The Leg Of The Duck jig

There’s another tune that sometimes gets called “Leg Of The Duck” on this database, aka “Daniel Of The Sun”. Actually it goes quite nicely with this one - you could have a set with a duck theme.

According to Norbeck, the lyrics to the original song are:

I gave it to Kitty because she was pretty,
The leg of the duck, the leg of the duck.
I gave it to Molly because she was jolly,
The leg of the duck, the leg of the duck.

I gave it to Nelly to stick in her belly
The leg of the duck, the leg of the duck.
She has it, she’s got it, wherever she put it,
The leg of the duck, the leg of the duck.

If you wanted to add more verses it looks like it would be pretty easy to do. You could even make up rude ones. I could elaborate but I think I might offend the American contingent with my foul language! 🙂

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on January 10th 2003 by slainte.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1317

Key signature: Dmajor
Submitted on November 5th 2002 by abwilson.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1109

I’ve listened to both and they sound quite different to me… plus the one on Roger Landes’ CD is a three part Jig, and this one is two parts

This tune can be found in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland -- # 1108 as Paddy “Go Easy”.

Checking the Dance Music of Ireland by O’Neill (which is not O’Neill’s Music of Ireland !), there is a tune (298) called Paddy “Go Easy”, 3 parts and in the key of Dmaj, which is not the one presented here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8NgF_506d8

play video

Eileen O’Brien plays this from 3Min 55

This is the third jig in the Tom Ferris set that I’ve been posting. It’s another tune from Tom’s repertoire originally learned as I understand from 1956 All-Ireland champion accordionist George Ross. Tom won the senior accordion in 1966. The jigs played before it were usually referred to as ‘Georgie’s Number 1 (uploaded under it’s correct title The Green Forest) followed by the Second setting of Tatter Jack Walsh, then finally this jig. Tom usually referred to it as ’Georgie’s Number 2’, however I’ve located it’s listing here as another Leg of the Duck or the pride of the west.