Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#153 (Billy Brocker's)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording BB 2 (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reel | 16 | AB | D Major |
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Billy Brocker's / Billy Brocker / Ríl Billy Brocker / The Old Billy Brocker's / Billy Bunker / [The Budgie on the Griddle] (1st in set The Laurel Tree on BB 2; this set in turn was mislabeled on some reissues as Michael Gorman's; setting in book Raff has a different 2nd part)
Discography
Here are all recordings of this tune considering only the indexed recordings. I have discovered by careful listening that these sources are in fact musically the same tune, regardless of the tune titles they use, key changes, retuning, etc.
Click 
to hear the first 10 seconds.
to hear the first 10 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (instruments). |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 12#1 | [BB 2] The Bothy Band. Old Hag You Have Killed Me. Paddy Keenan (pipes, whistle), Matt Molloy (flute, whistle), Kevin Burke (fiddle), Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill (vocals, clavinet, harmonium), Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (vocals, guitar), Donal Lunny (vocals, bouzouki, guitar, bodhrán). For this tune: Kevin Burke (fiddle). |
| ~1991 | 4#2 | [TKn] Tommy Keane. The Piper's Apron. Tommy Keane (pipes, whistle). For this tune: (pipes). |
| ~1993 | 3#3 | [MB 2] Mary Bergin. Feadóga Stáin 2. Mary Bergin (whistle). |
| ~1993 | 10#2 | [Shskn 6] Shaskeen. My Love Is in America. Tom Cussen (banjo), Benny O'Connor (drums, bodhrán), Sean Conway (flute, whistle, guitar, vocals), Charlie Harris (accordion), Kevin Rohan (fiddle, vocals). For this tune: Sean (high F whistle). |
| 2000 | 14#1 | [MnMcG] Manus McGuire. Saffron and Blue. Manus McGuire (fiddle). |
| ~2001 | 11#1 | [JW 2] John Williams. Steam. John Williams (accordion, concertina, whistle, flute, bodhrán). For this tune: (Bb whistle). |
| ~2001 | 1.17#3 | [WFO 1] Wooden Flute Obsession. Jimmy Noonan (Eb flute). |
| 2007 | 14#2 | [CMcEv 3] Catherine McEvoy. The Home Ruler. Traditional Irish Flute Music. Catherine McEvoy (flute). |
Bibliography
Here are all transcriptions of this tune considering only the indexed books, listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are very similar to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.
| As tune #32 in volume 4 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols. |
| As tune #46 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. |
If you are considering using the above transcriptions to help you learn this tune, I invite you to check these practical Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music. See also: So why do you bother indexing books and abc?
Year of the oldest source for this tune, considering the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1974