A hilarious but faintly remembered celtic ballad

July 23, 2007 10:33 AM

I'm looking for a song with little to go on: I'm nearly (but not entirely) certain it was sung by Andy Stewart; it's basically a humorous ballad (in the story-telling sense) which ends up with the protagonist making a hasty exit from town, quite possibly chased by men with swords, quite possibly pulling his pants up as he goes, with a genius lyric in there somewhere on the important of learning discretion as the better part of valor.
posted by Wolfdog to media & arts (4 comments total)

The Errant Apprentice.
posted by srt19170 at 11:15 AM on July 23, 2007

MP3 Clip

Lyrics


ABC Notation
posted by srt19170 at 11:18 AM on July 23, 2007

I love AskMe in general and srt19170 in particular.

(Sure bravery's no virtue / when some heathen's tryin' to hurt you is the line I was trying to think of; I had utterly forgotten about the brilliant rhyme of perimeter and scimitar but now I'm falling out of my chair all over again from laughing. And I would never, but never, have come up with that song title.)
posted by Wolfdog at 12:04 PM on July 23, 2007

Not to mention

'Twas then the night's serenity / was rent with loud obscenity / And Ottoman profanity / that I couldn't understand.

One of Andy's finest, that's for sure. Although I'm fond also of "Ramblin' Rover" with this lyric:

If you're bent wi' arthiritis,
Your bowels have got colitis,
You've gallopin' with bollockitis
And you're thinkin' it's time you died,
If you been a man of action,
Though you're lying there in traction,
You will get some satisfaction
Thinkin', "Jesus, at least I tried."

If you get a chance to see Andy live it is quite a treat.
posted by srt19170 at 12:37 PM on July 23, 2007