Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)

Subject: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 07:26 AM

Seeking happy immigration songs: I will mostly write below about the Irish tradition as it is the one I know best, but the invite is for songs from any background.
The Irish have hundreds of sad songs about emigration. Many are about love and longing for the homeland. Some complain about conditions in the new land - prejudice, being pressed into armies, hunger and hardship. I also know some similar Scottish songs, including a few in Gaelic.

It has always seemed a bit curious to me how popular these songs are in Ireland, among not only people who have returned home but among those who never emigrated. It is almost as if, in a small country with a high level of emigration, we console or re-assure ourselves that we have made the right choice staying at home.

Literature and drama, on the other hand, tells a more complex tale where the emigrants are ambivalent about their homeland and glad to escape poverty, oppression or just to have more freedom of self-expression in a more open society. So why isn't this expressed in song, - or is it?

Off hand I can think of a couple of songs of happy immigrants - the fanciful "Oleanna" and that one that goes "When I first came to this land, I was not a wealthy man, But the land was sweet and good and I did what I could". I think both are songs from Scandinavian immigrants to America (?). A couple of more recently composed songs also spring to mind. "Indiana" tells of someone returning to Scotland although he's made a good life there and friends tell him he's crazy 'going back to such poverty' and there is a line in "My Father's Immigrant Eyes" saying that the father has 'given [the singer] this country'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Declan
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 07:38 AM

Cragie Hill comes to mind on this. Initially the woman is asking the man not to go to Americay, but the man seems to me to be happy to be escaping ! The third verse runs something like :

"And after a short while, If fortune should prove pleasing

'twill cause us all to smile at our sad going away,

We'll be happy as Queen Victorie, all in her pride and glory,

We'll be drinking wine and porter all in Americay."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Murph10566
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 08:28 AM

Good morning, Philippa -

Nice idea for a thread...

The first song that came to mind for me was MUIRSHEEN DURKIN... Wishful Boasting ? Lyrics in Mudcat Database, of course.

Another tune which I'm currently trying to track down, entitled (I think): "When the Boys Come Rolling Home" -

Neat chorus:

"There'll be dancing, and romancing,
And nevermore we'll roam!
There'll be rollin' in the hay;
There'll be whisky in the tay,
When the boys come rolling home!"

I found this song on Pat Garvey's CD "Brendan's Voyage", but haven't come across the tune elsewhere...

Good luck with your quest -

Murph

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: JedMarum
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 09:28 AM

One Irish immigrant's "blessing" to his grandson is . Happy song ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: JedMarum
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 09:32 AM

I don't know what happened to the HTML but the last post should have contained a link. I guess I did something wrong. The song is here http://www.jedmarum.com/music/lyrics_tommy.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: JedMarum
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 09:33 AM

Or blue clicky here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also
From: Fiolar
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 09:39 AM

Murph10566: Regarding the song you are searching for, it's on the latest Dubliner's CD entitled "40 Years" and it is sung by Sean Cannon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: PeteBoom
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 10:06 AM

I'm reasonably sure that "When the Boys come Rolling Home" was written by Danny Doyle.

Pete

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Murph10566
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 10:11 AM

Thanks to Fiolar and PeteBoom for the Tips, and Apologies to Philippa for 'stepping on your Thread'...

Regards,

M.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: sian, west wales
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 10:12 AM

Then there are songs of 'exhortation' which seemed to be popular when the US and Canada were opening up their frontiers and needed people to settle. The governments used all kinds of methods - sometimes older immigrants seemed to have taken up the challenge just to prove what good 'new' citizens they were. And, of course, they were written in whatever language would be best received by the Old Country.

A Welsh group (4 yn y Bar) resurrected and recorded "Dewch i America" (Come to America) a few years back. Quite a catchy 'ditty' with a chorus: Come to America X2, O people of all the world, Come to America. I don't actually have the recording so can't tell you any more.

