Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!ron
From: ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie )
Newsgroups: net.music.folk
Subject: Re: `When Johnny Comes Marching Home'
Message-ID: <7182@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 15:03:28 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.7182
Posted: Thu Jan 10 15:03:28 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Jan-85 07:40:36 EST
References: <227@daemon.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 71

> Can anyone give me any information about the famous folk song that goes
> `When Johnny comes marching home again ...'?  I am curious as to who
> (if known) wrote the song, when and where it was published (I think it
> is an Irish folk song ...  my favorite!), and if the words and music
> are printed in any books? Thanks very much.
> 
> David

The Irish version is called "Johnny (I hardly knew ye)".  I have one
version on record, and have heard it song by several groups including
Theodore Bikel.  I'll try to recount it here:

	When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah,
	We'll give him a hearty welcome them, hurrah, hurrah,
	The men will cheer, the boys will shout,
	The ladies, they will all turn out.
	And we'll all feel gay
[Alt:	And we'll all be there]
	When Johnny Comes marching home.

	With drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo.
	With drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo.
	With drums and guns and guns and drums,
	The enemy nearly slew ya,
	Darling Johnny it's been so long.
[Alt, one group uses...Johnny dear, you look so queer]
	Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

	Tis glad I am to see ya home, hurroo, hurroo.
	Tis glad I am to see ya home, hurroo, hurroo.
	Tis glad I am to see ya home,
	Darling Johnny, so brave and strong.
	So low in cheek and high in bone
	Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

	Where are your legs that use to run, hurroo, hurroo.
	Where are your legs that use to run, hurroo, hurroo.
	Where are your legs that use to run,
	When first you went to carry a gun.
	Indeed, your dancing days are done.
	Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

	Where are your eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo.
	Where are your eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo.
	Where are your eyes that were so mild,
	When my heart you first beguiled.
	Why did you run from me and the child.
	Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

	You haven't an arm and you haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo.
	You haven't an arm and you haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo.
	You haven't an arm and you haven't a leg,
[These lines I'm not too sure of]
	Your a eyeless, boneless, chickenless egg
	And you have to be put with a bowl to bed.
	Johnny, I hardly knew ya.

Some groups use the first verse as a chorus and some use the
second verse, and some use neither.

Of course around the Civil War in the United states, the song
popped up with the same first verse but the rest of the words
changed to be one of victory, not one of sorrow.  One of my
American folksong books lists that the person who published it
(I don't have the name handy) claimed he transcribed it as he
heard people singing it.  Actually, it asserts that since he was
Irish, the whole thing was his work.  It contains lines like
"In eighteen hundred and sixty three, Abe Lincoln set the darkies
free."

-Ron