I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Maryrrf
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 11:28 PM

Well said, Len!

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST,Peadar (formerly) of Portsmouth
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 01:14 PM

I do, with no hesitation.

It may not be the first song I'd choose, but I have no problem singing it. It's one of those songs I regularly heard growing up (not in pubs, BTW. My grandparents were from Co. Galway and would have "The Irish Hit Parade" on the radio all the time).

The fact that it's been over done doesn't bother me: It's just proof that the song became popular for a reason.

BTW, Len...regarding your bet for asking Liam Clancy about the song: I saw Tommy Makem perform at the New Hampshire Folk Festival around 2004. He introduced Wild Rover by simply saying "Some people don't like this song ... but it's still a good song. I hope you'll join in." Amen.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 12:52 PM

It's the Ribena song (Popular blackcurrant cordial for those not in the know - Not as good as Vimto but OK at a push)

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Ribena

Ribena who?

Ribena wild rover for many a year...

DeG

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Vin2
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 08:21 AM

Hi Len Wallace. Nicely put mate! The fact theat the song has been sung sooooo many times by all kinds of people must give credit to the song. The Clancy's and Tommy aswell as Alex Campbell or the Dubliners singing the Wild Rover is to me a part of our folk legacy.

Yeah i reckon its ok to have a laugh and fiddle with the words a bit (so long as it's not derisory or in mockery) and change the tune like ClairBear's lovely version but i think to never sing it cos it's bin done a lot is a shame. To me it would be like re-visiting an old friend. Long may in rove!

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 02:28 AM

I quite liked the Kippers version of "Spencer the Wild Rover" (two pages of their songbook were stuck together....)
More odious by far is "The Fields of At Henry"....Now....that makes my skin crawl..(Along with jaunty versions of "Band played Waltzing Matilda")

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST,Len Wallace
Date: 22 Oct 09 - 01:21 AM

Do I sing The Wild Rover? Yes. Am I proud of it? I'm not sure prides
enters into it.

Let me begin by recounting a personal experience and one that was
replicated a good number of times with other musicians of a type over the years.

For over 25 years I've performed Irish and Scottish songs for many years (these days often referred to under the broad genre of "Celtic" music). It's not the only music I perform, but the Irish pub scene has often proven an economic mainstay and necessity.

I performed in a trio one evening at an Irish pub out of town. The "The Wild Rover" was but one song amongst 50 other songs I performed along with sets of reels and hornpipes.

The next morning a local musician touted as an "all Ireland champion" on his instrument came in to set up for his performance. Trying to be friendly I decided to introduce myself and discovered some commonality in the musicians we performed with over the years. It was a week or two just past the mayhem of marathon hours of St. Paddy's Day gigs I played


"St. Patrick's Day?" he said. "I don't bother with it. I don't do THAT
anymore or sing "The Wild Rover" and songs like THAT! I do the more
serious stuff".

I bit my tongue. Did her realize how personally insulting he was? I thought to myself, "You're a little condescending snob!" I quickly withdrew from any further conversation.

An hour later I sat down to listen to this all-Ireland master perform.
After 20 minutes I could take no more. It was a bad performance.

I've had this same type of conversation many a time with musicians
considering themselves just too good, too pure to sing songs like THAT. It's an attitude that shows no respect for the song, no respect for the performer and no respect for the audience.

1. Respect for the song:

The Wild Rover is a folk song. It's part of a tradition. Versions of it
have been sung for several hundred years.

It's a good song following an accepted format telling a tale. People
like it because it does have a simple yet wonderful melody. They like it
because of its message - being the person going into a pub and being
refused service, having the ability to pull out the needed money and
basically telling the owner (in this case the landlady) "here's the
damned money, give me a drink!" People identify with the message.

2. Respect for the Audience:

Let's make a distinction between the performer who must sing the song
and an audience that does not get a chance to hear it every night naor
perform it. And let us not assume that the audience is a monolithic mass of uncultured barbarians who know nothing about good music. Do not assume that the person requesting to hear "The Wild Rover" knows little of music. And I have had many a fine performer of "the serious stuff" request it of me as well.

3. Respect for the Performer

The song is part of "the book" one must know to perform on the pub
scene. The musicians who perform well are deserving of praise and
applause if they work hard playing for a live audience even if they must play "The Wild Rover".

Would I perform it onstage at Lincoln Centre? (and I have) Of course
not! Would I do it at a folk festival? (and I've played many) No. But
if requested to perform it in a pub, I will. That's what the audience
wants. It's something familiar. It's something they can sing to.
It's a song that engages them. I am paid in part to give them that.

Yes, I perform "The Wild Rover". I don't go out of my way to do it.
I've just sung it too many times just like Loudon Wainright has sung
"Dead Skunk in the Middle of Road" too many times. But for every time I
have performed "The Wild Rover" I manage to draw the audience in to
listen to the songs I wish to sing, those more "serious songs".

Do I draw the line? Yes. There are songs I won't perform in pubs anymore such as "Seven Drunken Nights" when some audience members got into the nasty habit of shouting out after the words "So I says to my wife, Hey wife . . ." their nasty addition, "You bitch, you slut, you whore!" That put an end to me doing the song because it was suddenly turned into a song of mindless verbal abuse.

I will gladly listen to a good musician and singer who can perform well and sing "The Wild Rover" well any day over any puffed up snob who performs "the serious stuff" poorly.

By the way, I learned "The Wild Rover" listening to old albums of Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers. And there's ten bucks in my pocket for anyone who will go up to Liam Clancy today to tell him it's just not good enough to perform anymore.

Len Wallace

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 06:39 PM

You know a song has become a real folk song when its tune is used incessantly on TV ads and on the football terraces.

I may have been the singer at the 50th birthday if it was last weekend. I'm a barn dance/ceilidh caller and as a break from the dances I often throw in the odd song. As I call with various bands and most of the dances are for general public (The Real Folk) I need a repertoire of well-known material that Joe Public can recognise and join in with. I can't really see them appreciating Tam Lin.

BTW TWR is a brisk waltz and they can also dance to it.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 05:52 PM

One year at the Wareham Wail, the Sidmouth Anchor Middle Bar Singers (peasants) were penalised at the midnight Mediaeval Banquet for stealing the boar's head from the top table (royalty and aristocracy), and commanded to sing the Wild Rover to the tune of Away in a Manger. (All the tables at the Mediaeval Banquet have to sing in turn for their mediaeval supper.)

There is usually a £5 penalty for singing the Wild Rover in the Anchor Middle Bar sessions during the Sidmouth festival, but it was noticeable that all the singers on the Middle Bar table at the Wareham Wail did actually know all the words and were able to sing them to the tunes used by the other tables for their songs(which in turn led to the further penalising of the Middle Bar table and inspired Steve Thomason to write his song The Bard, which has since been recorded by Jock o'Dreams and Goldengob)

Kitty

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 04:58 PM

Sometimes when I feel like a bit of variety, I'll sing it to the tune of Hank Williams' "Move It On Over", or to the tune of the "Moonshiner".

But I like the Banana Boat Song!

Seamus

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 04:43 PM

For Vin2,

Ta very much for the compliment! I do still perform, but these days I've given up the harp in favor of a concertina and dulcimer, and I sing mostly sea songs with the San Francisco, California-based Dogwatch Nautical Band.

I've been singing with Dogwatch for about 20 years, formally -- the band has been in existence for more than 30, and I used to join them for "sailor jams" even in its early days -- but we're just now getting around to making our first recording, a CD that we (optimistically) hope to complete in a year or so. Stay tuned!

Cheers,
Claire

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Hamish
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 09:26 AM

Sid Kipper's Mild Rover's not bad.

It's funny, but even 34 years, 9 months and 19 days ago (it was a significant birthday. No, not my fortieth, or thirtieth) I remember getting a card which included a derisive reference to The Wild Rover. So it has been subject to snobbish put-downs for at least that long. Good enough song, but I too tend to avoid it.

I have noticed a few gentrified versions popping up recently. Not always an improvement. Seems rather self-conscious, somehow.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Mr Happy
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 08:04 AM

Years ago, I was Tokyo & friends took me to a bar where there was singing via a Karaoke machine.

My Japanese acquaintances requested I do a typically British song.

Glancing through the Karaoke menu book, there 'it' was, 'The Wild Rover'!

So off I started singing & was astonished when I reached the chorus to find the whole place cheering & shouting 'Nomore!, Nomore!' & raising their glasses in salutation.

At first, I wondered if they didn't like my rendition & wanted 'No More'

Later, my friends told me that in the Japanese language, 'Nomore' means 'Drink up' or 'Let's drink'!!

So I & we did lots've 'Nomore' the rest of the evening!!

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Vin2
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 07:09 AM

Well said Joe and luvlee version ClaireBear - where are you based now and do you still sing publicly?

Keep the song live is what i say - a good song never dies!

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Gurney
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 11:13 PM

I used to sing it, but I don't get that drunk any more.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 10:07 PM

I remembered on the way home that the band from whose recording I learned that version was Kentigern.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Maryrrf
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 10:01 PM

Yes I sing it if it's a pub gig. It's been done to death, but there are worse songs and the audience invariably loves it. Love the version by ClaireBear and I sometimes sing it that way - but not in a rowdy pub.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 07:51 PM

I sing it -- at least, I used to, a really long time ago (like, 25 years).

Actually as I recall it was my big radio hit, but only in Fresno (not making that up). It was the minor key version. Sorry but I'm totally unable to remember where we got it, although I can picture the album cover.

C

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Severn
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 06:16 PM

I never will spay the wild rover no more....(Ruff, Ruff, Ruff, Ruff)


And the words I must eat, now I'll surely ingest.....

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 05:51 PM

I don't care. I like the song, and I sing it with gusto (but not around folkie purists who might beat me up for singing it).

-Joe-

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: JHW
Date: 20 Oct 09 - 05:48 PM

At a 50th birthday party 'Wild Rover' was sung from the stage by a booked performer!

My table companion observed "Surely some of these old songs should be towed to Hartlepool and broken up for scrap?"

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Peace
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 06:22 PM

I thought it was Land Rover.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Kampervan
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 05:58 PM

The Wild Rover goes rather nicely to the tune of the calypso 'The Banana Boat Song' - (daylight come and me wan go home) too.

Heard Ken do it at Beverley once or twice and it makes a welcome break from the usual.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: goatfell
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 05:36 PM

I sing the wild rover, the other version as well.

Tom

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Vin2
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 01:31 PM

Woops sorry my membership went a bit dodgy for a mo. The last submission from GUEST is me Vin2, doh!!!

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 01:28 PM

Nice version Young Buchan.

I've always had a soft spot for this song no matter how many times i've heard it, maybe cos my first hearing was by the great Alex Campbell on a live album i still have and in his club appearences yeah-oh-yeah!   I don't mind the clapping bit during the chorus but the seemingly obligatory banging of beer glass on table in some clubs i've been in does make me wince a bit.

Yeah, i've also heard it done with a different tune aswell, maybe Dick Gaughan maybe, not sure? Bet that'd rettle the drunk a tad eh?

Still nice to hear people raise the rafters with it tho :-)

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST,Young Buchan
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 12:07 PM

Yes of course sing it. Yes of course use the version you are comfortable with. BUT BE WARNED. No matter how salubrious the place in which you sing it, no matter how carefully you check the identity and folk music qualifications of everyone in the room, the very minute you begin to sing, in will come a drunk who will very loudly tell everyone (including you, if you pause for breath) that you are singing it wrong, and that he knows you are singing it wrong because he has an LP of the Dubliners singing it. And if you try to explain that you learnt it from an old Suffolk rat catcher, who learnt it from his great grandfather, said drunk will insist that said rat-catcher's great grandfather must have got it from the Dubliners and then forgotten the right words.

The version below has annoyed many drunks over the years. Feel free to use it. It is a composite from Suffolk singers, with a verse which I thing may have come over on holiday from Australia:

Do you see yon landlady sat there in her chair?
She has rings on her fingers and gold in her hair.
It's bought with our money, you very well know;
And for to maintain, her we're fools if we do.
CHO. Wild rover, wild rover no more.
I never shall prove a wild rover no more.

I went into an alehouse where I frequently went
And I told the landlady my six-month was spent.
I asked for a drink but to me she did say
"Oh no, Jackie Tar, you can be on your way."

I put my hand in my pocket pulled out handfuls of gold
And there on the table it rattled and rolled.
She said "I have whiskey and beer of the best
And such words as I said they were only a jest."

