Annotation:Leather You Rogue (The)
X:1 T:Leather, You Rogue, The M:9/8 L:1/8 R:Slip Jig B:The Dublin Magazine (February, 1843, No. 10) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Emin EFE EDE c3|EFE EDE GED|EFE EDE cde|dcB c2A GED:| |:dBG GAB c2A|dBG GAB ecA|dBG GAB cde|dcB c2A GED:| |:EFE c2E c2E|EFE c2A GED|EFE c2E cde|dcB c2A GED:|]
LEATHER YOU ROGUE, THE. AKA and see "Spatter the Dew (3)." Irish, Slip Jig (9/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBAA. The tune begins in the relative minor key at the outset of the first strain, but resolves to the key of 'G' major. The second strain is entirely in 'G' major. Fr. John Quinn finds the tune to be a variant of Richard Fitzmaurice's "Spatter the Dew (3)." Researcher Conor Ward further finds "Cock and the Hen (1) (The)" and "Doodley Doodley Dank" to be in the same tune family as "Leather You Rogue."
The title perhaps is similar in meaning to "hell(-bent) for leather", meaning to proceed with reckless abandon. Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue(1823) gives "leather" the meaning: "To lose leather; to be galled with riding on horseback, or, as the Scotch express it, to be saddle-sick. To leather, also, means to beat, perhaps originally with a strap; I'll leather you to your heart's content." Thus the title may mean "I'll leather you, you rogue" or an urging on of the rogue to 'leather'.
