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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Young Buchan I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it! (42) RE: I sing ' Wild Rover' and am proud of it! 19 Oct 09


Yes of course sing it. Yes of course use the version you are comfortable with. BUT BE WARNED. No matter how salubrious the place in which you sing it, no matter how carefully you check the identity and folk music qualifications of everyone in the room, the very minute you begin to sing, in will come a drunk who will very loudly tell everyone (including you, if you pause for breath) that you are singing it wrong, and that he knows you are singing it wrong because he has an LP of the Dubliners singing it. And if you try to explain that you learnt it from an old Suffolk rat catcher, who learnt it from his great grandfather, said drunk will insist that said rat-catcher's great grandfather must have got it from the Dubliners and then forgotten the right words.

The version below has annoyed many drunks over the years. Feel free to use it. It is a composite from Suffolk singers, with a verse which I thing may have come over on holiday from Australia:

Do you see yon landlady sat there in her chair?
She has rings on her fingers and gold in her hair.
It's bought with our money, you very well know;
And for to maintain, her we're fools if we do.
CHO. Wild rover, wild rover no more.
I never shall prove a wild rover no more.

I went into an alehouse where I frequently went
And I told the landlady my six-month was spent.
I asked for a drink but to me she did say
"Oh no, Jackie Tar, you can be on your way."

I put my hand in my pocket pulled out handfuls of gold
And there on the table it rattled and rolled.
She said "I have whiskey and beer of the best
And such words as I said they were only a jest."

She went and got whiskey from off the top shelf
But I got up to go and I laughed to myself.
And I said to her as I walked out the door
"You can keep your bad whiskey, you dirty old whore."

I'll go home to my father, tell him what I've done
And ask him to pardon his prodigal ['protestant' winds them up even more!] son.
I'll go home to my mother and there I'll remain
And I never shall prove a wild rover again.


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