Lyr Req: Arthur McBride

Subject: Arthur McBride
From: Belgabor
Date: 13 Nov 98 - 10:05 PM

Hi Folks, I'm looking for a special version of Arthur McBride. It starts like 'I onc ehad a cousin called Arthur McBride, he and I took a stroll down by the seaside...' Can anyone help?

Belgabor

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: DonMeixner
Date: 13 Nov 98 - 10:23 PM

Belgabor, This sounds like a version that Eric Frandsen used to play about 20 years ago. His version was written up in Singout magazine in the early 80's. There must be a few dozen versions of The Recruiting Sargent out there.

Subject: Lyr Add: ARTHUR MCBRIDE
From: Denis
Date: 13 Nov 98 - 10:33 PM

Hi I have two versions of this song. one song by Andy Irvine on a Planxty album and the other by Paul Brady which is one of my all time favourite tracks. I think though you may be looking for the version that Andy sings.

I had a first cousin called Arthur McBride
he and I took a stroll down by the seaside
a seeking good fortune and what might the tide
it was just as the day was a dawning

And after we rested we went on a tramp
we met Seargeant Napper and Corporal Cramp
and a little wee drummer who beat up our camp
with his rowdy dou dou in the morning

He said my young fellows if you will enlist
a guinea you quickly shall have in your fist
and besides a crown for to kick up the dust
and drink the King's health in the morning
but had we been such fools as to take the advance
the wee bit of money we'd have to run chance
do you think it no scuples for to send us to France
where we would be killed in the morning

He says my young fellows if I hear but one word
instantly now will out with my sword
and into your bodies as strength might afford
so now me gay devils take warning
but Arthur and I we soon took the odds
and we gave them no chance for to draw out their swords
our wacking shillelaghs came over their heads
and paid them right smart in the morning

As for the wee drummer we rifled his pouch
and we made a football of his rowdy dou dou
and into the ocean for to rock and to roll and
barring the day its returning
as for the ould rapier that hung by his side
we flung as far as we could in the tide
To the divil I pitch you says Arthur McBride
to temper your edge in the morning.

I hope this helps. If you get a chance you might try to get your hands on the excellent cd by Andy Irvine and Paul Brady which has another, I think better version of the song, slainte Denis

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 13 Nov 98 - 10:40 PM

Hi Belgabor!

This song was sung by Paul Brady and recorded by him and Andy Irvine on a terrific LP called "Paul Brady & Andy Irvine." It was originally on the Mulligan label and, later, on Green Linnet, I believe. Paul used to live here in New York. Anytime he used to sing "Arthur McBride" at a session, people would come running up and downstairs and from all over to hear it. There was never any question that it was a great song and that he did it masterfully. It is an Irish anti-recruiting song, of course, and, I could be wrong about this, but I believe the actual source was a book of New England (possibly Maine or Vermont) folk songs. It just turned up there.

I looked at the DigiTrad database under "Arthur McBride" and found 3 versions. The second one, ARTHUR McBRIDE & THE SARGEANT, is very close to what you want. I have Paul's recording in storage so I can't give you the very words he uses. Perhaps someone will type them out for you if you really need them.

All the best, Dan

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Belgabor
Date: 14 Nov 98 - 08:56 PM

Thanks to all for the help! Especially to Denis, for it is exactly what I was looking for.

Belgabor

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 15 Nov 98 - 06:04 PM

Belgabor,
The Dunbliners have done this song along with Martin Carthy (accompanied by Dave Swarbrick on fiddle.. probably the best version I've heard).
If you want the sheet music to it try here Irish@prof
Cheers
Mick

--- That link didn't work, but I found the working link, and replaced it. ---
---Jeff (PA)---

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 10:07 AM

the song is in P W Joyce's 'Old Irish Songs' from late 19th c., refers to it as going back to Napoleonic Wars, if memory serves, Paul Brady's 'Liberty Tapes' has great live version from 1972? I think, though he recorded it with Andy Irvine, and elsewhere I believe, often used as an encore in the Planxty days

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Declan
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 12:11 PM

Belgabor,

The Andy Irvine version is recorded on the first Planxty album from about 1972. The title of the album is 'Planxty', but its also known as the Black Album.

Paul Brady got so sick of singing his version, and being asked for it throughout his gigs that he stopped doing it for a long time, but its back in his repertoir now.

As well as the recently issued Liberty tapes (from 1979) he's also released a re-recorded version of it on a 'best of' album called Nobody knows The best of Paul Brady.

