Lyr ADD: Tim McGuire (Leon Rosselson)

Subject: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: GUEST,Johnny T
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 07:54 AM

The McCalmans performed a song in Brisbane years ago with the following lines:

Little Tim McGuire loved to play with fire Always hated water, never used to wash Loved the smell of burning...

And the chorus of

Fire, fire, fire down below, Lets fetch a bucket of water boys There's fire down below.

Can anyone help me fill in the substantial gaps?

Johnny

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: IanC
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 08:06 AM

Looks like it might have been based on This Shanty

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 08:10 AM

Thee are dozens of variations of this song. My current favorite rendition is one by the Johnson Girls on their new CD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: IanC
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 08:12 AM

Sorry, I didn't look too closely at the one in DT. This is better.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Les from Hull
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 08:13 AM

No, this is a different song to the shanty. I've heard it, it's about this junior arsonist who sets light to anything he disagrees with. But I don't have the words, unfortunately. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 08:25 AM

Love a good arson song!

Subject: Lyr Add: TIM MCGUIRE (Leon Rosselson)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 05:33 PM

What the McCalmans sing is 'Tim McGuire' by Leon Rosselson, with lines of 'Fire Down Below' tacked on fore and aft. The whole set goes as follows:

TIM MCGUIRE
(Leon Rosselson)
(Intro:)
Fire, fire, fire down below
It's fetch a bucket of water, girls
It's fire down below

Fire in the topmast, fire in the chain
It's fetch a bucket of water, girls
And puts it out again

Little Tim McGuire loved to play with fire
Always hated water, never used to wash
Loved the smell of burning, of bonfires burning
Loved to play all day with his little tinder box

He chased the sparks as they flew into the evening
Hailed the flash of lightning and the burning sun
When I'm a man then I'll become a fireman
Then I can light a fire for everyone

When he was four they dressed him in a uniform
Sent him to a school with iron railings all around
Hated the school and the rules and the railings
Took his little tinder box and burnt it to the ground

Oh how he laughed and danced in the firelight
Oh how he laughed as the flames leapt to the sky
When I'm a man I'm going to be a fireman
Keep a bonfire burning until the day I die

When McGuire grew older they made him wear a bowler
Set him to work in an office in the town
Hated the pens and the pins and the papers
Had just one ambition, to burn the office down

Little Tim McGuire loved to play with fire
Loved the blaze of roses and the golden grain
Loved the leaves of autumn, the red leaves of autumn
Loved a slender girl with a smile like a flame

The judge said at his trial, Your behaviour has been vile
You're a menace to society though you may think you're big
You have to go to prison - and then, what a commotion
For smoke and fire were pouring from the judge's wig

Oh how he laughed and danced in the courtroom
We took him down, we locked him in the darkness of the cell
Never saw the sun or heard the songbirds calling
Saw the prison bars and heard the prison bell

Then early one morning just as the day was dawning
A great wheel of fire spun skywards from the jail
The iron bars melted, the stone walls crumbled
No one in the prison lived to tell the tale

No one ever found Tim McGuire's little tinder box
No one ever found a trace of Tim McGuire
Perhaps he's up in heaven setting light to angels' halos
Perhaps he's down in hell dancing round the fire

Repeat 1

Fire, fire, fire down below
It's fetch a bucket of water, girls
It's fire down below

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 06:18 PM

I have a vague memory (which in my case is probably a redundant statement)of a version that began with the cabin boy and went up the chain of command, passing some bit of nautical normalcy along the line f.d.b. Like:

The bosun to the third mate said, I think you ought to know,
The men have lashed their hammocks and there's fire down below.

And the chorus as I recall it was

Fire! Fire! Fire down below!
Bring, bring the buckets, girls, there's fire down below.

When the captain finally got around to telling the admiral, there was some anti-climactic remark that put the capper on it all, but it's been too many years for me even to remember whose version that was. I wanna say Smothers Brothers, but that's probably (a) wrong and (b) enough to bar me forever from the Serious Folkists' Union.

CC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: rock chick
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 06:28 PM

I have this song, I will be in touch with all the lyrics asap

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 08:29 PM

Jeri sang this at the Shanty Sing. PM her for lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 09:07 PM

Susanne has already answered the question, surely?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 09:38 PM

Susanne nailed it.

Regarding the traditional shanties, I do one called "Fire Down Below," which I learned from the Johnson Girls' wonderful CD. There is another shanty of the same name. It's in Hugill, I believe, and also in the DT. The two shanties appear to be unrelated, except for the name.

