Hi. Does anyone know the name of the final waltz in Rob Crabtree’s The Wearing of Green set, which starts at about 3 minutes 35 seconds?
I think the first 3 tunes are The Wearing of Green, Star of the County Down, and Ash Grove, but I haven’t heard this last one before.
Thanks!
https://youtu.be/549lYwiFX3A
I know it as ´No, nay, never´. I think the Irish Rovers did it.
Never heard of that tune, thanks!
On checking, its more formal name would be ´The Wild Rover´.
It’s very well known and almost worn out here in Australia. I’m not certain that it’s not even originally an Australian song (from the gold fields). Here’s someone singing it in an Irish pub. It’s common that the crowd joins in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGsjkRfAWDg
Thanks for sharing that video. They sounded like they were having a lot of fun!
I don’t think anyone’s really sure where it came from, it’s as likely to be English or American as it is Irish. I seem to remember that one of the earliest printings of the lyrics is from an American collection, but obviously it could have been extant for 100 years or more before that.
It’s known in England by people who wouldn’t recognise any Irish trad tunes. It used to get bawled out on the top deck of the bus on the way home from football matches when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, not because it was anything to do with the team or the game, but because everybody knew it and it’s a good song to sing when you’ve had a few beers. The lyrics are also fertile ground for creative reworking.
The Pogues and the Dubliners recorded a joint version of it at one point.
The lyrics wouldn’t suggest that it has American origins (e.g. ‘shiny sovereigns’). At the start of the following clip the Clancy brothers claim it to be Australian. Although it has indeed been sang from the gold fields onward over here, I have my doubts about that. If it was, I’d bet it would have mentioned it in the song. Going on the lyrics alone I’d guess that it’s English. And yes, I too remember singing it as a kid on the top deck of the buses and at the football matches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdl-yB0MapI
On the origins:-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Rover
It is a good song to sing along to after a few beers for sure!
This is my favourite version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_aiKtLe5fY
Thanks for that video! I wonder who the “various artists” are (my screen-reader doesn’t always show all information on a YouTube video).
Hi Whimbrel, the artists appear to be Sylvia Barnes & Kentigern on the album Holding Up Half the Sky: Voices of Celtic Women.
Thanks, Piwomir.
It would be great if the original Kentigern album was available on CD (apologies for derailing my own thread!)
Video with Kentigern providing the soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWcZF9dHVko&ab_channel=KistoDreams
The version that I sing.
THE WILD ROVER
I have been a wild rover, this many’s the year,
And I’ve spent all my money, drinking ale and strong beer,
But now for the future, I will take better care,
In case that misfortune shall fall to my share.
Refrain:
Wild roving I’ll give it over,
Wild roving give o’er,
And I ne’er will be called the,
Wild rover no more.
I went into an alehouse, I used to frequent,
And I told the landlady, my money was spent,
I asked her for credit, she answered me nay,
Custom like yours I can have any day..
I put my hand in my pocket, some money to find,
And I pulled out the full of my two fists,…five times,
When she saw that I had the money, and money to spare,
When she saw that I had the money, she called me her store.
She says, "I have the whiskey, and that of the best,
And the words that I have spoken, were only in jest."
If I had all the money, I have placed in your care,
It would till all my lands and, my family rear,
It would thatch all my houses. It would build me a barn.
It would buy me a coat for to keep my back warm.
You can keep all your money and your beer likewise too
For not another penny am I spending with you
For the money I’ve got, I’m taking good care
And I never will play the Wild Rover no more.
I’ll go home to my parents, confess what I’ve done
And I’ll ask them to pardon their prodigal son.
And if they caress (forgive) me as ofttimes before
Sure I never will play the wild rover no more.
I’m guessing that’s the “traditional” version of Wild Rover to a different tune, Big Davy? As also sung by Mick West and others. No “no, nay, never” in it at all! The tune is very similar, if not identical, to the first half of “Her Mantle So Green”: see https://thesession.org/tunes/2888 - I posted a video of Mick West’s version there a while back.
I prefer it to the “no, nay, never” version which has been done to death in some quarters!
Hi Trish
Mick is singing the song to the tune I use. To the best of my knowledge, the tune is Manx.
I am continuing to work on the song, there are more verses availabe in various iterations of the song, (around 14 so far), the problem is to select those that tell a coherent story in the song.
