She Hasn’t The Thing She Thought She Had slide

Here’s one of those promised single jig / slide melodies I’ve been enjoying lately. This transcription is taken from the playing of Gene Kelly, melodeon. I’ve included the repeats so I could offer up some of his variations on the tune. I’ve been playing it for awhile but went searching for a recording I could transcribe from, rather than just giving my own take on it. I was pleasantly surprised to find I don’t play it much different from Gene Kelly, and that brought a chuckle…even down to the variations…

Notes from the linked to compilation in the ‘Details’, "Round the House and Mind the Dresser: Irish Country-House Dance Music" says the two tunes, this one for the ‘Set’ and the polka "The Cat in the Corner", also for the ‘Set’, were recorded by Bill Leader & Reg Hall at the Park Lane Hotel, London, on the 30th of August, 1968… Great music for dancing a set… :-)

I wish I had the lyrics to offer up for this, but maybe someone else will ~ I hope…

X: 2
T: She Hasn’t The Thing She Thought She Had
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: slide
K: D Major
|: A2 G |
FGA DFd c2 B A2 G | FAF D2 F E3 A3 |
F^EF D2 d c2 B A2 G | FDF ECE D3 :|
|: d2 e |
f2 e d2 A BB/c/d A2 d | f2 e def e3 A3 |
f^ef d2 A B/c/dB AdG | FDF ECE D3 :|

Gene Kelly, like in days of old, only played one tune per figure of a ‘Set of Quadrilles’ (square set), not sets of tunes. He brought this one to a close in a usual fashion ~ | FDF GEC D3 D3 ||

Here be a relative. Peter Kennedy published a version of this tune in his Fiddler’s Tune Book vol II copyright 1954 (English Folk Dance & Song Society) My version is very close to his and I have had it over 30 years.
T: The Perfect Cure
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: single Jig
K: D major
G ||: FGA D2d | c2B A2G | FGA D2F | E3-EAG | FGA D2d | c2B A2G | FGA B2c | d3-d2 :||
e ||: fed e2c | dcB A3 | fed e2f | g3 f2e | fed e2c | dcB A2G | FGA B2c | d3-d2 :||

This will always be a single jig in my book and I am of the opinion that single jig does not automatically mean slide. each to its own merits but I will acknowledge that the slidiness will depend on the structure, playing Perfect Cure faster does not turn it into a slide.
I was surprised ‘c’ that you had not already linked these two together.

I thought I recognised this - nearly - but I hadn’t made the connection. Thanks hetty.

I know what you mean Hetty, this does however get mixed into sets with slides and given a pronounced 12/8 phrasing rather than the clearer barred feeling of 6/8 a ‘pure’ single jig bounces to. Slides and single jigs are favourites of my wife’s. I remember putting her notebook together for her, tunes and chords, and the imbalance was pronounced. More than half of those she wanted in her book were just that. Out of keeping with the norm of others, reels only made up probably at most 20%… Another reason, our of many, for loving her ~ ;-)

~ I meant to say ~ nought keeping with the norm…!

My brother, Gerry recorded a lively version of this as a SJ. I’ve been teaching it (with words - ahem!!) to the amusement of many and love it as a Sing.Jig. Blast dem that change SJ into Slides. Kerry men de lot of ‘em.
Peter

Played fast enough, with the right enthasis and triplets we also have a good dancable hop step tune. a Schottishe possibly?

dancable = danceable

Peter, slides and single jigs are the same species… Slides are ‘single jigs’, but the choice favours those that have a strong 12/8 phrasing, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are ‘single jigs’, one in the same, they are and have been and always will be…

So, where’s your lyrics? :-/

see also https://thesession.org/tunes/7810

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on October 2nd 2007 by whirlinmerlin.
~ /tunes/7810

X: 1
T: The Sprockers Tail
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: D Major
|: A2 G |
FGA D2 d | c2 B A2 G | FGA D2 F | E3 A2 G |
FGA D2 d | c2 B A3 | Bcd e2 c | d3 :|
|: d2 e |
f2 d Adf | e2 c A3 | B2 G DGB | A3 d2 e |
f2 d Adf | e2 c A3 | Bcd e2 c | d3 :|

~ whirlinmerlin contributed this without comment…

Others did, and here follow those contributions… ;-)

I have this tune as the Perfect Cure. Good dance tune, used it regularly for a very long time.

