[Dixielandjazz] Garry Owen & The Girl I Left Behind Me

[John McClernan]

The comments by Don Ingle and others about these two tunes piqued my  
interest, so I wrote to a college friend of mine, Bob Philbin, who  
lives and breathes Civil War band music and this was his contribution:

Custer's 7th Cavalry lives on as 4 Squadron, 1st Battalion, 7th  
Cavalry regiment  (4-7 Cav), as part of our forces in Korea, part of  
the 1st Cavalry Division..  Its regimental song is 'Garryowen' which  
refers to a section of Ireland near Limerick from which immigrants  
left who eventually 'jined the cavalry' in the US...the 7th Cavalry.   
The tune dates to 1770-1780 and was written about some hooligans from  
the neighbourhood.  The tune first appears in print in 1785 as 'Cory  
Owen' (predating the print og 'AB' by two years), though as a pipe  
tune it was the regimental march of the Royal Irish Regiment  
organized 1684, (but the tune not having probably been adoptd that  
early.)  In 1851 the Second Regiment of Irish Volunteers (later the  
'Fighting 69th' Regiment) in New York chose 'GO' as its song. 'GO'  
became the official tune of the 1st Cavalry Division in 1981.

Let Bacchus’ sons be not dismayed

But join with me, each jovial blade

Come, drink and sing and lend your aid

To help me with the chorus:

***

Chorus:

Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale

And pay the reckoning on the nail;

No man for debt shall go to jail

 From Garryowen in glory.

***

We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun,

We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run

We are the boys no man dares dun

If he regards a whole skin.

***

Our hearts so stout have got no fame

For soon 'tis known from whence we came

Where'er we go they fear the name

Of Garryowen in glory.



"The Girl I Left Behind Me"
The fife tune has been dated to about 1650 but the words as known  
today are from the Napoleonic Wars, specifically from around 1758-59  
or 1813 ( the reference to Brighton Camp is a giveaway as a camp was  
set there during Queen Anne's War to keep watch on the French fleet,  
as well as a training camp being established there in 1813.)  The  
tune was possibly known in Ireland as 'The Rambling Laborer' and 'The  
Spailpin Fanach' and was first published in Dublin in 1791. May have  
been derived from ' The Rose Tree in Full Bearing,'  Also confusing  
matters a bit more, in 1799 a booklet was published in which there is  
a song entitled 'The Girls we love so dearly' written by R. Rusted to  
the tune 'The Girl I left behind me'.
  It has been adopted by the US 7th Infantry Division.

I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill,
And o'er the moorland sedgy
Such heavy thoughts my heart do fill,
Since parting with my Betsey
I seek for one as fair and gay,
But find none to remind me
How sweet the hours I passed away,
With the girl I left behind me.

O ne'er shall I foget the night,
the stars were bright above me
And gently lent their silv'ry light
when first she vowed to love me
But now I'm bound to Brighton camp
kind heaven then pray guide me
And send me safely back again,
to the girl I left behind me

Her golden hair in ringlets fair,
her eyes like diamonds shining
Her slender waist, her heavenly face,
that leaves my heart still pining
Ye gods above oh hear my prayer
to my beauteous fair to find me
And send me safely back again,
to the girl I left behind me

The bee shall honey taste no more,
the dove become a ranger
The falling waters cease to roar,
ere I shall seek to change her
The vows we made to heav'n above
shall ever cheer and bind me
In constancy to her I love,
the girl I left behind me.