Wack fol and diddly-meaning?
T CALMUM
I hear on several Irish songs, the term wack and diddly or daddyio.
Whiskey in the Jar and Mick Mcguire are a few. Any info on the meaning?
Thanks
ACooper213
REPLYING TO: >I hear on several Irish songs, the term wack and diddly or
daddyio. Whiskey in the Jar and Mick Mcguire are a few. Any info on the
meaning?
The song "Whack Fol The Diddle" by Peadar Kearney lists the lyrics of the
chorus as:
"Whack fol the diddle lol the di do day.
So we say Hip Hurrah!
Come and listen as we pray
Whack fol the diddle lol di do day."
I had assumed they are nonsense words, but may be a corrupted version
of some real words.
Tony aka: ACoop...@aol.com
Lisa Boucher
>I hear on several Irish songs, the term wack and diddly or daddyio.
>Whiskey in the Jar and Mick Mcguire are a few. Any info on the meaning?
Hey! Watch yer language! This is a *family* newsgroup!
Seriously, though, those are sounds akin to mouth music -- they don't
really have a meaning, but are more like "scat."
Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo,
Lisa Boucher
Neeej
<<English translation: Scooby-dooby-doo! >>
I think that's the American translation---the English would be "tra-la-la"
<G>
Barrie McCombs
I asked our Irish choir leader a similar question last year. He is also a
Gaelic teacher. Most of these are nonsense phrases that may have once
been based on Gaeli. English translation: Scooby-dooby-doo!
A contrapuntal example is the tune Shule Aroon. I had only heard the
anglicized (Appalachian) version, with a nonsense chorus, but Eileen
McGann sang the original Gaelic version in a concert and there was a small
similarity.
- Barrie
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| Barrie McCombs | Guitarist On The Roof |
| bmcc...@acs.ucalgary.ca | Fiddler In The Closet |
| Calgary Folk Music URL: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~bmccombs/calfolk.html |
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T CALMUM (tca...@aol.com) wrote:
: I hear on several Irish songs, the term wack and diddly or daddyio.
: Whiskey in the Jar and Mick Mcguire are a few. Any info on the meaning?
: Thanks
Sean Smith
In article <5ue49v$msb$1...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, lbou...@prairienet.org (Lisa
Boucher) wrote:
> >I hear on several Irish songs, the term wack and diddly or daddyio.
> >Whiskey in the Jar and Mick Mcguire are a few. Any info on the meaning?
>
> Hey! Watch yer language! This is a *family* newsgroup!
>
> Seriously, though, those are sounds akin to mouth music -- they don't
> really have a meaning, but are more like "scat."
>
Some of our more learned r.m.c. correspondents can, and should elaborate, but
from what I've read there is another, very fascinating aspect to mouth music.
When the Highland pipes were outlawed by the British (as a way of quelling
rampant Scots nationalism) a few centuries ago, pipers used mouth music as a way
to memorize and pass along tunes so they would not be lost. As I understood it,
there was a pretty structured system of "converting" tunes to mouth music; the
sound and phrasing were supposed to help indicate a particular piping technique.
I dimly recall a feller explaining all this, using a spurious and whimsical
invented dialogue, in which a British official visiting Scotland hears a piper
singing mouth music, and asks another Scotsman what the song is all about --
concerned that it may be some sort of Gaelic anthem sure to stir up the locals.
"Just a lot of nonsense, sir," the Scotsman says, who provides the translation.
Sean Smith
smt...@bcvms.bc.edu
Because some things
can't be helped--http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6504;
Featuring "Daze and Quirks"
@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@
"... And I have heard many impudently say, that they have chosen their
Wives, and Wives their Husbands, by dancing. Which plainly proveth the
Wickedness of it."
Philip Stubbes - The Anatomy of Abuses 1573
davd...@cruzio.com
> they don't
> really have a meaning, but are more like "scat."
Hey! Watch YOUR language, Lisa! Please no scatalogical references in
this *family* newsgroup!
But seriously, one of my favorite bits from the old Second City TV show
(back when John Candy was a member) was "The Great White Scat Singers".
This featured the various members - prim and propper, in sanitary
settings - singing, sans feeling, bits like Toora-loora-loora. (I
apologize for the fonetik spelling!)
David
Laura McKinstry
Lisa Boucher wrote:
> >I hear on several Irish songs, the term wack and diddly or daddyio.
> >Whiskey in the Jar and Mick Mcguire are a few. Any info on the
> meaning?
>
> Hey! Watch yer language! This is a *family* newsgroup!
>
> Seriously, though, those are sounds akin to mouth music -- they don't
> really have a meaning, but are more like "scat."
>
> Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo,
>
> Lisa Boucher
Do you have any research support for this statement? I've been trying
to figure the same thing out for myself and would like to have a
definitive answer one way or the other.
I've done a little research myself and I'm pretty darn sure that "Mush a
rig dum a roo dum a da" is the same as "Well shirigim, durahann da"
(sp?) which means, according to my imperfect grasp of Gaelic, "I'm
searching for a drink."
I'm not at all adverse to accepting that "wach fol the daddy-oh" is
scat, but I'd love to know for sure.
-Laura McKinstry
Timothy Jaques
Somebody forget the lyrics, surely, or couldn't come up with any to fill
the gap? (I thought it was "whack fol the laddy-oh")
--
Timothy Jaques
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
"Men's evil manners live in brass: their virtues we write in water."
Laura McKinstry <da...@why.net> wrote in article
<341BF4B4...@why.net>...