Letting Loose The Major

The Ballad Of Duggan And Nan
he Jig’s intoxicating; Hornpipes swell in a flood
But, when a rake of tunes: Reels ’round the room,
There’s something in the blood.
I face the music every day; she waits at the top of the road
To watch me climb up Ballabay downcast with my heavy load
The Postman bringing letters, her sole contact with the World
Since summoned home from boarding-school when Nan was just a girl.
Now Correspondence Courses and pen-pals near and far
Glossy magazine subscriptions; tidbits of movie star
Fill her long, grey evenings through her father’s fitful sleep
O’er Duggan’s living nightmare her lonely vigil keeps.
And early every morning she’s waiting by the gate
And yonder stands her father crippled by his hate
” He’ll not set foot on this property” he roars “While I draw breath
Them bastards should’ve killed me, I’d sooner that, yea, death
Than living out this hollow life and knowing shame and pity
And Nan what hurts, my Hell on Earth’s
That I’ve brought you down with me.”
The Jig’s intoxicating; Hornpipes swell in a flood
But, when a rake of tunes: Reels ’round the room
There’s something in the blood.

2.
Years ago in the snug with his cronies, Duggan riding for a fall
The men kept sending in whisky, softening him with alcohol
And I hadn’t wholly subscribed to the plot but my God was the almighty keg
And what harm so long as the porter flowed
What harm in taking him down just a peg
For he was renowned in county and town for being a rake among men
But no man dared face up to him while Duggan was safe in his den.
But he’d charm the birds from the branches
Great man for the song and the craic
A strap of a fella at dances, man-of-the-match at centre-half back.
He had married a girl from the city who was gone in a year and a day
And left him to raise their daughter Nan with her mother cold in the clay.
When Nan then won that scholarship for the poetry she’d wrote
And went away to boarding-school, then Duggan went to sow his oats.
A man-among-men and among women who succumbed to his sad tale
And opened their arms and their hearts to him and divil-a-one but he’d nail.
The first time there were sniggers, some poor young wan shamed and gone
But he trespassed into knickers where poor men don’t belong.

3.
“A girls life ruined for the last time mister” said a man in a Derby hat
“He’s ruined my family and my sister” said a man in a tweedy cap
The men scowled out from under hats and caps and wind-blown hair
They didn’t care tuppence, he’d get his come-uppance,
But Duggan was divil-may-care
So, I turned the session up a notch and heads leaned in to savour
The key shift from E-minor letting loose the major
And the music boiled in a cauldron that I stirred with eyes tight shut
My ear to the fiddle, my nose to the ground for something felt in the gut
Something that made me uneasy, something that hung in the air
So I slipped into a slip-jig with a bit of a twist and a flair
And the mood swings with my elbow, I’m conducting the whole of the room
Yeah, I had to power to dictate the hour Duggan would meet his doom.
The Jig’s intoxicating; Hornpipes swell in a flood
But, a rake of reels bows and kneels to something in the blood.

4.
I’m seldom seen at sessions now and only play a storm
For nubile girls at Feises who kick higher and perform.
The ‘Snowy-Breasted Pearl’ I’ll play all in the dead of night
In my lone room caress that tune and flickering candlelight.
And still I ride my bicycle, I’m Postman to this day
And daily deliver letters high up on Ballabay
Where Nan waits there at the top of the road
Grown old before her time
And shame’s my share of punishment, an accessory to the crime
For I brought this curse upon them on that accursed night
When I had orchestrated and my fiddle bow took flight
Like razor flashed!
Duggan thrashed
Then took it like a man
While the men took his manhood from him
And the dreams from his daughter Nan.
The Jig’s intoxicating; Hornpipes swell in a flood
But a rake of reels bows and kneels to something in the blood.
Something there that’s bubbling and hungry to be fed
One-two, one-two, one-two, one-two
Reeling in your head.

5.
“A girl’s life ruined for the last time mister”
Said that man in the Derby hat
But Life is a bit of a twister;
A bit of a tit-for-tat
For Nan, Duggan’s daughter,
High up on Ballabay
One last girl’s life in ruins
And I must daily pay
Facing the music ….touché.
For that night I’d orchestrated but I couldn’t keep in tow
And I couldn’t stop the savages
For I couldn’t stop the bow
I’d turned the session up a notch
Though full-well knowing the danger:
The key shift from E-minor
Letting loose the major.

The Jig’s intoxicating
Hornpipes swell in a flood
But a rake of reels
Scrapes and kneels
To something in the blood
Something there that’s bubbling
Hungry to be fed
Want to,
Want to,
Want to,
Want to……
Reeling in my head.

By Jonathan Lynn