Hey folks
There’s this polka that I’ve played for a while, but I don’t know the name of it. The first four bars go: ad bd l Add fa l ge be l Ag fd
I’m sure the way I’ve typed this makes absolutely no sense, but I hope that someone who knows this tune can decipher it.
Thanks
Sorry to be the one to break it to you, Jonathan, but like we keep telling my boyfriend, who is always asking about polka names,
Polkas don’t have names!
The vast majority of polkas, as far as I can tell, are just called things like “Denis Murphy’s” or “John Ryan’s,” and there’s like 10 tunes with the same name. Even the polkas that have names, no one around here can seem to remember them, so my advice to you as far as polka names is to embrace ambiguity.
J.
Looks like the one Planxty recorded sandwiched between the one before it and the one after it. Everyone and his dog plays the first and third but fewer people seem to play this one, the second.
I think it might be called the £42 cheque.
Steve
Indeed! Here’s The Session’s link to the tune. Good call.
Ironically (given the above messages) it’s in a set between Dennis Murphy’s and John Ryan’s. And like Steve says, we always played those two and ignored the middle one. 
Yes we keep telling him but I don’t think he can hear over the sound of his banjo(s).
Excellent!
That would be the one; thanks for the link. Thanks to everyone for your input. I might be going over this tune with some folks this weekend, so I thought that maybe I should know the name of it. But if it doesn’t have a name, it’s just as well! Thanks
Been playing the set of all three for years, ever since I heard the Planxty. Never understood why anyone left the middle one out. Just grab a D harmonica and away you go!
Steve
I think that’s precisely why everyone leaves out the middle one. 
Grrrr. All right then. Just grab a five-string banjo or a piano accordion and away you go…as far away as possible!