| Play/Download Music File John Renfro Davis |
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| Garry Owen was the unofficial marching song of the Seventh
Cavalry. Gen. Custer reportedly heard the song among his Irish troop and liked it. The tune was then played so often the 7th became tied to it.
The tune is first documented as Auld Bessy in 1788. It was later (1800) in the opera Harlequin Amulet (the Majic of Mona). About that time it was attributed to "Jackson of Cork" by a book of Country Dances by William Campbell. It also appeared in part two (1802) of Nathaniel Gow's four volume Complete Repository of the Original Scotch Slow Tunes. Thomas Moore also wrote a set of lyrics to the tune The Daughters of Erin. |
Let Bacchus' sons be not dismayed But join with me, each jovial blade Come, drink and sing and lend your aid To help me with the chorus: Chorus Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale And pay the reckoning on the nail; No man for debt shall go to jail From Garryowen in glory. We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun, We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run We are the boys no man dares dun If he regards a whole skin. Chorus Our hearts so stout have got no fame For soon 'tis known from whence we came Where'er we go they fear the name Of Garryowen in glory. Chorus |
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Information from Bruce Olsen's Roots of Folk Website Information on Garry Owen is in the Early Irish Tunes Index. |
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