I can think of a poem written for an Eisteddfod (competitive arts festival) in Saskatchewan in the 1930s which waxes lyrical about the beauty and attractions of Canada, and particularly the Rockies and B.C. It was not set to music as far as I know, but it's the same genre.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of songs around the time of the Chicago World's Fair - I know that there was a strong Welsh contingent out there, and probably the same can be said for other nations. Presumably, though, they never became part of the folk tradition.

siân

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Declan
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 10:42 AM

I notice the verse I quoted from Craigie Hill above is not in the version in the DT. It comes from the singing of Paddy Tunney. It is verse 4 and not verse 3 as I said above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 10:58 AM

I always thought When I first came to this land was pretty sad, actually. He wants so much and settles for so little - the land was sweet and good, but his wife was called Run for your life, his shack was called Break my back, his cow is No Milk Now... the son is My work's Done but I took that to mean he had a lazy son, a shrewish wife, lousy shelter and poor livestock - but he did what he could. Perseverence maybe, but happy? Not to me.

There is also something jolly by the Clancy Brothers, I think, about being Off to Philadelphia in the Morning (with me bundle on me shoulder, sure there's no one could be bolder, I'm leaving now the place where I was born in / I'm sure I'll take a notion for to cross the briny ocean and I'm off to Philadelphia in the morning. Jolly tune, can't recall all the words. I'll try to think of more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 11:00 AM

How about Whisky You're the Devil, you're leading me astray, Over hills and mountains, into Amerikay? Very happy tune... but I'm not sure it's "happy" exactly!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 11:00 AM

I think "when I first" is Dutch..but I am not sure.

mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 05:24 PM

'When the Boys Come Rolling Home' is a Tommy Sands song. Makes for great audience singing!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 07:59 PM

The Green Fields of Canada can be found on Cold Blow and the Rainy Night by Planxty.Not exactly a happy song but the singer doesn't seem to have any regrets

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Gareth
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 08:02 PM

Possibly NOT folk - but the musical "West Side Story" ?

or again, the other side of the world from the UK "The Wild Colonial Boy" ?

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,ramona lee
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 09:56 PM

"Columbia's Shore" is a happy irish one. patrick street does it i believe. starts out sounding like a real tearjerker broken-token song but has a positive twist to it. still can't find all the lyrics...somebody know 'em?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 12:38 AM

The Handcart Song, about the Mormons from England, Scandanavia and other parts of Europe migrating to America and setting out across the plains with handcarts.
When I First Came to This Land is credited to the Germans (Pennsylvania Deutsch), but mistakenly credited to Dutch and Scandinavians in various posts in the Forum.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LOVELY OHIO (trad. / Chris Carney)
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 01:06 AM

Here's a nice one, done by my friends in the group Dockside:

THE LOVELY OHIO (trad., add. lyrics Chris Carney)

Come all you brisk young fellows who have a mind to roam
In some foreign country a long, long way from home
All in some foreign country along with me you'll go
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio

Come all you pretty fair maids and spin us some yarn
And make for us some clothing to keep us all so warm
You can spin and sew, my loves, while we do reap and mow
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio

There's fishes in the river just fitted for our use
There's tall and lofty sugar cane to give us all its juice
There's every type of game, me boys, and always buck and doe
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio

The grass is always green, my friends, the river's clear as glass
There's room for all our families, for every lad and lass
Such beauty in abundance, it's almost just like home
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio
When we settle on the banks of the lovely Ohio

I forget whether my friend Chris wrote the third or fourth verse.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: allie kiwi
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 04:25 AM

The Wild Colonial Boy never struck me as particularly 'happy'. I guess in a way he was happy, doing all that robbing and shooting.

The version we sang of it (using the name Jack Duggan) was that he was born in Australia, but I understand the original has him growing up in Ireland and being transported for life at a fairly young age?

Now I challenge anyone to find a song about a happy convict!

I guess when you think of it, most emigration waves are forced through lack of food or searching for something better. But virtually everyone is rather sad to leave what they know behind them.

How about 'We're off to see the Wizard' from wizard of Oz, and ... what was that song from Bing Crosby's movie 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court.'

