Lyr Req: The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley (Lyons)

Subject: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 03:37 AM

In another thread Martin Ryan posted...

QUOTE
Theres a fine comic murder song called "The Ballad of Joe Frawley" in which the murder weapon is "a Black Diamond banjo wire" - after which the body is slung in a lake. The policeman's initial assessment goes:

"We have reasonable suspicion foul play is involved here
For we found his body floating at the bottom of the lake
And those marks around his windpipe - a blunt instument did make"!
UNQUOTE

of which I would like more, including tune and chords, if possible...

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: Eugene Judge
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 05:39 AM

No lyrics found.

It's listed as "The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley" on Fintan Valley CD "Big Guns and Hairy Drums"   

Song Notes:
15/ The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley
The grocer-cum-publican is common enough in rural anywhere. Joe Frawley had such an emporium, and was a politician too. Ever since Irish women took to the pub after the epidemic of addiction to Dallas where every sentence used a drink as punctuation, music came to be provided as entertainment, sometimes the native stuff, more likely a cocktail of Country and pop. Often, to save expense, local Trad musicians would be recruited, and called a 'session'. Substances other than alcohol would be consumed too, and Tim's parody on the classic 'murder' ballad romantically unfolds. The 'holy hour' was the now-obsolete dinner-hour during which Dublin pubs were closed to give unionised bar-staff a break.

All info from this site:

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~fidil/scitherCD.html


Eugene

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: belfast
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 01:17 PM

The writer of the song is Tim Lyons, currently residing, singing and playing in Galway. I have some, but not all, of the words in my head. It is a brilliant piece of work and if nobody else does I'll transcribe the words some day.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: MartinRyan
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 05:34 PM

Tune is The Flower of Sweet Strabane

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 09 Feb 04 - 03:02 PM

It appears on a cassette that Fintan and Tim made back in 1989. It's called "Knock, Knock, Knock" on UFMA Tapes which was at 18-20 Bishop Street, Derry. Worth a try or contact Finbar Boyle at Claddagh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Feb 04 - 11:17 PM

This page says the lyrics to THE GRISLY MURDER OF JOE FRAWLEY are in a songbook called "Balcony of the Nation," a "satiric/comic song selection of modern Ireland" edited by Fintan Vallely.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: MartinRyan
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 03:28 AM

Jim

That book has not yet been published, I'm afraid. The last time I asked Fintan about it, he raised his eyes to heaven in despair!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: GUEST,Curious Clouseau
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 10:35 AM

Does anybody know where I could order a copy of "Big Guns and Hairy Drums"? I e-mailing the site listed above but it doesn't seem to be working anymore.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley
From: Peace
Date: 01 Jun 05 - 09:35 PM

http://homepage.eircom.net/~fidil/scitherCD.html

Try at the above link.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Joe Frawley / Grisly Murder of
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 04 Jun 05 - 08:06 AM

O.K Foolstroupe I have the words now and I quite agree this song by the venerable Mr Lyons should be shared by one and all. However I am not bright enough to transfer them via posting or link but if you(or someone else who is interested)could pm me with an e-mail address to which I could attach it I'll send it forthwith for them to do the honours. By the way as mentioned in a previous thread, I have changed Holy Hour to Happy Hour.
Thanks in anticipaton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley
From: MartinRyan
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 06:53 PM

Refresh

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GRISLY MURDER OF JOE FRAWLEY (T Lyons
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 03:29 AM

THE GRISLY MURDER OF JOE FRAWLEY
(Tim Lyons)
(Air: 'The Flower of Sweet Strabane')

I'll sing of Mike-ey Cleary who in this town did dwell;
He worked in Frawley's music lounge, a-a place you all know well.
Joe Frawley was a councillor, full of wit and rural charm,
"With a Mace Food Store in the shop next door—and a ninety-acre farm.

