1161. The Girl I Left Behind Me (Traditional Irish) with Matthew and Bob

Another song from the one-hour jam session I had with YouTube friends, Matthew Vaughan, from Canada via Bangkok, and Bob Hornett from Heywood. They arrived here accidentally by magical technology when attempting to transport Matthew back to Thailand, and we managed to squeeze in four songs together before the technical problem was solved.

The first known printed text of a song with this name appeared in Dublin in 1791 and the earliest known version of the melody was printed in Dublin about 1810 in Hime's "Pocket Book for the German Flute or Violin", vol. 3.

There are many variations and a number of songs were set to this tune, one of the best known, and most recent, being "Waxie's Dargle". Earlier (19th Century) examples include "An Spailpín Fánach" ("The Rambling Labourer") and "The Rare Old Mountain Dew".

In England the tune is often known as "Brighton Camp" and is used for Morris Dancing.

You can see a playlist of my Irish songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=373C27204B0BB31F

For lyrics and chords of my songs please see my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• brighton
• camp
• accordion
• fiddle
• waxies
• dargle
• bertosvids
• matthewvaughan

[JimBell1984]

this was an English tune originally, not Irish

[raymondcrooke]

@JimBell1984 You could be right, Jim, but do you have some evidence?

[JimBell1984]

Hi Raymond,hope i didn't seem rude!you are right, it is Waxie's Dargle in Ireland but it was a British Army marching tune from the English song "Brighton Camp" or "The Girl I left bhenind me" & was mentioned in records in Elizabeth I's reign.The tune was known in America as early as the 1650s and was taken there by English settlers.The tune historically was played when a regiment of the British army left a town.It has travelled far and wide due to the British Empire.Hope this helps!

[JimBell1984]

ps.....keep up the good work! one of my favourite channels on youtube!!!!

[raymondcrooke]

@JimBell1984 Thank you for your support.

[raymondcrooke]

@JimBell1984 Thanks for the information.

[daveburnt]

@JimBell1984 Agree. It's even in an episode of Horatio Hornblower, quite English! Probably sung more on the Unionist side of things in Ireland I'd imagine.

[raymondcrooke]

@erkerner I would if I could play it better. Actually I do use it in about a dozen videos, including some where I sing and play at the same time, this one for example: watch?v=TZQuwFEDb6M

[erkerner]

Mate I didnt know you were a fiddler, nice! You should use it in more of your songs.

[raymondcrooke]

@navim49 Thank you. It's a song I've never got around to singing, but Matthew does a great job here.