Well, Aloha to Saint Paddy, he sure was a brute of a legendary figure, wasn’t he?

During the day the ukulele group played at the Grace United Church for their Irish Stew Supper fundraiser, I heard a couple of stories about St. Patrick. One was that he was enslaved by the Irish nation, and that upon his freedom having become a Christian missionary, he actually returned to the country of his abuse as a Bishop. Til his dying day, I hear.

Extra, extra, read all about it, here: Saint Patrick

In the meantime, we had a couple of places that we played out for St. Patrick’s Day and for one place we needed some extra songs so I sent this one out to the group. Canadian Irish Folk Group, The Irish Rovers, were formed in 1963 and named after the popular Irish song, The Irish Rover. They are best known for their international tv series, popularizing Irish music in North America, The Unicorn Song (written by Shel Silverstein) and Wasn’t That a Party. All of the band members are from Ireland, half of whom now live in Canada. The Irish Rovers have represented Canada at five World Expos.

In 1980 the group re-named themselves “The Rovers” and found success with the chart-topping song, Wasn’t That a Party. But by 1989 they had reverted back to their famous original name, The Irish Rovers. As a high-school student, nothing was cooler than this song, except for maybe I Wear My Sunglasses at Night…..

WASN’T THAT A PARTY

CHORUS:

[C] Could’ve been the whiskey, might’ve been the gin.

Could’ve been the three or four six-packs, I don’t know

But [C7] look at the mess I’m in: my head is like a [F] football,

I think I’m gonna [C] die! Tell me, [G] me oh, me oh my! [STOP]

Wasn’t that a [C] party?

.

[C] Someone took a grapefruit, wore it like a hat.

I saw someone under my kitchen table

[C7] Talking to my old tom cat – they were talking ‘bout [F] hockey –

The cat was talking [C] back!!!

Long about [G] then every-thing went black! [STOP]         

Wasn’t that a [C] party?

CHORUS

BRIDGE:           

[C] I’m sure it’s just my [F] memory

Playing tricks on [C] me

But I [D] think I saw my buddy

Cutting [G] down my neighbour’s tree! [STOP]

CHORUS

2^nd BRIDGE:

Billy Joe and [F] Tommy

Well they went a little [C] far

They were [D] sitting in the back yard, blowing on a sireen

From [G] somebody’s police car

So you see, Your [C] Honour, it was all in fun

That little bittie drag meet down on Main Street

Was just to [C7] see if the cops could run

So they run us in to [F] see you, in an alcoholic [C] haze

I sure can [G] use those thirty days [STOP]        To re-cover from the [C] party!

CHORUS

ENDING:  Wasn’t that a party? Wasn’t that a [C(4)] party?    F(4)   G7(4)   C(1)