Subject: Lyr Add: ME AND THE ROSE (Christy Moore)
From:
Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Sep 03 - 10:33 PM
I believe what you want is actually called "Me and the Rose" which appears on Christy Moore's album "King Puck" Grapevine CD 267, 1993; reissued as EMI CD 532749, 2001.
I copied the following from http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/IRELAND/2002-02/1013175839
(That page also has many interspersed explanatory notes, which I omit here.)
ME AND THE ROSE
(Christy Moore)
Listen for a while
And I tell you the story
How I fell in love with The Rose of Tralee
It was about five o'clock in the morning
Ladies and Gentlemen
I was only after gettin' off the boat.
I was walking down the North Wall
Minding me own business
With me suitcase under me arm
Sitting down every minute
'Til a voice behind me went Hello, hello, hello
Where do you think you're going at this hour of the morning?
I turned around
Ladies and Gentlemen
And who do you think was standin' behind me
Only the Rose of Tralee
And she was wearin' a grand new blue Ban Gardaí's uniform
I thought she was a chief super
Hey Rose
How's it going
The last time I saw you was upstairs in a tent
Down below in the Dome
With Gaybo and pretty poly tights
And all the beauty queens from
Tashkent, Istanbul, Bangkok and Liverpool and
How's she cuttin'?
Can you account for your movements?
Me movements?
Ah Rose, there's no need to be like that
I'll give you all the movements you want
You'd better sharpen your pencil
You're goin' to be busy little woman
I'll tell you
Christy's got a memory like a super-grass
I can remember things that never happened at all, Rose
The first thing I can remember
Is the 7th of May 1945
At the back of Donnelly's Hollow
The night before
Pa Connolly drove the Roadstone lorry
Into the Seven Springs
And St. Brigid started rollin' out the Tínteain
Across the Curragh of Kildare
Then I woke up one morning
It was after gettin' conscripted into the altar boys
I was ringin' the bells and swingin' the thurible
Sure the smell of the incense
Would remind you of the inside of an Arab's tent
And no sign of Ghaddafi nowhere
In those days
Down in Newbridge Co. Kildare
An altar boy would get a pound for a funeral
Two pound for a wedding
And a good kick up in the arse
If he didn't put enough wine in the chalice
At the early mass.
"Ita Missa Est" says Rose
"Gloria Tibi Domine" says I
I didn't know you had to have the Latin
To get into Templemore
I love to hear the old bit of Latin lot
The old Tridentine
Kyrie Eleison
I can't stand them Folk Masses
All them trendy priests
Trippin' over each other
To sing ballads
At half time in the Bingo
Sure the Nine First Fridays
Never killed anyone
Well!
The next thing I knew, Rose
I was servin' me time to be
A corner boy up in the Curragh Camp
I was trying to teach the sheep how to talk Irish
Then I got a job
I was selling lambs balls to mushroom farmers that couldn't afford horseshite
One day I was walkin' across the Curragh of Kildare
And I fell into an officer's mess
I ended up in the F.C.A.
Squarebashin' around the wet canteen
Until the commanding officer heard
That me Granny once confessed
To a fella' whose
Sister's brother-in-law was
Married to a man whose
First cousin used to fill
Hot water bottles for Patrick Sarsfield
Before the battle of Clongorey
I had to go on the run.
Gubu Gubu
I ran so fast
I ended up in Paddington
A million miles away from Mary Horans
Diggin' Footin's, Scrapin' Pots
Pullin' cable, Startin' Drotts
Boilin' Kettles, Makin' Tea
Diggin' Deep, Rose and Thrown Away
I was a disposable Paddy
Servin' me time to be a
Co-Pilot on a kango hammer in Shepherd's Bush
Doin' 86 MPH on a JCB
Down the Kilburn High Road
When the SPG flagged me down
And held me under the PTA
Until I got away
And went underground with the Green Murphy
One Thursday night
I was headin' down the Hammersmith Broadway
I met a friend of mine from Ballaghadereen in the Co. Roscommon
Who was a demolition expert and Georgian houses were his speciality
Any chance for a start?
