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Geezer And The Guiser /Red Haired Boy
Traditional Irish (originally), Scottish, English; Air or Hornpipe: American, Canadian; Reel or Breakdown. A Mixolydian. Standard. AABB (most versions): AA'BB' (Moylan). 'Red Haired Boy' is the English translation of the Gaelic title "Giolla Rua".
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Bunting's 1840: A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland;
RECORDING INFO: Austen, Seth. Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Finger Style Guitar, Kicking Mule KM 174, LP (1982), cut# 2. Bowers, Bryan. View from Home, Flying Fish FF-037, LP (1977), cut# 7. Bromberg, David; Band. Midnight on the Water, Columbia PC 33397, LP (1975), cut#A.02b .Brown, Sullivan & Company. Magnum Banjos, Sequatchie --, LP (197?), cut# 8 .Grossman, Stefan. Thunder on the Run, Kicking Mule KM 171, LP (1980), cut#A.04b (Redhaired Boy). Phipps, Bonnie. Autoharpin', Kicking Mule KM 228, LP (1982), cut# 5. Skylark. Favorites, Little Bird LB 1001, Cas (1990), cut#A.04; Stinnett, Cyril. Plain Old Time Fiddling, Stinnett SLP 1013, LP (197?), cut#B.06 (Gilroy) . Thomason, Ron. Mandolin and Other Stuff, Kanawha RT-3, LP (198?), cut#A.01a. Watson, Doc. Doc Watson's Favorites, Liberty LN-10201, LP (1983), cut#A.05a (Little Beggarman)
OTHER NAMES: "The Duck Chews Tobacco," "The First of May", "Gilderoy" (Ire.), "Giolla Rua" (Ire.), "Johnny Dhu," "The Little Beggarman" (Ire.), "The Little Beggar Boy," "An Maidrin Ruadh" (The Little Red Fox)," "The Old Soldier with a Wooden Leg" (W.Va.), "Old Soldier," "The Red Haired Lad," "The Red Headed/Haired Irishman" (Ky.), "Wooden Leg" (W.Va.).
SOURCES: J.P. Fraley (Rush, Ky.) [Phillips]; learned from fiddler Padraig O'Keeffe by accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan]; fiddler Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Begin]. Begin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 27, pg. 40. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 81. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 69, pg. 44. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 132. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 300, pg. 173. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 356, pg. 173 (appears as "The Redhaired Lad"). O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 209. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1748, pg. 325. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 921, pg. 157. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994. pg. 196. Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 34. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 77. Columbia C 33397, Dave Bromberg Band - "Midnight on the Water" (1975). Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Northern Spy - "Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire" (1999).
NOTES: "Geezer and the Guiser " tune is known in the US as the bluegrass fiddle tune, “Red Haired Boy.” Another US version of the “Red Haired Boy” tune is "Old Soldier with a Wooden Leg" from the Civil War period. Here’s some information about “Red Haired Boy:”
From A Fiddler’s Companion: The English translation of the Gaelic title "Giolla Rua" (or, Englished, "Gilderoy"), and is generally thought to commemorate a real-life rogue and bandit, however, Baring-Gould remarks that in Scotland the "Beggar" of the title is also identified with King James V. The song was quite common under the Gaelic and the alternate title "The Little Beggarman" (or "The Beggarman," "The Beggar") throughout the British Isles. For example, it appears in Baring-Gould's 1895 London publication Garland of Country Song and in The Forsaken Lover's Garland, and in the original Scots in The Scots Musical Museum.(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
A similarly titled song, "Beggar's Meal Poke's," was composed by James VI of Scotland (who in course became James the I of England), an ascription confused often with his ancestor James I, who was the reputed author of the verses of a song called "The Jolly Beggar." The tune is printed in Bunting's 1840 A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland as "An Maidrin Ruadh" (The Little Red Fox). The melody is one of the relatively few common to fiddlers throughout Scotland and Ireland, and was transferred nearly intact to the American fiddle tradition (both North and South) where it has been a favorite of bluegrass fiddlers in recent times.
"Geezer and the Guiser " tune is obsure, the origin of these lyrics is unknown. A version was discussed in the Mudcat Forum: Moe Hirsch pulled this one out of his hat recently, and I am intrigued. First, because the tune resembles a minor-key adaptation of the Little Beggarman, and second, because the lyrics hint at a fuller dialog somewhere back there. The title is my addition. Clearly it's related to There was an old soldier, I had a little chicken, etc. etc. But "guiser"? I think the term has to do with English ritual personnel, no? Anyway, here it is; I'm frankly trolling it as bait to see if it stirs up anyone's memory, who might want to share. Moe thinks he heard Frank Warner sing it with banjo, in Moe's youth in NYC (that would be in the days of the Early to Middle Folk Scare, as Bruce Phillips put it: around WWII, more or less).” (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Here are the lyrics for Geezer and the Guiser:
Said the guiser to the geezer, "Will you give me a pull?"
Said the geezer to the guiser, "I'll be damned if I will.
Save all your money and put it into stocks
And you'll always have tobacco in your old tobacco box."
Chorus: Diddle di di dum, diddle dum diddle ay
Diddle dum diddle diddle, diddle diddle, all the day,
Diddle di di dum, diddle dum diddle day,
And he whistled the same old tune.
Said the geezer to the guiser, "Take my advice,
Go down to the river, chop a hole in the ice,
Swim down to the bottom and lie down among the rocks
And you'll never want tobacco for your old tobacco box."
Chorus:
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