Paddy's sounding pretty sick!

[Lorenzo]

The Sick Note (or Why Paddy's not at Work Today)

Dear Sir I write this note to you to tell you of my plight
For at the time of writing I am not a pretty sight
My body is all black and blue, my face a deathly grey
And I write this note to say why Paddy's not at work today.


Whilst working on the fourteenth floor,some bricks I had to clear
To throw them down from such a height was not a good idea
The foreman wasn't very pleased, the bloody awkward sod
He said I had to cart them down the ladders in my hod.


Now clearing all these bricks by hand, it was so very slow
So I hoisted up a barrel and secured the rope below
But in my haste to do the job, I was too blind to see
That a barrel full of building bricks was heavier than me.


And so when I untied the rope, the barrel fell like lead
And clinging tightly to the rope I started up instead
I shot up like a rocket till to my dismay I found
That half way up I met the bloody barrel coming down.


Well the barrel broke my shoulder, as to the ground it sped
And when I reached the top I banged the pulley with my head
I clung on tightly, numb with shock, from this almighty blow
And the barrel spilled out half the bricks, some fourteen floors below.


Now when these bricks had fallen from the barrel to the floor
I then outweighed the barrel and so started down once more
Still clinging tightly to the rope, my body racked with pain
When half way down, I met the bloody barrel once again.


The force of this collision, heard half way up the office block
Caused multiple abrasions and a nasty state of shock
Still clinging tightly to the rope I fell towards the ground
And I landed on the broken bricks the barrel scattered round.


I lay there groaning on the ground I thought I'd passed the worst
But the barrel hit the pulley wheel, and then the bottom burst
A shower of bricks rained down on me, I hadn't got a hope
As I lay there bleeding on the ground, I let go the bloody rope.


The barrel then being heavier then started down once more
And landed right across me as I lay upon the floor
It broke three ribs, and my left arm, and I can only say
That I hope you'll understand why Paddy's not at work today.
__________________________________________________________

Anyone know the real history of this song?

[djm]

There is a long involved thread on the mudcat.org site describing the evolution of this song. It appeared as a story in the 1920s or 1930s in Reader's Digest. It appeared in several publications after that. An English folksinger put it to music in the 1970 or 1980s, and it has become quite popular, with several singers recording it, though it is often treated as part of the "tradition", instead of paying proper fees to the songwriter.

djm

[Lorenzo]

I just found another version of it online, with nine verses instead of eight, so I added that above. It's got to be an oldie, probably someone like you or me sent in a copy to the Reader's Digest in '37. I recently saw someone perform it, unaccompanied, and it got the biggest applause of the concert, the guy was going nuts, singing and talking with hand motions and funny facial exprssions. Laughed out loud myself! The melody is kind of catchy.

[No E]

Robbie O'Connell does a nice version to the tune of "I Met Her in the Garden Where the Praties Grow," one of John McCormack's old music hall war horses.

No E

[marcpipes]

There's also a recording by the Corries. Somewhere around I've got and old reel to reel tape of a guy from the forties or fifties reading the Ballad of the Bricklayer without music and getting giggling fits while he reads. I wish I could find and clean that one up.
Marc

[snoogie]

There was an episode on the Discovery Channel Mythbusters show here in the US about this.

Its known to be an urban legend
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blbricks.htm

This link has a reference to the song
http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/bricks.htm

On the Mythbusters show they tested whether or not the barrel would bust when it hit the bottom and spill its load of bricks. What they found was that it was almost impossible to bust the barrel (coopers apparently doing a better job now than 70 years ago?) and spill the load of bricks.

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythb ... sters.html

-gary

[John Mulhern]

Fiddler Kevin Burke sang this while on tour with Micheal O' Domhnaill, about 20+ year's ago. I too, have a reel to reel recording of it, (Triona's in there too), but alas, the Sony's drive belt has long since bio-degraded into pixie dust from year's of disuse.