Annotation:Last Night's Fun (4)
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LAST NIGHT'S FUN [4] (Súgradh na h-Oíche Aréir). AKA - "Joe Cooley's No. 1." Irish, Reel. D Mixolydian (Breathnach): D Major (Harker/Rafferty, Miller, Taylor). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Breathnach, Harker/Rafferty): AA'B (Sullivan): AA'BB' (Miller). The tune was popularized by the great Irish accordion player Joe Cooley (1924-1973), who spent a good portion of his adult life in America. It is still associated with him. Last Night's Fun is also the name of a book by Belfast flute player and writer Ciaran Carson in which he praises Cooley's 1975 Gael-Linn release (produced by Tony MacMahon) and sketches one of Cooley's last performances at Lahiff's bar in the village of Peterswell, 1973, just before he died of lung cancer. A closely related reel is the popular "Boys of Ballysadare (2) (The)" (AKA "Dublin Lasses (1)").
Sources for notated versions: Joe Cooley (Ireland) [Breathnach]; Jimmy Power [Sullivan]; set dance music recorded live at Na Píobairí Uilleann, mid-1980's [Taylor]; accordion and flute player Joe Burke [Bulmer & Sharpley]; New Jersey flute player Mike Rafferty, born in Ballinakill, Co. Galway, in 1926 [Harker].
Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ III), 1985; No. 193, p. 86. Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), 1976, vol. 3, No. 27. Harker (300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty), 2005; No. 42, p. 13. Miller (Fiddler's Throne), 2004; No. 191, p. 121. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 169. Sullivan (Session Tunes), vol. 3; No. 58, p. 24. Taylor (Crossroads Dance), 1992; No. 20, p. 16. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Yellow Book), 1995; p. 20. Treoir, vol. 39, No. 4, 2007; p. 30.
Recorded sources: Gael-Linn Records CEF 044, Joe Cooley - "Cooley" (1975). Larraga Records MOR 1302, Mike & Mary Rafferty - "Speed 78" (2004). Shaskeen - "My Love is in America." Noel Hill - "The Irish Concertina" (1988). Paddy Glackin & Paddy Keenan - "Doublin'" (1978).
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index []
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources []
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info []
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