trad
19th century; tune is “Napoleon Crossing the Alps”. Popularized by Luke Kelly of the Dubliners in 1960s. Possibly references 1798 rebellion. Minor tweaks by Alex Ellis to remove gendered words.
Luke Kelly: The Hot Asphalt – Clones Fleadh Festival 1964 Luke Kelly (The Dubliners) with Andy Irvine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgsi4rlMu7c
Good evening all my jolly friends. I’m glad to find you well, If you’ll gather all round me now the story I will tell, For I’ve got a situation and begorra and begob, I can say that I’ve a weekly wage of nineteen bob. ‘Tis twelve months come October since I left my native home, After working in Killarney, boys, to bring the harvest home, But now I wear a Gansey and around my waist a belt, I’m the gaffer of the squad that makes the hot ash-felt. Chorus: We laid it in the hollows and we laid it in the flat. And if it doesn’t last forever, well, I’ll surely eat my hat. But now I wear a Gansey and around my waist a belt, I’m the gaffer of the squad that makes the hot ash-felt. The other night a policeman comes and he says to me “McGuire, Would you kindly let me light me pipe down at your boiler fire?” Well, he planks himself right down in front with coattails up so neat, Well, says I “Me decent man, you’d better go and mind your beat.” He ups and yells “I’m down on you! I’m up to all your pranks! I know you for a traitor from the Tipperary ranks!” I hit right from the shoulder, and I gave him such a belt, That he fell into the boiler full of hot asphalt. We quickly pulled him out again and put him in the tub, And with soap and boiler water we began to rub and scrub. But never the devil the tar came off it turned as hard as stone, And with every other rub sure you could hear the copper groan. Twixt the rubbing and the scrubbing sure he caught his death of cold, And for scientific purposes his body it was sold. In the Kelvingrove Museum, now, he’s hanging in his pelt, As a monument to the Irish making hot asphalt