Lyr Req: The Man That Shot the Dog (Mick Quinn)

To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café ^TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=856
22 messages

Lyr Req: The Man That Shot the Dog (Mick Quinn)

24 Feb 97 - 04:36 AM (#2509)
Subject: the man who shot me dog
From: alison

Andy Irvine does a charming (!?!) song about the man who shot the dog The dog's name is Ned, and the song is sung to the tune of "THe lakes of Ponchartrain." Does anyone out there have the lyrics? Thanks. Alison

24 Feb 97 - 10:36 AM (#2510)
Subject: RE: theman who shot me dog
From: Martin Ryan

Sometimes I worry about the people who contribute to this line!

I think I have a rough recording of the author of this charming ditty (John Quinn?) performing it at a festival. I'll see if its transcribable

Regards

03 Mar 97 - 05:40 AM (#2744)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAN THAT SHOT THE DOG (Mick Quinn)
From: Martin Ryan

Written by a lovely man called Mick Quinn from Mullaghbawn in Northern Ireland.

This is as much as I can decipher from the laughter on a (very)live recording! I'll fill in the gaps if possible.

Regards
*****
THE MAN WHO SHOT ME DOG
(Mick Quinn)

I was born a collie sheep dog with a white ring round my neck
For nine days my eyes were closed, I couldn't see a speck
I had three lovely sisters and me the only boy
And for six long weeks we played around - our mother's pride and joy

Till a gentleman from Mullaghbawn to me a fancy took
Well he stroked me in his arms and my master and he shook
They put me in the motor car and then headed for the road
And in less than twenty minutes I was in my new abode

Now the first thing my new family did was to look for me a name
Well they called me this and they called me that and they sounded just the same
Until my master came round the house and this to me he said
Consider now yourself a dog - in truth your name is Ned

Well the months rolled on and I grew up and I learned to do my chores
I growled at postmen, soldiers - likewise the man next door
I rounded sheep and cattle and they said I was a treat
And before I jumped into the car, I always washed my feet!

Oftimes sure I grew lonesome and I longed to have a pal
So I met this big black labrador, she said her name was Sal
She said she too was lonesome but she had papers and a pedigree
"Oh that ain't a problem, Sal, you just leave that to me!"

When her master overheard the news, and found out with her I'd slept
We did not use protection, so across the fence he leapt
Saying you country tailed black so-and-so from behind in Moore Park
I'll stop your gallivanting round this place after dark.

With his gun up to his shoulder a careful aim he took
And the noise that then came out of it the valley round it shook
I felt my hide a-burning as the bullets stroked my head
And that's what happened to the dog that belonged to Mickil Ned

Well my master over heard the news and it happened just by luck
He stepped up to this gunman and he said "You Newry Niuk!"
He let him have a one two three straight in the old physog
Saying" that's the medicine I dish out to a man who'd shoot me dog"

They took me to my kennel and on the straw I lie
And I hear the neighbours asking will poor Ned live or die
My master he's so lonesome as he sits and strokes my head
And these are some of the things he says about the man that shot the dog

May scabs like crabs grow up in slabs round everything he feels
And snotters grow down to his toes and cracks grow on his heels
May his hair fall out and his woman pout and his fart smell like a hog
And the devils luck fall on that Newry nyuk , the man that shot me dog

May piles surround his big backside like strawberries on their stalk
And every time that he aims his gun, that his stomach it may baulk
And as he goes a hunting over heather hill and bog
May diarrhoea skite with all its might from the man who shot my dog

So to conclude and finish I.... once more ????
And I feel this urge coming over me as I did that night before
So I'll slip out one dark night in a very thick mist or a fog
And I'll leave another half a dozen pups with the man that shot me dog.

03 Mar 97 - 06:44 AM (#2747)
Subject: RE: theman who shot me dog
From:

Martin you are wonderful. THanks very much. Alison

03 Mar 97 - 06:40 PM (#2765)
Subject: RE: theman who shot me dog
From: Susan of DT

We have LOTS of songs on dogs and cats. We even started categories of @deaddog and @deadcat to go along with @deadbaby but I would not swear that we got these catefories onto all the appropriate songs that had been in the database longer. enjoy!

28 Jul 08 - 03:45 PM (#2399703)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: MartinRyan

Refresh - just to remind me to tidy up the loose ends!

Regards

p.s. With hindsight, some Irish 'catters will recognise the Freudian slip in mixing up John Quinn and Mick Quinn. Gentlemen both, of a high order!

28 Jul 08 - 03:57 PM (#2399710)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: MartinRyan

Correction to Verse 2:

Till a gentleman from Mullaghbawn to me a fancy took
Well he stroked me in his arms and my master's hand he shook
They put me in the motor car and then headed for the road
And in less than twenty minutes I was in my new abode

Regards

28 Jul 08 - 03:58 PM (#2399712)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: MartinRyan

Offhand, I can't remember the first line of the last verse. Anyone have it?

Regards

28 Jul 08 - 08:39 PM (#2399953)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: Leadfingers

Reminds me of the old dog who limped into the Western saloon and said to the Bartender " I'm looking for the mangy cur who shot my Paw!"