Allie
in a cold induced random mood

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: The Walrus
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 05:24 AM

How about "Cheer Boys, Cheer" - Emigration to Canada

Walrus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Aodh
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 07:43 AM

"Dean cadalan samhach, a chuilean mo ruin." is half and half. Part sorrow about leaving Kintail and coming to America during the winter, Yet it also sings of hope for the spring in the new world. But as far as I'm aware there are few (if not any)overtly happy songs of this type in the Scots Gael plethora. There is "A Dance called America" a Runrig song which talks about the Gaels making a livly dance to accumpany the euphoria surounding the tales of America they were fed by officialdom.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 02:27 PM

"The Lovely Ohio," Chris Carney version, is fuller (verse 4) and more satisfactory than the original, put together by Ed McCurdy and recorded way back when (not really trad, but an original composition by him with borrowings from "Hunt the Buffalo" etc.?). Good song.

"El-a-noy" is a similar song (Lomax, FSNA, pp. 87-88, and Sandburg, American Songbag, pp. 162-163):
Chorus and verse 2:
Then move your family westward,
Good health you will enjoy,
And rise to wealth and honor
In the state of El-a-noy.

'Twas there the Queen of Sheba came with Solomon 0f old,
With an ass load of spices, pomegranates and fine gold,
And when she saw this lovely land, her heart was filled with joy,
Straightaway she said, "I'd like to be a queen in El-a-noy.

This booster song possibly comes from the Shawneetown days on the Ohio, but again, its origins are poorly known. It could be a nostalgic song from much later. It doesn't seem to be in the DT.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 02:41 PM

"The Plains of Illinois" is a less attractive version of "El-a-noy," in the DT

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 09:09 PM

G'day Philippa,

I was going to suggest Cheer Boys, Cheer, even though it it is a fairly general British song about emigration. (I'm not sure why "The Walrus" thinks it is about Canada in particular ... it was so popular in US that many think of it as a Civil War song ... and it was well known in Australia ... and probably anywhere else a packet ship could deliver an emmigrant).

Anyway, I have a couple of happy immigrant songs collected from H.P.C. 'Duke' Tritton, in Australia, in the 1950s. One of these is The Shores of Botany Bay ... and I'm sure I have submitted it to the DT ... but I could not find it with a lyric search on "Botany Bay". This one has no relation to the 'toorali addity' Botany Bay ... in fact 'Duke' said it relates to The Shores of Amerikay, but I've never seen a version that is close enough to prove it. If it is not in the DT, I will (re-?)post it from home. This includes an extra verse written by Duke about going digging for gold if he doesn't like bricklaying.

Another, another that won't have been posted to the DT is Duke's The Irishman's Song - about a bloke arriving from Ireland, meeting his brother and friends, drinking his cash reserve ... and one of the blokes then pawns his coat for more funds. Eventually the immigrant settles down, gets a job at the gasworks, gets to be foreman - then boss ... and so well off he doesn't drink with his mates in the Public Bar any longer!

There are a few other Australian/Irish songs in the 'happy immigrant' class ... Dennis O'Reilly (which is in the DT) would probably fit ... and there would be a few others set in the goldrush era that should fit your criteria. I'll ponder that between now and when I get back with those I have already promised.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jun 02 - 10:02 PM

Bob, your "Shores of Botany Bay" post is in the Forum only, not having graduated to the DT. Unfortunately, because it should be there.
It is in thread 9410: Shores Botany Bay
You even posted the midi.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 12:00 AM

Thanks Dicho,

I was sure I had posted it ... but it was not preserved in my 'traced' threads. Either I had deleted the trace ... or the current traces only go back to the last reorganisation of names/passwords/&c. Certainly, my traces only go back to 13 April 2000.

Anyway you have saved me from duplicating ... now I only have to dig out The Irishman's Song", set down the tune and post words and MIDI ... sometime before midnight, if weariness and a sudden case of lateral epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow) don't get me!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:45 AM

"...I was going to suggest Cheer Boys, Cheer, even though it it is a fairly general British song about emigration....I'm not sure why "The Walrus" thinks it is about Canada in particular ..."

Bob,

I made the assumption on the basis of the lines:

"Theirs shall be the Prairie and the Forest
"And boundless meadows, ripe with golden grain"
and
"The Star of Empire glitters in the West"

The former would indicate Canada/USA but the latter makes me think Canada (to a Briton of the 1850s, there was only one empire that mattered).

