Origins: Here's a Health to the Company

Subject: Here`s a health to the company
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:11 PM

I am looking for the words to a song entitled "Here`s a health to the company". I heard it on an early Chieftains CD and would like to get the text.

Would really appreciate any help on this!

JB

Subject: Here's a Health to the Company (DT Version)
From: allanwill
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:15 PM

From the Digitrad.

HEALTH TO THE COMPANY

Kind friends and companions, come join me in rhyme
And lift up your voices in chorus with mine
Let us drink and be merry, all grief to refrain
For we may and might never all meet here again

Here's a health to the company and one to my lass
Let us drink and be merry all out of one glass
Let us drink and be merry, all grief to refrain
For we may and might never all meet here again

Here's a health to the dear lass that I love so well
Her style and her beauty, sure none can excel
She smiles on my countenance and sits on me knee
Sure there's no one in Erin as happy as we

Our ship lies at harbor, she's ready to dock
I hope she's safe landed without any shock
If ever I meet you by land or by sea
I will always remember your kindness to me

@drink @sea
recorded by McDermott's Handy
filename[ HLTHCOMP
Tune file : HLTHCOMP

---

Line Breaks <br> added.
For every rule, there's an exception. Generally, it's not a good idea to copy-paste Digital Tradition lyrics into a thread. In this case, it's handy to have the DT version so it can be compared with the other versions.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here`s a health to the company
From: allanwill
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:18 PM

Wanted to do that as I wasn't sure whether it would copy as shown or whether you still had to put
after each line - now I know.

Allan

Subject: ADD Verse: Here's a Health to the Company
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:25 PM

There's another verse too (I think from a version in Robin Morton's Songs Sung In Northern Ireland, or similar title, but origin lost in time):

    I have read the old proverb, I've read it anew
    My love she's as fair as the bright morning dew
    I have read the old proverb, I suppose so have you
    So kind friends and companions I bid you adieu.
  

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here`s a health to the company
From: Noreen
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:32 PM

Allan, sorry but it's best not to copy and paste here from the Digitrad, better to put in a link: cut and paste the URL, in this case:

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2556,

or turn it into a 'blue clicky':

HEALTH TO THE COMPANY (learn how to do this in the FAQ).

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here`s a health to the company
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 06:27 PM

MCP

Robin Morton's Folksongs sung in Ulster gives only 3 verses, with the instruction to repeat verse 3 ("So here's a health") after verse 4. Your 4th verse must come from somewhere else....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here`s a health to the company
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 09:29 PM

Quite right - the verse came from the version in Paddy Tunney's book The Stone Fiddle My way to Traditional Song, with the verse slightly different from my memory of it:

    I have read the old proverb, I have read it so true
    My love she's as far as the bright morning dew
    I have read the old proverb, I suppose so have you
    So good friends and companions I bid you adieu
  

The other three verses are substantially the same as in the version above - I'll put up the full version later for comparison.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here`s a health to the company
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 12:42 AM

Thanks a lot to all of you for your input on this. It`s so easy when you know how!

JB

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: KIND FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 09:22 AM

The more I look at the Tunney version, the more I think that wasn't the source for my extra verse (although it is there); perhaps it was the version in Shields' Shamrock, Rose And Thistle.(I'm sure my source didn't have far for fair). Anyway, here's the complete Paddy Tunney version.

Mick

---

Paddy Tunny says: "And now to conclude and to finish my journey, I give you a song beloved of the gentle and genial Joe Holmes, a troubador from North Antrim, who went to God early in 1978. May the sod lie lightly on his bones!"

---

KIND FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS

  Kind friends and companions together combine,
  Come raise up your glasses in chorus with mine
  We will drink and be merry, good drinks and refrain
  That we may or might never all meet here again.
  
  Chorus:
    Here's a health to the company, and one to my lass
    We will drink and be marry all out of one glass
    We will drink and be merry, good drinks and refrain
    That we may or might never all meet here again.
  
  Here's a health to the wee lass that I love so well
  For style or for beauty there's none can excel
  She smiles on my countenance as she sits on my knee
  There is none in this wide world so happy as me.
  
  Our ship lies at anchor and ready to dock
  I wish her safe landing without shake or shock
  And when we are sailing to the land of the free
  I will always remember your kindness to me.
  
  I have read the old proverb, I have read it so true
  My love she's as far as the bright morning dew
  I have read the old proverb, I suppose so have you
  So good friends and companions I bid you adieu.
  

