Anyone know this tune??
Does it go by another name? I’ve also heard it called Three Young Ladies Drinking Whiskey Before Breakfast, but of course, I can’t find any notation under either of those names… I also know it’s a Bluegrass reel too…I was able to learn the second part by ear at a Bluegrass session a couple weeks ago, and recognized it off of my Celtic Dance CD…
Any info?
Whiskey Before Breakfast
Early one day the sun wouldn’t shine
I was walking down the street not feeling too fine
I saw two old men with a bottle between 'em
And this was the song that I heard them singing
Lord preserve us and protect us,
We’ve been drinking whiskey 'fore breakfast
Well I stopped by the steps where they was sitting
And I couldn’t believe how drunk they were getting
I said “old men, have you been drinking long?”
They said “just long enough to be singing this song”
Lord preserve us and protect us,
We’ve been drinking whiskey 'fore breakfast
Well they passed me the bottle and I took a little sip
And it felt so good I just couldn’t quit
I drank some more and next thing I knew
There were three of us sitting there sining this tune
Lord preserve us and protect us,
We’ve been drinking whiskey 'fore breakfast
One by one everybody in the town
They heard our ruckus and they all came down
And pretty soon all the streets were ringing
With the sound of the whole town laughing and singing
Lord preserve us and protect us,
We’ve been drinking whiskey 'fore breakfast
Lord preserve us and protect us,
We’ve been drinking whiskey 'fore breakfast
X:1
T:Whiskey Before Breakfast
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
A,B,D(E D2) D(E|F2)BF ABA(F|G2) B(G F2) A(F|ED)E(F ED) B,G,|
A,B,D(E D2) D(E|F2) BF ABA(F|G2) B(G FG)A(F|1 ED)EF D2 DB, 
|2 EDE(F D2) dB ||
|:A2 B2 d2 cd|efe(d cB) A2|e2 e(f e2) e(f|gf)e(d cA)Bc|
d2 f(d c2) e(c|B)AB(c d)BA(F|G2) B(G F2) A(F|1 ED)EF D2 dB:|
|2 EDE(F D2) z2 |>|
I](http://images.fotki.com/v6/free/08a9/3/34895/66442/Whiskey-vi.jpg?1027193552%22%3E%3C/center%3E%3Cp%3EI) hope this is what you were looking for!
Kim
Yeah, although it does look lower pitched than the way we played it…
Oh yeah…way more daunting than anything I could imagine trying to play! It’s all over the place.
Kim
Really? I found it really fun… And I think I found the notation in the higher pitch on Kitchen Musician… unfortunately, the printer is out of ink! grr!
Is there a link? I’m interested now! I’m still pretty new at this though…just started in May.
I doubt in Walden’s church would let me play it, though…
Kim
http://members.aol.com/kitchiegal/kmmusic4.html
It is found under Whiskey Before Breakfast, and also Speed The Plow - two different tunes, yet with an uncanny similarity… I definitely think there was some pirating going on back then… 
[ This Message was edited by: The Whistling Elf on 2002-07-20 15:54 ]
Oh, yes…this is much more managable!
K
Wow, JC’s tune finder has zillions of versions of this tune, none quite like the version I know. (Which I got from Canadian fiddler Anne Lederman, and then modified ever so slightly to match what I heard other people playing here in Michigan.) It seems like the only constants are the GGBG FFAF measures.
The link the Wandering Elf provides is the closest of all the versions I’ve just looked at, I think, but it’s a bit over-simplified.
Incidentally, the Speed the Plough they mention is nothing like the Speed the Plough that I know, which is the one on the Molloy/Brady/Peoples album. I’ve never made a connection between that Speed and Whiskey Before Breakfast (WBB). However, another tune on that album, John Brennan’s (aka Silver Spire) (not to be confused with Silver Spear) always reminds me of WBB. While it’s definitely a distinct tune, they share about half of their bars in common, and it’s at least as close to WBB as some of the further out versions called WBB that I just looked at.
“Whiskey Before Breakfast” is the name of the band I play with, after the tune (like Michael Eskin’s band, “Last Night’s Fun”, Cherish the Ladies, etc etc.). While most of the time it makes people laugh and joke with us, we ran into trouble with the dreaded city of Portage, Michigan. They shortened our name to “W. Before Breakfast” for a Shakespeare festival, so that the name might not corrupt young listeners. Good grief!
I knew this from hammered dulcimer. My version, very similar, is pretty easy on the whistle if you transpose it from D to G.
Wow. But like I say… I think there was some “early days” pirating going on between composers, listeners, and performers…
Coloman-where’d you get your version of John Brennan’s?Curious…because it’s not the same tune as(that I know of)Silver Spire(not silver spear)but a completely different tune. I’m still waiting to hear somebody play Silver Spire in G…not D.Great tune, either way.
There’s a French Schottiche that reminds me somewhat of WBB. Sort of has the same general outline. You can hear it played on 5-string banjo here:
http://www.magicbanjo.com/mbanjo_recordings.html#Magic%20Banjo
It’s on two albums. The Magic Banjo and Counterpoint.
Steve
Interesting… I’ll have to do some computer-wrangling and listen to it sometime…
I have heard it played in a waltz tempo before. It was played intentionaly this way for the fun of it and called Spirits Before Breakfast.
After it is played all the way through, the group speeds the tune up to tempo. And slows it back down as if, one had too many drinks before breakfast.
Laura
(Groaning & holding spinning head) I thought this was an instruction, that’ll teach me to read the whole message before diving in next time.
Another bank named after a tune, The Kylebrack Ramblers, recently played the Hammersmudge Irish Centre in London.
On 2002-07-21 15:38, janice wrote:
Coloman-where’d you get your version of John Brennan’s?Curious…because it’s not the same tune as(that I know of)Silver Spire(not silver spear)but a completely different tune. I’m still waiting to hear somebody play Silver Spire in G…not D.Great tune, either way.
Hmmm… I actually learned Silver Spire (called that) from a fun Lansing band called Pub Domain. The John Brennans name comes from the Molloy-Brady-Peoples album, where they list it as “John Brennans (Silver Spire)”. I always think of the tune as Silver Spire, and the only reason I even noticed they used a different name for it is that I checked their liner notes to see whether it was Speed the Plough or Speed the Plow. 
Silver Spire is indeed a great tune in either key. I’ve been known to compromise and play it on the A whistle. (Though it’s been a long time since the tune popped up in a session that I’ve played in, which is a shame.)