FINNEGAN'S WAKE

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Song Title
FINNEGAN'S WAKE
Writers
Behan
Publisher
MELODY TRAILS, INC. (BMI)
Co-Publisher
Non-TRO Affiliate
% Publisher Controls
100%
Territory Controlled
US AND CANADA
Themes/Keywords
1960's, Alcohol, Dance, Death, Drink, Drinking, Irish, Silly
Lyrics
Tim Finnegan lived in Watling Street,
A gentleman Irish very odd,
He had a brogue most rich and sweet
For to rise in the world he carried a hod.
Tim had a touch of the tippler’s way,
With the love of the liqueur he was born,
And to send him on his way each day,
He’d a drop of the crater ev’ry morn.

CHORUS
Whack fo di do, dance to your partner,
Welt the floor with yer trotters shake,
Isn’t it the truth I’m telling yeh?
Lots of fun at Finnegan’s wake.

One morning Tim was rather full,
His head felt heavy which made him shake,
He fell from a ladder and broke his skull,
So they took him home, his corpse to wake.
They wrapped him up in a linen sheet,
And layed him out on top of the bed,
With a bucket of whiskey at his feet,
And a barrel of porter at is head.

CHORUS

His friends assembled at the wake,
And then his widow called for lunch,
First they brought in tea and cakes,
Then pipes, tobacco and brandy punch.
Missus Biddy O’Brien began to cry,
“Such a lovely corpse did yeh ever see?”
“Oh Tim a gradh, why did yeh die?”
“Ah, hould yer gob!” said Molly McGee.

CHORUS

Then Biddy O’Connor took up the job,
“Oh Biddy,” said she, “Yer wrong, I’m sure.”
But the other Biddy fetched her a belt on the gob,
And left her sprawling on the floor.
Civil war did then engage,
Woman to woman, and man to man,
Shilelagh law was all the rage,
And a row and a ruction soon began.

CHORUS

Jack Malony ducked his head,
When a bucket of whiskey flew at him,
He ducked, and falling on the bed,
The whiskey scattered over Tim!
Bedad, he revives, and see how he rises,
Finnegan rising in the bed saying,
“Whirl yer whiskey around like blazes,
“Thunderin’ jazez! Did yis think me dead?”

CHORUS

Recordings

Recording Artist Genre Mood Arrangement Era iTunes
MARC GUNN World Bittersweet, Cheerful, Happy Banjo, Vocal 2010's Buy >

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