Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics

Subject: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: GUEST,trackhorse
Date: 02 Sep 19 - 12:23 PM

The Dubliners add two verses that I've not heard before, and are not in the Clancy Brothers' version—which has become the de facto standard. I've listened closely on YouTube, but can't make out several words.

The first verse starts "Then I met a wee lassie who…?" The next verse starts "So I laced up me brogues and I ran like a hound…"

Thanks very much.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Sep 19 - 12:51 PM

Do you have a link to that recording on YouTube?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: GUEST,trackhorse
Date: 02 Sep 19 - 01:01 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA3CaTQHVxU
Sorry about the long intro

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 03 Sep 19 - 01:35 AM

https://www.irishmusicdaily.com/juice-of-the-barley-lyrics-and-chords

I think that will help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: AKS
Date: 16 Sep 19 - 06:34 AM

(refreshing) ok, there's moon, hedges, ditches, river, síbín and poitín – what else, anyboby??
AKS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 16 Sep 19 - 12:43 PM

Here's my transcription of The Dubliners' version from the link above. Perhaps one of the Irish contingent can provide the correct Irish for the chorus. I think mine is somewhere near, but it might be nice to have it properly.

Mick

---

THE JUICE OF THE BARLEY

In the sweet country Limerick, one cold winter's night
There were bonfires a-blazing when I first saw the light;
And a crazy old midwife gone tipsy with joy
As she danced round the floor with this slip of a boy.

Chorus:
Singing bainne na mbó dos an gamhna (ban-ya na mo dos an gow-na)
And the juice of the barley for me.

Now when I was a young lad, 'bout four years or so,
With me turf and me primmer to school I did go.
To a dirty old cow-shed without any door,
Where lay the school master blind drunk on the floor.

At book-learning I wasn't a genius I'm thinking,
Ah, but soon I could beat the school master at drinking.
Not a wake nor a wedding for nine miles around,
But meself in the corner blind drunk to be found.

Then I met this wee lassie and says I "Me wee pet", (May we pet?)
But the answer she gave me I'll never forget.
Her screechin' and bawlin' was heard on the moon
Saying "Be off to the divil you drunken gossoon".

So I laced up me brogues and I ran like a hound,
Over hedges and ditches me grief for to drown.
But ere I got to the river I found a shebeen
Where I drowned all me grief with one peg of poteen.

Well next Sunday the priest had me read from the altar;
And he said that I'd wind up me days in a halter;
"If you don't mind your way boy the truth I now tell -
That you'll soon dance a jig on the hot stove? of hell". (stones?)

So the very next Sunday my way I did make;
I took a trip to his reverence the pledge for to take.
First I beat on the windows, saw priests in a bunch
Around a great roaring fire drinking tumblers of punch.

Well from that day to this I have rambled alone,
I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none;
With the sky for me roof and the earth for me floor,
And I'll end all my days drinking whiskey galore.


Source: The Dubliners as linked above: Juice Of The Barley - The Dubliners

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: AKS
Date: 17 Sep 19 - 01:56 AM

Thanks Mick, to my (non-native) ears that sounds quite ok.

AKS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Jim McLean
Date: 17 Sep 19 - 03:52 AM

I always understood the chorus line to be "Bainne na Bo is na ghabhair...." meaning "the milk of the cow and the goat".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 17 Sep 19 - 05:06 AM

Jim - In the video he translates it as the milk of the cow for the calf

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Jim McLean
Date: 18 Sep 19 - 03:41 AM

Mick, the word gabhar is definitely goat. The Irish for calf is lao, similar to Scots Gaelic.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Noreen
Date: 18 Sep 19 - 01:11 PM

gabhair may well mean goats Jim, but the chorus talks about calves: gamhna.

It makes sense after all- Cow's milk for calves, but the juice of the barley for me!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Sep 19 - 02:20 PM

The Clancy's in their description here Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - The Juice of the Barley also give the meaning as the milk of the cow is all right for the calf but the juice of the barley for me and they have is an gamhna

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: Jim McLean
Date: 18 Sep 19 - 02:58 PM

Noreen, gamhna does mean calves, I agree but the line says 'is na gamhna'
So the correct translation would be 'milk OF the cow AND OF calves'   'and of' not 'for...'.
Is = and
na = the genitive.
Milk of the cows and of the goats. Makes better sense to me .....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Juice of the Barley Dubliners' Lyrics
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 10:03 AM

That's it!—with a few 2 cents. Thanks very much.

mbó (cow) is pronounced "bo". My Irish dictionary omits the "m", but it might be a grammar thing.

I would sub "bastoon" (drunken bastard. See also "The Red Knickers") for "gossoon" (a boy/youth)

"Next Sunday the priest called me out from the altar
Sayin' 'Boy you'll wind up with your neck in a halter
And you'll dance the fine jig between Heaven and Hell'
Sure his words they did frighten me, truth for to tell."

"The very next Sunday as day it did break,
I went up to the vestry the pledge for to take
What did I see, but the priests in a bunch
Sitting snug round the fire drinking tumblers of punch."