{"id":17013,"date":"2022-10-05T15:30:03","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T15:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=17013"},"modified":"2022-10-22T14:19:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T14:19:29","slug":"muldoon-the-solid-man","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/muldoon-the-solid-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Muldoon The Solid Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The Solid Man
I Will Lay Ye Doon, Love<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1874<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Edward Harrigan \/ David Braham<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN3355<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>WJ Ashcroft<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Robertson, Jeannie; Scotland : Aberdeenshire : 1954
Stewart, Lucy; Scotland : Aberdeenshire :1960
Heaney, Joe; Ireland : Co. Galway : 1980
Robertson, Stanley; Scotland : Aberdeenshire : 2009
Modern performances<\/strong>
Jean Redpath, Iona Fyfe and others see Mainly Norfolk<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From 1874 sheet music in New York Public Library<\/a>\n\nI am a man of great influence\nAnd educated to a high degree\nI come here when small from Donegal\nIn the Daniel Webster<\/em> across the sea\nIn the Fourteenth Ward I situated\nIn a tenement house with my brother Dan\nBy perseverance I elevated\nAnd went to the front like a solid man\n\nGo with me and I'll treat you decent\nI'll set you down and I'll fill the can\nAs I walk the street each friend I meet\nSays: \"There goes Muldoon, he's a solid man\"<\/em>\n\nAt any party or any raffle\nI always go as an invited guest\nAs conspicuous as General Granite,boys\nI wear a rosebud upon my breast\nI'm called upon to address the meeting\nWithout regard to clique or clan\nI show the constitution with elocution\nBekase you know I'm a solid man\n\nGo with me and I'll treat you decent\nI'll set you down and I'll fill the can\nAs I walk the street each friend I meet\nSays: \"There goes Muldoon, he's a solid man\"<\/em>\n\nI control the Tombs, I control the Island\nMy constituents, they all go there\nTo enjoy the summer's recreation\nAnd the refreshing East River air\nI'm known in Harlem, I'm known in Jarsey\nI'm welcomed hearty on every hand\nWid my regalay on Patrick's Day\nI march away like a solid man\n\nFor oppositions or politicians\nTake my word I don't give a damn\nAs I walk the street each friend I meet\nSays: \"There goes Muldoon, he's a\n solid man\" <\/em><\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A song by Ned Harrigan(1845-1911) \u2013 an extremely successful Irish-American actor, playwright and lyricist. The music was credited to his regular collaborator David Braham. Muldoon, The Solid Man <\/em>is described by Don Meade as a comic ditty about a boastful New York politician<\/em>. It was first performed by Harrigan and others as part of a sketch called Who Owns The Line<\/em> 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 <\/em>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). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Aug. 25, 1876,  <\/strong>Liverpool Mercury <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Don Meade gives an excellent account of how this song, through “a process of collective editing and elaboration”<\/em>  (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<\/em> 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)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Jeannie Robertson sings Lay Ye Doon<\/em><\/strong>\n(Transcription at Mainly Norfolk<\/a>)\n\nFor I will lay you doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,\nI will lay ye doun, love, I'll fill your can;\nI will lay ye doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,\nFor Bolerl he is a solid man.\n\nFor as I strollt out on a summer's evening,\nDown by the waters of the pleasant Bann;\nAnd as I was walking sure I could hear them talking,\nAnd saying, \u201cBolerl, he's a solid man.\u201d\n\nI will lay you doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,\nI will lay ye doun, love, I'll fill your can;\nI will lay ye doun, love, I'll treat you dacent,\nFor Bolerl hm,e is a solid man.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
WJ Ashcroft: sometimes Billy, or even Willie John Ashcroft (1840-1918)<\/strong> 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<\/em> 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). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A number of his songs are still in the repertoire of Irish, Scottish and British traditional performers. My initial provisional list is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n