Muldoon, the Solid Man

DESCRIPTION: "I am a man of great influence... I came when small from Donegal, in the Daniel Webster I crossed the sea." Hard work has brought the singer success. He promises the listeners he will "use you decent... I'm a solid man." He tells of his social sucess.
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Harrigan's sketch "Muldoon, the Solid Man")
KEYWORDS: emigration work
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 102-103, "Muldoon, the solid Man" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #41, pp. 187-188, "I Will Lay You Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #79, "Sit Yeh Down And I'll Treat Yeh Decent" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, LAYEDON2*
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 12, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus)
Roud #3355
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love" (lyrics)
cf. "Laird of Drum" (tune, as sung by Jeannie Robertson)
NOTES [478 words]: Roud lumps this with "I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love." But that is a song of seduction, while this is a song telling of prosperity.
The key verse of "I'll Lay You Doon, Love," as derived from Jeannie Robertson, is something like this:
O I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll treat ye decent
I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll fill your can
O I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll treat ye decent
For surely he is an honest man.
Ned Harrigann's own text of this, as published in The Mulligans, runs
Go with me and I'll trate ye decent,
I'll set ye drunk, and I'll fill yere can.
As I walk the street, each frind I meet,
Says, There goes Muldoon, he's a solid man.
Harrigan premiered the song in May 1872 in a sketch also entitled "Muldoon, the Solid Man." Richard Moody's biography of Harrigan describes the sketch as "foreshadowing [Harrigan's] fascination with lunatics and undertakers. An old actor has gone mad on Shakespeare, a common affliction according to Harrigan. Another lunatic imagines himself a kite and shouts 'Fly me! Fly me!' The undertaker is overjoyed at the prospect of the final wholesale slaughter: 'A whole world dead! Lord, what a fat job that would be!'"
There is one curiosity about that 1872 date. The song mentions "General" Grant. This require a date after 1862 (when Grant became a general and fought his first significant battles) but might hint at a date before 1868. But that's a minor point.
Given its early date, it is unlikely that the tune was written by Harrigan's long-time collaborator David Braham (Franceschina, p. 82) -- the two were performing together by then (Franceschina, p. 76), but weren't yet a "team." That make it likely that Harrigan used a traditional or popular tune. But what odds that he would use a Scottish song of seduction unknown in American? Besides, while Ned Harrigan did borrow traditional material and adapt it, he didn't do it like this -- he might borrow a tune, or allude to a text, but not rewrite it.
So how did the song end up in Scotland? All attempts to trace it seem to stop at Jeannie Robertson. Her story was that it came from an Irish Traveler -- and that it was bawdy. Abby Sale mentions a suggestion that it became an Irish Music Hall song. Possible -- after all, although Harrigan was American and made his home in New York, his pieces were like music hall; it's possible that someone moved the piece to the music hall. But there is a lot that we can't trace in that history.
For background on Harrigan, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
Porter and Gower note a provenance from an "Irish-American music hall song with the title, "Muldoon, the solid Man," and that Jeannie Robertson used the tune for several of her songs, e.g. "Laird o Drum" (Child 236). Some 6 of Roud's 23 Muldoon variants attributed to his number 3355 appear to actually be Robertson and Stewart family versions of "Laird o Drum." - DGE
Bibliography

Franceschina: John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003
Moody: Richard Moody, Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square, Nelson Hall, 1980

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Dean102

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