Lyrics

Johnny Jump Up

Come and listen, I’ll tell you what happened to me
One day as I went down to Cork by the sea
The day it was hot and the sun it was warm,
So says I a quiet pint wouldn’t do me no harm

I went in and I called for a bottle of stout
Says the barman, I’m sorry, all the beer is sold out
Try whiskey or Paddy, ten years in the wood
Says I, I’ll try cider, I’ve heard it was good.

Chorus:
Oh never, Oh never, Oh never again
If I live to be a hundred or a hundred and ten
I fell to the ground and I couldn’t get up
After drinking a quart of the Johnny Jump Up

After downing the third I went out to the yard
Where I bumped into Brody, the big civic guard
Come here to me boy, don’t you know I’m the law?
Well, I up with me fist and I shattered his jaw

He fell to the ground with his knees doubled up
But it wasn’t I hit him, ’twas Johnny Jump Up
The next thing I remember down in Cork by the sea
Was a cripple on crutches and says he to me

I’m afraid of me life I’ll be hit by a car
Won’t you help me across to the Celtic Knot Bar?
After drinking a quart of that cider so sweet
He threw down his crutches and danced on his feet (Chorus)

A man died in the mines by the name of McNabb
They washed him and laid him outside on the slab
Well after the parlors measurements did take
His wife brought him home to a bloody fine wake

T’was about 12 o’clock and the beer was high
The corpse sits up and says with a sigh
I can’t get to heaven, they won’t let me up
Till I bring them a quart of the Johnny Jump Up (Chorus)

So if ever you go down to Cork by the sea
Stay out of the ale house and take it from me
If you want to stay sane don’t you dare take a sup
Of that devil drink cider called Johnny Jump Up

Chorus… (x2)

Song Notes

This song anachronistically appears often at renaissance faires.  It is a relatively contemporary Irish tune written to promote business at a pub in or around Cork.