Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur/Humours of Whiskey

Subject: stick to the craythur
From: GUEST,Mike 'agent' Mulder
Date: 01 May 00 - 04:58 PM

My band and myself would really like to do this song, sung by The green fields of America, a capella, but I can't find the lyrics anywhere. Is there anyone out there who knows it ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: stick to the craythur
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 May 00 - 06:24 PM

"The Humors (or Humours) of Whiskey" is one of my favorite songs. A few years ago, when one of my friends wanted to learn it, I transcribed it for him from an Andy M. Stewart album. (If I had had Mudcat and DigiTrad in those days, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.) Anyway, I just now took the time to compare the two versions in DigiTrad with what I remember. I'd say the version called "...Humors..." (without the "U") is better and corresponds exactly with what Andy sang. However, the other version contains an extra verse which I had never heard before. This verse seems inferior to me, since it repeats some phrases and rhymes from earlier verses, and contains some bad rhymes: "drop" with "cob", "cheek" with "leap". I'd bet it is a recent addition, written by someone who wanted to make it bawdy.

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Messages from multiple threads combined. the messages below are from a new thead.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Stick to the Craythur
From:
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 12:39 PM

Hello, all, I'm looking for the lyrics to this song, which I have on CD, but am having trouble understanding some of the words.

No lyric sheet was provided with the CD, which is called "Raise a Glass to Celtic Music" on the CeltoPhile label. Great collection, by the way - it has an alternate version of "A Jug of Punch", which is very nice.

Thanks for your help! Pete

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 12:46 PM

humours of whiskey

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: Pete M'Gurk
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 12:51 PM

Well, no wonder I couldn't find it! I tried all the variations of craythur, poteen, stuff, drop, etc., and nothing came up. Thanks, MMario, for your help.

Pete

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 12:53 PM

I searched on "stick to the"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: GUEST,art
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:41 PM

I guess I wasn't the only one looking for this song. TKS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: The Celtic Bard
Date: 14 May 01 - 06:37 PM

I was looking for it too.

Rebecca <><

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 May 01 - 09:14 PM

Craythur, though a rather eccentric spelling, would get you several hits through the "Digitrad and Forum Search", which is far more powerful and reliable than the older search engines on this site.  Looking to those would then lead you to more references. As a rule, there is no longer any point in using the older search facilities.  There is probably now more song material in the Forum than in the Digitrad, so a search that does not include it will never get you full results.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 09:17 PM

I know what the meaning is, but what does the WORD mean? If you follow...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 May 01 - 09:19 PM

It's "creature" Mrrzy. Like the "monkey on your back".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: GUEST,Brían
Date: 14 May 01 - 11:46 PM

Créatúr, a creature, among other things is one of many pet names for poitín(poteen) or illegal booze. Other names include "pep"(mentioned in the song, "the stuff", and my favorite "holy water"(a pun on the irish word for whiskey, pronounced ish-kuh va-huh and the irish word for holy water, pronounced ish-kuh van-uh-huh). I have a very funny story about that, but it needs an audience.

Brían

Subject: Lyr Req: STICK TO THE CRATHUR
From:
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 03:53 PM

lyrics sent by e-mail.This message and the ones below are from a new thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: STICK TO THE CRATHUR
From: David Ingerson
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 04:25 PM

What a great song! It's in the DT under The Humours of Whiskey. Tom Munnelly collected it from Tom Lenihan, whom I had the privilige of hearing sing it years ago. It's published in Tom M.'s "A Mount Callan Garland" (I think that's the name of his book on Tom L.). Great book, too.

David

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 08:14 PM

I always thought the word was "crater", meaning a large bowl-shaped vessel. Am I way off base?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 02:47 AM

Yerrrrrrrrrr outta there!

;)

Though I've heard it pronounced to sound like "crater", Brían above has it pretty well covered.

I too learned it from the Andy M. Stewart/Manus Lunny album (Dublin Lady, Green Linnet), though I'd heard others do it, because that album had a lyric sheet enclosed (loved it when they did that).

When I used to sing it, I found I wanted more of a finish so I threw on 2 more choruses at the end:

then stick to the cratur, the best thing in nature
for sinkin' your sorrows and raisin' your joys
though we all take our measure of fortune and leisure
there's no such a treasure as poitín, my boys

then stick to the cratur, the best thing in nature
for sinkin' your sorrows and raisin' your joys
for all tribulations in all the world's nations
find nullification in poitín, my boys


Pretty good song actually.... ought to rotate it back into the set lists

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: Felipa
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 04:40 AM

last time I checked, the DT tune for this song was Father O'Flynn rather than the usual Larry O'Gaff - if you do a DT search for Larry O'Gaff you will find it backing some other songs such as The Squid Jigging Ground

Subject: Lyr Add: PADDY'S PANACEA or HUMOURS OF WHISKEY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 04:55 PM

This text not only has a heretofore unheard verse, but it corrects a few mondegreens, e.g. "an ocean", not "a notion".

From Irish Come-all-ye's By Manus O'Conor (New York: L. Lipkind, 1901)

PADDY'S PANACEA.

1.   Let your quacks in newspapers
    Be cutting their capers,
'Bout curing the vapors, the scurvy, or gout,
    Wid their powders and potions,
    Their balsams and lotions,
Och hone! in their notions they're mightily out.
    Would you know the true physic
    To bother the phthisic.
And pitch to the devil cramp, colic, and spleen?
    You'll find it, I think,
    If you take a big drink,
With your mouth to the brink of a jug of poteen.
    Then stick to the cratur,
    The best thing in natur,
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.
    Och! whack! botheration!
    No dose in the nation
Can give consolation like whisky, my boys!

