Craic
Stick to the Cratur’
(Also known as “Making Babies by Steam” & “Humours of Whiskey”)
Played to Larry O’Gaff’s (Jig)
(sheet music credit: thesession.org)
Let your quacks and newspapers be cuttin’ their capers
And curing the vapors that scratch at the gout
With their powders and potions, their pills and their lotions
Upholding their notions, they’re mighty put out.
Would you know thee true physic of all things prophetic
And pitch to the divil, cramp, colic and spleen
You’ll find that I think if you take a big drink
With your mouth to the brink of a glass of poteen
Then stick to the cratur’ the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh what moderation gives hope to a nation
Can give consolation like whiskey me boys.
Come guess me this riddle, what beats pipes and fiddle
What’s hotter than mustard and milder than cream
What best wets your whistle, what’s clearer than crystal
What’s sweeter than honey and stronger than steam
What’ll make the dumb talk, what’ll make the lame walk
What’s the elixir of life and philospher’s stone
And what helped Mr. Brunel to dig the Thames Tunnel
Sure wasn’t it whiskey from ould Inishowen
Then stick to the cratur’ the best thing in nature
For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys
Oh lord, it’s no wonder, if lightning and thunder
Weren’t made from the plunder of whiskey me boys.”