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:54 AM

G'day Walrus,

The references are written in pretty much the terms of Canada / USA ... but the average Pom singing it as he sailed away would not have had any detailed knowledge of where he going ... the song went to every reach of the British Empire without much need to correct the geography.

It has been collected in Australia ... with various new sets of words that reflect the new circumstances of a new country (such as Charlie Bachelor's Cheer Boys, Cheer - Mother has a Mangle! Anyway, I wasn't bothering with that one, since it is so well known and widely distributed.

I'll get stuck into the others I promised ... tomorrow night ... ?

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Crazy Eddie
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:58 AM

Farewell to your bricks & mortar,
Farewell to your dirty lies,
Farewell to your gangers & your gang-planks,
And to hell with your over-time.
For the good ship Ragamuffin,
Is lying at the quay,
For to take bold Pat,
With a shovel on his back,
To the shores of Botany Bay...........

....................
And when we reach Australia,
We'll go and dig for gold,
There's plenty there for diggin'
Or so I have been told.....

More looking forward to emigration, rather than happy after the event. I can't remember which group did it though....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 01:48 PM

Like Murph (14 June) - but a bit later- I also thought of Mursheen Durkin. The verses I know, as in the DT, are sung by a intending and hopeful emigrant, but a couple of verses given in a Mudcat thread have the emigrant finding a "fortune in far Amerikay". Other songs of intending emigrants tell of difficulties at home and (infer) hopes of a better life abroad: the Shores of Americay, "tomorrow I leave on the foam, To seek a home for my own true love, On the shores of Americay." & Slieve Gallion Braes (sad to leave his land, "but the rates are getting higher and I can no longer pay, So farewell unto you bonny, bonny Slieve Gallion Brae"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 02:53 PM

A new song about an Indian immigrant to Belfast was popular in N Ireland circa 1972. I think the group who recorded it was called "Tommy Thomas and the Professionals" (no relation to Irma Thomas & ..., I think!). The Indian peddled "lovely knickers in red, white and blue" on the Shankill Rd and though I can't remember the verse, I'm sure he sold the green, white and gold equivalent on the Falls. He was very happy as the chorus went:
Belfast, Belfast, a wonderful town
It doesn't matter if your skin is brown
Belfast, Belfast, I love you
If you're out of work you can get the bru*.
*'bru'= dole, welfare benefits (from the Bureau of ...)

There is some truth in the song. Immigrants from Indian have typically peddled clothes and many members of the Indian community here now have clothing shops or market stalls. Immigrants from Eastern Europe were similarly self-employed. I spoke with a man who grew up Jewish in Derry and he told me that when his father immigrated from Russia in the early 1900s, he peddled door to door and his merchandise included pictures of King Billy for Protestant customers and the Pope for Catholic customers. I have verification from a Catholic woman who told me of her parents buying pictures of Padraic Pearse and of The Mass Rock in the Glen (where Mass was said in the Penal times) from Mr. Frieslander.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 03:22 PM

Happy convict song: Portland County Jail.

Definitely, the I like to be in America song from West Side Story! At least the MEN are happy, being dumb...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 03:23 PM

How about Pollution? If you visit American city, you will find it very pretty... just 2 things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air... Oh, OK, not immigration, just tourism. Hee hee!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: PeteBoom
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 03:39 PM

I've been thinking about the actual wording of the question - and have another question. Even with the examples listed here, are the emmigration/immigration songs, including the one I wrote based partly on family history, ever REALLY happy? They may be optomistic or cheerful or making the best of a lousy situation, but are they REALLY happy?

The older songs, meaning in my mind mid-20th century and before, when leaving a homeland pretty much meant forever, have a poignancy to them that is often times overlooked by singers/performers today. "Farewell to Nova Scotia" is common in this, typically played fast and up-tempo, with lines like "will you ever have a sigh or a wish for me..." Egads - kind of like disco - the fast tempo and major key hides the fact that the lyrics are actually pretty depressing.

Just wondering...

Cheers - Pete

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 07:27 PM

'I'm Leaving Tipperary' (posted as 'Goodbye Mick' somewhere in the Forum) as done by De Dannan on 'The Star-Spangled Molly' sounded extremely happy!

