We play this at sessions a lot. The mandoline player sings words to it, which is great fun, but I can’t understand them because it’s all so fast.
But I was wondering, does anyone have background info on this tune? I am interested in origins and recordings.
My impresion is that this is an American tune, or at least has been fully absorbed into the American Old Time/Bluegrass/Contradance repertoire. I would be curious to know just how Irish the tune is or was.
Here it is for those who are unfamiliar with it:
X:1
T: Red Haired Boy
I: Red Haired Boy
I: Little Beggerman, The
I: Red Headed Irishman, The
M: C|
Z: Transcribed to abc by Mary Lou Knack
R: reel
P: A Mixolydian
F:> http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/RJ/R/RedHairedBoy.abc > 2002-03-22 16:55:01 UT
K: AMix
GF| "A"E2A2 ABcd| efec "D"d2cd| "A"edcB ABce| "G"BGEF G2GF|
"A"E2AG ABcd| efec "D"dBcd| "A"ea2b "E7"aged| "A"c2A2 A2
|:
ef| "G"g2ef g2ef| gfec "D"d2cd| "A"edcB ABce| "G"BGEF G2GF|
"A"E2AG ABcd| efec "D"dBcd| "A"ea2b "E7"aged| "A"c2A2 A2
%%text 9/1/98. Also known as “The Little Beggerman” and “The Red Headed Irishman”.
P.S.: Some of you might know that this was the favorite tune of Danny Pearl, the journalist who was recently abducted and killed in Pakistan/Afghanistan. He was a bluegrass fiddler. I think it was played a lot in his memory at sessions in the US after his death. I have heard calls for the tune to be known as “Danny Pearl’s Favorite.” (Personally, I think playing it in his memory is great, but the name is just fine as it is.)
According to the liner notes on a fiddle CD I have, it is descended from the tune Gilderoy and is originally Scottish. It appears in O’Neill’s as a hornpipe. Gilderoy was an outlaw with red hair, hence the red haired boy.
I have a vinyl recording of The Fureys singing a live and lively version The Little Beggarman. It’s definitely the same melody as The Red Haired Boy.
Tony
The first tune on ‘Gaelic Storm: Tree’ is Beggarman but since I can’t read that ABC format I don’t know if it’s the same tune. If someone can make me a clip I can confirm or deny.
“The Little Beggarman” = jig in D, tune is like “Red Haired Boy”, just 6/8 rythm instead of 4/4. I found it in a book, with complete text.
The notes say: “From O’Loughlainn’s collection. Single ballad sheets with this song printed on them were sold on the streets of Dublin in the 1930s.”
That’s all. I could scan the song & text and mail it to you, if you want.
My memory is a bit spotty. More than a bit actually but I recalled that Samual Bayard said that the tune Gilderoy was related to the Lazarus tune-a song about Lazurus and Dives. It is supposed to be one of the oldest tunes in the Western folk tradition. Since Gilderoy and the Red Haired Boy are often linked that would mean the Boy was related to this old tune. The Lazarus tune turns out to be quite similar to the Star of the County Down tune. I have heard a couple of different versions of Gilderoy on the web, one of which is almost identical to the Star. Here’s a site which tells you some stuff. You’ll have to decide about whether this version of Gilderoy is related to the Red Haired Boy or not. Tony Rice and Norman Blake played Gilderoy and Red Hair under the name Little Beggerman as a medly on an album but I don’t remember much about that right now.
On 2002-03-22 14:14, claudine wrote:
“The Little Beggarman” = jig in D, tune is like “Red Haired Boy”, just 6/8 rythm instead of 4/4. I found it in a book, with complete text.
The notes say: “From O’Loughlainn’s collection. Single ballad sheets with this song printed on them were sold on the streets of Dublin in the 1930s.”
That’s all. I could scan the song & text and mail it to you, if you want.
Claudine, that would be great. I wouldn’t want you to go to too much trouble, though.
Steve, I went to the page and the words seem nothing like the Jolly Beggerman. And if the Gilderoy tunes is the one that starts playing when you go to that page, then it’s not like the Red Haired Boy (except for one or two phrases).
Yes, the Gilderoy tune and the beggarman
tune are different, but I do
think they’re related–the latter
being a quicker and somewhat
altered version of the former,
I think.
The tune to Star of the County Down
is one of the most beautiful I know,
but the words are a bit silly.
The tune pops up again in other
songs. (Vaughan Williams used
the tune Lazarus and Dives in
some of his orchestral work.)
And, yes, I can hear the connection
to Gilderoy–interesting.
Is it possible that there is only
one celtic melody?
For what it’s worth, I listened to the Norman Blake/Tony Rice medley of Gilderoy/Beggerman. In their version Gilderoy is more or less a minor version of Beggerman. They are quite similar. I went back and listened to the tune on the web page that I mentioned and it seems similar to the Blake/Rice Gilderoy but certainly not identical. If I were to listen to the Star of the County Down and then Red Hair, I don’t think I’d see a connection. But if you go Star-Gilderoy on the web page-Blake/Rice Gilderoy-Red Haired Boy you can sense similarities of each successive pair. Geez. I hope that makes sense. But maybe it’s just that I have read that there’s a connection. Here’s another example. I wouldn’t connect the American tune Camp Chase with the Irish reel Keeper Hill (in O’Neill’s). But if you hear the missing link, an American tune called George Booker, you can see that it’s possible that the sequence goes Keeper Hill-George Booker-Camp Chase.