Sorry . I'll get my coat >

28 Jul 08 - 09:04 PM (#2399972)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: Fergie

Ah Martin how could you forget,

Now to conclude and finish I AM ON ALL FOURS once more,

I was in town today looking for a particular CD, cos I was researching a particular song. I had no luck in the usual haunts so I gave up and went home deciding to try my luck in the Trad Music Archive at some time in the future. So when I saw your post I went searching in my CD collection for Mick Quinn. Would you believe that when I found it, that there next to it was a copy of the CD that I was looking for in town today. I had completely forgotten that I owned a copy already. Shite Martin we are getting on, they say the first thing to go is the memory (the second is the libido). Have they invented a version of viagra for the mind? (maybe somebody told me they have and I've forgotten).

Stay safe me auld pal, oh and say hello to the Doc for me.

Ferg

28 Jul 08 - 09:32 PM (#2399994)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: Leadfingers

To quote Harvey A !!

First you lose the Rhyming , Then you lose the timing !

29 Jul 08 - 03:10 AM (#2400091)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: MartinRyan

Thanks Fergie - I suspect I have a copy of Micks CD myself - somewhere!

Regards

29 Jul 08 - 03:28 AM (#2400098)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: MartinRyan

So the last verse is:

So to conclude and finish I'm on all fours once more
And I feel this urge coming over me as I did that night before
So I'll slip out one dark night in a very thick mist or a fog
And I'll leave another half a dozen pups with the man that shot me dog!

Regards

29 Jul 08 - 06:23 PM (#2400755)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: Barry Finn

I'm looking for the man who shot my paw,,,,,,,,,says the limping dog

Barry

30 Jul 08 - 05:33 AM (#2401072)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: Fred McCormick

You can find it on Mick Quinn's CD. The Man that Shot the Dog. It's on the Wild Goose label. No matrix number that I can see.

31 Jul 08 - 07:36 AM (#2402091)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: Jim Dixon

From IrishTimes.com

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The keepers of the trad flame

BEING THERE: With more than 120 years of storytelling and music behind them, Mick 'Micil' Quinn and Sam Andrews are happy their treasure troves are still loved, writes Róisín Ingle.

DOWN IN Mullaghbawn in the belly of south Armagh lives a man called Mick Quinn, a storyteller of great renown. And in that village, nestled in the shadow of Slieve Gullion, Mick Quinn, known to all as Micil, spends his days making up stories and songs in his head. He tells these stories to audiences at festivals in Dublin and in Wexford and in Leitrim and above in Scotland and below in London and across in America. Spend enough time in his company and you find yourself imitating the flow of his words, the rhythm of his stories. Like the one about the first ostrich in Mullaghbawn or the one about his father's Spanish ass, but especially the one about his sheepdog Ned and the time the aul pooch got shot in the head for falling in love with a dog that was way above his station.

At 82, with more than half a century of tale-telling behind him, Micil's version of this shaggy dog story is more polished. The Man that Shot the Dog is based on a real life event that happened around 15 years ago and the story won him first prize in 1993 at the All-Ireland fleadh in Clonmel.

As though it's the first time he has told it or as though he's just made it up on the spot, neither of which is actually the case, Micil stands in his kitchen in Mullaghbawn giving the background to the story of the time his sheepdog Ned had a romance with a neighbour's pedigree Labrador.

"The owner of the bitch was waiting for a pedigree sire but my dog went over and did the job, gave her a litter of puppies," he recalls. "But there was no need to shoot poor Ned just for making love. Have you ever had a dog? To shoot another man's dog is an awful thing, a terrible thing. There was nothing I could do at the time, so I composed a story to let out all the badness that was in me."

The "badness" in the story comes in the form of a colourful scattering of verbal invective, insults fired like so much buckshot at the man that shot the dog:

After that line, you can only pick at the fresh cherry scones Micil offers from a brown paper bag. The dog survived, incidentally, and lived to be 17 years old while the song was never off the radio. "It was the best thing that happened me," says Micil sitting down to slowly demolish a chicken curry dinner and explain the workings of the hiring fairs in "the hungry 1930s".

31 Jul 08 - 08:48 AM (#2402131)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot Me Dog
From: MartinRyan

A wonderful man.

Regards

16 Aug 08 - 06:34 PM (#2415661)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Shot the Dog (Mick Quinn)
From: GUEST

This man is a living legend. The man that shot the dog is only one of many of his talented pieces. I'm proud to call him me uncle micil

06 Sep 08 - 01:44 PM (#2432704)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man That Shot the Dog (Mick Quinn)
From: GUEST

Heard Mick recite this (he dosent seem to sing it any more)with the Wexford performers on the street at the fleadh in Tullamore to an enchanted audience!

21 Sep 09 - 04:03 AM (#2727838)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man That Shot the Dog (Mick Quinn)
From: Curious Clouseau

If anyone knows where I could obtain any of Mick's CD's could the please pvt me? Thanks :)

21 Sep 09 - 08:33 AM (#2727952)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man That Shot the Dog (Mick Quinn)
From: Fergie

Hi Curious Clouseau

I've PMed you re The Man That Shot the Dog.

Fergus

08 Dec 13 - 05:39 PM (#3582700)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man That Shot the Dog (Mick Quinn)
From: MartinRyan

You can hear the great Micil Ned telling the tale on Youtube:
Click here

Regards