Subject: Lyr Add: REFUGEE (James Keelaghan)
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 07:50 PM

REFUGEE
As recorded by James Keelaghan on “Timelines” (1992)

I will write you one last time; you will be here in the morning.
I imagine that you're sleeping on the North Atlantic swell.
There's a wind in off the sea, enough to keep me waking,
Enough to make me think we will say no more farewell.

All the words that pass between us, a line of pale blue letters
Stretching from the Sambro lighthouse to the waves around Land’s End,
Now you're following that line enveloped by the darkness.
You'll find me waiting when you reach its end.

CHORUS: All the ones who ran from war, all the wealthy and the wounded
That have landed on this shore, they don't mean a thing to me.
All that matters is the one who will be with me tomorrow.
It's a lonely heart that loves the refugee.

You have left behind your home; I have left behind my family.
We have come here to this shore with the strength to start anew.
There's a world here for the taking, a safe and steady harbour.
There's a million things to think of, but tonight I'll think of you.

Well, it's immigrants we are; this land has known no other.
There's a million came before us; a million more will follow on,
An endless wave washing upon this rocky coastline,
Carving features in the landscape, fanning out and moving on. CHORUS

Tomorrow morning, you'll look out; you will see this lovely coastline.
From Mitchell Bay to Prospect, it will seem like open arms,
And those arms they will enfold you, sweep you safe into the harbour,
Deliver you from loneliness and harm.

Tomorrow morning, I will climb upon the hill above the harbour.
I will look out to the East to where the heaven meets the sea,
And when the ship has come in sight, I will run down to the dockside
And welcome here just one more refugee. CHORUS

- - -
[Land’s End is in Cornwall, the westernmost tip of England. Sambro Lighthouse, Mitchell Bay and Prospect are all near Halifax, Nova Scotia.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:29 PM

Maybe we can get kytrad to post the lyrics to her lovely "Marnie, Come Fare Away" song. Ed Trickett recorded it on his first Folk-Legacy album (The Telling Takes Me Home), but it's not available yet as a CD. Kytrad can tell us about the song, how she came to write it, and where else it can be found. Are you out there, Jean?

Sandy

Subject: Lyr Add: THE IRISHMAN'S SONG (from HPC Tritton)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 08:56 PM

G'day again,

Crazy Eddie: That's 'Duke' Tritton's version of Shores of Botany Bay. He wrote the final verse, to stretch out a good, but short, song that he busked with, around Sydney's streets in the late 1890s, when he was 13 or 14. He learned the song from a mate, who busked along with him, Danny Clements. I posted the words and MIDI back in 1999 (as mentioned, way above) but it is not yet in the DT.

Here's another of his songs that is more directly about success in the new country ... and I have given the story of this one in Duke's own words:

THE IRISHMAN'S SONG

Source: H. P. C. 'Duke' Tritton

Sure it's just about ten years ago, as near as I can tell,
Since I packed up my traps and bade my friends farewell;
For I'm off to Australia to see my brother Jack,
And if there's anything out there, then I'll not be coming back.

All I possessed was ninepence and a dirty one pound note,
When I paid my fare and wrote to Jack to meet me at the boat;
And when I got there my brother Jack and half a dozen more
Were waving hats and handkerchieves before I got on shore.

Sure I got a hearty welcome from the moment I did land,
Saying 'God bless you Barney', with *outstretched hand,
And then to make me welcome, for the remainder of the day,
We sampled Irish whisky in a pub across the way.

We soon knocked all the stuffing out of my dirty one pound note,
And Sullivan, to keep it up, went out and pawned his coat.
We swallowed that and other things till ten o'clock that night,
And every mother's son of us got roaring blessed tight.

Next day I put the plug in, I went a job to seek,
I got work at the gasworks at thirty bob a week;
In a month they made me ganger, but now I'm overseer,
And I think I'll own the gasworks in about another year.

Now Jack and all the other boys are working under me,
So now it doesn't become me to go with them and spree;
So I go to private bars where I can quench my thirst,
But I'll never forget the fun we had, the day I landed first.

