The Drunken Sailor’s hornpipe

Micheleq requested some McGlinchey tunes. These are two of my favorites.

What a delight it is to find this tune posted here. It is a great great tune, one that i’ve only heard once started in a session (by Seamus Connoly no less). I have never started this tune myself given it’s length and the fact that no one I know has mastered it. There is a great recording of The Drunken Sailor on Larry Nugent’s first CD, the details of which I have posted already on this site. However, the cross reference hasn’t registered because of the incidentally differenct listing of the tune’s name. (Jeremy, can this be fixed? Thanks!)

Whistle players should note that this tune is usually played on a C whistle.

hey, i just figured out how to fix the cross reference by subitting submitting the alternate name in response to the "Do you know the tune by another name" question. (I know, they call my sherlock.) And lo and behold, there is another recording of The Drunken Sailor on ‘The Fire Aflame’ by Keane, Molloy, O’Flynn. This site is *so* awesome.

This is one of my current favorites. This is the only place I have been able to fine it. Noel Hill has a GREAT recording of it on his CD The Irish Concertina. He plays it with a concertina that is piched differently so you have to transpose to get his tuning. Anyhow, its wonderful to have found it here.

Also played on one of Tommy Peoples’ earlier albums (can’t remember the name, sorry). Sixth part goes

DGAd DGAd| DFAc DFAc| DGAd DGAd| cBAG E/2F/2GAG…
Then repeat and end w/the same ending as the fifth part.

Here’s how Yvonne and Liz Kane play it on their cd, the Well Tempered Bow.

X:1
T:Galway Bay
S: Kane Sisters, The Well Tempered Bow
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:G minor
GA | B3 c dcdg | {a}g2 dg ga (3bag | fdbg fdcd | BAGA GFD2 |
| G3 A B3G | FCFG AGF{GF}D | GABc dcBA | (3BcB G2 G3A |
| BABc dcdg | {a}g2 dg ga (3bag | fdbg fdcd | BAGA GFD2 |
| DFGA BABG | FCFG AGF {GF}D | GABc dcBA | (3BcB G2 G3 g ||
| gfdf gabg | gfde dBGA | BFBc df (3=efg | fcdB AGFA |
| BGdB AFcA | BfdB Acfc | dfga bagf | d2 g2 g3 g :||
final ending: | dfga bagf | dcBA G4 ||

But I doubt this is a McGlinchey tune. It’s in O’Neill’s, predating Mr. McGlinchey by a few decades.

Right, Will - it’s much a much older than McGlinchey, but he did record it on an LP for the Belfast Outlet label, sometime in the 70s.
A testing piece on any instrument.

Hmm (…he interjected almost exactly 2 years later) I don’t see the similarity with the tune you posted Will, apart from maybe the key and genre of tune.

Cathal Hayden’s version on Handed Down is banjo playing at its best. My favourite banjo piece.

X: 1
T: The Drunken Sailor
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Ador
|:A|EAAG ABcd|edcB AGEF|G3F GABc|dBGB edcB|
AE E2 ABcd|edcB AGEF|G2 ga gedB|cABG A2 :|
|:B|c3B cdef|gdBc dBGc|(3BAG dG eGdG|(3BAG dG edcB|
c3B cdef|gdBc dBGB|A2 c’a gedB|cABG A3 :|
|:d|eaag a2 ga|bagf e3d|edad bdad|edad bagf|
eaag a2 ga|bagf e3d|(3efg df gedB|cABG A3 :|
|:Acec Acec|GBdB GBdB|Acec Acec|e2 e=f edcB|
Acec Acec|d2 BG dgBd|(3efg df gedB|cABG A4 :|
|: (3abc’ ae (3abc’ ae|(3gab gd (3gab gd| (3abc’ ae (3abc’ aeef|gedB ecdB|
cBcB BABG|cBce dGBd|(3efg fa gedB|cABG A4 :|
|:EAcA EAcA|DGBG DGBG|EAcA EAcd|edcB cBAG|
EAcA EAcA|d2 BG DGBG|(3efg df gedB|cABG A4 :|

A Great Tune….
I first found this on Alistair Andersons LP/book tutor for the English Concertina. The notes say that AA learnt it from Nic Jones who had it from an Irish button box player in a London Pub.
AA plays it as a reel. I later found it on a vinyl from a group called Patti O’Doors (!) who say that they learnt it from Jim O’ Doyle of Durham who learnt it from AA who learnt it from etc…. as above!
AA’s tutor has now been re-issued on CD (hurrah!) by Free Reed. I’ll try and get round to putting it in the recordings database. Meanwhile, here’s a vanilla rendering of the AA reel version (ie minus ornaments).
(ps AA puts this in the tutor book with a 2 flat key sig resolving to G, whatever that is, but that’s not what he plays - so I think that’s a typo)

X:1
T:The Tipsy Sailor (Alistair Anderson EC tutor)
M:4/4
R:Reel
K:Gdor
DGGF GABc | dcBA GFDE | F2 FE FGAB | cAFA dcBA |
GDB,D GABc |dcBA GFDE | F2 fe dcBA | ABGG G4 :|
ABGA Bcde | fdBd cBAG | F2 cF dFcF | F2 cF dFcF |
ABGA Bcde | fdBd cBAG | G2 gf dcBA | ABGG G4 :|
gdg/a/b gdg/a/b | fcf/g/a fcf/g/a | gdg/a/b gdg/a/b | fdcA ddcA |
B4 A4 | B4 c4 | df (3efg fdcA | ABGG G4 :|
DGAd DGAd |DFAc DFAc |DGAd DGAd | c2 AF CFAc |
GBdB GBdB |c2 AF CFAc | df (3efg fdcA | BG (3AGF G4 :|

Heard Liz Carroll play this last night in Manchester - magic (but I wish the audience had been quieter!)
It’s on her Lost in the Loop Album.

