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Green Grow the Rushes, O
Traditional tune from Scotland. Scottish (originally), Irish, English, American; Strathspey, Hornpipe, Barndance, Highland, Highland Schottische, Fling, Slide (12/8 time), March or Reel.
ARTIST: Lyrics Robert Burns. Text (traditional, but apparantly rewritten at least in part) sent by Burns to John Richmond, September 3, I786, with the note in which he announced that Jean Armour had just borne him twins. From Robert Burns: The Merry Muses of Caledonia, ed. James Barke and Sydney Goodsir Smith, 1966.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1627
RECORDING INFO: Flying Fish, Robin Williamson - "Legacy of the Scottish Harpers, Vol. 2". Front Hall 018, How to Change a Flat Tire - "Traditional Music From Ireland and Shetland" (learned from Kathleen Collins). Green Linnet GLCD 1175, Cherish the Ladies - "New Day Dawning." Green Linnet GLCD 1187, Cherish the Ladies - "One and All: the best of Cherish the Ladies" (1998). Island ILPS9432, The Chieftains - "Bonaparte's Retreat" (1976). MacColl, Ewan. Scotch (Scots) Drinking Songs, Offbeat OLP 4023, LP (196?), cut# 11; MacColl, Ewan. Songs of Robert Burns, Folkways FW 8758, LP (1959), cut#A.01; Cahill, Eddie. Ah! Surely, Shanachie 29014, LP (1979), cut#B.03b; How to Change a Flat Tire. Traditional Music of Ireland & Shetland, Front Hall FHR-018, LP (1978), cut# 4b; Noonan, Paddy; Band. Scottish Party, Tifton TS 82, LP (197?), A.06b
OTHER NAMES: “Come Let Us Sing;” “Twelve Apostles” "Green Grow the Rashes" "The East Neuk of Fife," "Grant's Rant," "Irish Whiskey," "Over the Hills and Far Away," "Paddy Caught/Got a Rat," "Paddy Killed the/a Rat," "Paddy Run the/a Rat," “Bonnie Are the Hurdles, O!” “I'll Sing You One-Ho”
SOURCES: Chieftains (Ireland) [Miller & Perron]; Johnny O'Leary (Slibah Luachra, Co. Kerry), recorded at Ballydesmond in February, 1973 [Moylan]; 13 southwestern Pa. fiddlers, fifers and manuscripts [Bayard]; Gillespie MS. [Johnson]; a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman]; flute player Noel Tansey (b. 1940, Cuilmore, County Sligo) [Flaherty]; Castle Ceili Band [Sullivan]. Aird (Selections), Vol. 6, 1903?; No. 37. Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 74b, pg. 31. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 206A-M, pgs. 158-162. Breathnach, 1971; No. 4. Cole (1001 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 21 (Reel). Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin String), 1971; Nos. 30 & 31, pgs. 130-131. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 72. Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; pg. 95. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; pg. 12. Graham, 1908; pg. 37. Hardings All-Round Collection, 1905; No. 86, pg. 27. Jarman, 1951; pg. 76. JEFDSS, Vol. 9; pg. 147 (Shetland variant). Johnson, Vol. 1, 1787-1803; No. 77. D. Johnson, 1984; No. 70, pg. 223. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 17. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 5, pg. 19. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 2; No. 117, pg. 14. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 80. McGibbon (A Collection of Scots Tunes), c. 1795; Vol. 1; pg. 12. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 1977; Vol. 1, No. 15 (hornpipe version). Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 25, pg. 16. Oswald (The Caledonian Pocket Companion), Vol. 1, 1780?; pg. 18. Petrie-Stanford (Complete Collection), 1903-06; No. 1427. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 173. Saar, 1932; No. 18. Scottish Country Dance Book, Book 12, 1930; No. 2. Sharp (Sword Dance Tunes), Book 2, 1911-13; pg. 3. Smith (The Scottish Minstrel), Vol 4, 1820-24; pg. 91. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 157. Sullivan (Session Tunes), Vol. 3; No. 30, pg. 12. Taylor (Where's the Crack), 1989; pg. 4. Thompson (A Select Collection...Scottish Airs), 1, Vol. 4, 1805; No. 155. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Vol. 1), 1999; pg. 12. Walsh (Caledonian Country Dances), Vol. 2, 1737; pg. 25. White's Unique Collection, 1896; No. 72. Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p394; Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 72c; Creighton, Mildred. Anglo-American Folksong Style, Prentice-Hall, Sof (1968), 4-6; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: "G Major. Standard. AB (Cole, Moylan, Tubridy): AAB (Athole, Ford, Gow): AABB (Ashman, Bayard, Hardings, Johnson, Kerr, Miller & Perron, Raven, Sullivan, Taylor): AABB' (Skye): AA'BB' (Flaherty). The air first appears in early lute manuscripts of the 17th century; a note in Graham (1908) claims the first strain of the tune occurs twice in the Straloch Manuscript of 1627. It appears in the Panmure Collection of c. 1705, a fiddler's MS repertory book. Johnson (1984) states the whole tune was recorded in fiddle manuscripts from the 1680's and was already ancient when printed in Stewart's Reels (1761-5, pg. 13) and the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). The present title is from Robert Burns's reworking of the poem sung to a tune called "Grant's Rant"--in the transition the rant form was dropped and a strathspey rhythm was substituted, a not uncommon fate of rants. Burns' version is somewhat more polite, states Robin Williamson, for the tune seems originally to have been linked to lyrics satirizing the proflicacy of priests. Johnson (1984) confirms the Scottish song (first mentioned in The Complaint of Scotland in 1549) originally was a rude or risque text." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
The US version is usually titled “the Twelve Apostles” Or “I’ll Sing You One-Oh”.
LYRICS:
Chorus: Green grow the rushes-O,
Green grow the rushes-O,
The sweetest bed that e'er I got
Was the bellies of the lassies O
In sober hours I am a priest,
A hero when I'm tipsy O,
But I'm a king and everything
When with a wanton gipsy O
Chorus:
We're all dry with drinking o't,
We're all dry with drinking o't,
The parson kissed the fiddler's wife
And he couldna preach for thinking o't.
Chorus:
The down bed, the feather bed,
The bed among the rushes O,
Yet all the beds is not so soft
As the bellies of the lassies O
Chorus:
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