And now I've settled down, and taken myself a wife,
I have a little family, so I'll be here for life;
But when I think of that meeting, with pleasure I recall,
That Irish boys throughout the world, are brothers after all.


* I insert "... many an ..." to make the line scan better (for me).
Duke Tritton wrote (c. 1955?): 'I was droving sheep about 1910. There were five in the party, Billy McBeth, the Boss drover; Jim and Tiger Schurr; Joe Goodman and myself. All five were good mates and all could sing a fair song. Billy McBeth, who would be well into his sixties, used to sing the above song; said he learned it from his father, so it would seem to be fairly ancient. We all would beef it out round the campfire, but over the course of the years it had gone clean out of my mind. Then three years ago I met Joe Goodman again; he had not forgotten, and in memory of our three mates, who have all gone on, we bellowed it out again.'

'Duke' sang this song to much the same tune he used for a couple of others, including Shearing at Castlereagh and his version of Henry Lawson's The Lights of Cobb and Co ... a different setting of which I posted a week or two back in Alison's "Songs about Cobb and Co" thread.

I have the tune (more or less) in my music program at home. I will nudge it into the correct form for this song and post it from home ... when I get a chance.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 18 Jun 02 - 12:19 AM

G'day again,

Two more songs that occurred to me as fitting the criteria were The Cry Look Out Below!, a song by Goldrush balladeer Charles Thatcher - about someone coming to Australia, finding gold, going back "home" ... and returning to Australia because he "... likes the sound of the windlasses, and the cry 'Look out, below!' ... " (I can get this together and post from home) - and another song Patsy Fagan.

This second one probably exists in most immigrant countries with Irish communities, but this is an Australian version. I looked for it in the DT ... and found no version ... but a tune of that name was given for an unrelated songs The Tyrefitter's Song ... ?!? When i get a chance, I'll see if it is the same tune. (And I'll post our Australian Patsy Fagan.)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: sheila
Date: 18 Jun 02 - 06:44 PM

Phillipa - In 'Myth, Migration and the Making of Memory - Scotia and Nova Scotia c.1700-1990' ISBN 0 85976 521 0, the chapter 'Lochaber No More' has some examples of immigrant songs with a positve outlook.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 08:16 AM

see Chan eil mulad orainnwe are not sad (Gaelic)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 08:33 AM

see Chan eil mulad oirnnWe are not sad [to be leaving] in Gaelic. The story connected with the song is not so happy, however. Iain mac Murchaidh composed his song before emigrating. He went to N Carolina in 1774 and fought in the American War of Independance, on the Loyalist side. Some say he died while a fugitive from the American soldiers and others that he died after being taken prisoner. His songs were preserved by a comrade Iain mac a' Ghobha who didn't likn the new world enough to stay there, and returned to Scotland. Though perhaps Iain mac a' Ghobha returned with the money for land and cattle; I don't know. He brought back songs that Iain mac Murchaidh had composed in America. I must see if any of those were happy. A song called Tha Mulad Orm - I AM Sad - is about his marriage!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 08:48 AM

Two things to add. First, I sing an additional verse to The Shores of Botany Bay:

The best years of our lives we've spent, working on the docks.
Building mighty wharves and quays from earth and ballast rocks.
Now pensions keep our jobs secure, but I shan't rue the day
When I make a trip in an emmigrant ship to the shores of Botany Bay.

My version comes from the Clancy Brothers, I think.

Second, here's the English translation of a Finnish song I learned from my mother (Evelyn Bryant nee Niskanen):

I was born upon the sea
Hey, himputa rimpun rimpun pilla pilla [the Finnish equivalent of fol deroll-ido day]
I was born upon the sea and christened on the deck.

On the deck of the ship to America,
Hey, etc.
...'Twas there I cut my teeth.

On the ship to America,
Hey...
...We eat good bread every day.

Over the sea on copper ranges,
Hey...
...Boils the American coffee

And now this young sailor boy's heart
Hey...
...Is pounding like a river's rapids.

The melody is in a minor key, but the tempo is brisk. The Finns being mad about coffee (Finland has the greatest per-capita coffee consumption in the world, I've heard) it's no wonder the emmigrant is looking forward to a hot mug-up when he reaches America.

