Key signature: Gmajor
Submitted on September 1st 2003 by lazyhound.
This tune has been added to 85 tunebooks.
Also known as The Carol Of The Twelve Numbers, Green Grow The Rashes-O, Green Grow The Rushes Ho, Green Grow The Rushes March, Green Grow The Rushes O, Green Grow The Rushes O Highland Fling, Green Grow The Rushes O', Green Grow The Rushes Oh, Green Grow The Rushes, Ho, Green Grow The Rushes, O, Green Grow The Rushes, Oh, Green Grow The Rushes-O, The Twelve Prophets.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Green Grow The Rushes
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: barndance
K: Gmaj
G2GA BGG2|ABcd eAAB|c2ec B2dB|1 AcBA GEDE:|2 AcBA GED2|
|:g2ga ged2|eaab agef|g2ga gedB|1 AcBA GED2:|2 AcBA GEDE||
Green Grow The Rushes (barndance)
A rousing (short) barndance I learnt in Clonmel this August.
Trevor
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by lazyhound
The Cook in the Kitchen
There is a good version of this in John Brosnans album "The Cook in the kitchen"
# Posted on September 8th 2003 by Northcregg
it makes for a lovely reel and/or hornpipe. or is a hornpipe more or less the same as a barndance? what IS the difference anyway?!
# Posted on December 4th 2003 by JHowley
Altan and Green Grow
A few years ago Altan came through Texas to the North Texas Irish Festival on their "Another Sky" tour. We had seen them previously on their tour for Island Angel. Anyways, When they played Green Grow the Rushes, the whole place was singing, and it was so beautiful! This song evolved into one of our favorite tunes.
# Posted on April 4th 2004 by steve johnson
- - - HIGHLAND FLING / FLING / HIGHLAND - half a hornpipe - - -
Well, damned, all this stuff gathered here. I guesst things need a home and barndances and highlands are kissin' cousins. They both have that skip in the heart, tuh-bump, or as some would have it, the hornpipe skip rhythm, in other words:
|A>Bc>d e>AA>B|
The attendant dances may have some similarities, but they differ as well...
# Posted on July 23rd 2004 by ceolachan
Song
Isn't there also a song ny this name?
"Green grow the rushes, oh
Green grow the rushes, oh"
Something like that... I know I've heard this song somewhere.
# Posted on October 18th 2004 by Crisdean
Dougie McLean
Crisdean - I'd say it was the Perthshire singer-songwriter Dougie McLean who was responsible for reviving this Robert Burns song. It's "Green Grow The Rashes", not rushes. It's been in Irish music for some time now. The Castle Ceili Band recorded it as a "fling", and that would have been around 40 years ago.
# Posted on October 18th 2004 by Kenny
The tune can be find in Geraldine Cotter's Whistle Tutor* as well on disk and as sheet music.
* whistler: its the one to have!
# Posted on January 26th 2005 by swisspiper
Another version of the tune recorded by Paul O'Shaughnessy and Harry Bradley:
K: Gmaj
G>ABA BGGB|Aeed eAAB|c>Bce d/c/B/A/ GB|1 AcBA GEEF:|2 AcBA GEE2||
g>fga gddg|eaag aeef|g>age d/c/B/A/ GB|1 AcBA GEE2:|2 AcBA GEEF||
# Posted on September 24th 2005 by slainte
Old Tune
This old tune is resposible for the Mexican term "Gringo" for Americans. In the MExican War, so many soldiers sang the tune "Green Grow the rushes" the Mexicans began calling them "Green Grows" or gringo. This tune was collected in the US in the 20's from players born before 1900 in many forms... reel, march, song. The tune predates Robert Burns.
# Posted on July 3rd 2006 by The Merry Highlander
"The Carol of the Twelve Numbers" / "Green grow the rushes, Ho / O / Oh"
/ "The Twelve Prophets"
1.) * I'll sing you one, Oh
Green grow the rushes, Oh
* What is your one, Oh?
*One is one and all alone
And evermore shall be so.
2.) * I'll sing you two, Oh
Green grow the rushes, Oh
* What are your two, Oh?
* Two, two, lily-white boys,
* Clothed all in green, Oh
1.) One is one and all alone
And evermore shall be so.
3.) * I'll sing you three, Oh
Green grow the rushes, Oh
* What are your three, Oh?
* Three, three, the rivals,
2.) Two, two, lily-white boys,
Clothed all in green, Oh
1.) One is one and all alone
And evermore shall be so.
