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Location: Newington, CT | I had to do it.
I usually don't do "songs," per se...I usually do what more likely would be classified as "free jazz;" kind of an improv on the guitar, where I more or less make it up as I go along.
So, of course, someone said to me - -and rightly so -- "Why don't you do songs?"
So, I figured I'd take a hack at this old American folk song -- "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill."
I had to do this under somewhat ummm... straitened circumstances: In my two-bedroom condo, I have neighbors to either side. A nice old lady and a not-so-nice middle-aged lady.
Well, the point is, to keep relatively quiet I had practically to "talk" the vocals. Hence, the vocals're none too good, but I DID hit a note or two. It's when I MISSED them that it got funny!
In the end, it's just me and my FUD... a beautiful FD-14.
The song is here: Drill Ye Tarriers Drill
Comments, criticism, ridicule, opprobrium, excoriation, derision, vitperation are all welcome...and expected. |
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Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | I played your new song on "low" so I wouldn't disturb your neighbors. Hope you appreciate my looking out for you like that. Damn, I wish I could play guitar like that. Nice job. |
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Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Speaking of old folk songs, does anyone have chords for "St. James Infirmary"? (at least I think that's the correct name). It's an old folk blues song.
Jim |
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Location: SoCal | http://www.fretplay.com/tabs/m/misc_traditional/st_james_infirmary-... |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by stellarjim:
I played your new song on "low" so I wouldn't disturb your neighbors. Hope you appreciate my looking out for you like that. Damn, I wish I could play guitar like that. Nice job. Thanks, Jim! Hey, didn't I buy the FD-14 from you? I LOVE that guitar! |
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Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Alan:
It didn't sound that good when I owned it...dammit. Something must have happened to it during shipment. LOL All I can say is that if I could play like that, my neighbors wouldn't mind my loud playing. Today, they call the police...or maybe it was my wife that called!?!
Glad to see (and hear) the FD 14 is working out so well for you! Great job.
Jim |
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Location: Louisville, OH 44641 | Hey Moody...thanks for the link. I've only heard this song twice but it stuck with me as a classic. |
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Location: Orlando, FL | Josh White did a great version of St. James Infirmary. Chords are slightly different though. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by stellarjim:
Alan:
It didn't sound that good when I owned it...dammit. Something must have happened to it during shipment. LOL All I can say is that if I could play like that, my neighbors wouldn't mind my loud playing. Today, they call the police...or maybe it was my wife that called!?!
Glad to see (and hear) the FD 14 is working out so well for you! Great job.
Jim Thanks for your very kind words, Jim. I'll bet you're being overly modest, though. I'll bet it sounded just great when you were playing it! |
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Location: Flahdaw | Hey, we have a Fox Tarrier, but I've never asked her to do any manual labor. I don't need anything drilled, but would it be to much to get her to vacuum the house every once in a while? |
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Location: NJ | I don't understand what the song is about.
can you explain it please? |
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Location: NW Washington State | My tarrier works on guitars.
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Ouch. That looks like a Taylor headstock.
Good Dog. |
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Location: Alabama | Bill Frissell does a cool version of St James Infirmary. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by dark bar:
Hey, we have a Fox Tarrier, but I've never asked her to do any manual labor. I don't need anything drilled, but would it be to much to get her to vacuum the house every once in a while? Lol!
Just to clarify, I believe that the songwriter was referring to "tarriers." ... those who tarry, ie laze about without working hard.
Said shirkers are, I believe, drilling on, and trying to demolish a rock behind the railway sometime back in the mid-1800's.
Likely a construction project of some sort. The song, I think, laments the lamentable conditions under which such workers toiled at the time.
On the other hand, Fox Terriers truly ought to do at least the vacuuming, and thereby contribute a bit for their room and board. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by alpep:
I don't understand what the song is about.
can you explain it please? Hi, Al! Please refer to the response to dark bar. I think that tells what the song is about. If, that is, I've correctly understood it. |
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Location: closely held secret | Every morning about seven o'clock
There were twenty tarriers drilling at the rock
The boss comes along and he says, "Keep still
And bear down heavy on the cast iron drill."
Chorus
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
Drill, ye tarriers, drill
For it's work all day for the sugar in you tay
Down beyond the railway
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
And blast, and fire.
The boss was a fine man down to the ground
And he married a lady six feet 'round
She baked good bread and she baked it well
But she baked it harder than the hobs of Hell.
The foreman's name was John McCann
By God, he was a blamed mean man
Last week a premature blast went off
And a mile in the air went big Jim Goff.
And when next payday came around
Jim Goff a dollar short was found
When he asked, "What for?" came this reply
"You were docked for the time you were up in the sky."
Tarriers live on work and sweat
There ain't no tarrier got rich yet
Sleep and work, then work some more
And we'll drill right through to the devil's door." |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | Dear god ... |
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Location: NJ | "Dear God" - XTC |
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Location: everywhere | Ecstasy is EXACTLY what I'd need to listen to this dreck for more than 30 seconds |
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Location: NJ | CR some may interpret this as a personal attack.
if you did not like the tune fine. give some constructive criticism, pointers, etc. post your version of the tune etc but there is no need for this type of reaction
one more and you get a vacation (and you just got off of one) |
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Location: closely held secret | Glad I could be of help. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by PsychoBunny:
Glad I could be of help. Thanks for hunting down the lyrics, PB...I was doing it from memory and obviously remembered it poorly in quite a few places (as well as being just a bad singer!).
