How To Disappear Completely

"Dublin Stout!" He would shout

Vaudeville is getting to me: I've had "Bass's ale, by the pail" running through my head all weekend. The stuff's catchy, and I've always liked the Irish and their pub songs. Must be on account o' me great-grandfather being a Sullivan.

Chorus:
Bass's ale by the pail
He would order Rosanna to go out and buy;
Dublin Stout he would shout,
Keep drinking and never say die;
Whiskey prime, gin and wine,
He would hand down a bottle and merrily cry:
"My Rose Ann, fill the can,
For honest John Riley's dry."

"John Riley's Always Dry" by Harrigan and Braham.

The verses are set in duple meter while the chorus is set to a triple meter (probably 6/8), making me feel like twirling about the room with a pint in hand when we finally get back to the refrain. Triple meter can be used to simulate the sensations of floating or bouyancy, so I suppose it's a good fit with a song about drinking.

One of the graduate students in the course (Popular Music PreWWII) makes a point to bring in a contemporary tune every class in order to compare the old with the new. So far he has drawn primarily on country music, a genre also tied heavily to folk tradition (of a very white sort). The topics (nostalgia, rigid and clear-cut gender roles, and the ever popular love, love, love) are even very similar. Vaudeville appealed primarily to the working class and middle class. Country (at least in my mind) is the music of the blue collars or blue collar wanna-bes (at least the white ones). Here's Brad Paisley's "Alcohol," a celebratory drinking song, brought in by the grad student mentioned above to compare to Irish pub songs.** Both have a light-hearted, ennobling approach to drink, as well as employing lists with which every good drinker ought to be familar.

Chorus
And since the day I left Milwaukee,
Lynchburg, Bordeaux, France
Been makin the bars
Lots of big money
and helpin white people dance
I got you in trouble in high school
but college now that was a ball
you had some of the best times
you'll never remember with me
Alcohol, Alcohol

"Alcohol" by Brad Paisley.

**Irish pub songs as they are represented in turn-of-the-century American entertainment, not as they actually occurred in Ireland.