3:27
A Drop Of the Hard Stuff, 1967
Despite the jaunty fiddle and the bouncy tune, and the typical wry growl from the Ronnie Drew that makes you think everything is a joke, this is actually a murder ballad worthy of Nick Cave. A woman who lives "down by the river seile" (the latter word possibly meaning "dirty" and later corrupted to "Sawyer" in some versions) has a three-month-old baby and one day puts a long pen knife knife in the wee bairn's head. As with many death story-ballads of this type, no reason is given. Some people just have that darkness in them. She is hanged, after being arrested by, amusingly, "two policemen and a man."
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