Irish Song from Children's Folk Album?

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Is anyone here familiar with an Irish ballad about a man who is being chased around by a wooden leg?

Around 1960, my brother and I got an LP (can't recall whether it was 10" or 12"), a collection of international folk songs, intended for children, sung by various artists who had believable foreign accents corresponding to the songs. The ones in French included "Sur le pont d'Avignon" and "Frere Jacques". One in Yiddish was "Tum Balalaika". The only other one I remember (and not very well) was my kid brother's favorite, one presumably from Ireland about a man who lost his leg and subsequently was getting chased around by the peg leg he acquired to replace it, which apparently had a mind of its own. The nonsense chorus word at the end of each verse was something like "O di-diddle-o."

I've drawn a blank so far in three search engines, down long lists of used items on Amazon and eBay, and on YouTube. (Or rather, I've found a lot of things that on inspection turn out not to be what I'm looking for.)

I decided tonight to make one more try at the long story that my "Corey's Last Concert" was adapted from. Our protagonist's first performance, at age 10, is at a high schoolers' concert featuring various folk genres, one of which is Irish. Since at his age he doesn't fit into any of the groups, he's been given the role of host, singing one song in each genre to introduce each of the acts. He was all set to go with the Irish Rovers' "The Unicorn", but it got rejected because it's actually a Shel Silverstein song, even though it's usually sung in a brogue since the Rovers got to it first. If I can find this wooden leg song and it's consistent with my recollection, it'd make a really good replacement.

(Rejecting "The Unicorn" is a plot point; there's another more significant rejection later in the concert. So letting the kid sing it anyway isn't a good option.)

Eric

It sounds like you're

It sounds like you're misremembering "Three Legged Man" - which is also a Shel Silverstein song. Performed by Bobby Bare, Ray Stevens, and innumerable others.

If you just want a humorous Irish folk song, there's Tom Lehrer's "The Irish Ballad". Or you can just go with the Dubliner's "The Sick Note". (Sometimes "Paddy Won't Be At Work Today" )

I doubt that Johnny McEldoo would go over really well for a school audience.

Possibly the most famous of the "true" Irish folk songs that's purely humorous is "The Irish Rover". Just about every group performed it, from the Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makim (with and without the Clancy brothers), the Dubliners, the Pogues, and so forth.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

It's Not "Three Legged Man"...

I'd never heard that one before, but I really enjoyed it. (Doesn't fit into my story, though.)

I'm familiar with Lehrer's song, but of course it's no more authentically Irish than "The Unicorn" -- less, perhaps, since it was written as a parody.

An Irish-American folk group that was doing an afternoon set at a Seattle park did both of the two, though for their family audience, with the Lehrer song they had to interrupt it to explain what "did every one of them in" meant, and that Davy Jones was "a gentleman who lives at the bottom of the sea". Their spoken introduction to "The Unicorn" went along the lines of "this song was written by a guy named Shel Silverstein in New York City, but it's normally sung with an Irish accent so here it is". (This was around 15 years ago, and I'd never known that before then, though I'm usually up on that sort of thing.) I think they took a break at that point; since that's not why we were there and my nephew was three or four years old, we moved along. If I'd seen the rest, I might not be looking now -- the song I'm looking for would have been a great fit for them.

Thanks for "The Sick Note" and "The Irish Rover"...

Eric

It's Jake The Peg by Rolf Harris

SammyC's picture

Hey, Eric.

The song you're thinking of is "Jake The Peg" written by Australian Rolf Harris. Here's Liberace introducing him on his TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imRaRW4ltOs. Harris is more famous for his hit "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport." The song was released in 1966. Maybe your memory of when you first heard it was off? Anyway, enjoy his wacky sense of humor.

Sammy

Entertaining...

...but that's not it. (Which is actually fortunate, because changing the Irish segment of the concert to Auatralian would be somewhat difficult.)

Eric

Irish Music Podcast

I do not have any ideas as to the song queried about, but I offer a suggestion as a place to look for alternatives.
I subscribe to the RSS feed for the "Irish and Celtic Music" podcast. They are typically about an hour of music each show, and run from traditional to folk to more modern music. You might find an alternative there, or query the host, Mark Gunn.

https://celticmusicpodcast.com/
https://celticmusicpodcast.com/rss