Rosselson sure writes some good 'uns!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: GUEST,Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jun 01 - 11:18 PM

Jeri, is the tune for the rosselson song the same as the tue you sing for the shanty? I like the way you sing it.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jun 01 - 11:44 AM

Damn it! Now that Johnson Girls' song is ringing in my ear again:

Now Charley Noble told us so,
There's fire down below, boys,
There's fire down below!

No, no, noooooo!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Jun 01 - 06:02 PM

Joe, thanks. The Rosselson words sure don't scan to the tune of the one I do.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fire Down Below
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 06 Jun 01 - 06:17 PM

Jeri, the tune for Tim McGuire is very different from Fire Down Below. They simply used the shanty as an introduction. If anyone needs the tune I'd have to send them a tape as I still haven't learned to post tunes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire / Fire Down Below
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 10:25 PM

we just made uo our own verses!!! Didn't everyone???? As far as Little Tim Maguire goes. Anyone fancy singing it on You tube???? I love it, but can'y sing!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire / Fire Down Below
From: Leadfingers
Date: 20 Mar 10 - 12:37 PM

Dont know about '0n U Tube' but I can send an MP3 by E mail if any one wants my trearment of it !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire / Fire Down Below
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 12:15 PM

Or even my treatment !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire / Fire Down Below
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Mar 10 - 07:45 PM

Leadfingers-

Be nice to hear this finally after so many years. It's almost a traditional song by now.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire / Fire Down Below
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Mar 10 - 12:27 PM

Done that Charlie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire (Leon Rosselson)
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 06:29 AM

Where can I find the lyrics to The Johnson Girls version of Fire Down Below?

Subject: Lyr Add: TIM MCGUIRE (Leon Rosselson)
From: breezy
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 02:59 PM

I have the song on the L P Try to get to hear the original if you can.
Contacct Leon for a copy on CD, I'm sure he'ld be happy to sell one
Its on ''Songs for sceptical circles'' 1966

Its 8 lines perverse    and foolish oft

Leon's tune is original

TIM MCGUIRE (Leon Rosselson)

1 Little Tim McGuire loved to play with fire
Always hated water, never used to wash
Loved the smell of burning, of bonfires burning
Loved to play all day with his little tinder box
He chased the sparks as they flew into the evening
Hailed the flash of lightening and the burning sun
When I'm a man then I'm going to be a fireman
Then I can light a fire for everyone

2 When he was four they dressed him in a uniform
Sent him to a school with iron railings all around
Hated the school and the rules and the railings
Took his little tinder box and burnt it to the ground
Oh how he laughed and danced in the firelight
Oh how he laughed as the flames leapt to the sky
When I'm a man I'm going to be a fireman
Keep a bonfire burning until the day I die

3 When McGuire grew older they made him wear a bowler
Set him to work in an office in the town
Hated the pens and the pins and the papers
Had just one ambition, to burn the office down
Little Tim McGuire loved to play with fire
Loved the blaze of roses and the golden grain
Loved the leaves of autumn, the red leaves of autumn
Loved a slender girl with a smile like a flame

4 The judge said at his trial, Your behaviour has been vile
You're a menace to society though you may think you're big
You have to go to prison - and then, what a commotion
For smoke and fire were pouring from the judge's wig
Oh how he laughed and danced in the courtroom
We took him down, we locked him in the darkness of the cell
Never saw the sun nor heard the songbirds calling
Saw the prison bars and heard the prison bell

5 Then early one morning just as the day was dawning
A great wheel of fire spun skywards from the jail
The iron bars melted, the stone walls crumbled
No one in the prison lived to tell the tale
No one ever found Tim McGuire's little tinder box
No one ever found a trace of Tim McGuire
Perhaps he's up in heaven setting light to angels' halos
Perhaps he's down in hell dancing round the fire

Repeat last 4 lines of verse 3 to end - from what I recall

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire (Leon Rosselson)
From: richd
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 03:08 PM

It's also on Rosselsongs "greatest hits' - you can get it from Amazon. Or download it I believe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire (Leon Rosselson)
From: breezy
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 03:17 PM

well done richd

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tim McGuire (Leon Rosselson)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 08:21 PM

And there was a parody, but I can't remember who perpetrated it...

Little Jimmy Dirt, loved to wear a skirt,
Loved the smell of leather and Eau Sauvage
Loved the sky at sunset, the red sky at sunset
Loved the young Adonis who gave him his massage....

Kitty