I've also heard Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick do a completely different version of the song, but I don't know if they've recorded it anywhere.

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: MartinRyan
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 04:02 PM

There's been several threads on this song, of course. THIS is probably the most informative.

Regards

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Ragtime Willy
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 05:39 PM

Good to read all these comments on such a wonderful song. For my money Paul Brady's version has to be a contender for the finest combination of singing and accompaniment ever recorded. I only wish I'd heard Paul back in the 70's - I can well understand Dan's comments about people running from all round -I discovered him in the mid 80's and have been fortunate to hear his version of Arthur McBride live a few times. Sad to miss his reunion concerts with the 'Liberty Belles' last year in Dublin - anyone know of Paul's further plans for such reunions?

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 21 Feb 02 - 06:00 PM

Declan, Martin Carthy's version (with Swarb on the fiddle) can be found on 'Prince Heathen' (1969).

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: RolyH
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 05:41 AM

There is also a version of it by Redd Sullivan on the BBC Album 'Folk on Friday'which Carthy mentions on the sleeve notes of 'Prince Heathen'

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 09:26 AM

Just to attempt accuracy & such, my earlier posting was from memory and a bit inaccurate: the thread Martin Ryan proposes as having best information, doesn't have this information, so it may be of interest. # 428 in P. W. Joyce's (1827-1914) 'Old Irish Folk Music and Song' published 1909 (his earlier book was published in 1875) is 'Arthur MacBride'. Lyrics just about identical to versions sung today, including Paul Brady's, (who did of course make some nice alterations here and there.) Joyce says: 'Learned in boyhood - air & words - from hearing the people all round me sing it. The words have never been published: but I have a dim recollection of seeing them in early days printed on a ballad-sheet. There is a setting of the air (different from mine) in Stanford-Petrie, and marked there (by Petrie) as from Donegal. Coupling this record with the phraseology, I am disposed to think that the whole song belongs to Donegal. But how it made its way to Limerick is more than I can tell.' (Limerick being Joyce's home, and where he heard the song sung all around) Tomás ó Canainn, in his 'Traditional Music of Ireland' claims 'It is worth remembering that Joyce was much nearer to the living tradition than any of the collectors mentioned above (Petrie, Stanford, Bunting, Hoffmann, etc.) with the possible exception of O'Farrell, and this is evident in his selection of tunes and in his notes to them. Many of them are from his own memory of his childhood in Glenosheen and bear the imprint of the real Irish tradition.' My question about Brady collecting this song in Maine? True? Has HE said So? or was it because somebody found the song in a book published in Maine? Don't think that was clarified anywhere. I think Joyce puts paid to the idea that this was in anyway East Anglian, it's Donegal. As to an author, I can't say, some broadsheet may turn up somewhere, but I haven't heard of it.

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Moleskin Joe
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 10:35 AM

From memory - 1/ the earliest recording I have of this is by the Exiles in the mid sixties. 2/ Mc Bride is a surname associated with Donegal. 3/ I seem to remember a thread in which it was stated that Paul Brady got the accompaniment or the song from a singer in New England called Connie Grover (Drover?).

Good Luck.

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Declan
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 11:48 AM

I can't claim any scholarly research on this but my memory is that when Paul Brady arrived back from the States to join Planxty in the mid '70s, he used to introduce this as 'Arthur Mc Bride & the Sergeant' as opposed to the previous Planxty version sung by Andy which was just called 'Arthur McBride'.

I definitely remember him referring to it as a version of the song that he collected in America. Whereabouts I don't know.

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Big Tim
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 11:55 AM

Of course Bob Dylan also recorded the song on his "Good As I Been to You" album. A crackin' version of sorts, but you really have to be Irish to sing this song "properly", even better if you're Andy Irvine (though he's English!). Stir, stir! It's not on my copy of the Planxty "black" album.

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 12:14 PM

To cut and paste from other earlier threads, regarding the origin of Paul Brady's version as coming from Carrie Grover in Maine:

Subject: RE: Paul Brady \ Arthur McBride
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 10-Apr-99 - 01:51 PM

I think you all ought to know that Paul Brady got this song from a friend's copy of Carrie Grover's A Heritage of Songs, originally published through the efforts of George Farnsworth and Ann Griggs at the Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine. Most people don't realize that this version of the song came from a traditional singer in Maine. Carrie Grover had songs from both her mother and her father and from her neighbors up there in the western part of the state, including, by the way, "The Braes of Balquither" and "Lass Among the Heather," both derived from the Tannahill poem that gave us "Wild Mountain Thyme." All in all, it's an astounding collection. Mrs. Grover also recorded some of her songs for what is now the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress.