When the week it starts he has cards and darts, on Tuesdays, there's nothing much;
On Wednesdays, there's a disco bar with flashing lights and such.
The local Comhaltas meeting goes wild on Thursday nights,
But it's when the weekend comes around, man, it's really out of sight.

For from bogs and drains, from shady lanes, from the woodwork everywhere,
On buckrakes and in motoring cars they do assemble there
With tin whistles and with mandolins and bouzoukis by the score,
Bodhrans, and bones, mouth organs, spoons and the Portuguese guitar.

I'll also sing of Brídhgín Ring, out the country she did live.
She fell in love with young Cleary for the service he could give.
For 'twas many's the toasted sandwich he slipped free across the bar,
And many's the West Coast Cooler too—in fact, lashings of free jar.

But word did spill, as word soon will, where there's complimentary beer.
A local spy who lived nearby whispered in Joe Frawley's ear:
"Your profits are going down the tubes with Cleary pulling your pints—
They're being given away, for SFA, to the young-one smoking joints."

A-a-and when he heard these dreadful words his face turned a greenish grey;
Unto his lovesick ba-ar man these awful words did say:
"You will repay without delay all the money that you stole
Or it's lose the job without a bob and I'll bar you from the dole."

From shady lanes, from bogs and drains, from the woodwork everywhere
In buckrakes and in motoring cars they do assemble there;
With fiddles there and banjoes too, Paolo Sopranis small and large,
Mandocellos, flutes, Celtic harps and lutes and a flat-bellied, twelve-string blarge.

This happened all on a wet weekend five days before the Fleadh.
She'd gone up to her father saying u-unto him, "Da,
I'm thumbing into town a while to see what I can see
To down the black, and have some crack, and hear some Schitheredee."

A-a-and when she walk-ed in the pub she was ready all for the booze.
Ould Frawley came right up to her and his words did careful choose.
It was at this fair young maiden he then threw the bloody book,
Saying: "You won't get tight in here this night—so FUCK OFF AND SLING YOUR HOOK."

And when she heard these boring words she shed not a single tear,
But swore by all the burning bras from here to Germaine Greer
That she would get revenge on him and slit his slimy throat
And throw his body all in the lake and spoil her Fine Gael vote.

From bogs and drains, from shady lanes, from the woodwork everywhere,
In buckrakes and in motoring cars they do assemble there;
With concertinas rare from County Clare, hurdy-gurdies on the ran by the ton,
And continental types with uilleann pipes, bombards and snare drums.

So-o as he was making silage on th'ould swamp that he called his farm,
It was quite true he had no clue that he would come to harm;
For she crept up close behind him with a Black Diamond banjo wire,
And she strung it tight round his wind-pipe and fecked him all in the mire.

Whe-en the Gardai heard of this their statement it was quite clear:
"We have reasonable suspicion foul play was involved here,
For we found his carcass floating on the bottom of the lake
And those marks around his windpipe a blunt instrument did make."

And when she was accused of it her solicitor he did say:
"My client pleads 'Not Guilty' unto her dying day."
But the judge he roared, "NOT LIKELY!", and his mouth obscured by foam:
"It's round the bend your life you'll spend in a psychiatric home."

Ould Frawley he was buried, in a coffin, a cask or bier,
And the ghost of crazy Bridhgín whispered in his tone-deaf ear:
"I've stilled your life forever, you chauvinistic little shower—
You'll be calling 'TIME!' for evermore where there's never a holy hour."

© Tim Lyons


Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley
From: MartinRyan
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 03:46 AM

Thanks, Jim - I refreshed it to remind me to do something about it!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 03:59 AM

That's odd - I thought I posted the words just after my last entry in 2005?
Anyway thanks for that Jim.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 02:25 AM

Good work, Jim.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley (Lyons)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Feb 12 - 02:42 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley (Lyons)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 03 Apr 20 - 10:54 PM

It's never too late...

Tim Lyons sings "The Grisly Murder of Joe Frawley"

Ross