Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie

Subject: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: Jim McLean
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:05 PM

I wrote this in 1957 based on an older song. It was recorded in around 1967 By Gib Todd of The Kerries

The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie.

There's a big mansion hoose, and it's awfy braw,
It stauns on the banks o the Linnie,
It's buit oot o stane, Barlinnie's its name,
And the rooms are a' cosy and sunny, haw, haw

There's bars on the windaes tae keep thieves awa,
The servants are big, braw and skinny,
And if you break the law, your welcome tae ca'
At the big mansion hoose ca'd Barlinnie, haw, haw.

The porridge is made, you don't need a spade,
You just need tae haud oot yer tinnie,
And there's cocoa at night tae help ye sleep tight,
In the big mansion hoose ca'd barlinnie, haw, haw.

Your bed's saft as snaw, it's hinged tae the wa'
They gie ye pyjamas a' frilly,
It's the truth that Ah tell, for Ah've been there masel'
In the big mansion hoose ca'ed Barlinnie, haw, haw.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 01:44 PM

To the good old Thrashing Machine tune.
G

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: Jim McLean
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 05:41 PM

Giok, I didn't know the name of the tune I used for Barlinnie and when I checked on the Threshing Machine (Google) it sounded like Villikins and his Dinah .. chorus: with a toora li roo li roo li lay. This is not the tune I used, is it the one you meant?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 06:14 PM

Yes, the tune I know it to is almost the same as that. What do you do it to?
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: Jim McLean
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 04:56 AM

Giok,it's definitely not Villikens and his Dinah but it's one I have always known. How can I get the tune to you?
Jim

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 06:39 AM

I don't suppose you'll be at Glenfarg will you? Apart from that it's probably a midi file, and I don't know anything about them.
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: Jim McLean
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 07:03 AM

I live in London, Giok, but I could make a midi file. However I'm sure someone in Glenfarg would know the tune I use if you ask about Gibb Todd, who might be there. If you PM me with an email address I could send you the midi file.
Jim

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 07:33 AM

Jim, I have a snatch of this song on tape sang by Ewan MacColl, so he must also have recorded it.

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose ca'd Barlinnie
From: Jim McLean
Date: 06 Apr 05 - 08:07 AM

I have found it printed in McColl and Seeger's Singing Island, 1960. They only print three verses but the tune is almost identical to that used by me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 06:59 AM

We sang this at the Girl Guides......educational??

The gates of Barlinnie Hotel
There is a wee man wae a bell
He pulls down the string
And it goes ding-a-ling
The gates of Barlinnie Hotel.

You don't need a spade
Your porridge is made
You just have to rattle your tinnie haw haw
Withoot any doot
You will never get oot
Of the big mansion hoose ca'd Barlinnie Hotel.

And there are the polis that stand by the door
With bonnets and bayonets and awe the things wore
And there are the prisoners all down in their cells
All gambling and drinking all by themselves.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie
From: GUEST,Clydie
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 04:56 PM

Hi there, I know this a really old thread but I am trying to find a copy of this recording for my mum. Does anyone know if I can get a copy anywhere please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 06:46 PM

There's a version on CD1 of Adam McNaughtan's double CD The Words That I Used To Know, CDTRAX 195D from Greentrax Recordings Limited. Some of the same words as above, some different.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie
From: GUEST,Clydie
Date: 15 Mar 14 - 05:52 AM

Brilliant Richard, thanks so much- this will mean the world to her!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Oct 14 - 07:05 PM

I was a pupil at the Good Shepherd RC Primary School in Dalbeth/Tollcross, Glasgow between early 1952( when it opened) and early January 1954, when I left to go on to senior secondary.
Our teacher, Mr Keegans of revered memory, taught us the Barlinnie mansionhoose song.
The( half-understood) lyrics that I recall were:
' There's a big mansionhoose, it stands on the spruce[?] it stands on the banks o' Loch Spinnie[?], an' if you break the law ye're liable to go
to the big mansionhoose o' Barlinnie.
The porridge is made, ye don't need a spade, ye jist need tae haud oot yer tinnie.. an' if you break the law ye're liable tae gaw tae the big mansionhoose o' Barlinnie.'
And I remember how difficult it was to see Barlinnie Prison from Tollcross Park through the polluted air in those times.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Oct 14 - 11:02 AM

I remember Robin Hall, when in Glesgae Street·Song mode, would sing this, & follow it with this one about the city's other nick:

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(tune obvious)

There is a happy land
Doon in Duke Street Gaol
Where a' the convicts stand
Wi' their mops & pails
Ham & eggs ye'll never see
Dirty water tae your tea
There we live in misery
Doon in Duke Street Gaol

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Big Mansion Hoose Ca'd Barlinnie
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Oct 14 - 11:11 AM

Drift -- But reminded of story Dominic Behan would tell, of how he was doing a stretch in Walton, Liverpool, when he was very young, about 17-18. The Governor walked by with another man as he and a fellow-lag were scrubbing the floor. The other man stopped and said to him, "Do you write every week to your mother?"
"Oh, yes sir," sez Dominic.
"Good boy," said the man, and gave him a sweet.
"What a nice gentleman," said Dominic as they walked off. "Who is he?"
"Him!" said his companion. "Oh, that's Pierrepoint."

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