free and easy while (whilst) jogging

Subject: free and easy while (whilst) jogging
From: GUEST,Anita Best
Date: 17 Feb 22 - 12:48 PM

I'm searching for a song that has this phrase as an ending to several stanzas:
"I'm just free and easy while (whilst) jogging along"

Subject: RE: free and easy while (whilst) jogging
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Feb 22 - 02:07 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqxaV-iJBqY

Maybe this will help ??

Subject: Lyr req: free and easy for to jog along
From: Felipa
Date: 17 Feb 22 - 05:21 PM

I'll keep free and easy for to jog along == may be on the Mudcat already

Eddie Butcher singing Free and Easy for to Jog Along
https://www.itma.ie/digital-library/sound/free_and_easy_to_jog_along_eddie_butcher

http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/amhlaoibh/free.htm

Subject: Lyr add: Free and Easy for to Jog Along
From: Felipa
Date: 17 Feb 22 - 05:54 PM

as Kevin Mitchell and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Cathal Lynch sing
to this tune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn1zJmn9YwI (Cathal Lynch)

FREE AND EASY FOR TO JOG ALONG

Well, the first of me rambles I now will sing
Like any small bird or thrush on the wing
When the sun arose for to bless the morn
I was free and easy for to jog along

Well, the first place I landed was at Derry Quay
Just a few miles distant from Ballybofey
I sat me down with a happy song
I sang free and easy for to jog along

The next place I rambled was to Glasgow green
Where lads and lassies were to be seen
But I being the blithest of all the throng
For I was free and easy for to jog along

I had not gone but a very short space
Till a beautiful damsel smiled in my face
She asked of me, was I a married man
No, I'm free and easy for to jog along

I took this wee lassie into an inn
Where we drank brandy, strong ale and gin
She asked of me to pledge heart and hand
And give o'er free and easy for to jog along

Oh no, pretty fair maid, such things can't be
For I am bound for Amerikay
When a man gets married, his race is run
He's no more free and easy for to jog along

Look at yonder stream, how it gently glides
It can go no further than it's allowed
It can go no further without command
I'll stay free and easy for to jog along

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Kevin Mitchell

As I first heard the song from Kevin Mitchell, I've tried to write the lyrics much as he recorded them - except there are a couple of words near the start of line 3, verse 2 that I didn't catch. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Cathal Lynch's lyrics are nearly the same, but see the transcription at Celtic Lyrics Corner if you want a closer transcription of their singing. Eddie Butcher (ITMA website) had a very similar version as well, but the placenames in verse two are given as

The first place I landed was in Ballantrae
About two miles distant from Biscay Bay [?]
They sat me down there for to sing a song,
For I was free and easy to jog along.

The link given by "GUEST" is to a different version of the same song, to a different air, Maura Volante singing a "Traditional folk song collected in Ontario by Edith Fowke, from the singing of George McCallum. Originally Irish, it has been localized to Belleville, Ontario.
Source: Folk Songs of Canada, Edith Fowke, 1967, p. 190 "

Subject: RE: free and easy while (whilst) jogging
From: Felipa
Date: 17 Feb 22 - 06:15 PM

Jimmy Hutchison learned Free and Easy for to Jog Along from Kevin Mitchell but I have the same problem catching a couple of words in the second verse "with a __ [ ___ heart?]and a happy song."

Tom Anderson was recorded at Magilligan, Co Derry = same area as Eddie Butcher, and he also sings of landing at Ballantrae near Biscay Bay rather than of Derry and Ballybofey.

Róisín White also recorded Free and Easy for to Jog Along
https://open.spotify.com/track/44ioI0VRiPpjHzpJGr9SXm