Lyr Req: Off to California

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: ~Harper
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 03:40 PM

okay... it looks like i am now a member returned -- thanks Joe.
not being a singer i am having a hard time making lyrics fit my tune... back to playin'
~wanda in Redding, CA

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 02:36 PM

Note to Wanda - I e-mailed your user name and password to your hotmail account. If that's no longer active, e-mail me.

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: GUEST,~wanda in Redding, CA
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 02:21 PM

that's not the tune i am playing -- mine came from Mary Radspinner in book "Seabreeze" --but is also the same as found on the ABC Tunefinder in G and many speeds......

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 02:08 PM

Barry, is this (click) the tune?
-Joe-

---

Click to play

a tune I stole from Tunefinder. It's about the same as the one we already had in Mudcat MIDIs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 01:59 PM

The song/tune that I know as Muirsheen Durkin isn't the same tune that I sing to "Off To California" also known as "Off To Philadelphia". I think that I sing the same words & tune as Riggy posted above, probably because I got them from him. I 1st heard them better than 20 yrs ago sung by a banjo player friend (Tommy ?) of mine & Riggy's who'd come to the same sessions at the Village Coach House in Brookline, Mass just outside of Boston. It was, I believe, a Nov morning in 1980 that Riggy came by to pick me up, that morning the 2 of us were off to California. For me it was a working vacation during the winter months in a much warmer climate. Riggy met Mary & never did move back.

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: GUEST,~wanda
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 01:10 PM

Thanks to radiano i now have two sets of lyrics for "Off to California" -- must admit that i lean toward Riggy's sung version of Patty Leary. just wish i had been in Berkely to hear it!

So far, what fits with the story i was told that the hornpipe originated on ship with a sailor headed for the gold fields in 1849, is this chorus:

"So goodbye Muirsheen Durkin, I'm sick and tired of working,
No more I'll dig the praties, no longer I'll be fool.
For as sure as me name is Carney
I'll be off to California, where instead of diggin'praties
I'll be diggin'lumps of gold."

Joe, i sent you an email, but no response??? i'm in Redding, CA -- i will give the membership signup another try this am.

---

Try e-mailing me again, wanda - don't submit a new membership. When you e-mail, make sure the word Mudcat is part of your message title.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 11:58 AM

Of course, the lyrics Radriano posted are almost exactly the Off to Philadelphia lyrics in the Digital Tradition, which is sung to "Off to California," a tune that doesn't have words. Is that clear now?

"Muirsheen Durkin," a song which is sung to the tune of "Muirsheen Durkin," which DOES have words, is a song on the same topic; as is "Off For California," which is sung to the tune of "Oh, Susanna."

And if you ever heard dulcet tones of Riggy's voice, you would swear the man has never been west of Philadelphia nor east of Asbury Park - so if he's singing about going to California, he must be lost.

OK, class, now do we all understand each other now?

-Joe Offer, who never dreamed he'd be living in
Colfax, California-

Subject: Lyr Add: OFF TO CALIFORNIA (from Riggy Rackin)
From: radriano
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 11:20 AM

OFF TO CALIFORNIA
As sung by Riggy Rackin

O me name is Paddy Leary from a spot in Tipperary
The hearts of all the ladies there I am a thorn in
But come the break of mornin' it is they who'll be forlorn
For I'm off to California in the morning

Chorus:
With me bundle on me shoulder, faith, there's no man can be bolder
I'm leaving dear old Ireland without warning
For I lately took the notion for to cross the briny ocean
And I'm off to California in the morning

There's a girl named Kate Malone who I'd hope to call my own
And have our children on my little cabin floor adornin'
By my heart is sad and weary, how can she be Mrs. Leary
When I'm off to California in the morning

Chorus

When they told me I must leave the place I tried to wear a cheerful face
To show me heart's deep sorrow I was scornin'
But the tears will surely blind me for the friends I leave behind me
When I'm off to California in the morning

Last chorus:
With me bundle on me shoulder sure there's no man can be bolder
I'm leaving just the spot that I was born in
But some day I'll take the notion to come back across that ocean
To me home in dear old Ireland in the morning


Riggy sang this last Thursday at his wonderful concert at Boaz Accordions in Berkeley (Oakland?), California. He's the only person I've ever heard sing it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: greg stephens
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 06:39 AM

Well, the verses(but not the chorus) of that "I'm off for California " fit very well to the "Off to California" hornpipe...I've just tried and it sounds well!
   I'm still confused about references to singing "Muisheen Durkin" to "Off to California". The standard tune of MD is not "Off to California"...so what is being claimed exactly?

