I hope this video shows up correctly.
One terrific souvenir of our Ireland trip was a new tune I’m learning. We went on the Dublin Music Pub Crawl and the musicians played a medley of Dusty Windowsills and this tune. Afterwards, the accordion player was kind enough to play the tune for me to video. I didn’t catch the name though. Anyone recognize it? I’m getting it pretty well on mandolin, but those octave jumps are a real bear on whistle!
It seems to be The Clumsy Lover: http://thesession.org/tunes/16
BTW, if they played this with Dusty Windowsills, does that mean it was a mixed jig/reel set?
That’s pretty close although the octave jumping parts of the second part are very different.
Yes, it was a mixed set, jig-reel
Well, if you look at the last parts of the versions on TheSession, you’ll see that they’re virtually identical to what yer man plays on the box as his B Part. This is one of those Scottish-type multipart tunes like Jean’s Reel or The Mason’s Apron, where the middle and latter parts are a set of variations. Yer man is playing it as a reduced two-parter, skipping the others.
The simple two part version started doing the rounds among (uilleann) pipers as a novelty piss-take tune during the mid eighties (I learned it off Seán Óg Potts around 85). The novelty wore off quickly though and by the early nineties I heard the tune referred to as ‘the Silly Bugger’ tune. These things have a habit of not going away once they are unleashed.
You can wonder if playing the tune in A (like in the video) on the whistle will do justice to the effects the tune relies on for it’s impact.
Yes … I can’t quite see what key of box he’s playing (and Paul, I can tell you’re not a box player because you cut off his left arm!). But it definitely sits well on B/C box, where you keep that rocking A pattern (B/c#/d to a) is all on the bellows pull. Or even C#/D box where c#/d to a is on the push.
Here’s a young lady playing a concert pitch set and using a pattern that is more uilleann-centric:
That is unlike any version I ever heard.
I’ll go wash my ears now.
Maybe it’s the karaoke version? 
The point of that second part is the alternation between the low F,G and E on the chanter and the back d’. With the back d’ effectively disappearing into the sound of the drones so that you only appear to hear the drumming rhythmic patterns of (non legato) low notes. It’s a novelty effect (let’s move on to Troy’s Wedding after this one lads) but it’s the bit that carries the tune’s impact and if you loose that, there’s nothing left.
You’re right (as usual) Guru. Thanks.
Gumby-- what’s a novelty piss-take tune? One long enough for a band member to take a piss while the rest of the band plays on?
Google “taking the piss”. It’s irish slang / jargon.
I’ve never cared for that tune, either, and I used to hear it from a border piper a lot…