Need Tune Help: Paddy on the Railway

Subject: Paddy on the Railway
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 01:55 PM

according to this site:

Paddy on the Railway

url =http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/irish-folk-music/007909.HTM

the tune is for the words in the DT as songfile PADRAIL2 - Paddy on the Railway. I can't get the words to fit to the tune, even discounting the repeats in the score. Anyone else able to do so? Noteworthy file available on request...

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: GUEST,Annegi
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 02:55 PM

Paddy on the railway
Picking up stones
Along came an engine and broke Paddy's bones
'Oh', said Paddy 'that's not fair'
'Oh', said the engine man, 'You shouln't be there'

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 02:57 PM

guest - we HAVE the lyrics, we are trying to fit them to the tune as shown on the site in the first post. they don't seem to fit.

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: Fergie
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 03:16 PM

in the fifties when I was a child we uses to say it as a skipping rhyme but last line was "Ah said the engine driver I dont care" we used sing a song with the same name but differant words which began "in 1841 me corduroy britches I put on"

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 05:05 PM

The tune MMario found is a reel, more usually known as Paddy on the Railroad (in America) or The Merry Blacksmith (over here).  "Paddy on the Railway" as given in the DT is a quite different thing.  I remember the song Fergie mentions as "Working on the Railway", or "Paddy Works on the Railway", but that wasn't sung to the reel, of course.  There's another song, too, "Paddy on the Railway"; there are several broadside copies at the  Bodleian Library.  Here is one:

Paddy on the railway  printed between 1858 and 1885 by W.S. Fortey, Monmouth Court, Bloomsbury, London.  That one doesn't fit the reel, either, and looks as if it should have a 3/4 rhythm.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 05:08 PM

okay - probably a mismatch on their site. Thanks malcolm.

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 07:46 PM

MMario, their site does quote the words given by Annegi above and I can get them to fit the reel they give so I don't think that there is a mismatch. Incidentally, I remeber that verse as:

Piggy on the railway picking up sones
Along came an engine and broke Piggy's bones
"Oh" said Piggy, "that's not fair"
"Oh" said the engine driver, "I don't care"

Jon

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 08:40 PM

JOhn - do you have Noteworthy? Joe and I have both tried to put the words to that music and failed.

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 08:57 PM

I have it somewhere MMario but it is a long while since I have used it and I am not sure that I would be able to do it that way. I can sing the words Paddy's on the railroad picking up stones to The Merry Blacksmith tune though - not easy but it can be done.

Jo

Subject: RE: Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: GUEST,hobie
Date: 06 Jan 01 - 05:23 PM

try these lyrics: In eighteen heundred and eighty one--------just a lad still havin fun--------i put my courdeoy britches on----------a worin in the rail way---------fiddly orry orry aye, fiddly orry orry aye, fiddly orry orry aye a workin on the railway. Or e-mail me at [e-mail] maybe i can use the weirrd littl ephone thing on my puter,

Subject: RE: Need Tune Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: GUEST,Lanzecki
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 01:12 PM

My father used to sing this when I was a child. The words he knew were:

Paddy's on the railway, picking up stones.
Along came the Engine and broke Paddy's bones.
"Ouch," said Paddy. "That's not fair."
"Poop." Said the Engine. "You shouldn'a been there."

His family came from southern Ireland (County Mayo) so it was always sung in a soft Irish brogue.

Subject: RE: Need Tune Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 04:45 PM

The tune for "Paddy/Piggy/Sally on the railway picking up stones" is the A part of Shepherd's Hey

X:1
T:Shepherds' Hey
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:120
K:D
:FGAF G2G2|FGAF E2E2|FGAF G2FG|A2A,2 D4:|
:F2D2 G3E |F2D2 E4 |FGAF G2FG|A2A,2 D4:|

Subject: RE: Need Tune Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 05:31 PM

Not to be confused with the Paddy song that ends ""T will be when the railway runs over the sea!", a maritime version with a different tune.

Subject: RE: Need Tune Help: Paddy on the Railway
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Jul 11 - 06:32 PM

Names, as someone once remarked, are a snare and a delusion.I know at least three tunes titled (sometimes) Paddy on the Railway, and one which puts him on the Turnpike.