Lyr Req: The Guinness Song

Subject: 'The Guinness song'
From: GUEST,Yuval Berger
Date: 28 Jan 00 - 11:37 AM

Hi everybody! I'm looking for the lyrics of "The Guinness song". It's a song which describes the Guinness breweries. All I know is that at the end of the last line of each verse it says: "Down by the Liffy side". Can anyone help? (especially T.D. nephews...? ;-) )

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: GUEST,tim
Date: 30 Jan 00 - 10:43 AM

Do you mean the General Guinness song?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: John Moulden
Date: 30 Jan 00 - 11:27 AM

General Guinness? - who turned the Firth of Forth into the Firth of Froth?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: GUEST,JenEllen
Date: 30 Jan 00 - 10:37 PM

There's one in the DT...is that what you're looking for?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: GUEST,Yuval
Date: 06 Mar 00 - 01:57 PM

Hi Tim! Sorry for returning so late. I'm looking for a ong starting with the words: "Come all you thursty tourists and travellers every where..." Thanks! Yuval

Subject: Lyr Add: GUINNESS MAKES YOU FART (Rob M. Graham)
From: Max Tone
Date: 06 Mar 00 - 02:13 PM

Try this one, as an alternative. Hope it works - text imported from Word 6. Tune is Redgum's "Poor Ned,” written by Trevor Lucas.

GUINNESS MAKES YOU FART
(Rob Maxtone Graham, 1999.)

Guinness is so good for you. It makes you big and fat.
You change from pissy other beers 'cos they ain't got no guts.
Then later on it's sinking in as you regret that start.
The warning rumble lets you know that Guinness makes you fart.

CHORUS: Poor mate, you'll never get laid. You'll never find a sweetheart,
If under the sheets, you make a smell not sweet, 'cos Guinness makes you fart.

You can keep your bitter, and lager too. Beans and curries don't compare.
Not even artichokes come close at producing smelly hot air.
You have a good swally. You knock ‘em back. Closing time's comin' up soon.
Before you know it, you'll have enough to blow up a bloody balloon.

I don't know who invented the stuff. Stout's an appropriate name.
They chuck in the malt and barley too, as if they're playing a game.
You down ten pints to give you courage to chat up that lovely tart.
Then you realise you've got no hope, 'cos Guinness makes you fart.

They ask you if you want it warm, or served up extra cold.
They let it settle for half an hour, by which time you're growing old.
You wait and wait, whilst others drink, it's delivered by horse and cart.
They pour a drawing of a damn shamrock, and call it bleedin' art.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 24-Mar-02.

Subject: Lyr Add: TWO HUNDRED YEARS A-BREWING
From:
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 09:38 PM

Someone came up with the song

Guinness Song - Two Hundred Years A-Brewing

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Thread #35557   Message #497052
Posted By: Matthew Edwards
02-Jul-01 - 08:15 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Seeking Irish Lyrics II
Subject: Lyr Add: TWO HUNDRED YEARS A-BREWING

Re: "Guinness Song".I knew I'd heard this song somewhere,and even owned a recording of it.I finally tracked it down; its on the Topic Voice of The People series that Malcolm mentioned earlier, in Volume 13 They ordered their pints of beer & bottles of sherry :The joys & curse of drink under a different title:

Two Hundred years A-Brewing

Come all you thirsty tourists and travellers everywhere,
Till I sing to you a verse or two in a grand old Irish air.
It's all about our famous stout that's known the world wide,
And it's made for you this lovely brew down by the Liffeyside.

If you want to see our grand brewery at the top of James's Street-
Don't make a fuss - just take a bus or travel on your feet.
That well known site is on the right; at the door there stands a guide,
Who will point out to you where the stout is made down by the Liffeyside.

Our barges neat nigh Watling Street rock gently to and fro'
With winch and sling the barrels swing into the hatch below.
With hold and decks full of double X they sail down with the tide.
All specially made for the foreign trade down by the Liffeyside.

And if you stray Glasneven (sic)when some old friend is dead,
The mourners stand with hat in hand as the funeral prayers were said.
The graves are filled. The tears they spill; their eyes they quickly dry
With a pint or two in the old Brien Boru down by the Liffeyside.

Come fill your glasses to the brim and drink a toast with me
To the noble house of Guinness's and their world famed brewery.
We Irishmen are proud of them, their products true and tried.
Long may they live and employment give down by the Liffeyside.


This is a recording of a performance by Margaret Barry, accompanying herself on banjo, with Michael Gorman on fiddle, which was broadcast on WFMT radio in Chicago on 9 October 1961. Reg Hall's notes state that it is a modern composition (probably by that well-known Dublin character An O'Nymous). He adds that "part of her act involved implying that she was a heavy drinker (which she wasn't!). Guinness's supplied her with a few bottles of porter to take on stage each night..."
BTW Does anyone know if is true that Guinness refused to include in their Book of Records the world record for nuber of trips round their brewery completed in one day?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 10:19 PM

Technical problem; sorry about that.  I'd just like to mention that Yuval started rather a lot of threads asking exactly the same question back on that evidently strange day in January 2000.  Though I do see why George has put a link to today's answer into all of them, I would say:

PLEASE, if anybody feels inclined to comment further on the song, DO IT IN ONE THREAD ONLY, ideally the biggest one.

Otherwise, it'll be a royal pain for the next person who comes along looking for this song, and has to trawl through several all containing bits of the same information...

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Messages from multiple threads combined.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:50 PM

I feel a little bit guilty that my posting of Margaret Barry's song has led George to revive so many dormant threads. I quite agree with Malcolm that multiple postings with the same thread title can only lead to confusion. Is there some way to amalgamate the threads?

If Yuval Berger is still tracing his query after those (Guinness fuelled?) nights in January 2000 at least he has got his song at last.

The song is a pastiche of Peadar Kearney's song Down by the Liffeyside in which he curiously refers to his own more famous "Soldier's Song". It seems likely that this is version of Down by the Tanyard Side which has many variants as Malcolm (again!) has pointed out.
I have a recording of Dominic Behan, Kearney's nephew, singing Down By the Liffeyside on an old LP but I haven't been able to listen to the record for years as it is so scratched, so it was nice to be reminded of it again.

Links fixed. --JoeClone, 24-Mar-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:56 PM

Sorry the above links don't seem to work. I copied the URLs given. Where did I go wrong? If anyone is looking for the songs a search in DT under liffeyside and Tanyard should do the trick - I hope!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Guinness Song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 08:05 PM

Sometimes, old internal links don't work any more because the software routines that they referred to have changed; it's a good plan to test them before copying, just to be on the safe side.  These should work:

DOWN BY THE LIFFEYSIDE

DOWN BY THE TAN-YARD SIDE

Subject: RE: Down By the Liffeyside/Tanyard Side
From:
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 08:13 PM

Ah, I see what happened, Matthew. You left out the @ symbol before the displaysong.cfm. Here we go

Down By the Liffeyside
Down By the Liffeyside Thread #1
Down By the Liffeyside Thread #2
 
Down By the Tanyard Side
 
 
Here are a couple of other places to access the lyrics:
 
Down By the Liffeyside
Down By the Liffeyside
Down By the Tanyard Side