Annotation:Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre (2)

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MUCKIN' O' GEORDIE'S BYRE [2]. Scottish, Air and Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A 'modern' song that differs in both melody and words to the 18th century "Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre (1)." The tune for this version is similar to that of "Bonnie Strathyre" published in Harold Boulton's Songs of the North (1885), and is also similar to the Scottish song "Westering Home" and to "Trasna na dTonnta," a an Irish-language song taught to primary school students in Ireland. "Mucking' o' Geordie's Byre (2)" was popularized through the playing and singing of Willie Kemp and Andy Stewart. The comic words begin:

At a rickle aul’ craft upo’ the hill, Roon the back o’ Sprottie’s mill,
Tryin’ a’ his life tae jine the kill
Bade Geordie McIntyre.

He had a wife as sweir’s himsel’
An’ a dother as black’s auld Nick himsel’,
There wis some fun – haud aw a the smell--
At the muckin’ o’ Geordie’s byre.

Chorus:
For the graip was tint, the besom was deen
The barra widna row its leen,
An siccan a soss there never was seen ......(siccan a soss="such a mess")
At the muckin’ o’ Geordie’s byr

The whisky ga'ed roun' Tammy Fleeing' the doo' ... ('flee the blue'; to go out
And aye as they drank, the mair they go fou' ... (for more whiskey)
The only anes sober, the calf an' the coo'
At the mucking of Geordie's byre.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - John McLachlan (Piper’s Assistant), 1854; No. 71, p. 40.

Recorded sources: -

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