I am wondering if anyone has a good set of notes to this song. I have loved it every since I heard it in a pub years ago. I recently found the Irish Rovers version. If there is a way to play it on whistle I would love to learn it.
On 2003-02-12 14:04, bufo wrote:
I am wondering if anyone has a good set of notes to this song. I have loved it every since I heard it in a pub years ago. I recently found the Irish Rovers version. If there is a way to play it on whistle I would love to learn it.
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/findtune?P=rattlin&F2=find+(wide)&L=100
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/889
Hope that helps…
Aodhan
P.S. I believe it is also in the book “35 best known Irish Pub Tunes” or something along those lines…
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[ This Message was edited by: Aodhan on 2003-02-12 15:23 ]
I believe this is also known as the Siege of Ennis.
I’ve always enjoyed Rattlin Bog. Does anyone know how old the song is or what a rattlin bog is? I’ve always wondered.
On 2003-02-12 15:35, brownja wrote:
I believe this is also known as the Siege of Ennis.
Not sure if that is correct. Siege of Ennis is a traditional ceili dance, and as such is done as a jig. Rattlin Bog is in a polka tempo. Similar, but enough different to distinguish it.
Aodhan
On 2003-02-12 15:59, Paul wrote:
I’ve always enjoyed Rattlin Bog. Does anyone know how old the song is or what a rattlin bog is? I’ve always wondered.
I’ve always thought it meant something like “cool” or “awesome” (as in “that’s one rattlin’ bog you got there, buddy!”), but I could easily be mistaken.
Redwolf
I have always assumed it meant bug sounds. Like cicadas and crickets.
[ This Message was edited by: Paul on 2003-02-12 17:19 ]
I miss cicadas. And katydids. That’s the only downside of living in California…the summer nights are waaay too quiet.
Of course, here in California, if the bog down in the valley-O were rattlin’, we’d be worried the Big One might be upon us (at least once we’d stopped wondering how there could possibly be a bog in a place that gets so little rain) 
Redwolf
The cicadas and their friends make so much noise here that you can’t talk on a portable phone outside some nights. It’s really a beautiful sound.
Maybe the bog was infested with rattlesnakes, and…oh, nevermind.
I’ve always liked song, too. I used to sing it with my kids when I taught the little ones, accompanied by a bodhran. The version I know is definitely meant to be sung–each verse adds something new until the last verse is a desperate struggle for breath. 
Sort of like “the Court of King Karaktikus.”
T
On 2003-02-12 15:59, Paul wrote:
I’ve always enjoyed Rattlin Bog. Does anyone know how old the song is or what a rattlin bog is? I’ve always wondered.
I always assumed it was a bog that rattled, And there was a tree in it. Maybe the rattling was the tree branches in the wind. I used to have this on a 45 when I was a wee nipper. On the flipside was McNamara’s Band, if my failing memory serves.
On 2003-02-13 10:48, Martin Milner wrote:
I always assumed it was a bog that rattled, And there was a tree in it. Maybe the rattling was the tree branches in the wind. I used to have this on a 45 when I was a wee nipper. On the flipside was McNamara’s Band, if my failing memory serves.
Given the lyrics I would say that you are correct, although it could have described one or two cars that I owned in my younger days.
All the Best, Tom
I would guess that Redwolf is closest to the mark. Rattlin’ is used as a rather non-specific adjective (a rattling good yarn, I don’t give a rattling damn).
It could also be a corruption of a place name - there is a Rathlin island, and place names are often replicated in different parts of the country.
Bogs are usually so wet for about 11 1/2 months of the year that their defining sound signature is more a squelch than a rattle, and where there is the odd tree, the wind is more likely to produce a lonesome moan than a rattle.
Snif’ I’m getting all nostalgic…
On 2003-02-13 11:36, Roger O’Keeffe wrote:
I would guess that Redwolf is closest to the mark. Rattlin’ is used as a rather non-specific adjective (a rattling good yarn, I don’t give a rattling damn).It could also be a corruption of a place name - there is a Rathlin island, and place names are often replicated in different parts of the country.
Bogs are usually so wet for about 11 1/2 months of the year that their defining sound signature is more a squelch than a rattle, and where there is the odd tree, the wind is more likely to produce a lonesome moan than a rattle.
Snif’ I’m getting all nostalgic…
I wondered if that weren’t the case, as they use “rattlin’” to describe just about everything in the song (“and on that tree there was a limb, a rare limb, a rattlin’ limb…”).
I wonder if every culture has a version of this song? When my daughter was little, she used to love “The Green Grass Grows All Around,” which is the same sort of thing:
There is a hole, down in the ground,
The prettiest hole that you ever did see.
And the green grass grows all around all around,
And the green grass grows all around.
And in that hole, there is a tree,
The prettiest tree that you ever did see.
Tree in the hole and the hole in the ground
And the green grass grows all around all around,
And the green grass grows all around.
Etc.
Redwolf
Wow, it takes a rattlin bog to get me out of my lurking mode.
I too am quite fond of Rattlin Bog.
I play and sing it at the camp that I work at. It makes for a mighty fun time around the campfire. I have also been know to enlist the campers to act out the song.
I call these stacking songs. Not sure if that is the official title of such songs.
A few more good ones… is
“There’s a whole in the bottom of the sea.”
“I am the music cantor”
“An Austrian went yodeling”
Laura
From http://www.jens-nicolaus.de/contents.htm
The Bog Down In The Valley-O
(Trad.)
G C G D
Chorus: O-ro the rattlin’ bog, the bog down in the valley-o
G C G D G
O-ro the rattlin’ bog, the bog down in the valley-o
(repeat chorus after each verse)
G D
Verse 1: And in that bog there was a tree, a rare tree, a rattlin’ tree
G
With the tree in the bog
D G
And the bog down in the valley-o.
Verse 2: Now on that tree there was a limb, a rare limb, a rattlin’ limb
With the limb on the tree and the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
Verse 3: Now on that limb there was a branch, a rare branch, a rattlin’ branch
With the branch on the limb and the limb on the tree and the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Repeat, adding a line each time)
Verse 4: Now on that branch there was a twig, a rare twig, a rattlin’ twig…
Verse 5: Now on that twig there was a nest, a rare nest, a rattlin’ nest…
Verse 6: Now in that nest there was an egg , a rare egg, a rattlin’ egg…
Verse 7: Now in that egg there was a bird, a rare bird, a rattlin’ bird…
Verse 8: Now on that bird there was a feather, a rare feather, a rattlin’ feather …
Verse 9: Now on that feather there was a flea, a rare flea, a rattlin’ flea …
(Getting faster every verse is a lot of fun)
Songs like these are called cumulative songs (according to my elementary school music teacher.) However, stacking songs is an appropriate and innovative name for them.
My flute teacher grew up in East Clare and refers to this tune as The Siege Of Ennis. You’ll find it in a couple of tunebooks under that title.
Redwolf –
Can’t claim encyclopedic knowledge, but I bet you are right about every culture having it’s own ‘rattlin’ bog’ – I know a southern German version called “Down in the green valley” (Drunten in ger grünen Au) with a nice erotic twist at the end (girl in the bed with the feathers from the bird from the egg…)
Funny, in my CCÉ group, this tune is merely known as Polka 1.