[P.S.: Some of you might know that this was the favorite tune of Danny Pearl, the journalist who was recently abducted and killed in Pakistan/Afghanistan. He was a bluegrass fiddler. I think it was played a lot in his memory at sessions in the US after his death. I have heard calls for the tune to be known as “Danny Pearl’s Favorite.” (Personally, I think playing it in his memory is great, but the name is just fine as it is.)]
Thought:
I read this string then went out to the garage to do some spring cleaning. I just had to come back in and add something to this. Why shouldn’t we refer to it as “Danny Pearls Favorite”?
rational
1.)Many tunes have many names and are none the worse off for it.
2.)The names to tunes have signifigance to the cultures that came up with the names. To us they are just a way to refer to them. A tune is not its title. Refering to this tune as “Danny Pearl’s Favorite” will add meaning to it for our time and culture.
3.)This is living music being played in a living tradition. Let it grow where it will. Seems to me that a name change is where this tune is growing. There is a difference between following a tradition and being a historian.
4.)What were the “favorites” and the “fancies” before they got their names. Someone said, "hey what is that one that Buckley always plays? I forget what it is called. You know “Buckley’s Fancy”! The name changed in ONE pub on ONE night and now the original name is lost. What happened to Danny Pearl is bigger than a slip of the memory.
5.) Respect. . .I am honored and saddened to know that he was a musician that shared a culture with me. Even though I did not know him. I would be humbled to have a tune refered to by my name. As a musician I am sure he would as well. He is deserving of such a tribute.
6.)Respect. . .This tune is a great tune, it knows its place amoung tunes and in my opinion would proudly bear the name “Danny Pearl’s Favorite” Let us respect the tune, and thereby its composers and bearers, for being admired by someone so extraordinary.
Say what you will, I am going to start calling it “Danny Pearl’s Favorite” It might have meant something to someone as The Red Haired Boy, to me it means something by a different title. In 100 years, it will probably have a different name still. Tunes are like trees, I am going to hang a tireswing from this one.
[P.S.: Some of you might know that this was the favorite tune of Danny Pearl, the journalist who was recently abducted and killed in Pakistan/Afghanistan. He was a bluegrass fiddler. I think it was played a lot in his memory at sessions in the US after his death. I have heard calls for the tune to be known as “Danny Pearl’s Favorite.” (Personally, I think playing it in his memory is great, but the name is just fine as it is.)]
…
Say what you will, I am going to start calling it “Danny Pearl’s Favorite” It might have meant something to someone as The Red Haired Boy, to me it means something by a different title. In 100 years, it will probably have a different name still. Tunes are like trees, I am going to hang a tireswing from this one.
Kevin, you’re response sounds like my P.S. offended you a little. I didn’t mean to, and I didn’t mean to sound off-hand about the issue. Certainly I don’t mean to tell people what to call the tune. I think it a touching gesture to want to refer to it as Danny Pearl’s Favorite.
I, for myself, prefer to continue calling it The Red Haired Boy, because every time I’d call it Danny Pearl’s Favorite, I’d think of the many other dead, in Afghanistan, in Israel, in the WTC … who don’t get a tune named after them. That thought makes me uncomfortable with the tag Danny Pearl’s Favorite. I don’t know if this makes sense as an explanation, but then again, as long as I let others do as they wish, I don’t always need to make sense in my life.
I think it is remarkable how people found out about Danny Pearl’s music, and how he was honored in a way that he would understand in sessions and bluegrass jams around the country.
Your P.S. by no means offended me and I apologize if I sounded upset. If anything I greatly appreciate your mentioning it. I was suprised to see just how strongly I felt about the whole thing. It was very eye opening for me to really look at the tunes we play and the history they have. We are all stewards of these tunes. Although most of us are lesser stewards. They pass through history through us and will be played in the future due to us. This tune and Danny Pearl are prime examples of our role in the tradition. Everytime we play the wrong B part to a tune or forget a name or make up an ending, we are in some way changing these tunes. As they were changed on their road to us. It is rather staggering. The whole thing is like an audio timecapsule. Some day we will sit down beside each other me playing Danny Pearl’s and you playing The Red Haired Boy and we will still be playing the same thing.
Kevin
But I was wondering, does anyone have background info on this tune? I am interested in origins and recordings.
My impresion is that this is an American tune, or at least has been fully absorbed into the American Old Time/Bluegrass/Contradance repertoire. I would be curious to know just how Irish the tune is or was.
The Jolly Beggerman is one of my father's favorite tunes (he has been a Highland piper for the better part of 30 years or so.) I've always been led to believe that the tune is Scottish in origin; if you listen to even a few recordings of Highland Marching bands, the song is bound to pop up in a medley or two.
As for the "Gilderoy" bit, I know "Gillie Ruadh" is Scots Gaelic for "Red (Haired) Boy" so that is most likely the derivation of that name for the tune.