Enjoyable post.

Jerry

Subject: Lyr Add: THEY'RE GOING HOME
From: GUEST,Celtaddict
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 09:39 AM

Some time ago I observed to Danny Quinn, Irish-American singer in the Northeast, that there are so many heartbreaking songs of Irish immigration that now, when for the first time in 800 years, more people are returning to Ireland than are leaving, there should be an upbeat song celebrating this.
He called me a few days later to sing this, now available on his most recent CD, Vacant Chair.

    THEY'RE GOING HOME

Liam came from County Clare back in 1989.
He got a job in Canada on a Ford assembly line.
There were three other lads who came from home; they shared a walkup flat,
But things have turned around back there, and he's so happy that
   They're going home,
   They're going home;
   Yesterday it was just a dream but today they're going home.
   They're going home,
   They're going home;
   Yesterday it was just a dream but today they're going home.

Eamonn came from Dublin, skilled in the builder's trade.
He'd march and sing the songs of home on each St. Patrick's Day.
He met an Irish girl down in Delaware; they built condos by the sea.
Dublin needs her builders, home's a better place to be.
   They're going home. . .

After years of emigration songs full of sorrow and of pain,
The pendulum has finally swung and they're going home again.

Grace had moved from Derry back in 1992.
Jobs were getting hard to find when her schooling was all through.
Some friends in Boston took her in, and she waitressed every day.
But Ireland needs her teachers now; she's going home to stay.
   They're going home. . .

Danny has a website at www.dannyquinn.com

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Celtaddict
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 10:05 AM

Ed Miller sings of the ambivalence of the emigrant/immigrant, in the title track of "At Home with the Exiles" (CDTRAX89 from Greentrax) which contains the wonderful lines, "My only homelad is six feet high, for its indepedence I will die."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Celtaddict
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 10:16 AM

Eric Bogle addressed the ambivalnce of emigration as well in "The Strangers" on his CD with John Munro, "The Emigant and the Exile" (CDTRAX121 from Greentrax). He describes returning to the home of his birth and realizing he is now a stranger there where "where my past and my present collide, where the man who is and the boy who was will not look for each other again."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Celtaddict
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 10:31 AM

Another emigrant, from Ennistymon, a village on the edge of the Burren, has been in New York for a couple of decades now. Danny Quinn also wrote of his joy in going back for visits, real or imagined, while recognizing that New York is his home. (Also on Vacant Chair.)
One verse goes
   Somehow I never thought that I'd fit in here
   In this place of so much bustle, and that rattling subway train,
   But so many arms and doors have opened for me;
   Those arms have wrapped around me, and so I will remain.
    Ah, but sweet Ennistymon. . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 Mar 03 - 06:09 PM

G'day JB,

That extra stanza to Shores of Botany Bay ... starting:

The best years of our lives we've spent, working on the docks.

is added by the (modern) Bushwackers ... at least it is credited to one of their members in The Bushwackers Song Book. If it was sung by the Clancys, I presume they picked it up from the Bushwackers. Given the last line, it always struck me as odd that they sing it as the last verse ... it really fits in, chronologically, as the first verse (I don't know where you place it, of course).

Actually, I must have another listen to their recording to see if the last line reads exactly the same as you give ... I think their published version may have a different tense. I don't sing this verse myself, preferring to stick to Duke Tritton's original.

I must have lost my 'trace' on this thread - I notice there are a few tunes and words I promised ... and they don't seem to have been delivered ... yet!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Happy immigration songs (discuss also)
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 05:11 AM

Tha mi duillich. A wee error, Iain macMurchaidh's song about his nagging wife is "Tha me tinn, tinn,tinn" (I am sick, sick,sick). It appears that song was also composed before he emigrated. James Campbell of Kintail's recording for the School of Scottish Studies (on Tangent and Greentrax) also. The last-known song he composed in America is "Tha mi sgìth 'an fhoghar seo", I am tired of this exile. That song is historically interesting for its Loyalist sentiments; is there an appropriate Mudcat thread for that topic?

-thanks, JB, celtaddict,& Bob Bolton for adding further info and lyrics to the thread