breasted, iron-chested
Cockle-doodle—doooooooooooo!

2. Delaney bought the chicken just to give us all a spread.
On Sunday when the guests arrived, he went clean off his head.
In the yard were picks and shovels that were twisted up like tin
That he tried to carve the chicken with, but couldn't break the skin.
We borrowed Daly's hammer with which he rams the stones,
And thought one gentle tap would break the tender chicken's bones.
At the first blow, it rebounded like an Indian rubber ball
And knocked ten yards of coping off Mulhanney's garden wall.

3. Mick Dunne the ex-dragoon then tried to excavate the thing,
But the sword he carved the Roosians with bent like a yard of string.
Tom Burke, the navvy miner, through this young bird showed daylight
By blowing up himself and it with a pound of dynamite.
To scrape the walls for chicken wasn't very easy work.
It puzzled us to work out which was chicken, which was Burke.
I found a leg of chicken and with friendly blacksmith's aid,
A pair of everlasting heels upon my boots I made.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's chicken
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 05:09 PM

Do you have any source information for us, Mick? Where'd you come across the lyrics? Amazon has a listing for sheet music for "Delaney's Chicken, Written and composed by P. Sweeney and L. Barrett.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's chicken
From: mayomick
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:13 AM

From the croaking of my mother ,Joe - she always insisted that she couldn't sing 'only croak ' .She used to recite the chorus of it at my poor father whenever he was in one of his bragging moods to deflate him . Dad was a navvy miner by the name of Tom Burke .I kept pestering her for the lyrics until she sent off a request to - where else - Ireland's Own in 1978 .
Despite the magazine's reputation for being dull , sentimental and twee ,you can come across some interesting material in back issues of Ireland's Own . They used to have a Readers' Request section for songs - a little bit like Mudcat come to think about it. I was surprised to see what looked like an early version of Roisin the Beau called 'The Bluffer Below' when looking through the archives in the National Library last week.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's chicken
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 03:52 PM

WorldCat.org tells me that Oxford University & the British Library have sheet music described thus:

DELANEY'S CHICKEN
Words and music by P Sweeney & Lester Barrett
London : Francis, Day & Hunter, ©1896.

First line: Delaney from the market brought a fowl a month ago.
First line of chorus: That bird must have crow'd when they built the tower of Babel.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's chicken
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 04:02 PM

Now, there ought to be a source for old UK sheet music, like the Levy and other collections of U.S. sheet music. There are wonderful collections of UK broadsides online - how about sheet music?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's chicken
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 07:02 AM

Joe: The National Library of Australia has viewable sheet music of lots of old British music-hall songs—but it doesn't have DELANEY'S CHICKEN.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's chicken
From: GUEST,mm
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 03:42 AM

I wonder was he the same Delaney that had the donkey

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's chicken
From: Jeanie
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 03:50 AM

Yes and living next door to Paddy McGinty and his goat and O'Rafferty and his pig ?

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's Chicken (Sweeney, Barrett)
From: GUEST,mayomick
Date: 23 Oct 08 - 06:57 AM

Just refreshing this thread for Paul Burke .

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's Chicken (Sweeney, Barrett)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Oct 14 - 09:05 PM

Spotify has a recording of Conal Gallen singing DELANEY'S CHICKEN on his album "Live! & Still Full of It." It has one verse not shown above:

Well, Delaney he decided there was just one thing to do
If anyone was goin' to get a plate of chicken stew,
So he had this great idea of how he'd end this farce,
And he stuffed a sight of dynamite up that tender chicken's tail.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Delaney's Chicken (Sweeney, Barrett)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 02:58 AM

We recorded this from an elderly County Clare man, then living in London, back in the 1970s
Ive recently done a brief note to it in preparation for putting up our Clare collection on line in the next couple of months, but have been able to find very little information on the composers - I wonder if anybody has had more luck than I have.
Jim Carroll

Delaney's Chicken

Mikey Kelleher, Quilty and London
Carroll Mackenzie Collection

Now Delaney, from the market bought a fowl a month ago,
If he find the man that sold him he'll kill him with a blow;
Delaney bought this chicken, being of a tender breed
And of a more deceitful bird you never heard agreed.

So when they sought to pluck it, their efforts was in vain,
Their hands was tore and blistered and their muscles they were strained,
And resting of this chicken they put him down to stew,
If you want to see Delaney crack, cry cock-a-doodle-doo.

So Delaney bought this chicken for to give us all a spread
And after they arriving home they tried to pull of his head,
They ordered picks and shovels, they got twisted up like tin,
They tried to carve the chicken but they couldn't break the skin.

So this bird must have been crowing since they built the Tower of Abel (Babel)
He was fed by Cain and Abel and he lived in Noah's Stable,
All the shots and shells was fired in the field of Waterloo,
Could not penetrate or dislocate the tilugated, armour-plated, double-breasted, iron-chested cock-a-doodle-doo.

So they borrowed Daley's rammer, by which he rammed the stones,
Thinking that when tapped, would break the tender chicken's bones,
But the first one is rebounded like an Indian-rubber ball,
And knocked twelve yards of coping out of Muligan's garden wall.

So this bird must have been crowing since ……. etc.

Oh Mick Dundee's Extra Gunners came to excavate the thing,
And the thought to carve the Russian with while light three yards of string
Old Tim brought the Davy Miner***, through him they showed daylight,
While blowing up himself and the chicken with a pound of dynamite.

So to scrape the walls for chicken, it wasn't easy work,
It wasn't easy know which was chicken or which was Burke,
But they found a leg of chicken on a friendly blacksmith's head,
And a pair of everlasting heels upon my boots it made.

So this bird it must have been crowing since……..etc.

*** Davy Miner – Miner's lamp invented by Sir Humphrey Davy

This music hall song was composed in 1896 by Lester Barrett and P. Sweeney; Barrett wrote a similar piece, 'Hooligan's Mule', around the same time. Songs such as this, of creatures possessing wonderful attributes, abound in the song tradition, among the most popular being 'The Herring', 'The Derby Ram' and 'The Wonderful Crocodile'.
Mikey's seems to be the only recorded version of this from a traditional singer."