It's a long way to Tipperary

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Recording from 1915 sung by Albert Farrington

It's a Long Way to Tipperary is a song from marching music that composer Jack Judge (1878-1938) performed for the first time on January 31, 1912 in the Grand Theater of Stalybridge . In a humorous way, it deals with the longing of the typical Irishman ("Paddy") who, as a guest worker abroad, longs for his girlfriend ("Molly") in Tipperary . As one of the favorite songs of British soldiers, it became known worldwide during World War I and is now part of the standard repertoire of many military bands .

history

A bronze statue from 1953 commemorates the premiere of the song in Stalybridge . It shows Jack Judge and a soldier from the First World War.

After landing in France in 1914, the Connaught Rangers, an Irish battalion of the British Army, marched through Boulogne-sur-Mer with It's a Long Way to Tipperary on their lips . A report in the Daily Mail made the song widely known. A record recording by Irish star tenor John McCormack from November 1914 increased its popularity.

The song became the unofficial anthem of the British soldiers. As a result, the song experienced numerous performances on stage and on phonograms, and a refrain variant was created. If “Molly” in the original threatens to prefer a “Mike Maloney” to her “Paddy”, the variant is the return coach. The troops only learned how to tickle an English Mary properly in France.

Aftermath

In order to no longer be primarily associated with war, the eponymous Irish city of Tipperary established a peace congress in 1983. Since 1984 he has awarded the Tipperary Peace Prize and the Tipperary Peace Song every year.

It's A Long Way to Tipperary was also played by the on-board orchestra of the British luxury liner Lusitania when she was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine on May 7, 1915. The orchestra kept playing to avoid panic.

The song appears in the Wolfgang Petersen film Das Boot based on the novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim . The submarine commander lets his first officer, who is particularly loyal to the line, put on the record and then sings along with the rest of the crew. The English song was played in a recording by the choir of the Soviet Red Army .

The song also appears in the Jean Renoir film The Great Illusion , in which it was sung by English soldiers and was also performed in the vaudeville performance.

text

Up to mighty London
Came an Irishman one day
As the streets are paved with gold
Sure, everyone was gay
Singing songs of Piccadilly ,
Strand and Leicester Square
Till Paddy got excited
And he shouted to them there ...
It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly ,
Farewell Leicester Square !
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there.
Paddy wrote a letter
To his Irish Molly-O,
Saying, “Should you not receive it
Write and let me know! "
"If I make mistakes in spelling,
Molly dear, ”said he,
"Remember, it's the pen that's bad,
Don't lay the blame on me! ”
It's a long way ...
Molly wrote a neat reply
To Irish Paddy-O
Saying Mike Maloney
Wants to marry me and so
Leave the Strand and Picadilly
Or you'll be to blame
For love has fairly drove me silly:
Hoping you're the same!
It's a long way ...

Additional refrain:

That's the wrong way to tickle Mary,
That's the wrong way to kiss!
Don't you know that over here, lad,
They like it best like this!
Hooray pour le Francais!
Farewell, Angleterre!
We didn't know the way to tickle Mary,
But we learned how, over there!
It's a long way ...

Interpretations

Bert Brecht wrote - based on the song - his March into the Third Reich, which became known in particular through the interpretation of Ernst Busch .

The song has always served as a template for bands, especially in Anglo-Celtic folk punk and folk rock . The band The Larkin Brigade, a group of Irish emigrants from Boston , set the song to music. The Irish-American band Flogging Molly also used the song material in the live version of Black Friday Rule . The singer Tiny Tim also interpreted the song.

The melody of the song was also used by the Cologne dialect band Höhner . The song from the album Dat is ne jode Laade he is called Unser Hätz schlät for FC Kölle and was played for years in the Müngersdorfer Stadium as an unofficial anthem before 1. FC Köln matches.

Web links

Commons : It's a Long Way to Tipperary  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Text and music in different versions are freely available from different sources, for example:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Silvio Bramsch: The fan book 1. FC Köln - The billy goats from the Rhineland. BoD - Books on Demand, 2016, ISBN 978-3-741-22537-6 ( limited preview in Google book search).