Lyr Req: The Bold Tenant Farmer

Subject: The Bold Tenant Farmer
From: Maryrrf
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 10:38 PM

Does anybody have the lyrics to "The Bold Tenant Farmer" as sung by the Clancy Brothers. I can't find my old cassette tape and that song keeps going through my head, but I can't remember all of it. I've pulled up other versions of the song but they aren't the same.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Tenant Farmer
From: khandu
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 10:43 PM

Clicky Thang!

khandu

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Tenant Farmer
From: The Pooka
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 11:40 PM

I gather, from the various lyrics revealed by the above Clicky Thang, that the oul' Clancys version (as I remember it anyway) is, not uncharacteristically, rather foreshortened, bland-ished, and expurgated. / Never the Less, I will aways cherish the imagery in the 3rd line of the following LiamClancyfied verse -

I scarcely had travelled a mile up the road
When I heard a dispute in a farmer's abode:
**The son of the landlord, an ill-lookin' toad**,
And the wife of the bold tenant farmer!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Tenant Farmer
From: Maryrrf
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 12:17 AM

Amazing! I posted this late at night and got an immediate answer. How come it didn't come up when I did a digitrad search, I wonder??? Thanks !

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD TENANT FARMER
From: GUEST,Den
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 10:53 AM

I've always heard it like this:
One evening of late
Into Brandon I strayed
And bound for Clonakilty
I was making me way
In an elegant Alehouse
Some time I delayed
For to wet me ould whistle
With porter

I scarcely had travelled
A mile of the road
When I heard a dispute
In a farmers abode
The son of the landlord
An ill-lookin' toad
And the wife of the bould tenant farmer

Hurrah for the bould tenant's wife she replied
You're as bad as your Daddy
On the other side
But the national landleague
Will put down your pride
For they're able to bear every storm

I spit in me fist
And I picked up me stick
And up the coach road
Like a deer I did trip
I care not for baillif, landlord or ould Nick
And I sang like the lark
In the morning

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Tenant Farmer
From: Maryrrf
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 11:22 AM

That sounds just like the Clancy Brothers version which was, as some have pointed out - abbreviated.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD TENANT FARMER
From: The Pooka
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 01:24 PM

Guest Den's is indeed the whitebread Clancys version I remember, except that it omits Liam's 3rd verse, to wit:

Well what in the divil comes over ye all?
When we call for our rent we can't get it at all!
But sure at next Sessions ye'll pay for it all,
Or you'll get the high road to Dungarvan!

Then comes the tenantfarmer's wife's bold riposte.

There was (of course) a "diddley ow-troo too dum" type "decayed gaelic???" mouthmusic chorus between the verses. I recently learned on another thread --was it yours, maryrrf?--that folksingers call this Musharingum stuff "The Burden". Hee hee hee God help me, I love it so. (But can ye sing The Burden in The Burren?)

I *think* the placename is Bandon, not Brandon. And in the recording I have they sing "At Ballinascorthy some time I delayed"; but no doubt the "Elegant Alehouse" is in others. / Vacationing in Ireland in '98, purely for the sake of this song my son took a picture of me beneath a crossroads signpost that pointed directions to Bandon, Clonakilty, & (I think) Ballinascorthy. Yeah, typical Oirish-Amurrican tourist. Like I said, God help me I do love it so. :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Tenant Farmer
From: khandu
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 03:15 PM

Maryrrf, I found this by placing the title in the "Digitrad and Forum Search" box, which is directly under the "Create a New Thread" on the Forum page. That way, both, the Digitrad and the Forum, were searched.

The results were found in the Forum.

khandu

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD TENANT FARMER
From:
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:26 PM

1. One evening of late into Bandon I strayed,
And down to Clonakilty I was making my way.
At Ballinascarthy some time I delayed
For to wet me auld whistle with porter.

CHORUS: Tithery-ow-tow, tithery-ow-tow,
Tithery-ow-tow-tom-tom
Tithery-ow-tow, tithery-ow-tow,
Tither-ow-tow-tom-tom
Tithery-ow-tah-den, tithery-ow-tow,
Tithery-ow-tow-tom
Tithery-ow-tah-den, toodle-e-aaro.

