Talk:Whiskey in the Jar
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[edit] Fidelity problems
Two editions, neither are accompanied with any publication or performance details. John Vandenberg (chat) 14:29, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
- This song and the others of its ilk belong to the oral tradition, there are as many versions as there are performers, actually more since each rendition will vary with the mood and level of inebriation of the performers and audience, you can think of each performance as a jam session around a common theme. These songs are alive, and to be anthromorphic resent attempts to nail them to the page, although the best known variants worldwide are the Thin Lizzy/Metallica and The Dubliners versions these cannot be taken as the difinitive versions.KTo288 (talk) 16:13, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
- Which is in many ways beside the point. Oral tradition or not, we should be transcribing these songs from a written text or a video or audio recording of an actual performance, one that we can actually use without copyright concerns.--Prosfilaes (talk) 13:20, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
- Google Books isn't finding anything early (pre-1923) on this. Given the way that folk songs were being written done by the hordes in the 19th century, I'm getting skeptical that this is anywhere near as old as claimed. I'm tempted to put it up for deletion; I would really appreciate it if at least someone would pick one or more verifiable editions and transcribe them.--Prosfilaes (talk) 14:29, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
- I've done the googlebooks thing but with some of the alternative names:- Gilgarra Mountain (the title used by Peter Paul and Mary) which not surprisingly gives a couple of hits for the 1960's. Taking a quick scan through some of the folk music sites, there seem to be songs with the same story to different tunes Bold Lovell (hey just discovered we have a version of it here), and songs with the same tune and chorus but different story. The Irish Robber Laws L13a or a variant of it could be our song, (Google books has a song of that title appearing in a compilation from 1901, but I can't see the text so I don't know how strong the relation is.) People have spent lifetimes compiling and sorting through this kind of thing, and I don't think I have the skill or patience to come up with a difinitive version.KTo288 (talk) 11:47, 15 August 2009 (UTC)
- Google Books isn't finding anything early (pre-1923) on this. Given the way that folk songs were being written done by the hordes in the 19th century, I'm getting skeptical that this is anywhere near as old as claimed. I'm tempted to put it up for deletion; I would really appreciate it if at least someone would pick one or more verifiable editions and transcribe them.--Prosfilaes (talk) 14:29, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
- Which is in many ways beside the point. Oral tradition or not, we should be transcribing these songs from a written text or a video or audio recording of an actual performance, one that we can actually use without copyright concerns.--Prosfilaes (talk) 13:20, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