From the lyrics, it seems that "tarrier" is a term for a certain classification of manual laborer in days of yore. |
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Location: Steeler Nation, Hudson Valley Contingent | From the urban dictionary...
tarrier
Disaffectionate name for a glasgow catholic of Irish descent.
From Wikipedia...
"Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" is an American folk song first published in 1888 and attributed to Thomas Casey (words) and much later Charles Connolly (music). The song is a work song, and makes references to the construction of the American railroads in the mid-19th century. The tarriers of the title refers to Irish workers, drilling holes in rock to blast out railroad tunnels. |
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| I would think "tarrier" is the noun derived from the verb tarry, meaning to delay (doing), to wait idly. Our modern term for a tarrier would be "slacker." So the line "Drill, ye tarriers" would be interpreted as an admonition by the foreman to all the slackers in his crew to get to work. |
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Location: Flahdaw | "Money For Nothing"- Dire Straights |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | "Nothing Compares To U" - Sinead O'Connor |
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Location: closely held secret | "Shuddup Meathead" - Carroll O'Conner |
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Location: Cicero, NY | I think we have a weiner.
(Even though it's O'Connor) |
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Location: Flahdaw | Originally posted by Weaser P:
[ |
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Location: Cicero, NY | ...and let that be a lesson to ya. My Jersey boys'll get ya before you finish the sentence. |
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Location: Hanau, Hessen, Germany |  |
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Location: south east Michigan | I listened though it a couple times on different days. Strictly speaking music wise, and not personal wise, I think the song needs some work. The lead solo, although having plenty of notes played really fast, does not seem to fit with a old style folk song.
Maybe all it needs is to be played 100 times to get familiar with it. Take it out to some open mic nights and get some feedback.
I admit to recording and playing some real turds myself. Some of them, after many tries, are still turds. Then there are the very few that eventually evolve into something I can be proud of.
I'd be interested in hearing a before and after recording. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Turds?
Little Miss Muffet, sat on her snuffet, eating some turds with whey. |
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Location: Cicero, NY | Hey, I used to read that to my daughter when she was young. The next line was "Along came a spider and sat down besid'er and said 'Hey! Whatcha got there, baby?!?"
Yeah, I know it's bad but she laughed every time. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | Wikepedic Explaination |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by Slipkid:
I listened though it a couple times on different days. Strictly speaking music wise, and not personal wise, I think the song needs some work. The lead solo, although having plenty of notes played really fast, does not seem to fit with a old style folk song.
Maybe all it needs is to be played 100 times to get familiar with it. Take it out to some open mic nights and get some feedback.
I admit to recording and playing some real turds myself. Some of them, after many tries, are still turds. Then there are the very few that eventually evolve into something I can be proud of.
I'd be interested in hearing a before and after recording. Thanks, Brad! I appreciate the thoughtful assessment. And, I concur. After some time (and, therefore some distance) that's pretty much what I concluded upon listening again. And you said it on the nose. The instrumental part needs a lot of refining, and the vocal part needs another singer! |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | along came a spyder and sat down beside her so she ate that too. |
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Location: Tennessee | My kinda chick.
Keep working at it, Alan. It'll come together. Sometimes in those old folk songs, simplicity rules the day. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by stonebobbo:
My kinda chick.
Keep working at it, Alan. It'll come together. Sometimes in those old folk songs, simplicity rules the day. Thanks, Bobbo! I will... Sounds like another project for 2010: make a decent version of "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill." |
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Location: Lebanon, TN | Originally posted by AlanM:
Thanks, Bobbo! I will... Sounds like another project for 2010: make a decent version of "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill." [/QB] I remember learning this song to sing at our local folk club when I was 15 (32 yrs ago :( ). Sounds like we need a collab Allan. Message me and we can see what we can pul together. |
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Location: Flahdaw | C'mon...is it just me, or is this song just kinda weird? (not you, Alan, just the song) "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill?" There's a million old folk songs out there that might be better choices than this.
(I keep looking at my dog and thinking, get up off your lazy butt and do something!) |
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Location: Cicero, NY | Careful. He might be looking back and thinking the same thing! |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by dark bar:
C'mon...is it just me, or is this song just kinda weird? (not you, Alan, just the song) "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill?" There's a million old folk songs out there that might be better choices than this.
(I keep looking at my dog and thinking, get up off your lazy butt and do something!) Lol! I confess I liked the melody before I listened to the words. The words ARE kind of grim. And "tarriers" appears to have taken on a whole new meaning in this thread alone!
I'm mulling a possible song about getting my cats to do the laundry and dishes. |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by AlanM:
I'm mulling a possible song about getting my cats to do the laundry and dishes. I believe that's Capo Mike's cue...  |
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| Originally posted by stellarjim:
Speaking of old folk songs, does anyone have chords for "St. James Infirmary"? (at least I think that's the correct name). It's an old folk blues song.
Jim Great song. I remember the first time I heard it at a 3 day thanksgiving jam about 35 years ago. |
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Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill