Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria

Subject: Words, if you have them, please: The man who
From:
Date: 16 Mar 97 - 11:37 PM

I am sorely looking for words to a song:-

The man who came home from Pretoree (Pretoria)

I'm not an e-mail man, so I hope you'll all get this

Subject: Lyr Req: The man coming home from Pretoria
From: Donie Mac
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 05:16 AM

Hey, anyone got the lyrics to song?

''The man coming home from Pretoria''

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The man coming home from Pretoria
From: MartinRyan
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 06:20 AM

I thought we had come up with this before - but, in fact, the only trace I can find on Mudcat is one passing reference and THIS very ancient, orphaned request!

Can't find it offhand on the 'net, other than reference to one CD with lyrics booklet. If nobody turns it up, I may be able to get a set in Dublin next week, with luck.

Regards

Subject: ADD: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 12:47 PM

Below is the text - with the note on the song I wrote for the CD 'Cascades of Song: Clare Festival of Traditional Singing,1991-1999. This CD, published as a memorial to the founder of the festival, Tom Munnelly, who died in 2007, is available from the Góilín Traditional Singers' Club, Dublin, via their website - or, if I'm wrong about that and anyone is interested, I'll get information on supply for anyone who emails me at [e-mail].

John Moulden

THE MAN COMING HOME FROM PRETORIA

1.
Although I have travelled far over the seas, my clothes they are tattered and flowing in the breeze,
And they got me entangled in brambles and trees, on my way coming home from Pretoria,
I thought in my heart when I was going away, that I'd strike some fine job and get wonderful pay,
But alas it is harder to act than to say, said the man coming home from Pretoria.

2.
The long hours in ambush whilst dodging the Boers, in anguish we languished while patching our sores,
Sure three of those men were a match for three score, of the English force in Pretoria,
I worked like a bugger to come back again, on board an oul lugger midst tots of rain,
And the roar of the surges near drove me insane, said the man coming home from Pretoria.

3.
After forty days sailing we came to Dundalk, my limbs they were aching I scarcely could walk,
And the peelers they gazed with the eye of a hawk, on the man coming home from Pretoria,
There was one with a squint, he insisted to know, my name and my way of existing also,
And he said you've the gimp and identical go, of a man coming home from Pretoria.

4.
I prayed and protested with tears in my eyes, for the sake of his dead that had fled to the skies,
Not to arrest me but let me pass by, on my way coming home from Pretoria,
I haven't a rap in the sack I allow, I broke into no shop and I started no row,
I stole no gold watch, no clock, or a cow, but I'm tramping it home from Pretoria.

5.
I was then marched away like a horse going to pound, with two other stragglers strapped and well bound,
Sure, I'd rather be swallowed red hot through the ground, or shot by the Boers in Pretoria.
I'll tell you where was it they locked me that night, 'twas a dreary stone closet set out from the light,
Where the bugs in battalions were having a fight, for the man coming home from Pretoria.

6.
It was early next morning a raw boned J.P., suggested the law for to stop hounding me,
And he said there's no harm at all that I see, in this man coming home from Pretoria,
Now I'm back in Stuicín with my friends in the fall, 'tis the neatest of places that ever you saw,
And the sportiest spot from oul Coome to Gougane, there I'll sleep till my whiskers are hoary.

The west-Cork gaeltacht of Múscraí glories in a number of song-makers who wrote, past and present, in an elaborate, even extravagant, English. All the great Muskerry singers of the past had some of their songs; Elizabeth Cronin (who had this one in slightly more detail) and Díairmuid Ó Suilleabháin to mention but two. "The man coming home from Pretoria" (Roud 16261) was made by George Curtin (otherwise Mícheál Ó Túama) in about 1900, at the time of the Boer war. It is substantially a fantasy. It appears that Curtin travelled to Cardiff to collect a legacy, drank it, and, devoid of any visible means of support, worked his way home, essentially in the way outlined in verses 2 to 6. Being expected to offer an explanation for his absence and (presumably) dishevelment, he concocted the bits about having been in South Africa at the wars and embellished his lies with a version of the truth. It seems that the account of his arrest and trial is also a bit of fun. Curtin wrote other songs, "I'll tell you a comical story" (Daibhí Ó Cróinín Songs of Elizabeth Cronin, Irish Traditional Singer, (Dublin, 2000) no. 71) and "Ger Foley's Boat" which Danny Maidhcí Ó Suilleabháin sings, as he does this one, on his second cassette, "Carraig Aonair" (MC 002, published by the singer). George Curtin was also a famous maker of songs in Irish. Stuicín is a townland between Gougane Barra and the Top of Coome.

Danny Maidhcí Ó Suilleabháin was born in Coolea in 1944 and is a fine representative of the singing style of his area. Danny's repertory is largely typical of the area, a mixture of song in Irish and English and mainly learned from his father, a well regarded singer and from many of the neighbours. Danny lived in Dublin for some years but now lives in Cork and sustains his links with his home place through his membership of Cor Chúill Aodha.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The man coming home from Pretoria
From: MartinRyan
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 02:00 PM

Thanks, John - that was the version that was floating in my head, of course!

Regards

Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 04:46 AM

Refresh, so as the effort put in by Martin and by me, can be more apparent.

Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: Donie Mac
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:15 PM

Thanks for that John

Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 04:33 AM

Is the recording still available, John? It's a terrific song.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 01:53 PM

Cascades of Song is available from Claddagh Records (Ireland), Ossian USA, or Veteran (UK)- or has been stocked by them.

Track list - Alternately songs in Irish and English except one in Bengali (from an American!)

