Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 11:33 PM

1780's may have been when the Irish took up composing cant songs, but the English had been doing it for a long time by then. There are several cant songs at the end of 'The Scoundrel's Dictionary', 1754, and G. A. Stevens wrote a few in the 1760's. Wm. Logan reprinted several in 'The Pedlar's Pack', and there is a book of them (which I don't have) by J. S. Farmer.

I find I have the 1st verse (only) of "The Bowman Prigg's Farewel"

To the hundreds of Drury I write,
& to all my filching companions,
To the Buttocks that pad it by night
Along with the crew of Rasklions.
I non who am rub'd the wit can rattle,
my Darbys with pleasure and laugh at the culls,
For I have still store of their treasure
Tol lol de rol---------
Rattle my Darbys with pleasure.
Toll lol de rol lol de rol.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 11:12 PM

Sorry, Barry, I don't have any of them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 09:49 PM

Bruce & Stewie, those others mentioned above ('The Kilmainham Minuet', 'Luke Caffrey's Ghost' and 'Larry's Ghost') does anyone have the words to these or where I might find them? Thanks. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Larry Was Stretched (2)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 08:32 PM

& the condemed was hung with their face to King Willy so he'd be the last face they'd see before meeting their maker. Barry

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This message was moved here from another thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched (2)
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 07:00 PM

As I indicated in the other thread on this that I would post the Harte/O Lochlainn text. I almost forgot the damn line breaks again - it would have looked a fine mess:

THE NIGHT BEFORE LARRY WAS STRETCHED

The night before Larry was stretched,
The boys they all paid him a visit;
A bait in their sacks, too, they fetched,
They sweated their duds till they riz it:
For Larry was ever the lad,
When a boy was condemned to the squeezer,
Would fence all the duds that he had
To help a poor friend to a sneezer,
And moisten his gob 'fore he died.

The boys they came crowding in fast,
They drew all their stools round about him;
Six glims round his trap-case were placed,
He couldn't be well waked without 'em.
When one of us asked could he die
Without having duly repented?
Says Larry, that's all in my eye,
And first by the clergy invented
To get a fat bit for themselves.

I'm sorry, dear Larry, says I,
To see you in this situation;
And blister my limbs if I lie,
I'd as lief it had been my own station.
Ochon! it's all over, says he.
For the neckcloth I'll be forced to put on,
And this time tomorrow you'll see
Poor Larry as dead as a mutton
Because why, his courage was good.

And I'll be cut up like a pie,
And my nob from my body be parted.
You're in the wrong box, then, says I,
For blast me if they're so hard-hearted;
A chalk on the back of your neck
Is all that Jack Kesh dares to give you;
Then mind not such trifles a feck,
For why should the likes of them grieve you?
And, now boys, come tip us the deck.

The cards being called for, they played,
Till Larry found one of them cheated;
A dart for his napper, he made
(The boy being easily heated);
Horo! by the hokey, you thief,
I'll scuttle your nob with my doddle!
You cheat me because I'm in grief,
But soon I'll demolish your noddle
And leave you your claret to drink.

Then the clergy came in with his book,
He spoke him so smooth and so civil;
Larry tipped him a Kilmainham look,
And pitched his big wig to the devil;
Then sighing, he threw back his head
To get a sweet drop of the bottle,
And, pitiful sighing, he said,
O the hemp will be soon round my throttle,
And choke my poor windpipe to death.

Though sure 'tis the best way to die,
O the devil a better a-livin'!
For when the damn gallows is high
Your journey is shorter to heaven;
What harasses Larry the most,
And makes his poor soul melancholy
As he thinks of the time when his ghost
Will come in a sheet to sweet Molly;
Och sure it will kill her alive!

So moving these last words he spoke,
We vented our tears in a shower;
Meself, sure, I thought my heart broke,
To see him cut down like a flower.
On his travels we watched him next day;
The throttler, I thought I could kill him;
But Larry not one word would he say,
Nor changed till he came to King William,
Then, musha, his colour turned white.

