Annotation:Lango Lee (2)

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LANGOLEE [2]. AKA and see "Banks of the Dee (The)," "Larry O'Lee." Irish, English, Scottish; Jig. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDDEEFFGG. O'Farrell (c. 1808) lists the tune's provenance as Irish and gives several variation sets. It was a very popular tune around the time of the American War of Independence, and appears earliest in several instrumental tutors published by Charles and Samuel Thompson in London, The Compleat Tutor for the Fife (1770) and The Compleat Tutor for the Hautboy (1770), being two of them. Subsequently it appears in a number of period publications, including Longman & Broderip's Entire New and Compleat Instructions for the Fife (1780), Thomas Skillern's Compleat Instructions for the Fife (1780), Straight & Skillern's Two Hundred & Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (1775), James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (Glasgow, 1782), and Goulding's New and Complete Instructions for the Fife (London, 1790). It continued to be included in publications, particularly fife tutors and country dance collections, into the first couple of decades of the 19th century.

"Lango Lee (2)" also appears in a great many manuscript collections from period musicians, including those of fifer Aaron Thompson (New Jersey, 1777), fiddler George Malecot (Whitehaven, England, 1779), fifer Thomas Nixon (Danbury, Conn., 1776), fiddler John Fife (Perthshire and perhaps at sea, 1780), fluter Micah Hawkins (New York, 1794), fluter John Hoff (Lancaster, Pa., 1797), Thomas Molyneaux (Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1788), and others.

'Lango Lee' was supposed to have been an Irish phrase meaning an engorged penis, as this one old set of words (from Merry Muses, Dublin) to the tune suggests:

Ye botanists yield, I've discovered a root,
Adapted to females of every degree;
How soverign its virtues, balsamic its fruit,
I hope you'll believe it when you hear it from me.

Langolee is the Irish name of it,
Great in the nation already the fame of it;
Make but one trial and quickly you'll see,
There's nothing comparing with Langolee.

A song called "Volunteers of Ireland" was composed to this tune by the British in the Revolutionary War to commemorate Irishman in their ranks (Winstock). The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), published c. 1800.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 25, p. 9. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. III), c. 1808; pp. 60-61.

Recorded sources:

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