2.   Oh, no liquid cosmetic
    For lovers athletic
Or ladies pathetic can give such a bloom;
    And for sweets, by the pow'rs,
    A whole garden of flow'rs
Never gave their own bow'rs such a darling perfume.
    Then the liquor so rare,
    If you're wishing to share,
To be turning your hair when it's grizzled or red;
    Sure the sod has the merit
    To make the true spirit
So strong it'll turn both your hair and your head.
    Then stick to the cratur,
    The best thing in natur,
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.
    Oh! since 'tis perfection,
    No doctor's direction
Can guard the complexion like whisky, my boys!

3.   Whilst a child in the cradle,
    My nurse wid a ladle
Was filling my mouth wid an ocean of pap,
    When a drop from the bottle
    Slipp'd into my throttle,
I caper'd and wriggled clane out of her lap.
    On the floor I lay sprawling,
    And kicking and bawling,
Till father and mother were both to the fore,
    All sobbing and sighing,
    Conceived I was dying,
But soon found I only was screeching for more.
    Then stick to the cratur,
    The best thing in natur
For sinking vour sorrows and raising your joys.
    Oh, whack, how they'd chuckle
    If babes in their truckle
They only could suckle wid whisky, my boys!

4.   Thro' my youthful progression
    To years of discretion
My childhood's impression still clung to my mind;
    For at school or at college
    The bolus of knowledge
I never could gulp till wid whisky combined.
    And as older I'm growing,
    Time's ever bestowing
On Erin's potation a flavor so fine,
    That howe'er they may lecture
    'Bout Jove and his nectar,
Itself is the only true liquor divine.
    Then stick to the cratur,
    The best thing in natur
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.
    Oh, whack! 'tis delighting
    For courting or fighting
There's nought so exciting as whisky, my boys!

5.   Let philosophers dabble
    In science, and babble
'Bout Oxygin, Hydrogin, Nitrogin's fame;
    For their gin, to my thinking,
    Is not worth the drinking;
Their labor's all lost, and their learning a drame.
    They may prate by the score
    Of their elements four,
That all things earth, air, fire, and water must be;
    For their rules I don't care,
    For in Ireland, I'll swear,
By St. Pat there's a fifth, and that's whisky, machree!
    Then stick to the cratur,
    The best thing in natur
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.
    Och! whack! art and science
    Myself bids defiance
To yield in appliance to whisky, my boys!

6.   Come guess me this riddle—
    What bates pipe and fiddle?
What's stronger than mustard and milder than crame?
    What best wets your whistle?
    What's clearer than crystal,
And sweeter than honey, and stronger than stame?
    What'll make the dumb talk?
    What'll make the lame walk?
What's th' Elixir of Life and Philosopher's Stone?
    And what help'd Mr. Brunel
    To dig the Thames Tunnel?
Sure wasn't it the spirit of nate Innishowen!
    Then stick to the cratur,
    The best thing in natur
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.
    Oh! whack! I'd not wonder
    If lightning and thunder
Was made from the plunder of whisky, my boys!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 05:06 PM

I first heard the song on Sean O'Meara's WWOZ radio program "Music from the Glen" one fairly-recent St. Patrick's Day morning. Sean's show is on Saturday, and I think I heard him play a recording of this song the year when March 17th actually fell on Saturday.

A wonderful lyric; I'd love to sing it, but doubt that I'd ever be able to memorize it all!

I regret not having learned of it, and learned it, when I was younger and better able to commit words to memory.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 15 Dec 08 - 08:18 PM

Back to the word, cratur. This word is also in a family song of ours, "Come Let Us Sing," one of the old forms of the building-up song (from one to twelve, usually). As it works downward, the last two lines (as I heard them when a little one):
   Two,two the lost babes, my darling grater,
   One, one left alone, lone to be alone.

Some older sister finally heard my pronunciation, and giggled, "T'aint
grater, silly- it's cratur!"

Well, I HAD wondered- a grater was a tinny sheet with crossways open slats (usually made out of a piece of wornout washboard), which Mom used to grate heads of cabbage when she made her slaw for winter (salted and put with water in a churn. We called it pickled cabbage).
SO- "cratur" made more sense, and the song line did, too. Just think, if I hadn't learnt the right word, there might have endless threads- sometime in the future- as to what a 'darlin grater' was!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Dec 08 - 06:13 AM

Slanguage (Bernard Share) definition:

craythur/crathur/cratur/creature
[n.]. 1. [<'creature': strong drink (joc.) 1614]. Whiskey, more gen. illicitly distilled poteen (q.v.). Most commonly in phrase 'a drop of the craythur'. 1824 Thomas Crofton Croker, Researches in South of Ireland: 'when he swears by all he considers holy, to drink "not a drop at all at all [q.v.]", he surmounts his difficulty by eating the bread he has sopped in "the cratur". 1925 Louise McKay, Mourne Folk: '"Ye must have a drop of the cratur with us afore ye go, jist to show that we're all on friendly terms.'" 1978 John McGuffin, In Praise of Poteen: 'in our large cities school labs, hospital labs and back garden sheds and garages are being used for making their own version of "the cratur'". 2. [<'creature', human being ME]. Expression of affection and/or pity, as 'The craythur!' 1906 E.OE. Somerville & Martin Ross, Some Irish Yesterdays '"Well, well! The cratures [sic]\ An' they come to this lonesome place to ate their dinner...'"

Tom Lenihan's first Album on Topic was entitled 'Paddy's Panacea'
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur
From: GUEST
Date: 04 May 10 - 07:38 PM

yeah crathur mean creature, its an accent thing

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stick to the Craythur/Humours of Whiskey
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 13 Feb 20 - 01:14 PM

first & last verses & chorus from Tom Lenihan, 1967

https://youtu.be/-mMRMDogu2c

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Is the tune used in many other songs?

:
Victoria Bridge - Harry Boardman