We are happy to offer some special notes on all of the songs on the CD. Some of the text will be identical to that found on the CD, while there are special comments and further information added--some of which was not able to be printed due to size constraints. We hope you will enjoy this companion to your CD purchase. There are additional external links to other sites offering lyrics and guitar chords and tabulature for your convenience.
liner notes
"The beer and whiskey flew..." and so do the words as we memorialize the gastronomical feats of one Johnny MacEldoo. The song probably started as a vaudeville or music hall offering. As we got to counting, this is one of four songs on the CD that ends with the lads having a run-in with the police. If you meet someone like this, don't be offering to buy them lunch. Brian often teases audie
nces by asking them to sing along on this one, at times offering to buy unsuspecting tourists in Pubs a cold pint or tumbler. We'll be careful not to offer that to those of you who sing along with this one on a cross-country trip to the point of learning it!
Johnny MacEldoo
There was Johnny MacEldoo and McGee and me and
A coupla' two or three went on a spree one day
We had a bob or two which we knew how to blew
And the beer and whiskey flew and we all felt gay
We visited McCann's, McIllmann's Humpty Dan's
We then went into Swans our stomachs for to pack
We ordered up a feed which indeed we did need
And we finished it with speed but we still felt slack .
Johnny McEldoo turned red, white and blue and
A plate of Irish stew he soon put out of sight
He shouted out encore with a roar for some more
Said he never felt before such a keen appetite
He orded eggs and ham, bread and jam, butt or cram
But him we couldn't ram though we tried our level best
For everything we brought, cold or hot mattered not
IIt went down him like a shot but he still stood the test.
He swallowed tripe and lard by the yard, we got scared
We thought it would go hard when the waiter brought the bill
We told him to go slower but he swore he could lower
Twice as much again and more before he had his fill
He nearly sucked a trough full of broth says McGrath
He'll devour the tablecloth if you don't hold him in
When the waiter brought the charge MacEldoo felt so large
He began to scowl and barge and his blood went on fire
He began to curse and swear tear his hair in despair
And to finish the affair called the shopman a liar.
The shopman he drew out, and no doubt he did clout
McEldoo he kicked about like an old football
He tattered all his clothes broke his nose I suppose
He'd have killed him with a few blows in no time at all
McEldoo began to howl and to growl by my soul
He threw an empty bowl at the shopkeeper's head
It struck poor Mickey Finn, peeled the skin off his chin
And the ructions did begin and we all fought and bled
The peeler's did arrive, man alive, four or five
At us they made a drive for us all to march away
We paid for all the meat that we ate stood a treat
And went home to ruminate on the spree that day.
