Req:Anyone heard this chorus-touch her if you dare

Subject: RE: Req:Anyone heard this chorus-touch her if you dare
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 02 Apr 18 - 06:49 AM

Thanks just caught up with you Mick. That sounds interesting.

Subject: RE: Req:Anyone heard this chorus-touch her if you dare
From: GUEST,Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 30 Mar 18 - 07:51 AM

If it sounds familiar, Touch her if you dare appears in a couple of American songs.

A version of Billy Boy has: Is she very, very fair?... Yes she's very, very fair, Touch her if you dare.

Many versions of (Good Old) Bowling Green include it in one of the verses.

Mick

Subject: RE: Req:Anyone heard this chorus-touch her if you dare
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 07:31 PM

Some good background and various variations of The Beggar Man here - https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/songs/thebeggarman.html

Thanks as usual to Reinhard for all his great work on the MainlyNorfolk site.

Subject: RE: Req:Anyone heard this chorus-touch her if you dare
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 07:04 PM

Yes the tunes are the same but the recordings were made by the family themselves on a reel to reel tape in 1969 Quite an interesting occurrence for travellers! All the singers bar Mary Lee (my best friends wife) are dead now.

Subject: RE: Req:Anyone heard this chorus-touch her if you dare
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 04:04 PM

Are both tunes the same? Could the version above have been influenced by the pop version of 'Whiskey in the Jar'?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anyone heard this chorus before
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 03:05 PM

It has the verses which include
I'll bend my back and crook my knee
and put a black patch on my eye
together with the usual story. Another singer in the same family has the more usual 'Laddie to my too-row-day' chorus.
The family are Wilsons/Gormans now married into the Lee's in Blackpool.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anyone heard this chorus before
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 01:23 PM

I imagine this is an Irish version and I don't think this Beggarman song is very common in Ireland. Almost all the references I have are Scottish and have nothing like this chorus. Are you sure it's a Gaberlunzie Man version? Jim C might be able to help.

Subject: Lyr Req: Anyone heard this chorus before
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 29 Mar 18 - 12:36 PM

One of my recordings from the Gypsy Folk is of the Beggar Man (Gaberlunzie Man)
The chorus is 'Musha raddley adair touch her if you dare
               Whack fol the diddle i do.
It rings a bell from somewhere, or at least the ' touch her if you dare' line does. (No not a jealous husband from my misspent youth!)
Has the chorus strayed in from another song?