T: The Perfect Cure
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: Jig
K: D major
|: FGA D2 d |c2 B A2 G | FGA D2 F | E3 A2 G |
FGA D2 d | c2 B A2 G | FGA B2 c | d3 :|
|: fed f2 c | dcB A3 | fed e2 f | g3 f2 e |
fed e2 c | dcB A2 G | FGA B2 c | d3 :|

It almost sounds to me that the differences in bars 7 & 8 of both A & B musics could be put down to them being harmonies (I’m biased so "Sprockers" becomes the harmony for "TPC")

I’ve always known this as a single jig (not slide) and considered it to be a Scottish tune.

# Posted on October 4th 2007 by hetty

This is another "Perfect Cure" - B parts slightly different (I picked this one up at a workshop - I think it’s Martin Ellison’s version - see:
http://jubileeconcertinas.org/page10.htm

X:1
T: The Perfect Cure
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: Jig
K: D major
|: A2 G |
FGA D2 d | c2 B A2 G | FGA DEF | E3 A2 G |
FGA D2 d | c2 B A2 G | FGA ABc | d3 :|
|: d2 e |
f2 d e2c | dcB A3 | fed c2 d | e3 ede | f2 d e2 c |
dcB A2 G | FGA ABc | d3 :|

# Posted on October 5th 2007 by spindizzy

Come on already, where’s the lyrics???

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/index.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/PEA_PER.htm#PERFECT_CURE

English, Irish; Single Jig. D Major (Kennedy, Raven): G Major (Williamson). Standard. AABB. Paul Burgess (Tradtunes list 09.06.06) writes that this tune was originally a ‘novelty jumping song’ performed by J.H. Stead at various music halls in London, and cites one such venue as Weston’s Music Hall (later the Hackney Empire) in the 1850’s. It was composed as a ‘novelty schottische’, although the dotted duple rhythm has since been altered to triple time (a common enough occurrence in aurally learned traditional music). Burgess writes that the chorus to the song began: “Oh, I’m the Perfect Cure…”, which became a popular expression in Victorian London. Alfred Rosling Bennet, in his 1924 reminiscence London and Londoners in the Eighteen-Fifties and Sixties [Chapter VI, Street Entertainers] remembered: “About 1860 came Stead with his ‘Perfect Cure’, which raged through the land like an influenza. We had a lot of musical education since then, but what modern composition has rivalled the renown of that to-all-appearance silly production? In later years it was stated that this popular performed was a relative of Mr. ‘Pall-Mall’ Stead” (a reference to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette from 1883 to 1880, William Thomas Stead). It has been suggested that spirits and other intoxicants (such as laudanum) are ‘the perfect cure.’ ~

Breathnach styles the melody as a single jig in 12/8 time. It is played as a slide in County Kerry. The first part of the double jig “Long John’s Wedding” and “Long John’s Wedding March” are the same, although the second parts are not. See also the Orkney Islands tune “The Rope Waltz” for a tune with similar melodic material. ~

I love this tune and have been teaching it for some years along with "the day that the donkey ran away". Great for low intermediate pupils.
It’s on my bro’ Gerry’s album " The Journeyman"
I sing -‘She hasn’t the thing she thought she had, she hasnt the thing at all. Repeat 1st and fine and maybe that’s so bad’
Peter

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on September 6th 2008 by deeor.
~ /tunes/8891

X: 7
T: Mrs Martin’s
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: slide
K: Dmaj
|: F2 A D2 d BdB A3 | F2 A D2 F E3 E3 |
F2 A D2 d BdB A3 | F2 A E2 F D3 D3 :|
|: f2 e d2 A BDB A3 | f2 e d2 f e3 e3 |
f2 e d2 A BDB A3 | F2 A E2 F D3 D3 :|

Mrs Martin’s slide: This tune was discovered in Mrs Martin’s papers by her son Dr Donald Martin of Killybegs. It isn’t clear whether she had composed it or transcribed it, although the latter is more likely.

