Pull The Knife And Stick It Again

jig

Key signature: Eminor

Submitted on November 28th 2001 by Josh Kane.

This tune has been added to 143 tunebooks.

Also known as Pull Out The Knife And Stick It In Again, Pull The Knife, Pull The Knife And Stick It, Pull The Knife And Stick It In Her, The Rookery, Stick In The Knife And Twist It.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

A Few Tunes by John Skelton
A Friend Indeed by Liz Carroll
After The Morning by Alan Kelly
An Clár Geal by Alasdair White
Ceol Caithr�imeach Na NGael[The Wild Music Of The Gael] by Na D�rsa
Cnoc Bui by Conal Ó'Gráda
Fiddlers Rock by Archie McAllister
Fiona's Folly by Mickie Zekley And Elizabeth Clark
Happy Hour by Donal Murphy
Inside Out by Mícheál O' Raghallaigh
Journey Work by Popcorn Behavior
La Harpe Irlandaise - The Irish Harp by Katrien Delavier
La Route De L'orgie by Toutatis
Land's End by Michael Rooney And June McCormack
Little Fires by Hanz Araki
Live At The Ulster Folk And Transport Museum by Matt Molloy And John Carty With Arty McGlynn
Mac Bones And The B Band by Mac Bones And The B Band
Matt Molloy by Matt Molloy
Osna by Osna
Rip The Calico by Paul Dooley
Spirit by Dervish
Storm The Kettle by Eamonn Dillon
Stormy Brew by Rig The Jig
Sweetwood by Liam Kelly
The Donegal Fiddler by Danny O'Donnell
The Home Ruler by Catherine McEvoy
The Little Country by Charles De Lint
The Singing Kettle by Chulrua
The Turoe Stone by Vincent Broderick
The Wind Among The Reeds by Tommy Keane And Jaqueline McCarthy
The Windy Gap by Laurence Nugent
Traditional Irish Music In America: The East Coast by Various Artists
Tunes by Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin, Michael McGoldrick And Jim Murray
Unearthed by Paul McGlinchey
Up At The Crack Of Noon by Ciúnas

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Try this

# Posted on February 11th 2003 by milesnagopaleen

I learned this tune somewhat differently and in b minor.

B3 dcB|AFB AFA|B3 dcB|efd edc|B3 dcB|AFB ABc|dcB cBA|FBA B3:||:baf fec|efe cBA|baf fec|efg a3|baf fec|BAc ABc|dcB cBA|FBA B2A:||

There is also a variation in the last b part going into an a part that goes

# Posted on February 2nd 2005 by fiddleK

By the way, does anyone know the story behind this tune? It has such an...interesting name.

# Posted on February 2nd 2005 by fiddleK

http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/7060

"Yeah but if you look it up, you get:

"Breathnach (1985) suggests the title may be from a County Clare saying, which goes “Pull the knife and stick it again as the Hag of Balla said.” This refers to a black-handled knife which was a charm against fairy-folk"

Whether that's true or not, I think it's kind of interesting that the name comes from an actual saying, rather than it just being a random humorous name. You can learn a lot about a culture from its sayings and proverbs. " - dow

"The story goes that if you stab the hag with the knife she will beg you to pull it out and finish her off by stabbing it in again, but in fact the second stab restores the hag back to life and she will get you(!)"- ottery

# Posted on July 7th 2005 by Kerri Brown

i'd heard that it was almost like what ottery is quoted as saying.... but what happens is if you listen to the witch/hag, she will slip away from you once you pull out the knife (in order to stick it in for the second time). apparently you can only have control of a hag if you've got your knife in her.
that's what i was told.... though i wonder if it's really knives we're talking about here. really.

# Posted on May 27th 2007 by gretchen

Pull the knife: defective version?

Seems that the version in the "tunes" section is a defective version where the tune is mangled to fit on whistle, flute, and pipes, in other words instruments whose bottom note is D.
However it is not how Matt Molloy (for example) plays it on flute.
I learned it from a Matt Molloy album, and he does the flute thing where any note lower than the flute's bottom D is still played as the correct note, but just an octave up. So the first part goes:
T: Pull the Knife and Stick It Again
M: 6/8
R: jig
K: E minor
~E3 GFE|DBE DBD|
~E3 GFE|BcA BAG|
~E3 GFE|DBE DEF|
GFE FED|BED E3|
where the B's in lines 1, 3, and 4 would all be low B's on the G string of the fiddle but played an octave up on the flute. So Molloy is playing all the correct notes as would be played on fiddle, accordion, banjo, etc, but just taking the low B's an octave up.
Any way to submit a corrected version here and actually have it appear in the sheet music?

# Posted on December 26th 2007 by Richard D Cook

Re: Pull the knife: defective version?

Not without it being deleted. You can always submit your take on it to Concertina.Net's “ABC Convert-A-Matic”:

http://www.concertina.net/
http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

That will give you the dots... I suspect, considering this is more of a 'comment' for the tune itself, that this may also go "POOF!"

There is already a transcription in the 'comments' there along the lines you've given, the first comment...

"Pull The Knife And Stick It Again"
Submitted on November 28th 2001 by Josh Kane.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/398
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/398/comments

# Posted on December 26th 2007 by ceolachan

Not without it being deleted. You can always submit your take on it to Concertina.Net's “ABC Convert-A-Matic”:

http://www.concertina.net/
http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

That will give you the dots...

# Posted on December 26th 2007 by ceolachan

The 'stereo' ~ I had moved the 'discussion' here because of it's relevance to the tune and it seems that when a discussion is axed, which soon followed, it ends up being transferred here anyway. You learn something new everyday... :-/

Here's a rehash of Richard's A-part put together along with the fiddle take on it with the Bs being low ~ B, ~

# Posted on December 26th 2007 by ceolachan

I've only heard it played in Am - or A something.

Has anybody else played it in Am? Or is that just the Co Clare key? That's the key Jacqueline McCarthy plays it in. Matt Molloy plays it in Em and that's the indicated key on some other sites as well (JC's site).

# Posted on October 22nd 2008 by cocus