The First Day of April

The first day of April I’ll never forget,
When three English blades together had met,
They mounted on horseback and swore bitterly,
That they’d play a trick on the first man they’d see and sing…
Fol-de-dal-lol-ladly, fol-de-dal-lol-ladly,
Laddelyfol-lol-de-dal-lay, laddely-fol-de-dal-lee.

At Campbell the Rover they happened to spy,
He came from Tyrone, a place called The Moy,
And they saluted Campbell and he done the same,
And in close conversation together they came and sing…

They rode right along and they made a full stop,
They called upon Paddy for to take a drop,
And Paddy consented and said with a smile,
“I long for to taste the good ale from Carlisle” sing…

They ate and they drank and they sported as well,
Until forty eight shillings to pay up a bill,
Likewise for their horses some oats and good hay,
And they thought they’d leave Paddy the rattling to pay and sing…

Out of the house one by one then they stole,
They thought they’d leave Paddy to pay for the whole,
The landlord came in and this he did say,
“I’m afraid Irish Pat they’ve a trick on you played” and sing…

“Never mind them,” says Pat, “although they’re gone away,
I’ve got plenty of money the rattling to pay.
If you’ll sit down beside me before that I go,
I will tell you a secret perhaps you don’t know” and sing…

“I’ll tell you a secret contrary to law,
That two kinds of wine from one puncheon I’ll draw,”
And the landlord was eager to find out that plan,
And away to the cellar with Paddy he ran.

He bored a hole in a very short space,
And he bade the landlord place his thumb on that place,
The next one he bored, “Place the other one there,
And I for a tumbler will go up the stair” and sing…

Pat mounted his horse and was soon out of sight,
The horser came in to see if all was right,
They hunted the house from the top to the ground,
And half dead in the cellar the master he found sing…

I wish I would have come across this light-hearted song about pranking and counter-pranking a couple months ago. It’s the perfect April Fools Day song – even set on “the first day of April!” A version of this was sung in Ireland by Joe Heaney who called it “Campbell the Rover.” Variants were also collected in the Canadian Maritimes but the version above is from the vast repertoire of Johnny Green of Beaver Island, Michigan. As with most of Green’s songs, you can listen to a 1938 recording Alan Lomax made of Green singing it on the Library of Congress website. I did my best to transcribe Green’s melody and quirky chorus note-for-note but I made a couple small tweaks to his text to improve a rhyme and to help the story make sense.

I’ll be talking about Green’s life and playing recordings of his songs at a lecture on the music of Beaver Island that I’m giving this month at the Center for Irish Music’s Minnesota Irish Music Weekend. Come if you can!