# Posted on September 6th 2008 by deeor

~ & a lovely simple version of it… ‘c’

This tune also appears namelessly in Bulmer & Sharpley’s "Music from Ireland" (book 4, tune #86) as ‘Port Singil Gan Ainm’.

Alan Ng identifies this listing as belonging to his entry at
http://www.irishtune.info/tune/3820/
where he supplies the titles ‘Behind the Bush in the Garden’ and ‘Donal de Barra’s’. Let’s see, just how many titles for this tune have we got now?

How right you were Hetty, on several levels. I found this in a very old notebook of ours as "The Perfect Cure", and I found the copy of one of the very first gifts of music I’d given my wife, a book of tunes. It was also hand written in her own notebook, one of the largest sections being ‘single jigs / slides’. Anyway, here goes, that gift first:

"Music From Ireland: Volume Four"
Compiled by Dave Bulmer & Neil Sharpley, 1974
page 31, tune #85

X: 8
T: Port singil gan ainm
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: slide
K: DMaj
|: F2 A AFA Bcd A2 G | F2 A D2 F EDE |
F2 A AFA Bcd A2 G | F2 A D2 F D3 D3 :|
|: fed B2 A Bcd A3 | f2 e def e3 ede |
fed B2 A Bcd A2 G | F2 A E2 A D3 D3 :|

First though, this question, as if we really had much to do with it, though we can choose to emphasize a particular characteristic, or try to cover it up, or ignore that it exists. First, basically, ‘single jigs’ are defined in a similar way to hop/slip jigs, a prevalence of one beat rhythmic units of long—short or slow-quick. In this tune those obvious elements are in, using my original transcription ~

~ D2 d c2 B A2 G | & ~ | f2 e d2 A ~ & ~ | f2 e d2 f - - -

Also, it isn’t uncommon for extended endings like ~

D3- D2 & e3- e2

But what makes it slide? Dance does, and phrasing, phrasing across two bars worth in 6/8 time, and why such things are often given nowadays as 12/8. Whether one likes it or not, or is able or not to acknowledge it, and whatever the geographic or cultural origins, whether Cornish, English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, North American, and despite the playing in many respects, the melody can ‘slide’. How does it do this?

What makes it ‘slide’, what makes it a ‘slide’. I keep wanting to repeat ‘dance’, but that is not tune specific enough. It’s a ‘slide’ by length of phrase, and that can be up, upwards, rising, ascending - or the contrary - down, downwards, descending. Before we go further, here’s examples up going up and down from different tunes:

Up ~ |: F2 A G2 B ABc d3 | ~

Down ~ | F2 A E2 A D3- D3 :| (this tune) & ~ | A2 b G2 A E2 G GFG | ~

That’s across two bars, a phrase, holding together as a unit. That makes sense anyway, as the dances, figure wise, are unites made up on the whole of 2 and 4 bar movements. Stepwise, not walking, to execute a full step, meaning that it is danced first starting on the one foot and then the other, for example, 3s, the usual for the woman being R-LR then L-RL. The phrasing helps the dancers, is integral to the whole idea of ‘dance music’ in these traditions. You move to the beat, you also move to the phrases in the tunes, 2 bar, 4 bar, 8 bar parts, 32 bar tunes, as one example of that structure.

But, ‘slides’ aren’t limited to rising and setting, ascending and descending. They also be on the level or roll in as waves. By this I still mean 2-bar phrases, but this time where they move pretty much on the level, or where they rise-and-set / ascend-and-descend, or set-and-rise / descend-and-ascend. For examples:

Straight ~ |: E2 A ABA E2 A ABA | ~ or ~ |: GAG GAG GAG d3 | ~

Waves ~ |: F2 A AFA Bcd A2 G | ~ or ~ |: A2 D FED ABc d2 B | ~

Basically the four counts/beats hold together in a distinct and flowing phrase. It doesn’t matter whether or not you choose to take the old school approach and notate all single jigs as 6/8 or you take the more phrase conscious way of choosing to notate some strongly defined 2-bar phrases as 12/8. A ‘slide’, in a sense, is the union of two 6/8 bars as ‘sliding together’, as one beauful unified phrase that gives the tune other rhythmic definition and helps the dancer(s). The phrase ‘slides along’…