What would you know about demolition?
Well, Monday mornin' came
Myself and Roger Sherlock
Liam Farrell and Martin Byrnes
Raymond Roland and Tony Roar
We was paintin' a door
We gave it six coats and three coats more
And that was just the undercoat
The ganger was fond of a tune
Thursday never came too soon
We were gettin' five pounds a day and all we could ate
But it's an awful job
Tryin' to eat all day
To make a long story short, Rose
I went lookin' for digs
I went up and knocked at the door
A big English woman comes out
And she took a look at me and then she went
'Get away from my door',
'There'll be absolutely no blacks nor paddies gettin' in here.'
Says she to me
So I let on I was a white South African (ho ho!)
And I tried to join the British Army to better myself
I volunteered as sub-contractor
Buildin' houses with no doors
Nor handles on them
And the recruiting officer says to me
'What ye bin doin' lately then, Paddy?, or is it Mick?'
I was helpin' O'Brien to shift it, Sir says I
And before that I was spreadin' the toxic all over the Golden Vale
Helpin' Mr. Gallagher cover Stephen's Green in concrete, Sir
Helpin' Sam Stevenson block all the daylight out of Dublin
Helpin' Dr. Smurfit relocate the Liffey
Helpin' AJF count the golden beans
Dolin' out the Diddly-Eye for Dr. Darragh
Puttin' in the bugs for Cathaoirleach
Vacuum packin' T-Bone steaks for Larry Maith an Fear
Seekin' out the heart of the green core.
'Oh' you're overqualified for the British Army
I'm deporting you out of England. Total exclusion'
An he did!
Here I am, Rose
Ar ais arís
This is some welcome for a returned emigrant
Céad Míle Fáilte
With your pioneer pin and your fáinne
And your white star for not cursing
Jaysus, it would be more your line
To give me a lift in the squad car into town
And she did.
Into Capel Street
Cruisin' down Capel Street in the White Squad
Looking for the Early Morning House
There's Paddy Slattery.
'You're welcome home, Christy', says Paddy
Big Slate!
'I suppose you and your girlfriend are looking for a drink'
Well, she took her cap off and
She put it on the back seat of the squad
And in she went (left right, left right)
'I'll have a Brandy with a small drop of Port
I never drink pints when I'm on duty'
Brandy and Port! Oh Lord God Almighty
'Twas like throwin' water into a barrel of sawdust
She lowered it up
'Roll on the Holy Hour', says I
'Ah come on now lads' The sergeant is outside. Have you no homes to go
to?
'I'll see you tonight' says she
'My twist'
Ladies and Gentlemen there I was
Outside the GPO waitin' for
The most beautiful Kerry woman in the whole wide world
Here she comes, be God
Sashaying down the Boulevard in her Doc's and her 501's
Hey Rose! Over here
'What's on your mind big fellah' says she to me
(I was wearin' me platforms)
I wouldn't mind a bit of a dance, Rose
She took me to a disco in the Gardai club in Harcourt Street
Le Baton Rouge
Yeah, she took me to the Baton Rouge
A tidy little spot
Up Harcourt Street there
Watch out for the quadruple parking
The bald tyres and no tax discs
I wonder what they would do with the two tons of hash
You'll find out in there
Gay bikers on acid
Myself and the Rose of Tralee
We danced the night away
Until about five o'clock in the morning
And says she to me
'Fancy comin' back to my place then Lofty?'
Does a bear shite in the woods?
Away with us, in the back of the white squad
Up through Rathmines and Rathgar
Into Ranelagh
Two donor kebabs and the Leinster Leader
Up to her place then
Two up, two down
She pulled the cork out of the Blue Nun
And I got sick all over the Rottweiler
And she put some music on
Lovely new CD
Oh yeah, Daniel
"Oh then fare thee well sweet Donegal
The Roses and Gweedore"
Oh Rose. Oh Daniel!
Ah Here
I suppose a rasher sandwich is out of the question?
That's how I made up with the Rose of Tralee
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sj
