Muldoon The Solid Man

From 1874 sheet music in New York Public Library

I am a man of great influence
And educated to a high degree
I come here when small from Donegal
In the Daniel Webster across the sea
In the Fourteenth Ward I situated
In a tenement house with my brother Dan
By perseverance I elevated
And went to the front like a solid man

Go with me and I'll treat you decent
I'll set you down and I'll fill the can
As I walk the street each friend I meet
Says: "There goes Muldoon, he's a solid man"

At any party or any raffle
I always go as an invited guest
As conspicuous as General Granite,boys
I wear a rosebud upon my breast
I'm called upon to address the meeting
Without regard to clique or clan
I show the constitution with elocution
Bekase you know I'm a solid man

Go with me and I'll treat you decent
I'll set you down and I'll fill the can
As I walk the street each friend I meet
Says: "There goes Muldoon, he's a solid man"

I control the Tombs, I control the Island
My constituents, they all go there
To enjoy the summer's recreation
And the refreshing East River air
I'm known in Harlem, I'm known in Jarsey
I'm welcomed hearty on every hand
Wid my regalay on Patrick's Day
I march away like a solid man

For oppositions or politicians
Take my word I don't give a damn
As I walk the street each friend I meet
Says: "There goes Muldoon, he's a
 solid man" 

A song by Ned Harrigan(1845-1911) – an extremely successful Irish-American actor, playwright and lyricist. The music was credited to his regular collaborator David Braham. Muldoon, The Solid Man is described by Don Meade as a comic ditty about a boastful New York politician. It was first performed by Harrigan and others as part of a sketch called Who Owns The Line in March 1874 at the Theatre Comique, on Broadway (New York). The song was most famously performed in British and Irish Music Halls by William J Ashcroft, whose name was so associated with the song that he advertised himself as The Solid Man sometimes not bothering to include his name! A brief biography of Ashcroft is given below. The song was widely published on both sides of the Atlantic as street literature (broadsides and songbooks).

Don Meade gives an excellent account of how this song, through “a process of collective editing and elaboration” (I would add contraction), passed into the repertoire of 20th century folk singers. The process involved both oral and written transmission and while Meade expresses doubts, I believe one result of this “folk process” is likely to have been the song I will lay ye doon, love as sung by Jeannie Robertson, collected in 1954 (in his indexes Steve Roud classes them as the same song, so I should make clear that this is not an original idea of my own)

Jeannie Robertson sings Lay Ye Doon
(Transcription at Mainly Norfolk)

For I will lay you doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,
I will lay ye doun, love, I'll fill your can;
I will lay ye doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,
For Bolerl he is a solid man.

For as I strollt out on a summer's evening,
Down by the waters of the pleasant Bann;
And as I was walking sure I could hear them talking,
And saying, “Bolerl, he's a solid man.”

I will lay you doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,
I will lay ye doun, love, I'll fill your can;
I will lay ye doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,
For Bolerl hm,e is a solid man.

WJ Ashcroft: sometimes Billy, or even Willie John Ashcroft (1840-1918) The Solid Man. William J Ashcroft’s parents emigrated from Whiteabbey, a village near Belfast in Ireland, to Rhode Island in the 1830s. Ashcroft ran away from home to join a minstrel troupe, making his stage debut in 1857. He was known as a dancer and occasional blackface performer who specialised in Irish comedy and songs. In 1872 he travelled to London where he appeared for a record-breaking 40 weeks in various London Halls. He returned temporarily to the US in 1874/75 before returning permanently to the British Isles in 1876, where he married English actress Kitty Brooks. Its likely that he picked up Muldoon The Solid Man during this time in the States, but where ever he got it, on his return in 1876 he started billing himself as”The Solid Man” (see notice reproduced above).

Between 1876 and 1890 he maintained a gruelling schedule , touring Halls in Britain and Ireland. The intensity of his appearances did not even let up after he and his wife bought the Alhambra Theatre in Belfast in 1879. His stage persona was of the confident self-made Irish American, as portrayed in his most successful song Muldoon The Solid Man. He suffered from poor mental health , and his erratic behaviour saw him detained in a Belfast asylum in May 1890. His wife took over the management of the Alhambra, but in November 1900 he was declared bankrupt- audiences at the Alhambra were declining probably because of greater competition from the many more fashionable variety theatres in Belfast. Ashcroft died in the Purdysburn Asylum, Belfast, in 1918.

A number of his songs are still in the repertoire of Irish, Scottish and British traditional performers. My initial provisional list is:

• MacNamara’s Band (25273)
• A man you don’t meet everyday (975)
• There goes Muldoon the solid Man (3355)
• Wreck of the Ragamuffin (10466)

Ashcroft wrote and sang a song called The Crockery Ware which is not the same as the traditional song of the same name (RN1490)

I’ll lay ye doon, love as performed by Jean Redpath:

Sources:

• Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A3355
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Lyrics and Sheet Music: The New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1874.
• Don Meade The Life and Times of Muldoon, the Solid Man (1997) New York Irish History Roundtable
• Mr WJ Ashcroft The Era November 10 1900, p20
• Jim McDowell; Beyond the Floodlights (2007)