"Music From Ireland: Volume Four"
Compiled by Dave Bulmer & Neil Sharpley, 1974
page 31, tune #85

X: 8
T: Port singil gan ainm
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: slide
K: DMaj
|: F2 A AFA Bcd A2 G | F2 A D2 F E3 EDE |
F2 A AFA Bcd A2 G | F2 A D2 F D3 D3 :|
|: fed B2 A Bcd A3 | f2 e def e3 ede |
fed B2 A Bcd A2 G | F2 A E2 A D3 D3 :|

"The Second Fiddler’s Tune-Book: 100 More Traditional Airs"
Compiled and edited by Peter Kennedy
E.F.D.S.S., Hargail Music Press, New York, 1954

Page 46 - "The Perfect Cure" (THE LONG DANCE)

X: 9
T: Perfect Cure, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: single jig
K: DMaj
|: A/G/ |\
FGA D2 d | cde A2 G | FGA D2 F | E3- E2 A/G/ |
FGA Dcd | cde A2 G | FGA ABc | d3 D2 :|
|: d/e/ |\
fed e2 d | cdB A2 e | fed c2 d | e3 a2 g |
fed e2 d | cdB A2 B | ABA B2 c | d3 D2 :|

This has less of the ‘slide’ about it. Compare this to the ‘slide’ transcriptions… Really, it is different enough that it, in my sense of it, deserves a separate entry here in the database, with a link back to here… We’ll see. 8-)

An Gúm, Dublin, 1996
ISBN: 1-85791-143-1

Page 33, tune #66: "An Uile-Íoc"

X: 10
T: An Uile-Íoc
S: Breandán Breathnach’s “Ceol Rince na hÉireann IV”
N: from accordion player James Gannon
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
R: single jig / slide
K: DMaj
|: G |\
FEF D2 d c2 B A2 G | FEF D2 F E3 E2 G |
FEF D2 d c2 B A2 G | F2 D E2 C D3 D2 :|
|: g |\
f2 e d2 A Bcd A2 g | f2 e def e3 e2 g |
f2 e d2 A Bcd A2 G | F2 D E2 C D3 D2 :|

Sorry I haven’t much on the history of this tune collection. Iv’e been trying to chase something up. All we’ve got, have found, is a hand written manuscript, and pretty rough, but some interesting versions of tunes, including for this one…

X: 11
T: Perfect Cure, The
S: "The Oregon Country Dance Orchestra Tune Book", page 2-13
N: section 2 = jigs, page 13 of that section
N: first without the chords then with them
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: single jig
K: DMaj
|: d/c/ |\
Bcd G2 g | f2 e d2 c | Bcd GcB | A3- A2 d/c/ |
Bcd G2 g | f2 e d2 B | cde def | g3- g2 :|
|: d |\
c’ag a2 g | f2 e d3 | bag f2 g | a3- a3 |
c’ag a2 g | f2 e d2 B | cde def | g3- g2 :|
K: DMaj
|: d/c/ |\
"G" Bcd G2 g | "C" f2 e "G" d2 c | "Em" Bcd GcB | "Am" A3- "D" A2 d/c/ |
"G" Bcd G2 g | "C" f2 e "G" d2 B | "Am" cde "D" def | "G" g3- g2 :|
|: d |\
"G" c’ag "Em" a2 g | "C" f2 e "G" d3 | bag f2 g | a3- a3 |
"G" c’ag "Em" a2 g | "C" f2 e "G" d2 B | "Am" cde "D" def | "G" g3- g2 :|

This tune is also known as "Colne Royal" and is used by clog morris dancers in NW England .

Not entirely sure this is different enough to submit, but, someone’s got submit a lucky number X:13. Roughly as played by Danú on the CD ‘Ten Thousand Miles’ (2018).