Danny Boy

(album: Orange Blossom Special - 1965)

Back of out 1918 my father Ray Cash was in the army in France. Along about our ... day he was one of the proud men to stand inspection by General John J. Percy.

Less than a year later my dad was back on the cotton farm in South West Arkansas. And he knew the way of life didn't change very fast back home. He rode a horse about ten miles every Sunday to see Miss Carrie Rivers.

In those days, when everyone in the country either rode a horse or a wagon or walked, you were probably a stranger if you were five miles from home or less, maybe.

Sometimes life was pretty tough, so some of the people were tough too. That's why my dad had a Colt .45 stuck in his belt every Sunday. The first thing he always did was to lay his pistol on the mantel of the fireplace at grandpa Rivers'.

When my parents got married, my mother Carrie Rivers was sixteen. After that it wasn't long 'til daddy wasn't considered a stranger. So, he made friend with most everybody around.

Daddy tells about an Irish immigrant on a rail road where he worked the cotton belt line who never stopped talking about going back to Dublin. One of the first stories I ever remember my dad tell and was one that Irish immigrant told him.

And according to that particular source of information there was this boy named Daniel McCinney working in the fields one morning. And across the fields came his sweetheart Rosa Lee. She came crying with tears in her eyes.

Later someone put down into a song some of the things that Rosa Lee told Daniel.

She said, "Daniel, there's a bloody war outraging and I've come to tell you that they wanted you to fight. Go fight for Ireland and come back to me, Daniel. I'll be waiting."

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling.
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer's gone, and all the roses fallen.
It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow.
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow.
I'll be here in sunshine or in shadows.
I'll be here, oh, Danny boy, I'll miss you so.

But if you fall as all the flowers are falling,
And if you're dead, as dead you well may be,
I'll come and find the place where you're lying,
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for thee.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow.
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow.
I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy, I love you so.

[Frederick "Fred" Edward Weatherly (1848-1929) was an English lawyer, author, songwriter and radio entertainer. He wrote the lyrics of the well-known ballad Danny Boy which is set to the tune A Londonderry Air. Weatherly wrote over 3,000 popular songs, including "Roses Are Blooming In Picardy," and "The Holy City."]