---

And the tune:

Kind/ friends and com-/pa-nions to-/geth-er com-/bine,
Come/ raise up your/ glass-es in/ cho-rus with/ mine
We will/ drink and be/ mer-ry, good/ drinks and re-/frain
That we/ may or might/ nev-er all/ meet here a-/gain.//


X: 1
T:Kind Friends And Companions
M:3/4
L:1/4
S:Paddy Tunney - The Stone Fiddle
K:D dor
(c/B/)| A D D|c A G|E D C|D2
C|D F G|A d (e/d/)|c A G|A2
G/ E/|D F G|A d (e/d/)|c (A/G/) (A/B/)|c2
B/ c/|d A d|c (B/A/) G|E D C|D2||

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DONSIDE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL
From: radriano
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 12:21 PM

The verse with "gold from Peru" also appears in this song. It's from a collection of songs from Ireland, Scotland and England, edited by Dan Milner. I don't have the book in front of me so I can't offer any of the notes. I wonder which song came first, "Here's a Health to the Company" or "The Donside Emigrant's Farewell"?

THE DONSIDE EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL

Come all my old comrades, once more let us join
And raise your sweet voices in chorus with mine
Let us drink and be merry, from sorrow refrain
For we may and may never meet all here again

The time's fast approaching that I must away
I bid you adieu for many's the long day
With you, my dear comrades, so happy we've been here
But away to Virginia my course I must steer

May Heaven protect us with a prosperous gale
And be our safeguard while we are under sail
Lead us safe to the harbor across the proud wave
We will trust to His mercy Who can sink or can save

Ye hills and low valleys of Donside, farewell
For if ever I return there is none here can tell
Farewell to your lasses of every degree
Long in vain will I wish for your sweet company

Farewell to the jewel, to you I love best
for you and your beauty excels all the rest
But if you prove constant as constant can be
Wherever I go, love, my heart is with thee

Many hearts will be happy, but mine will be sad
When I think on the joys that me and my love had
When I mind on the time that you sat on my knee
There was none in this world more happy than we

Farewell to my joys, they are gone for a while
Cold winter's away and the sweet summer smiles
I have heard an old proverb, found it to be true
That true love is better than gold from Peru

Come all my dear comrades, let's drink up our glass
Each lad drink a health to his darling sweet lass
Drink a health to each lover whose sweetheart is true
Here's a health, peace, and plenty; so farewell and adieu!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here`s a health to the company
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 12:40 PM

The Roud index groups the two songs together. In the notes to the version of The Emigrant's Farewell To Donside in Ord's Bothy Songs And Ballads the notes say: "This song was sung at a social gathering at Corriehoul, Corgarff, Aberdeenshire, in 1836 by a Mr. Charles Michie, prior to his emigrating to America. His friends long believed it ot have been composed by himself, but Mr. Jonathan Gauld, Edinburgh, who sent it to me by special request, informs me that he has discovered it is much older than Michie's time, and that he simply altered some of the verses to suit his own case."

The two songs have appeared in many collections.

Mick

Subject: ZDTStudy: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:28 PM

Some threads give a fairly complete discussion of a song and provide several alternate versions. This seems to eliminate the need for a separate DTStudy thread. When that's the case, I'll title one message in the thread ZDTStudy, so it will turn up in the Forum Search. Threads like this won't be edited.
I couldn't find an entry on this song in the Traditional Ballad Index.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 05:21 PM

MCP

No, it wasn't Shamrock, Rose and Thistle - it's there as no 34, but only the refrain! The note says "Two or three verses usually accompany this refrain and evoke the occasion as an emigrant's departure. The song is quite well known in the northern counties of Ireland, and with varying text has been noted in Canada and Scotland, where it was perhaps composed"

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 06:11 PM

Eat, Drink and Be Merry as long as oil remaineth in the lamp. For who knows if in the other world there be a tavern.

This is the toast we always use after this song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 03:57 AM

This one reminded me of VIVE L'AMOUR which is in the DT. However, I note that the DT version has no attached notes for dating etc., and three verses instead of the four which are in the Scottish Students Song Book.
Whilst it is not sufficient to require a fresh DTStudy, I will post the additional verse shortly.

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 04:06 AM

Apart from having an extra verse, the SSSB version (6th edition 1897) has a slight variation in the first verse, "our glorious class", not "His glorious class".
The third vese sees a more prominent change

Come, fill up your glasses; I'll give you a toast,
Vive la compagnie
Here's a health to our friend our kind worthy host.
Vive la compagnie

And the additional final verse

Since all with good humour you've toasted so free,
Vive la compagnie
I hope it will please you to drink now with me.
Vive la compagnie

I can imagine the aural tradition losing this last verse, as it offers to provide a round of drinks, and could get expensive.

