Key signature: Eminor
Submitted on July 12th 2005 by Johannes J.
This tune has been added to 31 tunebooks.
Also known as The Night Poor Larry Got Stretched, The Night Poor Larry Was Stretched.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Night Before Larry Was Stretched, The
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: Emin
|:GFE EB,E E2 G|FED DA,D FGA|GFE EB,E E2 G|FGA ABG FED:|
|:G2 B BcA B3|G2B Bcd ecA|G2 B BcA Bcd|e2 A ABG FED:|
Nice simple slip jig
I've plucked up enough courage again to submit another tune.
I learned this one from Claire Mann's CD where it is credited as being "traditional". Hope it's not a "hanging offence" to post it here.
It's very easy and catchy but take care not to get it mixed up with "Kid on the Mountain".
# Posted on July 12th 2005 by Johannes J
Martin Hayes (fiddle) does a lovely job on this. Di I just mention M***** H****? Oh dear. Will this start a flame war?
# Posted on July 12th 2005 by Donough
I've loved this tune for years. RM Levey has it in Gmi, and I like the way it sits on the fiddle in that key.
# Posted on July 12th 2005 by dwdeacon
Thanks for this post; I've been looking for this as it's the tune to the dublin song of the same name.
The night before Larry was stretched,
The boys they all paid him a visit;
A bait in their sacks, too, they fetched;
They sweated their duds till they riz it:
For Larry was ever the lad, 5
When a boy was condemned to the squeezer,
Would fence all the duds that he had
To help a poor friend to a sneezer,
And warm his gob ’fore he died.
The boys they came crowding in fast,
They drew all their stools round about him,
Six glims round his trap-case were placed,
He couldn’t be well waked without ’em.
When one of us asked could he die
Without having truly repented,
Says Larry, “That’s all in my eye;
And first by the clargy invented,
To get a fat bit for themselves”
“I’m sorry, dear Larry,” says I,
“To see you in this situation;
And blister my limbs if I lie,
I’d as lieve it had been my own station.”
“Ochone! it’s all all over,” says he,
“For the neck-cloth I’ll be forced to put on,
And by this time to-morrow you’ll see
Your poor Larry as dead as a mutton,
Because, why, his courage was good.
“And I’ll be cut up like a pie,
And my nob from my body be parted.
“You’re in the wrong box, then,” says I,
“For blast me if they’re so hard-hearted;
A chalk on the back of your neck
Is all that Jack Ketch dares to give you;
Then mind not such trifles a feck,
For why should the likes of them grieve you?
And now, boys, come tip us the deck.”
The cards being called for, they played,
Till Larry found one of them cheated;
A dart at his napper he made
(The boy being easily heated) ;
“Oh, by the hokey, you thief,
I’ll scuttle your nob with my daddle!
You cheat me because I’m in grief,
But soon I’ll demolish your noddle,
And leave you your claret to drink.”
Then the clergy came in with his book,
He spoke him so smooth and so civil;
Larry tipped him a Kilmainham look,
And pitched his big wig to the devil;
Then sighing, he threw back his head,
To get a sweet drop of the bottle,
And pitiful sighing, he said:
“Oh, the hemp will be soon round my throttle,
And choke my poor windpipe to death.
“Through sure it’s the best way to die,
Oh, the devil a better a-living!
For, sure when the gallows is high
Your journey is shorter to heaven:
But what harasses Larry the most,
And makes his poor soul melancholy,
Is to think on the time when his ghost
Will come in a sheet to sweet Molly—
Oh, sure it will kill her alive!”
So moving these last words he spoke,
We all vented our tears in a shower;
For my part, I thought my heart broke,
To see him cut down like a flower.
On his travels we watched him next day,
Oh, the throttler! I thought I could kill him;
But Larry not one word did say,
Nor changed till he came to “King William”—
Then, musha! his color grew white.
When he came to the nubbling chit,
He was tucked up so neat and so pretty,
The rumbler jogged off from his feet,
And he died with his feet to the city;
He kicked, too—but that was all pride,
But soon you might see ’twas all over;
Soon after the noose was untied,
And at darky we waked him in clover,
And sent him to take a ground sweat.
# Posted on July 13th 2005 by bong tree
Missing a bar in this tune
The version I have has an extra bar in the B section which makes the words fit perfectly. It is also in A minor not E minor, but it could have been moved. I'll try to post it here in the next few days.
# Posted on September 23rd 2005 by cboody
Here is my abc's in D major:
The night before Larry was stretched
| : dcB BFB B2 d | cBA AFA cde | dcB BFB B2 d | cde efd cBA : |
| : d2f fge f2 e | d2 f fga bge | d2 f fge fga | b2 e efd cBA : |
# Posted on May 19th 2007 by gaitazampogna_32
I believe you mean Bm.
I think it's in the family of "Humours of Whiskey."
# Posted on May 19th 2007 by slainte