Paddy McGinty's Goat

DESCRIPTION: Paddy McGinty buys a nanny goat for the milk but finds it is a billy. The goat eats folks' valuables and causes the Kaiser problems. The goat swallows gasoline, dynamite and a spark: if you see someone in heaven with whiskers it may be this goat.
AUTHOR: Bert Lee and R. P. Weston "and the Two Bobs" (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Frank Quinn recording)
KEYWORDS: war clothes death humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18235
RECORDINGS:
Pat Harrington, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (Decca 18786, 1939; on "Come-All-Ye's and Other Irish Songs," Coral Records CRL 57367 LP (1961))
Jack Houlihan, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
The McNulty Family, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (private tape collection, likely on Copley Records after 1943)
Frank Quinn, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (Bluebird B-4959, 1926; on "Farewell to Ireland," Proper Records Proper Box3 P1111 CD (1999))
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Grogan's Goat" (theme)
NOTES [172 words]: The Quinn and McNulty records have one set of verses, all of which Houlihan includes and adds two more.
The Harrington recording shares two verses with Quinn/McNulty, adds one that Houlihan includes about the goat swallowing someone's horse race winnings, and adds one more I haven't seen elsewhere: Mrs. Burke's daughter leaves town in disgrace after being seen kissing a man with whiskers she insists is the goat; she returns with loot she didn't get from the goat. Houlihan's is alone among the four versions having the Irish guards taking the goat to France and gassing the Kaiser's troops. In 1939 Ireland is nominally neutral and there is no mention of Germans or submarines on Harrington's recording. The four recordings use the same tune. - BS
The German submarine, which the goat sinks, is in the original Weston/Lee/The Two Bobs version. There is a short Wikipedia article about the song listing some of the pop versions.
For the long list of songs by R. P. Weston, or Weston and Bert Lee, see the notes to "Goodbye-ee." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcPaMcGo

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