She went and got whiskey from off the top shelf
But I got up to go and I laughed to myself.
And I said to her as I walked out the door
"You can keep your bad whiskey, you dirty old whore."

I'll go home to my father, tell him what I've done
And ask him to pardon his prodigal ['protestant' winds them up even more!] son.
I'll go home to my mother and there I'll remain
And I never shall prove a wild rover again.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST,Suegorgeous, still away in France
Date: 19 Oct 09 - 11:54 AM

"Like many old favourites, it is good to sing along to, and that, surely, is what we are all about."

Really?! not what I'm about, nor most of those I love to listen to....

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 08:16 PM

Yes that's a great version!

Here's another, to the more familiar tune:

WILD ROVER PARODY
BY Hamish Imlach and Iain Mackintosh

We've both been folksingers for twenty-five years
We will sing half the night for the fun and free beers
But now that we're older we both know the score
No we never will play the Wild Rover no more

I know it's a song one that pleases the folk
But I have to admit that it just makes me choke
A night with a sore tooth is more fun to me
Than to sing even one verse, never mind two or three

It's a song that's requested again and again
If I hear it once more it'll drive me insane
The words all sound stupid it just makes me wild
And the tune could be learnt by a two-year old child

I'll go to a folk club, take a shotgun along
And I'll shoot the first bastard who asks for that song
And the hangman will say as I fall through the floor
Now you never will play the Wild Rover no more

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 04:56 PM

Mick West, on 'A Poor Man's Labour' (2004), does it to a different, very elegiac tune, which works very well and transforms the song.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 18 Oct 09 - 04:39 PM

Interesting Bob,

Where did you get your version?

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 03:47 PM

But without the protracted "No, nay, never" affectation, which isn't how I learned the refrain all those innumerable years ago. With apologies to those who like the protracted bar style, I find the other way more tuneful.

Love the song, though, and haven't sat in on so many sings that I've tired of it yet, thank goodness.

So, forever, forever more,
I promise to play "The Wild Rover" some more.

Bob

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 02:12 PM

Yes, infrequently, and usually by request.

Starting out 50 years ago, if you didn't learn Wild Rover, you learned House of the Rising Sun.

Like many old favourites, it is good to sing along to, and that, surely, is what we are all about.

Done to death, I know, but the great thing about cliches is that they are only cliches BECAUSE of their popularity.

Nonetheless, if I sing it well, I'm as proud of it as any other.

Don T.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: GUEST,Hesk
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 02:02 PM

Very strong tunes that are instantly familiar get on your nerves after a time. "Wild Rover" fits this categorie, but it is also the only, so called Folk song, that people who couldn't care less about Folk, have ever heard of or want to listen to. A parallel might be in Classical music, if the only piece any one ever listened to, or requested, was the 1812 overture.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 11:25 AM

Yeah, sure....but do you play "Havin' My Baby"?

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 11:18 AM

It was one of the firat songs most of us learned, one that attracted us to the genre perhaps. If you get a pub singing it, they are more likely to listen and become acquainted with other traditional songs. It breaks the ice if you're not sure of an audience. It has many virtues. Bollocks to the snobs who snub it.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:58 AM

if people ask me do you know the Wild Rover,I say as a matter of fact I do,I saw him this morning and he had a bad hangover.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:55 AM

I play Harvest Home, Irish Washerwoman, The Derriere and She Begs For More and I'm proud of it. Damned fine tunes the lot of 'em. If they weren't good they wouldn't get played.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:54 AM

I used to do the Dransfield's version, but haven't recently.

If someone else does the common version, I'm usually quite happy to accompany them.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:47 AM

I tend to say I dont know it,if it gets requested. Unless the rqequest comes with the offer of a pint, in which case I am more than happy to oblige.

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:44 AM

I've sung The Wild Rover for many's the year
I've sung it so often I'm sick up to here
But now I have taken vows, 20 or more
I never will sing The Wild Rover no more

Not Bl**dy much!

Exlnt song

L in C

Subject: RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:35 AM

I sing two versions of the The Wild Rover, one from the Usher family of Co. Louth, and the other from Sam Larner of Winterton, Norfolk. Nothing wrong with either of them.

Subject: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it!
From: Acorn4
Date: 15 Oct 09 - 10:30 AM

Any takers?