Davy-Davy Knick-Knack reel

This tune is so daggy it’s eye-wateringly beautiful.

I totally agree Dow. This is one you don’t dare to play in sessions in case you get laughed at.

DId we not a discussion somewhere before re the dagginess of this tune? And nobody dared to submit it! 🙂

Dow must have run out of tunes to submit and now he’s down to his dag tunes. God help us.

That’s what it’s all about isn’t it? - dancing I mean.

I wondered what happened to my pre-school piano tutorial books. Now I know.

Jack put your spectacles on, I didn’t submit this. I can submit some dag though, if you like.

Oh… sorry Dag, uh… I mean Dow. You were just the first to comment I guess.

Yes well I think that as a punishment for your error you should have more dag inflicted upon you.

It’s a common tune used for “Dashing White Sergeant” dance sets and can be all right in this context-if you can’t think of anything better, of course. 🙂

Its a fairly awful tune played flat BUT if you play it as a well-dotted Tyneside Hornpipe it works well. The Angels of the North play it with Speed the Plough for the Durham version of Speed the Plough and use a simple chanter open smallpipe throughout.
Noel Jackson
Angels of the North

It’s a shame I couldn’t comment on this dag tune just after it was submitted. I learned it in west Clare last winter. Well, I just played it along twice with a Northumbrian piano accordion player, and its melody has stuck to my ears since then. The box player was an amazingly great musician who could turn this ugly toad into a charming princess. That was pure magic.

Just found out that I have to learn this for a dance on Monday. Perhaps I can forget it on Tuesday…

Interesting little ditty.

i hate this tune but it holds a lot of good memories

= justification for having it in my tunebook

It could be worse - you could have it stuck to your ears permanently like Slainte 😀

This tune is old. You can find it in Aird’s Collection Vol.5 (1801) as “Major Crichton’s Fancy”, and I have come across it elsewhere (in a manuscript in Perth library) as “Major Duff’s Favourite Quickstep”. I also came across an old children’s rhyme used for picking “het” (or “it”) which was a bit like “one potato, two potato,” etc, with the particpants holding out their closed fists. It was called “Neevie Neevie Nick Nack” - “neeve” being a Scots word for a fist - and I think it’s likely that the title “Davie Davie Knick Knack” is a corruption of that.

I’ve added the two alternate names mentioned by Nigel Gatherer.

Thanks, Mix. I have a vague memory of seeing another name for it, from an old English MS or book. Doubtless I’ll come across it in one of my old notebooks one of these days!

I have just posted the tune with edited ABC format to make display better when converted to notation on this site. I have no suggestions for improving the melody.

My wife says this is the most annoying tune I play!

The first tune played on https://youtu.be/qno-ac4R7dU is the French Canadian tune Isadore’s Reel - and it sounds to me like a version of Davy Davy Knick - somewhat improved.

play video