The Rare Old Mountain Dew

"The Real Old Mountain Dew" is an Irish folk song dating from 1882.

History

It was written by Edward Harrigan with music by Dave Braham, from the Irish drama The Blackbird. It was printed in "Irish street Ballads", 1916. It was later recorded under the title The Rare Old Mountain Dew. It is about the intoxicating properties of Irish moonshine, or Poitín. The earliest recording is by John Griffin, 1927 on the Columbia label, New York, under its original title.

It is sung to the traditional air The Girl I Left Behind (also known as Brighton Camp).

The song is referenced in The Pogues song "Fairytale of New York":<blockquote>And then he sang a song<br />The Rare Auld Mountain Dew<br />I turned my face away<br />And dreamed about you.<br /></blockquote>

Recordings

• "The Joys and Curse of Drink of dean" (various artists) 1998
• Four to the Bar on their live album Craic on the Road.
• Sam Hinton on "the Wandering Folksong".
• Orthodox Celts on their album Green Roses.
• The Pogues with Ronnie Drew from The Dubliners, singing together with Shane McGowan.
• The Dubliners.
• The Clancy Brothers performed it on several albums, in some versions also together with The Dubliners.
• Carolina Chocolate Drops bluegrass version performed on album "Heritage".

Lyrics

Let grasses grow and waters flow

In a free and easy way

But...
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