Finnegan's Wake [Laws Q17]

DESCRIPTION: Tim Finnegan, never entirely sober, falls from a ladder and cracks his head. Taken home unconscious, his wife holds a wake that soon gets out of control. Splashed with whiskey, Tim awakens and resents being thought dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1861 (broadside, LOCSinging sb40523b)
KEYWORDS: injury drink fight party
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro) Canada(Mar,New,Ontf) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws Q17, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 146, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 169, "Finnigan's Wake" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #167, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 86, "Tim Finnigan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 65, "Finnigan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 136, "Tim Finigan's Wake" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 91, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 219, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2335, p. 157, "Tim Finigan's Wake" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #13, pp. 6-7, "Finigan's Wake" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 120, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 partial text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #30, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 232, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text)
DT 528, FINNWAKE*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 28-29, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1009
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Finnigan's Wake" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Warde Ford, "Finnegan's Wake" [incomplete] (AFS 4212 A3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Jack Swain, "Finnigan's Wake I" (on NFMLeach); "Finnegan's Wake (Version 1)" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John Terrell, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" (Berliner 1869, 1898)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(254), "Finnigan's Wake," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 11(3620), Harding B 11(3619), Firth c.26(209), Harding B 11(1207), "Finnigan's Wake"
LOCSinging, sb40523b, "Tim Finigan's wake," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Wake" [Laws Q18]
cf. "The Bullockies' Ball" (theme)
cf. "Doherty's Wake" (subject)
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]
cf. "The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman" (theme of a man who seems dead until the wake)
SAME TUNE:
The French Musician (per broadside LOCSinging sb40523b)
Rafferty's Party (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 131)
NOTES [103 words]: William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 74, proposes that the popular song "The Fine Ould Irish Gentlemen," popularized and possibly written by John Brougham, is the precursor of this song. Given that the "Gentleman" appeared in 1845 (Williams, p. 72), this is barely possible, but we would have to allow the possibility that the dependence is the other way. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb40523b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LQ17

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