Caroline and I were singing at Gould Academy some years ago and were given a copy of the original publication by a member of the staff there. It seems they had a few left-over copies in a closet and he thought we "might find it interesting!" We discovered that neither the Library of Congress nor Kenny Goldstein had the book, and arranged to have them get copies. Kenny later republished it through his Folklore Associates press. You might be able to find a copy of that edition.

I'll post the Grover text later (gotta get a program ready now for a gig we're doing tomorrow), but I can't give you whatever changes Brady may have made when he sang it, as I don't have his recording of it.
Sandy

Subject: RE: Paul Brady's version of Arthur McBride
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 14-Sep-00 - 05:18 PM

Sandy Paton and I alluded to the Maine / Grover origin above but was not aware that he found the book in Lisa Null's library. Lisa has a great library! I had a ramble through it in the late '70s when I was doing the bibliography for "A Bonnie Bunch of Roses."

Paul Brady thought a great deal of Lisa. Then, again, we all do.

All the best,
Dan Milner

The missing piece of information is that Paul Brady (or one of his friends) got the song from Lisa Null's Carrie Grover book while recording at Green Linnet. Lisa Null was one of the founders of Green Linnet (along with Patrick Sky), and ran it out of her house in New Canaan, Connecticut in those days.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 01:08 PM

I just collected the story from Lisa Null:

Paul Brady had come to America (back around 1972?) to work and earn money. He met Pat Sky, who encouraged him to become a professional musician.

Lisa had given Pat a copy of Carrie Grover's book, and Paul found Arthur McBride there while staying with Pat in Perryville, R.I.. Paul also had access to an Irish book, probably the Joyce mentioned above. He created a version based mainly on Grover, but with some input from the Irish version, and showed up at a concert Lisa and others were giving at the Enormous Room at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. (later known as the GPSC or Gypsy Room). Paul was invited to do a song, and premiered his version of Arthur McBride that evening. Lisa remembers that ir was Paul's birthday that evening, and later that night after they all repaired to her house, she baked him a birthday cake.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Moleskin Joe
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 04:53 PM

I think you would have to say that Paul Brady was a professional musician long before 1972. The Johnstons ?

Good luck.

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: Moleskin Joe
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 05:02 PM

Gordon McCulloch, who sang the song on the Exiles record in 1966, states that he got the words from Greig's Folk Songs of the North East and used the tune of The Bold Tenant Farmer.

Good luck.

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: MartinRyan
Date: 22 Feb 02 - 05:06 PM

Bill

Thanks for that. I don't think I've seen the Joyce version - although part of the quotation DOES sound familiar. The only other reference I'm aware of is a tune noted in Journal Of Irish folksong Vol. 3 p.16 as collected by C Milligan Fox in 1904 from T.Sweeny at Mount Charles, Donegal. Its included n a "sheaf of dance tunes".

Regards

p.s. I love the broadsheet where it appears alongside "The Kerry Recruit"!

Subject: RE: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 04 - 06:41 PM

The name is Carrie Grover. She is the great grandmother of my husband and yes she was from Maine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Feb 05 - 08:18 AM

Hi, I'm looking for a version of Arthur McBride that David Jones did in the 1980s. I had it written down and when I recently went to rememorize the lyrics I couldn't find my pages. It starts out like this.

I once had a comrade named Arthur McBride
And as we went a-walkin' down by the seaside
As we went a-walkin' to tak in the tide
'Twas all on a fine summer's mornin'

As we went a-walkin' down by the sea sand
There we met Sergeant Napier and Corporal O'Hand
And a wee, little drummer named Patrick O'Dan
They were off to the fair in the mornin'

Oh, Arthur he says, if you will but enlist
Here's five guineas in gold that I'll put in your fist
Fist shillings besides if you'll kick up the dust
And drink the king's health in the mornin'

For a soldier he leads a very fine life
And he always is blessed with a charming young wife
And he pays all his debts without sorrow or strife
And he always is pleasant and charming

Oh, no, says Arthur, I don't want your gold
I don't want your gold to follow your will. . .

That's where memory fails me.

Please help!

Daniel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST,Morris Wintle
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 08:26 PM

You can find a shorter version of this song on the "Life of Riley" website:-
http://web.me.com/lifeofrileyband/LOR/Lyrics.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: Bernard
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 08:38 PM

The Planxty version has that really odd line in it:

'And bade it a tedious returning' (referring to the 'rowdy-dow-dow').