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: GUEST,jill b.
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 01:59 AM

I have the lyrics to the song mentioned above but I cannot seem to get the melody to play. I want to sing this for my daughter's wedding. Can you help me? I read music and can get it that way, too!
   Thanks!
   Jill

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 02:57 AM

Hi, Jill - you should be able to Click here and play the MIDI from our database (but it has been working off and on lately). You can also Click here to get the tune in various formats at Yet Another Digital Tradition, a mirror of our database.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 05:45 AM

Or Vive L'Amour for the music to the other version quoted

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 09:56 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: GUEST,Sydney
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 12:09 PM

I have also come across another verse for Health to the Company, that makes sense in relation to the reference in the third verse to the ship at anchor (and eventual departure):

My footsteps may falter my wit it may fail
My course may be challenged by November gale
Ere fortune shall prove to be friend or be foe
You will always be with me wherever I go

Not sure of origin for these - whether a recent addition or another trad strain. Would love to know though!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Mr Happy
Date: 14 Dec 13 - 05:24 AM

Kevin Coniff

Subject: Origins: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Dave Rado
Date: 09 Apr 17 - 05:36 PM

I recently watched Aidan Moffat's lovely documentary Where You're Meant to Be, the centrepiece of which was the Traveller and traditional folk singer Sheila Stewart MBE singing Here's a Health to the Company. However, I found the film's coverage of that song very confusing in several respects:

In the film, Aidan Moffat said the song was called The Parting Glass, rather than Here's a Health to the Company – and yet the words Sheila Stewart sang were those of Here's a Health to the Company. The words of The Parting Glass are totally different. (The Parting Glass starts "Oh all the money that e'er I spent/I spent it in good company").

Here's the DT version of Here's a Health to the Company and here's the DT version of The Parting Glass. The two songs appear to be totally unrelated to each other, although admittedly they're both songs about parting.

I've subsequently found a Soundcloud recording of Sheila Stewart singing Here's a Health to the Company here. As in the film, this recording calls it The Parting Glass – and yet she's not singing The Parting Glass: she's singing Here's a Health to the Company.


In both the above Soundcloud recording and in the recordings of her singing it in the Aidan Moffat film, she also sings the song to a different tune from the tune everyone else seems to sing it to. The usual tune for Here's a Health to the Company is the one sung by The Chieftains here. But she sings it to the tune of Lovely Molly (aka I once was a Ploughboy). For instance, there's a recording of Lovely Molly here and that's the tune she sings Here's a Health to the Company to. There are many recordings of Lovely Molly sung to that tune, but she's the only person I know of who sings Here's a Health to the Company to that tune.


Either she or Aidan Moffat also says in the film that The Parting Glass was commonly sung at New Year in Scotland until Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne; and while that appears to be true of the song that is usually called The Parting Glass (e.g. see here), I don't believe it is true of Here's a Health to the Company, which is the song she sings.


She says in the film that she learnt the song from her mother, who learnt it from her grandmother, and that it's been passed down unchanged from generation to generation for many centuries; and she also speaks very disapprovingly in the film of the idea of folk singers changing traditional songs in order to "make them their own" – and yet in a way that seems to be exactly what her family have done, unless I'm missing something – they appear to have taken the words from one song, the tune from another, and the title from a third, and mixed them all together!

To be fair to her, those words work very well indeed with that tune (and it's a glorious tune); but it's still funny and ironic that she or one of her ancestors should have done that, given her professed belief that traditional songs shouldn't be altered in any way.

My question is, am I missing something, or has she (or one of her ancestors) really mixed three songs together, as I've described above?

Dave

Subject: RE: Origins: Here's a Health to the Company
From: BobKnight
Date: 10 Apr 17 - 04:28 AM

Here's another "Parting Glass" for you. By Frank Harte this time.
Sheila sang it as she received it from her mother and grandmother.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG9NfhvrqI4

Subject: RE: Origins: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 06:57 AM

I have a whole subsection of one folder devoted to "Parting Songs", many of which mention "a parting glass": many have lines or phrases in common with each other. so, not surprisingly, their origins sometimes get confused, and/or "Which song are you talking about?"

I have heard the "Frank Harte" song which Bob linked to above being described as Irish, probably because he and Cathal McConnell are known for singing it. Its usual title is "When First we Met" and is by English songwriter, Alan Bell. And it's in the DT under that title.

As for Sheila's song, I was taught it as "Kind Friends and Companions" - again using the first line as title, and it does then distinguish it from other "Parting Glass" songs. The tune is shared by a number of other songs - not such an unusual scenario in folk music - apart from "Lovely Molly" there's "Puir Roving lassie". You can't keep a good tune down!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 19 - 07:52 PM

I too was looking for information on the "My footsteps may falter" verse and I found out that it was written by Owain Phyfe for his 2012 album "Poets, Bards, & Singers of Song".

Source: http://www.owainphyfe.com/owain/lyrics/poets-bards.htm#track13

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: RunrigFan
Date: 27 Feb 19 - 11:58 PM

Health To The Company https://www.discogs.com/Blackmores-Night-Autumn-Sky/release/6696312

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 07:50 PM

needs cleanup

Subject: RE: Origins: Here's a Health to the Company
From: JHW
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 03:30 PM

Scots group Mirk used this as a 'Parting Glass' song. (some time ago)

Subject: RE: Origins: Here's a Health to the Company
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 08:07 PM

They also have “Tak a dram afore ye go” - another good parting song.