Lyr Req: Jack Haggerty

Subject: Jack haggerty
From:
Date: 27 Jun 98 - 02:32 PM

Can somebody help me to find the lyrics to Jack Haggerty ? I´ve heard the song with Mick Hanly Jens, DK

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: Jon W.
Date: 07 Apr 98 - 12:04 PM

Thanks for the correction, LaMarca. I was just paraphrasing what I remembered from the liner notes--they probably give credit to Mick Hanly. I only remembered that the tune used by Touchstone wasn't original. The tune in the DT is quite different than Hanly's, does anyone know if it's the original?

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: LaMarca
Date: 04 Apr 98 - 12:29 PM

Just a compulsive correction of attributions...Touchstone did not compose the 3/4 waltz tune for Jack Haggerty. They got it from Mick Hanly, a fine Irish musician who found the words to Jack Haggerty/The Flat River Girl without a tune in the Viking/Penguin Book of Folksongs of the English-Speaking World. He made up the tune because he liked the song; Triona NiDhomnaill learned it and recorded it with Touchstone. It's become a waltz standard for ceilis here in DC.

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: Art Thieme
Date: 03 Apr 98 - 09:04 PM

"Jack Haggerty And The Flat River Girl"

Though written in the first person, and with an entirely plausible story, this is actually a fictional story composed with 'malice aforethought'. The author was Dan McGinnis, a raftsman with entertaining talents from Greenville, Michigan, who is said to have written it as a means of hurting George Mercer, fiance of the ballad's heroine, who had been made foreman of the camp in which both McGinnis and Jack Haggerty worked. The jealous McGinnis used Haggerty's name although Anna Tucker, the young belle in question, had never shown any special attention to Haggerty. The song proved more humiliating to the Tucker family than to Mercer, and in order to protect the family's good name , mercer would not allow it to be sung in camp. We are indebted to Geraldine J. Chickering for having traced the history of this ballad.

These are the esteemed words of Ken Goldstein in his scholarly liner notes for Paul Clayton's Riverside LP _TIMBER-R-R-R Folksongs And Ballads Of The Lumberjack_ RLP12-648

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: Dan Keding
Date: 03 Apr 98 - 09:00 PM

If you want some variations of Jack Haggerty and some background try these two books.

"Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan", Edited by Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner and Geraldine Jencks Chichering, and "Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman" edited by William Main Doerflinger.

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: Barry Finn
Date: 03 Apr 98 - 06:25 PM

Dan McGinnis, a woodsman, raftsman & entertainer around the Flat River camps, wrote this in the early 1860's according to Doerflinger (see Shantymen & Shantyboys), 1872 says Mrs. Chickering. Dan was upset over a promotion of woods boss going to the younger George Mercer (a friend of Jack Haggery & Anne's sweetheart). Anne, the belle of Greenville & the daughter of a Flat River blacksmith hardly even knew Jack. Also see Viking Book Of Folk Ballads. Don't remember where I got this bit, but George left the Flat River camps because of all the riddicule taken as a result of the songs wide spread popularity. Barry

Subject: Lyr Add: JACK HAGGERTY (from Touchstone)^^
From: Jon W.
Date: 03 Apr 98 - 04:15 PM

Here's another version, from the 1978 album "The New Land" by Touchstone (featuring Triona Ni Dombhnaill after her Bothy Band days). The liner notes say they found the words in an old book and made up their own tune.

JACK HAGGERTY
From the singing of Touchstone ("The New Land")

I'm a heart-broken raftsman, from Greenville I came,
All my virtue's departed, with a lass I did feign,
From the strong darts of Cupid I've suffered much grief,
And my heart's broke asunder, I can get no relief.

Of my troubles I'll tell you without much delay,
Of a sweet little lassie my heart stole away,
She's a blacksmith's fair daughter on the Flat River side,
And I always intended to make her my bride.

I worked on the river where the white waters roar,
And my name I engraved on the high rocky shore,
I'm the boy who stands happy on the dark whirling stream,
But my thoughts were on Molly, she haunted my dreams.

I gave her fine jewels and the finest of lace,
And the costliest muslins her form to embrace,
I gave her my wages all for to keep safe,
I deprived her of nothing I had on this earth.

While I worked on the river I earned quite a stake,
I was steadfast and steady and ne'er played the rake,
For on camp flat and river I very well know,
That they call me Jack Haggerty, the pride of the town.

'Til she wrote me a letter which I did receive,
And she said from her promise herself she'd relieve,
For to wed with another she'd a long time delayed,
And the next time I'd see her she'd no more be a maid.

To her mother Jane Tucker I laid all the blame,
For she caused her to leave and go back on my name,
For to cast off the riggings that God was to tie,
And to leave me a rambler 'til the day that I die.

So come all ye bold raftsmen with hearts stout and true,
Don't trust to a woman for you're beat if you do,
But if you do meet one with the darkest of curls,
Remember Jack Haggerty and the Flat River girl.

^^

Subject: RE: Jack Haggerty
From: Bruce O.
Date: 03 Apr 98 - 03:08 PM

There's also a version in DT in file FLATRVR

Subject: Lyr Add: JACK HAGGERTY^^
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 03 Apr 98 - 12:52 PM

JACK HAGGERTY

I'm a heartbroken raftsman, from Greenville I came
All my worth has departed with the lass I did fame
From the strong darts of Cupid I've suffered much grief
And my heart's broke asunder, I can get no relief.

Of my trouble I'll tell you without much delay
Of the sweet little lassie my heart stole away
She's a blacksmith's fair daughter on the black river side
And I always intended to make her my bride.

I worked on the river where the white waters roar
And my name I engraved on the high, rocky shore
From the boy that stands happy in the dark, burning stream
But my thoughts were on money, she haunted my dream.

I gave her fine jewels and finest of lace
And the costliest muslin her form to embrace
I gave her my wages all for to keep safe
I deprived her of nothing I had on this earth.

While I worked on the river I earned quite a stake
I was steadfast and steady and ne'er played the rake
For a ten fathom river I'm very well known
And they called me Jack Haggerty, the pride of the Ban.

She wrote me a letter which I did receive
And she said from her promise herself she'd relieved
For to wed with another she'd a long time delayed
And the next time I'd see her she'd no more be a maid.
^^

Subject: Jack Haggerty
From:
Date: 03 Apr 98 - 12:03 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics to "Jack Haggerty"?