It's obvious what it is supposed to mean, yet 'tedious' doesn't mean that by any stretch of the imagination!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 01:26 PM

[D]I had a first cousin called Arthur McBride
He and[G] I took a[D] stroll down[Em] by the sea[G]side
a[D] seeking good fortune and what might be[Bm] tide
it was[D] just as the[Em] day was a[G] dawn[A]ing
And[D] after restin we[G] both took a[D] tramp
we[G] met Seargeant[D] Harper and [Em]Corporal [G]Cramp
[D besides the wee drummer who[Bm] beat up for camp
with his[A] rowdy dou[G] dou in the mor[D]ning

He said my young fellows, if you will enlist
a guinea you quickly will get in your fist
and besides a crown for to kick up the dust
and drink the King's health in the morning
For a soldier, he leads a very fine life.
He always is blest with a charming young wife
And he pays all his debts without sorrow or strife,
And always lives happy and charming

Ah, no w, me bold sergeant, we are not for sale,
We'll nay make such bargain,and your bribe won't avail
We're not tired of our country, we don't care to sail.
Although that your offer is charming.
But had we been such fools as to take the advance,
It's right bloody slender would be our poor chance,
For the Queen wouldn't scruple for to send us to France
Where we would be shot without warning.

He says my young fellows if I hear but one word
I instantly now will out with my sword
and into your bodies as strength might afford
so now me gay devils take warning
but Arthur and I we soon took the odds
and we gave them no chance for to launch out their swords
our wacking shillelaghs came over their heads
and paid them right smart in the morning

As for the wee drummer we rifled his pouch
and we made a football of his rowdy dou dou
and into the ocean for to rock and to roll
And barring its tedious returning
As for the ould rapier that hung by his side
we flung it as far as we could in the tide
To the divil I pitch you says Arthur McBride
To temper your steel in the morning.


(One of Planxty's versions, transcribed)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 02:08 PM

In a long ago magazine article A.L.Lloyd quoted this when asked 'what was his favourite song? I was quite surprised because he didn't sing it very often, but his version was really good. Sung unaccompanied. I started singing it, but then Paul Brady's recording came out with all that great guitar work. Thereafter I got so fed up with people asking me if I'd heard Paul's version that I dropped the song from my repertoire, haven't sung it in years. Maybe I should bring it back again?   Burl.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jul 10 - 02:38 PM

In the above lyrics, it is possible that "barring" should be "bade them" or "bade it"...the voice drops at just that point.


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 02:28 PM

My name is Anson Roy Grover and I am the grandson of Carrie Spinney Grover. My Grandmother was born in Black River, Nova Scotia in 1879 to George Craft Spinney and Mary Long Spinney. She came to the U.S. with her family at the age of 12 and settled in Bethel, Maine where she attended Gould Academy. After her marraige to Almon Roy Grover they moved to West Gorham, Maine where she lived on a small farm for most of her life. She died in 1959 while living at my parents home in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. She is buried with her husband in Gorham, Maine. She was a most talented and loving person who had a great desire to keep alive the folk songs she had learned from childhood and throughout the years, hence her book "A Heritage of Songs". Thank you for your interest in these songs and in her.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: BobKnight
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 03:47 PM

I've always sang that line as "Bade him get he it's returning." In other words - if you want your drum, go and get it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: BobKnight
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 03:52 PM

Sorry, it was the "ould rapier" he flung in the tide - which makes it's retrieval even more difficult. :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: Teribus
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 04:12 PM

"As for the wee drummer we rifled his pouch
and we made a football of his rowdy dou dou
and into the ocean for to rock and to roll
And barring its tedious returning
As for the ould rapier that hung by his side
we flung it as far as we could in the tide
To the divil I pitch you says Arthur McBride
To temper your steel in the morning.

Always sung it as:

As for the wee drummer we rifled his pow
and we made a football of his rowdy dou dou
Tossed it in the ocean to rock and to roll
And bade it a tedious returning
And as for the sabre that hung by his side
we flung it as far as we could in the tide
To the divil I pitch you says Arthur McBride
To temper his steel in the morning.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Arthur McBride
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 02 Dec 15 - 06:28 PM

Stephen Winick ("Nerd", here) has very complete blog post up at the American Folklife Center (Library of Congress) about Paul Brady's version of "Arthur McBride" from Carrier Drover, of Maine:

Paul Brady, Carrie Grover, Bob Dylan, and "Arthur McBride"

~ Becky in Long Beach