Brendan Keenan does a lovely version of this tune on his solo album Brendan Keenan with a nice arrangement I think done by Donal Lunny.

Here’s a version in E dorian, transcribed approximately from this performance on octave mandolin by Colin Botts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT1gMBWwMRI

play video

This is a near-enough accurate transcription from the above-mentioned recording. The ABC submitted as the 7th displayed above is a slightly simplified one (The Session’s ABC syntax is out of date!!!!), so here’s my full annotated ABC:
X:1
T:The Drunken Sailor
C:Traditional
D:transcribed from the setting on “The Fire Aflame” - Sean Keane, Matt Molloy, Liam O’Flynn
Z:Jem Hammond 8:9:2014
R:Hornpipe
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:Gdor
"@-8,22 2nd"D|G2 G"@-8,-16(#)"F GABc & "@-26,-16 1st"DG|dcBA GFDE|F2FE FGAB|cAFA dcBA| GD"@-8,9 ( )"[BB,]D GABc|dcBA GFDE|F2 "@-8,-5 ( )"gf dcBA & x2f2|B2G2G3:|
|:A|B2BA Bcde|fcAB cAFG|A/G/F cF dFcF|A/G/F cF dFcA|
B2BA Bcde|fcAB cAFA|G2gf dcBA|B2G2G3:|
|:c|dgg^f gabg|agfe d3e|fcgc acgc|fcgc agfe|
d2g2 ~g2 bg & x4 gdx2|agfe d3c|dfeg fdcA|B2G2G3:|
|:"@-9,-4 ( )"F|DGBG DGBG|CFAF CFAF|DGBG DGBG|d"@-17,-4 ( )"^cd_e d=cBA|
GBdB GBdB & x4 "@-10,-17 ( )"G/A/B|c2 AF CFAc|d/e/f eg fd cA|B2G2G3:|
|:z|gd g/a/b gd g/a/b|fc f/g/a fc f/g/a|gd g/a/b gd g/a/b|fdcA dBcA|
BGBd AFAc & ~B3G ~A3F|BABd c=Bc_e & ~B3G ~c3_e|dfeg fdcA|B2G2G3:|

Copies of this notation with staff notation copy may be previewed and downloaded as a Word.doc from https://app.box.com/s/qh4ucvqvm4km0j2i6jd4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brLK3fj8QTQ

play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgjaf-e8hbE

play video

Love this tune played on the slow side.

This is my attempt to transcribe a tune played by Tommy Potts on ‘The Liffey Banks’ LP, and to represent some of his variations and decorations (however imperfectly).

PS: It’s from the Tune Library pages of the Rude Mechanicals website: www.rudemex.co.uk, rendered into ABC by my colleague, Ray Chandler. There are lots of other tunes there, but not notated in this sort of detail.

I have to ask whether or not you listened through to this before you posted it, because you’ve got 2 hornpipes there not 1. Up to the number "7" is "Galway Bay". From "7" on is "The Tipsy Sailor".

https://youtu.be/brLK3fj8QTQ

play video

Mind you, in all fairness, nobody else seems to have noticed this either, including Seamus Ennis, in the sleeve notes.

I called it ‘The Drunken Sailor’ because that’s the title of the whole track as listed on the LP cover. Do you have the dots (or a link to them) of tunes under the titles you give above? I’ve come across a setting of Nic Jones’s version of ‘Tipsy Sailor’ in Raven’s ‘1,000 English (sic) Country Dance Tunes’ - clearly the same or related tune to T. Potts’s - but I’d like to see the ‘Galway Bay’ that you mention.

You’re right to point out that it’s a hornpipe and not, as I listed it, a reel.

Well, this is the Drunken Sailor :
https://thesession.org/tunes/553

and this is Galway Bay:
https://thesession.org/tunes/3453

…both are common hornpipes.

https://thesession.org/tunes/553 - ps, just noticed , already posted above.

There’s this nice setting in Joyce’s Final Manuscripts collection (1912) https://www.itma.ie/digital-library/score/pw-joyce-nli-1912-284

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnkiEvV-xZk

play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNgpfIUG40A

play video

The Drunken or tipsy sailor and Galway bay are two different tunes . Surely?

My band, Celtic Stew, has used Drunken Sailor as our closing tune for 18 years, and it always such a joy to see people of all ages and states of sobriety leaping around and singing along! It such a simple tune but entirely infectious and participatory. Who doesn’t long for the days when you could drink at work and wake up in bed with the boss’s daughter, instead of suspended and going to mandatory counselling?

I think you’re talking about a different tune, possibly "What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor". This multi-part hornpipe, "The Drunken / Tipsy Sailor", in the key of G minor, is not a "simple" tune.

I detect elements of something very like "Johnny Cope" in the first two measures: this tune seems to be an elaboration based on an old and quite simple theme. Whoever did it, it’s a lovely piece of work.