4.) Four for the gospel makers
5.) Five for the symbols at your door
6.) Six for the six proud walkers
7.) Seven for the seven stars in the sky
8.) Eight for the April rainers
9.) Nine for the nine bright shiners
10.) Ten for the Ten Commandments
11.) Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven
12.) Twelve for the twelve Apostles
# Posted on October 20th 2006 by ceolachan
"Green Grow the Rushes, Oh" ~ Robert Burns
There's no but care on every hand in every hour that passes, oh
That signifies the life of man and 't were not for the lassies, oh
- Chorus -
Green grow the rushes oh, green grow the rushes, oh
The sweetest hours that e're I spent were spent among the lassies, oh
The wordly race may riches chase and riches still may fly them, oh
And when at last they catch them fast their hearts can ne'er enjoy them, oh
- Chorus -
Give me a cannie hour at e'en, my arms around my dearie, oh
And warly cares and warly men may a gae topsy-turvy, oh
- Chorus -
Old nature swears the lovely dears her noblest work she classes, oh
Her apprentice hand she tried on man and then she made the lassies, oh
- Chorus -
For you so grave you sneer at this you're no but senseless asses, oh
The wisest man the world e'er saw, dearly loved the lassies, oh
- Chorus -
Some of you may have other/different verses, Oh?!
# Posted on October 20th 2006 by ceolachan
I've written a parody of the Twelve Numbers carol:
1) One is won the (insert favorite sports team) won
2) Tutu, the frilly white dress, ballerinas wear-o
3) Three, three, is "there" to a dyslexic
4) Fore for the golf ball's coming
5) Five is the F I've got in math
6) Sick's my sense of humor
7) Seven is Steven missing tea
8) I 'ate a Cockney's 'aggis
9) Nein's my knowin' German
10) What no pun in ten did
11) 'e'll leaven is what a yeast'll do
12) Two elves are helping Frodo
# Posted on October 20th 2006 by GaryAMartin
Good one Gary ~
# Posted on October 21st 2006 by ceolachan
Green grow the rushes - set
Michael Moriarty and Tony Murphy used to play this in the early eighties in the middle of a set designed to be a crowd pleaser.
Started with Delahunte hornpipe, then green grow the rushed as first a hornpipe then a reel and finish on Miss Mcleods.
Three tunes, three changes, and up tempo each time. Not for the purists, but if you are playing for beer then it's a winner.
# Posted on January 15th 2007 by ubendum
Green grow the rushes - set (extra)
I have just checked your tune list, and you have delahunte's down as Sonny Murray's
Sorry if that caused confusion.
# Posted on January 15th 2007 by ubendum
I would have known this one as a fling (and there doesn't seem to be many of this species around!)
# Posted on May 15th 2007 by Bannerman
chords for a highland tune
Green grow the rushes, Oh
Does anyone have a good chord accompaniment for this?
Playing it in G.
Any advice most appreciated
# Posted on October 26th 2007 by zippydw
Re: chords for a highland tune
Drop this gent an e-mail. He's a good friend of mine and I've heard him play it a few times. His name is Lee Agnew. Tell him the Flyin' Fiddler sent you his way.
lagnew1@cox.net
# Posted on October 26th 2007 by flyinfiddler
Especially for zippydw, here are some chords to accompany the tune:
G - - - | Am - - - | C - G - | Am G Em C :|
|: G - - - | Am - - C | G C G - | Am G Em C :|
No doubt, some people would strongly disagree with my choice of chords. I am not a backer, so I habitually put in every possible chord, rather than just a few essential ones. The final bar in each part could certainly be 'thinned out' considerably - you could just play a C for the whole bar, in fact.
# Posted on October 26th 2007 by ragaman
Re: chords for a highland tune
Zippydw - Scroll to the bottom of of the comments here, http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1936/comments and you'll find a set of chords I've just posted. Some might not like them, but they fit. You can take them or leave them.
# Posted on October 26th 2007 by ragaman
Green Grow the Rashes
The "gringo" story given by Merry-Hielander above does not refer to the song attached to this tune, but the "I'll sing you one, Oh..." song which has different words and a different tune.
The tune here is very old, snatches of which can be found in the Straloch lute manuscript of 1627 under the name "Green Grow the Rashes, O!" and also under another title, "I Kist While She Blusht". Burns later got hold of the tune and gave it the verses we are familiar with now, quoted by ceolachan above.
# Posted on October 27th 2007 by nigelg
Green Grow the Rashes
It should also be said that Burns was inspired by an older song which can be found in Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs in 1776:
Green grows the rashes, O,
Green grows the rashes, O,
The feather bed is no sae saft
As a bed amang the rashes.
We're a' dry wi' drinking o't,
We're a' dry wi' drinking o't,
The parson kist the fidler's wife,
And he coudna preach for thinking o't.
The down-bed, the feather bed,
The bed amang the rashes O;
Yet a' the beds is na sae saft
As the bellies o' the lasses, O.
You can see what attracted Burns to re-making the song, and in fact he wrote an X-rated version of the song for private amusement.
# Posted on October 27th 2007 by nigelg
Green grow chord accompaniment
NCRC-
Thanks I will give it a shot this week. I am working to play this next Sunday. I was hoping to fill out the tune on later verses after playing tune only.
If I come up with anything interesting from these, I will post
# Posted on October 29th 2007 by zippydw