When he came to the old numbing chit,
He was tucked up, so neat and so pretty;
The rumbler jogged off from his feet,
And he died with his face to the city!
He kicked, too, but that was all pride,
For soon you might see 'twas all over;
Soon after the noose was untied,
And at darkee we waked him in clover,
And sent him to take a ground sweat.
^^

Source: Frank Harte 'Dublin Street Songs Topic 12T172. This the same text as that printed as song 52a in Colm O Lochlainn (Ed) 'More Irish Street Ballads' The Three Candles, Dublin 1968 pp 235-237. Copyright Colm O Lochlainn 1965.

Note: Donagh McDonagh: 'The King William at the sight of which Larry blanched was an equestrian statue of the victor of the Battle of the Boyne which stood in College Green and which has since been blown up (naturally)'.

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This message was moved here from another thread.
-Joe Offer-

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The tune (from O Lochlainn) is also used for "The March of Intellect."

Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: JTT
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 06:34 PM

You'll get the words on the album Common Ground, where Elvis Costello sings it well.

A few translations: "They sweated their duds till they riz it" - they pawned their clothes till they raised the price of it; "the squeezer" - the gallows; "a sneezer" - a few pinches of snuff; "gob" - mouth; "glims" - candles; "that's all in my eye" - that's all nonsense; "knob" - head (in this case); "jack ketch" - the hangman; "they mind not such trifles a feck" - they don't mind such trifles a bit; "tip us the deck" - get out the cards; "napper" - head; "soon I'll demolish your noddle" - soon I'll demolish your head; "and leave you your claret to drink" - leave you your blood to drink...oh, for goodness sake, this is going on and on. Someone else finish it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 06:34 PM

Barry, I don't know. There is merely a mention of them by McDonagh.

Bruce O:

The version sung by Frank Harte is identical to that printed in Colm O Lochlainn's 'More Irish Street Ballads'. It has 2 additional stanzas to the text given in your website and there are minor textual variations in almost every line - the folk process at work over the years, no doubt. Some of them are decided improvements (IMO): for example, 'A dart for his napper, he made' instead of 'He made a smart stroke at his head' or 'Then sighing, he threw back his head/To get a sweet drop of the bottle' instead of 'Then stooping a little his head'. I will post the Harte version as a 'Lyr add' thread so that it may perhaps be taken up in DT as the fullest available version.

May I also congratulate you on your magnificent website.

Cheers, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 03:48 PM

The copy of the song in 'The Festival of Anacreon', 1789, gives the tune citation as "To the hundreds of Drury I write", which is the first line of an English single sheet song entitled "The Bowman Prigg's Farewell", c 1730. I suspect "The Night before Larry was stretched" was an imitation, but, though I have the tune, I've never found a text of the song. [Cant- a bowman prigg was a pick-purse]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 11:13 AM

The song and three tunes for it are in the Scarce Songs 1 file on my website. The song is in the Universal Songster, 1828, with attribution to "Curren" which is probably an error for John Philpot Curran

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 10:47 AM

Hi Stewie, would these others that you mentioned have choruses in the same style as The Night Before Larry Was Stretched (spoken)? I've heard (from Shay) that this was considered to be one of the few Newgate Ballads. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 10:12 AM

In his notes to Harte's 'Dublin Street Songs', Donagh McDonagh says it was one of a group of execution songs written in Newgate slang or cant style in the 1780s, others being 'The Kilmainham Minuet', 'Luke Caffrey's Ghost' and 'Larry's Ghost'. He says 'Larry' is attributed to one 'Hurlfoot' Bill Maher. It's a great song.

Cheers, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 08:47 AM

Larry was no one in particular... except to his friends. The author was probably Zozimus (Thomas Moran), the Dubliner broadside scribe. In addition to a recording by the Wolf Tones, it has appeared (earlier) in a number of folk song books (e.g. collections by James N. Healy and Frank Harte) and was recorded by the latter. Shay Walker, another Dubliner who lives in Boston, sings it quite often.

All the best,
Dan Milner

Subject: The Night Before Larry Was Stretched
From: Clifton 53
Date: 02 Nov 99 - 08:30 AM

This song again is from a Wolfe-Tones record, I think "Irish to the Core" but I'm not positive. Can anyone tell me to whom they are referring and the author? The version I have is a little different from the DT, which says that it is much shortened from the original.