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Sleeve Notes
Liam, who was supposed to write these lines couldn't leave the girls alone long enough even to be found to do the job. He's out somewhere in the west of Ireland in search of more songs and girls. Tommy Makem was last seen in a yellow convertible with a girl, heading towards Dublin. Tommy told me once that he would never marry. He said, "Why make one woman unhappy when there are thousands I can make happy?" I'll tell my ma is a children's love song, but you know as well as I that it applies to all ages. The next number is a gem. It's a Scottish song about a man who loved his fiddle until his dying day. He says, "There's some come here for to see me hung and some to buy my fiddle. But before I do part with her I'll break her through the middle!" "I know who Is sick, I know who is sorry, I know who I'll kiss, but the Lord knows who I'll marry …" My father used to sing this one round the house even though there were nine of us and, of course, my mother. There were days when a bit of wishful thinking might have been involved.
The next song is about an Old woman from Wexford who loves her husband dearly but other men twice as well. She goes to rather extraordinary lengths to sort out the problem. I think it's nice, though, that the old man has the last word. Will ye go, lassie, go? has a strange, appealing feel about it, and right in the middle has a strange appealing twist to it. After telling about all the loving things he would do for his girl, the boy has a very practical attitude in case he loses her: "If my true love she is gone, I will surely find another."
Tom Clancy
