Annotation:Lasses Pisses Brandy
X:1 T:Lasses Pisses Brandy M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel S:William Vickers 1770 Northumbrian music manuscript collection K:Amix ef/g/ ae fdec|eaac e2f2|ef/g/ ae fdec|BggB d2f2:| |:ec c/d/e/c/ eA c/d/e/c/|eaac e2f2|eA c/d/e/c/ eA c/d/e/c/|BggB d2f2:|]
LASSES PISSES BRANDY. AKA and see "Bonny Geordy," "Lasses Bushes Brawly," "Lick the Ladle," "Lasses Like Nae Brandy," "Lasses Likes Nae Brandy," "Lasses Drinks at Brandy." Scottish, English; Reel. England, Northumberland. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. David Johnson (1984) believes it was probably Robert Mackintosh who, in 1772, gave this tune its usual title 'Lasses Like(s) Nae Brandy,' altering it from the earlier "Lasses Drinks at Brandy," altering the meaning as well. Several variant titles have to do with the imbibing of liquor, and Matt Seattle remarks that the use of 'pisses' simply means 'boozes'. Seattle, remarking on versions on both sides of the Tweed, notes [1]:
Musically there was a branching off at some early stage; in Scottish versions the subtonic (G) chord is in bar 2 while in Northumbrian versions it is in bar 4. This apparent displacement is quite common, and can be explained by the circular effect of a repeated strain - a listener and a player can perceive the strain beginning in a different place, and many tunes which branched off in this way subsequently developed separately in a kind of musical parallel to biological evolution. This version is fine as far as it goes, but for a fuller rendition see William Dixon.
Finlay Dunn and George Farquhar Graham printed a version of the tune around the year 1830 as an untitled "Pipe Reel", although they were perhaps well aware of the earthier titles and deliberately chose to be 'discrete'.
