"Fil-i-mi-oo-ri-oo-ri-ay (Paddy Works The Railroad)"

OldePhart said:

I really liked this, Jon. I think I commented on it over in the contest thread.

It occurs to me to wonder if those "nonsense words" are actually descended from Gaelic, though, and what they might have meant. So many early American songs have those kind of "rhyming but nonsensical" repetitions, especially in choruses. I've heard that in many cases of early Americana, especially in music from the Alleghany and Smokey mountains where many transplanted Irish settled, those nonsense phrases were "polluted" by second and third generations from Gaelic phrases that originally had meaning relative to the song. I.e. younger generations just "phoneticized" passages without knowing what they meant or even that they'd once had meaning.

I wonder if anybody has ever done a study on that? Seems like with all the folks we have on UU surely someone knows the answer?

John

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eugene ukulele said:

yes mate, I think you have it there. From the little I've read about such things the opinion seems to be that they were nonsense noises used to fill in the gaps where the original dialect was not able to be understood or interpreted.

Have you seen the 3 part PBS documentary "The Appalachians"? Wow, what a wonderful lesson in history and music. I bought it from elderly earlier this year and it was money very well spent. Covers this ground and so much else too...

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