Little Beggarman
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LITTLE BEGGARMAN. AKA and see "Duck Chewed Tobacco (The)," "First of May (3) (The)," "Gilderoy (2)" (Ire.), "Giolla Rua" (Ire.), "Johnny Dhu," "Little Beggar Boy," "Old Soldier (2) (The)/Old Soldier with a Wooden Leg (The) (2)" (W.Va.), "Old Soldier," "Red Haired Boy," "Red Haired Lad (The)," "Red Headed Irishman (The)/Red Haired Irishman (The)" (Ky.), "Wooden Leg" (W.Va.). Irish, Hornpipe. A Mixolydian (Kennedy, Mallinson, O'Brien): G Major/Mixolydian (Tubridy). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A long favorite tune (albeit now seen as a beginner's tune), widely disseminated in Britain, Ireland and North America. See Gilderoy (2) for more. Words to the tune begin:
I am a little beggar man, a begging I have been,
For three score years in this little isle of green;
I'm known along the Liffey from the Basin to the Zoo,
And everybody calls me by the name of Johnny Dhu.
Of all the trades a going, sure the begging is the best,
For when a man is tired he can sit him down and rest;
He can beg for his dinner, he has nothing else to do,
But to slip around the corner with his old rigadoo.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Kennedy (Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Reels and Rants), 1997; No. 102, p. 26. Mallinson (100 Enduring), 1995; No. 85, p. 36. O'Brien (Jerry O'Brien's Accordion Instructor), Boston, 1949. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; p. 13.
Recorded sources:
