Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 153 (Billy Brocker)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel16ABD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Billy Brocker
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording BB 2 (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
Billy Brocker / Billy Brocker's / 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)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd 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. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.

Year
Recorded		 Track
#Tune		 [Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
197612#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).View album details
~19933#3[MB 2] Mary Bergin. Feadóga Stáin 2. Mary Bergin (whistle).View album details
~199310#2[Shskn] 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).View album details
~200111#1[JW 2] John Williams. Steam. John Williams (accordion, concertina, whistle, flute, bodhrán).View album details
~20011.17#3[WFO 1] various. Wooden Flute Obsession. View album details

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune under any title whatsoever – 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. [available]

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
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2008 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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