Lyr Req: The Mad Puck Goat

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Mad Puck Goat
From: GUEST,999
Date: 14 Oct 12 - 11:03 AM

http://www.ramblinghouse.org/2010/05/an-poc-ar-buile/

Some song history at that link.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Mad Puck Goat
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Oct 12 - 10:58 AM

http://youtu.be/Kl1Yv7ss7ZA

Don't know why the link won't go 'live,' but if you open another window, type the above in a search at youtube, it will take you to a video about Puck Fair. The first song you hear in the video is The Mad Puck Goat, performed by The Chieftans and guests Seamus Begley, Daithi O Se and Laurence Courtney. It'll knock your socks off!

Subject: RE: The Mad Puck Goat
From:
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 12:31 AM

Hi--

Just found your request for English lyrics. The song was written by my great uncle who was more poet than songwriter. My cousin in Kerry, Tom Mullins,is continuing the tradition.

Subject: RE: The Mad Puck Goat
From: Jimmy C
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 06:43 PM

You're more than welcome, now go out and sing it,

Subject: RE: The Mad Puck Goat
From:
Date: 21 Nov 00 - 06:37 AM

Many thanks, Jimmy C.; that was just what I was looking for!

Subject: RE: The Mad Puck Goat
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 03:06 PM

(by which I meant, obviously, "for information about another recording of this song"--NOT that clicking the link would deliver you the recording itself!)

Subject: RE: The Mad Puck Goat
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 03:03 PM

For another recording of this song, click here.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAD PUCK GOAT
From: Jimmy C
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 02:52 PM

Here is the english version, taken from Comic Songs of Cork and Kerry by James Healy.

THE MAD PUCK GOAT - english translation of AN POC AR BUILE

As I set out with me pike in hand
To old Dromore to join a meithil ( Work gang)
Who should I meet but a tan puck goat
And he roarin' mad, in ferocious mettle
Chorus
Aill-il-lu puill-il-iu - Aill-il-lu ta an poc ar buile
Aill-il-lu puill-il-iu - Aill-il-lu ta an poc ar buile

He chased me over bush and weed
And through the bog the run proceeded
'Till he caught his horns in a clump of gorse
And on his back I jumped unheeded
Chorus

There was ne'er a rock with no passage through
Which he didn't jump, and me like Eddie Macken*
But when he leaped clean down Faill Breach
I felt like a load of old wet sacking
Chorus

When the sergeant stood in Rochestown
With a force of guards to apprehend us
The goat he tore his trousers down
And made rags of his breeches and new suspenders
Chorus

In Dingle the following afternoon
The Parish Priest came to call us to order
And he swore froom the pulpit each Sunday in June
Twas the devil on the back of his pold grandfather

Chorus

* Eddie Macken was a famous Jockey

Slan

Subject: RE: The Mad Puck Goat
From: Robby
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 01:33 PM

I've never heard an English version either. Both the Chieftans, and the Clancys/Makem in an early LP from the '60s, sing it in Gaelic.

I do know a song about Paddy McGinty's Goat in English, as performed by Anna McGoldrick, and then there's the song about the Darby Ram, but a ram is not a goat, so I guess I can't help much on this.

Subject: Lyr Add: MY BUCK BILLY GOAT
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 12:35 PM

I've never heard An Poc Ar Buile in English. Here's an old Irish song about a buck goat:

Oh, I'm a lonely widow. Meself and my daughter,
We live in a house where there's welcome galore.
My husband he formerly carried up mortar
From the ground to the third or fourth floor.

When he died, he will'd over the land and the shanty,
His pipe and his stick, and his frieze overcoat;
The pig and the goslin's, the chickens so banty,
And his favourite pet, oh, my buck billy goat.

Wid horses he slept ev'ry night in the stable.
He'd rise in the morn at the break of the day.
When breakfast was ready, he'd come to the table.
Sure I never could drive him away.

He could butt down a fence, oh, so gentle and aisy.
He'd stand near the pond for to see the ducks float.
He'd climb o'er the hills. Sure he never was lazy,
My own favourite pet, oh, my buck billy goat.

His whiskers were long, like the wandering Jewman.
He ate up old hoop-skirts, newspapers and rags.
When a kid, he belonged to young Mary Ann Doolin.
He would skip and sleep out on the flags.

'Twas a blast from the quarry that did strike his shoulder
The morning my husband went out for to vote.
He laid sick in bed from the fall of the boulder,
Did my favourite pet, oh, my buck billy goat.

He'd fight like a trooper. His horns were like sabers.
He'd bate all the goats for so many miles 'round.
Sure he'd butt at a stranger, but never the neighbours.
Sure they could not take him to the pound.

Oh, his right name was Willie, but I called him Billy.
He was my companion. On him sure I'd dote.
So fond of sunflowers and daffydown-dillies,
Was my favourite pet, oh, my buck billy goat.

His white hairs were silken. They hung long and drooping.
He travelled some time with Mike Regan's big Nan.
If a child in the neighborhood took on a-crooping,
He'd halt and he'd gaze like a man.

All the dogs and the cats sure they'd never come near him.
Wid his horns he would buck them a terrible smote.
The long years and days it took me for to rear him,
Oh, my favourite pet, oh, my buck billy goat.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 18-Nov-02.

Subject: The Mad Puck Goat
From:
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 07:10 PM

I'm looking for English lyrics to "An Poc Ar Buile" (The Mad Puck Goat). The only recording I've heard of this song is on The Chieftains' "Water From the Well" CD and as you might guess, it isn't in English.