Hello one and all!
Finnegan's Wake is an Irish ballad which has proved durable, and an inspiration for many over the decades. The secret to that timelessness is in part thanks to its strong melodic composition of the song.
Finnegan's Wake
Lyrics:
Tim Finnegan lived in Watling Street
A gentleman Irish, mighty odd;
He'd a beautiful brogue so rich and sweet
And to rise in the world he carried a hod.
Now Tim had a sort o' the tipplin' way
With a love of the liquor poor Tim was born
And to help him on with his work each day
He'd a drop of the craythur ev'ry morn.
Chorus:
Whack fol the dah now dance to your partner
Welt the flure, your trotters shake;
Wasn't it the truth I told you
Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake!
One mornin' Tim was rather full
His head felt heavy which made him shake,
He fell from the ladder and broke his skull
And they carried him home his corpse to wake.
They wrapped him up in a nice clean sheet
And laid him out across the bed,
With a gallon of whiskey at his feet
And a barrel of porter at his head.
His friends assembled at the wake
And Mrs. Finnegan called for lunch,
First they brought in tea and cake
Then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch.
Biddy O'Brien began to cry
"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see?
"Arrah, Tim, mavourneen, why did you die?"
"Ah, shut your gob" said Paddy McGee!
Then Maggy O'Connor took up the job
"O Biddy," says she, "You're wrong, I'm sure":
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob
And left her sprawlin' on the floor.
And then the war did soon engage
'Twas woman to woman and man to man,
Shillelagh law was all the rage
And the row and the ruction soon began.
Then Mickey Maloney ducked his head
When a flagon of whiskey flew at him,
It missed, and fallin' on the bed
The liquor scattered over Tim.
Tim revives! See how he rises!
Timothy rising from the bed
Sayin': "Whirl your liquor around like blazes!
Thanam o'n Dhoul! D'ye think I'm dead?"
The Irish drinking ballad, Finnegan's Wake, has its origins in the thriving music hall tradition of the 1850's. The song tells of Tim Finnegan, who fell from a ladder and cracked his skull. At Finnegan's wake the mourners became drunk and rowdy, then spilled some of their whiskey on the corpse. The liquor causes Finnegan to revive miraculously from the dead.
The name of the subject of the song, Tim Finnegan, is reminiscent of another Irish hero, Fionn mac Cumhaill. The stem of the name, fionn. means "fair" or "white", which was an adjective used to describe many heroes or heroines from folklore. It allegedly indicated that the person was free of sin or had a good heart.
The song is also famous for being the foundation for James Joyce's final work, Finnegans Wake, which was published in 1939. Joyce removed the apostrophe in the title, to suggest that Finn is the human archetype, and everyone wakes and falls. He wanted the complex book to puzzle critics, and it did just that.
The influence of the 19th century Irish folk song did not end there though. In 1961 the Irish folk group recorded a version of the song for their album A Spontaneous Performance Recording. The album went on to be nominated for a Grammy in 1962, and the ballad's fame spread again.
Thank you for reading!
Finnegan's Wake is an Irish ballad which has proved durable, and an inspiration for many over the decades. The secret to that timelessness is in part thanks to its strong melodic composition of the song.
Finnegan's Wake
Lyrics:
Tim Finnegan lived in Watling Street
A gentleman Irish, mighty odd;
He'd a beautiful brogue so rich and sweet
And to rise in the world he carried a hod.
Now Tim had a sort o' the tipplin' way
With a love of the liquor poor Tim was born
And to help him on with his work each day
He'd a drop of the craythur ev'ry morn.
Chorus:
Whack fol the dah now dance to your partner
Welt the flure, your trotters shake;
Wasn't it the truth I told you
Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake!
One mornin' Tim was rather full
His head felt heavy which made him shake,
He fell from the ladder and broke his skull
And they carried him home his corpse to wake.
They wrapped him up in a nice clean sheet
And laid him out across the bed,
With a gallon of whiskey at his feet
And a barrel of porter at his head.
His friends assembled at the wake
And Mrs. Finnegan called for lunch,
First they brought in tea and cake
Then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch.
Biddy O'Brien began to cry
"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see?
"Arrah, Tim, mavourneen, why did you die?"
"Ah, shut your gob" said Paddy McGee!
Then Maggy O'Connor took up the job
"O Biddy," says she, "You're wrong, I'm sure":
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob
And left her sprawlin' on the floor.
And then the war did soon engage
'Twas woman to woman and man to man,
Shillelagh law was all the rage
And the row and the ruction soon began.
Then Mickey Maloney ducked his head
When a flagon of whiskey flew at him,
It missed, and fallin' on the bed
The liquor scattered over Tim.
Tim revives! See how he rises!
Timothy rising from the bed
Sayin': "Whirl your liquor around like blazes!
Thanam o'n Dhoul! D'ye think I'm dead?"
The Irish drinking ballad, Finnegan's Wake, has its origins in the thriving music hall tradition of the 1850's. The song tells of Tim Finnegan, who fell from a ladder and cracked his skull. At Finnegan's wake the mourners became drunk and rowdy, then spilled some of their whiskey on the corpse. The liquor causes Finnegan to revive miraculously from the dead.
The name of the subject of the song, Tim Finnegan, is reminiscent of another Irish hero, Fionn mac Cumhaill. The stem of the name, fionn. means "fair" or "white", which was an adjective used to describe many heroes or heroines from folklore. It allegedly indicated that the person was free of sin or had a good heart.
The song is also famous for being the foundation for James Joyce's final work, Finnegans Wake, which was published in 1939. Joyce removed the apostrophe in the title, to suggest that Finn is the human archetype, and everyone wakes and falls. He wanted the complex book to puzzle critics, and it did just that.
The influence of the 19th century Irish folk song did not end there though. In 1961 the Irish folk group recorded a version of the song for their album A Spontaneous Performance Recording. The album went on to be nominated for a Grammy in 1962, and the ballad's fame spread again.
Thank you for reading!
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