1. The Banks of the Nile        Rosie Stewart        1994         Time 4.53secs

2. An Crúiscín Lán                Eamonn ÓBróithe        1994         Time 2.46secs

3. A Tinker I Am                Con Greaney        1991         Time 3.06secs

4. An Bhean Chaointe                Páidrigín ní Úailleacháin        1995         Time 2.59secs

5. The Man who Came Home from Pretoria Dainí Maidhcí Ó'Súilleabháin1995        Time 3.50secs.

6. An Chúiscreach                Brían Ó'Domhnaill                1999        Time 4.16secs

7. The Rose of Ardee                Finbarr Boyle                        1996        Time 4.16secs

8. Rinne Mé Smúit Ó M'intinn
Tríona ní Dhomhnaill                1999        Time 3.15secs.

9. Lough Erne's Shore        Jim and Séamus MacFarland        1999        Time 2.23secs.

10. Ar Bruach na Laoí                Áine Uí Ceallaigh                1994        Time 4.48secs.

11. The Banks of the Bann        The Voice Squad                1995        Time 4.15secs.

12. Lady Mary Ann                Ellen Mitchell                        1997        Time 2.03secs.

13. Bhattiyali- Bengali Boatman's Song
                                Stan Scott                        1998        Time 4.15secs

14. An Abhann Mhóir                Peadar Ó'Ceannabháin        1999        Time 3.27secs.

15. Here is to all True Lovers        
Maighréad ní Dhomhnaill        1996        Time 8.22secs.

16. Eleanóir a Rúin                 Roisín Elsafty                        1999        Time 4.27secs.

17. My Good Looking Man        Nonie Lynch                        1992        Time 4.50secs.

Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 01:57 PM

Oh, and another of the singers (singing in English) is Scottish - Ellen is married to Kevin Mitchell who is Irish. She is is a great singer - as is he..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Man Who Came Home from Pretoree (Pretoria
From: GUEST,999
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 08:52 PM

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=127496#2844836

The Man Coming Home From Pretoria by John Moulden has the lyrics posted by John Moulden himself on the thread noted above. .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Man Who Came Home from Pretoree (Pretoria
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 09:07 PM

Man...Pretoria

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Man Who Came Home from Pretoree (Pretoria
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Sep 12 - 02:57 AM

This note to the song from Daibhi O Croinin'swonderful 'The Songs of Elizabeth Croinin' - now sadly unavailable, with little chance of it ever being reprinted
Jim Carroll

The Man That Came Home From Pretoria
Text From Bess's collection of handwritten songs; I have another text, transcribed by SOC (w. i, 2 only). See also An Muscraioch II (Iuil 1992) 8.
Notes This song was composed by George Curtin (= Micheal OTuama), who was the author also of the song I'll Tell You a Comical Story [No. 71]. Dr Sean Ua Suilleabhain has kindly supplied me with the background story: George inherited some money from an aunt in Cardiff, and travelled over to collect it. However, he spent the money on drink, and found himself with nothing left to pay for his ticket home. He worked a passage on a ship coming back to Dundalk, where the ship's captain sent him to buy bread. George then made his way as far as Drogheda, where he earned £6 by singing The Youth Who Belonged to Milltown and passing round a hat! From Drogheda George then made his way to Dublin and Wicklow, and on southwards, till he returned home around Christmas 1900, when he composed the song about his supposed adventures. He pretended that he had been in Pretoria, in South Africa! The words missing in verse 6c above were supplied from Sean Ua Suilleabhain's text. Bess's version has accidentally dropped the following four lines from v. 2:

The long hours in ambush whilst dodging the Boers,
In anguish we languished while patching our sores,
For three of those chaps were a match for three score
Of the lads that came home from Pretoria.

There is a later version in CBE 1591, 224-29 (Cork i960).The text in An Muscraioch is from the singing of John Connell, of Danganasillagh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Man Who Came Home from Pretoree (Pretoria
From: MartinRyan
Date: 14 Sep 12 - 09:51 AM

The confusion is that John Moulden wrote the NOTE not the SONG!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Man Who Came Home from Pretoree (Pretoria
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 14 Sep 12 - 01:09 PM

I'm glad you said that Martin. I fear that I contributed to the confusion by somehow leaving my name under the title - it was originally intended to indicate that I was to write the note for the song, which I did! The writer of the song was George Curtin, who also wrote other songs. South-west Cork has a wonderful range of songs of this kind, hyperbolic and extremely verbal - great fun!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Sep 12 - 09:08 PM

I may be the guilty party. I have have misunderstood John's explanation of the note and taken it that he was the songwriter.

Quite possibly, I may have put John's name in parentheses under the song title when I standardized the formatting for submission to the Digital Tradition.
Glad we have it straight now.

-Joe-


P.S. I combined the two threads on this song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: Liberty Boy
Date: 15 Sep 12 - 03:17 AM

Hi Joe,
If you're still interested in getting a recording of the song I can get a copy of the album to you if you pm me!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Sep 12 - 01:09 PM

Fascinating song search and nicely tidied up.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: GUEST,schlimmerkerl
Date: 19 Mar 13 - 12:49 PM

John (and Others),

I have the DVD, but can't quite get the tune—It's of "The Galbally Farmer" variety, but not quite. Do the notes exist anywhere? Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 19 Mar 13 - 04:29 PM

The notes, as I wrote them for Cascades of Song, for this song are given above, with the text.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: MartinRyan
Date: 19 Mar 13 - 04:36 PM

I suspect our GUEST is looking for the musical notation, John?

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Man Coming Home from Pretoria
From: GUEST,schlimmerkerl
Date: 21 Mar 13 - 01:14 PM

Yes, the musical (lead sheet) notation. Sorry for the confusion.