2. Well, I scarcely had travelled a mile of the road
When I heard a dispute in a farmer's abode.
The son of the landlord, an ill looking toad,
And the wife of the bold tenant farmer. CHORUS

3. He said, "What the devil's come over you all?
Not one penny of rent at each time that I call,
But by next October, I'll settle you all,
For you'll have the high road for your garden." CHORUS

4. "You robber," the bold tenant's wife she replied.
"You're worse than your daddy on the other side,
But the National Land League will put down your pride,
For they're able to bear every storm. CHORUS

5. "O its branches extend to the country and town
Protecting the tenants, their houses and ground.
I owe you twelve months and I'll give you one pound
If you clear our receipts in the morning." CHORUS

6. When she spoke of the Land League, his lips they grew pale,
Saying, "What good have you done but be stuck into jail?
And the rent that you owe you must be paid by next gale.
And believe me, we'll give you no quarter. CHORUS

7. "Your husband I saw in the town just last night.
He was drinking and shouting for poor tenants' rights.
By the month of October, we'll put you to flight
To follow your friends o'er the water." CHORUS

8. "If my husband was drinking, what has that to you?
I'd rather he'd drink it than give it to you.
Now make up you mind, for you won't get a chew,
For wet marshy land is no bargain. CHORUS

9. "We all joined the Land League on last New Year's Day,
And I think, in my heart, we're not going astray.
While the clergy are with us, we'll carry the day,
Now marshalling all in good order. CHORUS

10. "Here's to Father O'Leary, the pride of our isle.
He's the boy that can title you ruffians in style
John Dillon and Davitt who rank in their file,
Take care you don't tread on their corns." CHORUS

11. Then I stepped out from under the bush where I lay.
And as he passed by me, I heard him to say:
"I wish to my God I was ten miles away
From the wife of the bold tenant farmer". CHORUS

12. Well, I spat on me fingers and I picked up me stick
And up the coach road like a deer I did trip,
And I cared not for bailiff, landlord or auld Nick
And I sang like a lark in the morning. CHORUS

13. I shouted "Hurrah" and she shouted "Huroo".
She showed him her back and like lightning he flew,
Saying, "God save the Land League and old Ireland too.
Agus fagáimead siúd mar atá sé." CHORUS

The landlord in the song was Bence-Jones, one of the major landlords in west Cork. The "wife of the bold tenant farmer" was a Mrs Nyhan from a village called Ballinascarthy, which is halfway between Bandon and Clonakilty in west Cork. Incidentially, Ballinascarthy was the birthplace of Henry Ford's father.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Tenant Farmer
From: DannyC
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 12:37 PM

... and we'll leave it there as it is...

Thank you for posting these lyrics. I had rekindled my interest in this song after having been presented with a Tenancy Deed involving my G-Grandfather, Tom Morrisey, and a piece of ground (26 acres) in the townland of Bridestown in East Cork (Barony of Barrymore). Reading this expanded version of the song makes me want to quickly "get it".

The document is filmed with black dirt. Its folds are neatly cornered and you might still sense the tight grip of the man's hand. Tom was bailing out some fella named Arthur Donoghue for the balance of last year's (1876) rent paid in full to Edward Morgan, Esq.

The details therein signal that Morgan might have been a man that you would want to watch out for - "two cows two calves (a yearling & a weanling calf)one horse with carts ++ ploughs & tackling & with all potatoes straw hay manure on said lands" were to be the property of the tenant farmer. (You wouldn't want his nibs hauling off the shite, would you?)

Donoghue and two Morrisey women were to receive "the support diet & maintenance" on the land "without any charge for same during the life of them" save labor and assistance. There is a provision for a life-long annuity to each of three pounds paid each January.

Donoghue and Morrisey placed their respective marks "X" in the presence of David Murphy on the 24th of January, 1876.   My birth in Philadelphia in 1953 exhibits the failure of the scheme. I suppose they missed the Land League's assistance by a decade or so.

I'm trotting out for a few songs tonight with my friend, Labhras Draper. His late father, Labhras, was a singer of some note from Ring, Co Waterford. Labhras, the son, is more of a horseman than a singer these days, but he comes by the music honestly. I forwarded these expanded lyrics to him in the hopes that we'll develop a party piece version for our personal enjoyment - the Gaeltacht man and the Revivalist out for a bit of fun. Agus fagáimead siúd mar atá sé.