Subject: ADD: Off for California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 01:47 AM

Riggy got back to me, and pointed out previous discussions on Off to Philadelphia in the Morning which uses the tune for "Off to California." Riggy and Barry's messages say there are no "Off to California" lyrics.

However, I found a song called "Off for California" in Lingenfelter/Dwyer's Songs of the American West:

I'm Off For California
(tune: "O Susannah!)

1
Now, darkies, gather round me—I got a thing to tell;
'Twill make you burst your eyelids, and make your bosom swell;
The white folks all am crazy wid nuffin' in dar mouth,
But de mines ob California—whose a gwan Souff?

CHORUS: Oh, Jerusha! whose gwine to go?
I'm gwine to California, so fotch along de hoe!
Oh, Jerusha! whose gwine to go?
I'm gwine to California, so fotch along de hoe!

2
Now, darkies, just believe me—but you needn't if you like—
I heard from California by de telegraph to-night;
De letter was so heaby, dat dis darkey couldn't hold,
So I took and bust de seal, and found eleben pound of gold.

3
Now, I'll hab a wooden shobel, and I'll hab it made of tin,
And de way I'll scoop de grabel up, it surely am a sin;
And I'll tell de staring white folks, when dey ask us who am we—
We're de famous California Gold Mining Company.

4
Den I'se gwan to work my passage on de telegraph to hire,
'Case dey want a handsome darkie for de greasin' ob de wire;
An' when I get to Mexico, I'll take de charcoal train,
'Till I get to Sally-Gordy, den de telegraph again.

5
Den Daniel Tucker neber want for supper any more;
We'll take de old man back again to old Virginia shore
And dearest Mae, take care yourself, and farewell, Mary Blane—
We're going to California, but we're coming back again.


TEXT: "I'm off for California" (New York: De Marsan, n.d. [broadside])

---

So, Snuffy, I hope this is proper reparation.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 12:41 AM

Uh, well....
Bluster, blubber, babble, babble, gurgle, gurgle.
Humblest apologies, Sir Snuffy. Guess I'd better upgrade me spectacles...
For my penance, I will e-mail Riggy and Barry and see if I can get an answer.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 12:06 AM

Joe, Snuffy said, "Muirsheen Durkin is a song which does contain the words 'Off to California,'" and you just proved him right.   Who's contradicting whom? (Or, as some would have it, Whose contradicting who?) My friend and Mudcatter David Ingerson from Portland OR also sings "Muirsheen Durkin" and I agree it's not "Off to California." So the question remains, are there words to the hornpipe "Off to California," and if so, what are they?   

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 11:43 PM

I beg your pardon, Mr. Snuffy, but take a look at this chorus:

So goodbye Muirsheen Durkin, I'm sick and tired of working,
No more I'll dig the praties, no longer I'll be fool.
For as sure as me name is Carney
I'll be off to California, where instead of diggin'praties
I'll be diggin'lumps of gold.

That'll learn ya to contradict a California man.
-Joe Offer, huffily-
[grin]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Snuffy
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 07:55 PM

Muirsheen Durkin is a song which does contain the words "Off to California", but "Off to California" is a hornpipe, andve never heard of words to it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 06:39 PM

The ABC Tunefinder has several renditions of a tune called "Off to California" - it's definitely not "Muirsheen Durkin."
Wanda, send me an e-mail and let me know what's your real name and previous e-mail address, and the name of the city where you live (so I know you are who you say you are). I'll send your user name and password so you can access your old membership.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 06:35 PM

thanks again for your help -- i have been away and changed email addresses. can't seem to get my membership working at the moment and, it won't let me sign up as a new member either???   ~wanda

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 06:31 PM

The one that comes to mind is Muirsheen Durkin, which is the "Off to California" song I've heard Debby McClatchy sing. would somebody wake up Barry and Riggy and tell them to give us an answer?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: michaelr
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 06:27 PM

Mudcatter Riggy sings this one -- if you register as a member, Wanda (it's free), you can send him a Personal Message.

And if he sees this thread, I'm sure he'll be happy to oblige. We should have these lyrics in the collection!

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: Lyr Req: Off to California
From: GUEST,~wanda
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 06:13 PM

hi...    a couple of years back hornpipes were being discussed and Barry Finn answered that his favorite to sing was: "Off to California"...    i have been searching hi and lo for those lyrics?? if Barry is still around -- please respond -- if not, is there anyone else who has heard words for this tune?? thanks, ~wanda