Comments on: A hilarious but faintly remembered celtic ballad

Question: A hilarious but faintly remembered celtic ballad

Wolfdog — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:33:48 -0800

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.

By: srt19170

srt19170 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 11:15:05 -0800

The Errant Apprentice.

By: srt19170

srt19170 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 11:18:28 -0800

MP3 Clip

Lyrics

ABC Notation

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:04:08 -0800

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.)

By: srt19170

srt19170 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:37:49 -0800

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.