[Ads-l] Most have probably forgotten about this...

[Jonathan Lighter]

The Irish folk group The Dubliners sang yet another version of the song
that made No. 1 on the Irish charts in the mid '60s.

In the words of gravel-voiced singer Ronnie Drew, "It's called 'The Seven
Drunken Nights,' but they'll only let me sing five of them."

In that version, as in most, the disparity is horse vs. cow.

(Does anybody remember when "versus" was usu. "vs."?)

JL



On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 12:29 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Most have probably forgotten about this...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> from eleven years ago, though it seems like only yesterday:
>
> Horse v. mule
> listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-November/055485.html
> Nov 29, 2005 - ... especially if it contains the phrase, "Fie on thy
> cuckold face," [which in fact, is, "Shame (be)fa(ll) your cuckold face."
> Still, considering that I've heard the song read, only once, in the fall of
> 1950, when I was a 13-y.o., first-year high-schooler...] which the wife
> introduces her explanations of what her husband thinks ...
>
> IAC, here is the straight poop.
>
> A version of the original folksong:
>
> Scotish [sic] Song: in 2 volumes - Volume the First - Page 231 - Song XXIII
> [Untitled]
> https://books.google.com/books?id=2KpkAAAAcAAJ
> London: ... MDCCXIV [1714]
>
> The version by the Texas bluesman, Coley Jones, a relative of my
> grandmother, Willie Jones Garrett:
>
> Drunkard's Special
> http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Coley_Jones:Drunkard's_Special
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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>



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