I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day

Scottish–Irish folk song

"I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (Roud 975) is a traditional Scottish or Irish music hall song^[1] written from the point of view of a rich landowner telling the story of his day while buying drinks at a public house. According to Archie Fisher, the song is "an Irish narrative ballad that has been shortened to an Aberdeenshire drinking song".^[1]

It is also known under the titles Jock Stuart, Jock Stewart^[1] or Jock Steward.

Various versions of the song exist.^[1] A "boastful Irish ditty" of that title is recorded as early as the 1880s.^[2] It was also passed on from Frederick “Cauliflower” Crossman, who had worked with Cecil Sharp, to Crossman's granddaughter.^[1] Its most famous version is Jeannie Robertson's from 1960. A recent popular version was recorded in 1985 by the Pogues, with bass player Cait O'Riordan on vocals. In both Robertson's and O'Riordan's versions, the song's first-person narrator is presented by a woman, despite the song's masculine narrative.^[3]

Recordings

Jeannie Robertson on Scottish Ballads and Folk Songs (1960)^[1]
The McCalmans on Smuggler (1975)
Archie Fisher on The Man With a Rhyme as Jock Stewart (1976)^[1]
The Tannahill Weavers on The Tannahill Weavers (1979)
Dougie MacLean on CRM (1979), as Jock Stewart
Houghton Weavers on In The Rare Ould Times (1983)
The Pogues on Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985)^[3]
The Dubliners on 30 Years A-Greying (1992)
Danú on All Things Considered (2002)
Hadrian's Wall on Hadrian's Wall (2006), as Jock Stewart
Fontaines D.C. - Live recording for SiriusXM (2020)
The Banshees of Inisherin - Partially performed in pub scene of 2022 film.
The Murder Capital live performance at Other Voices (2023)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day / Jock Stewart". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
^ Simon J. Bronner (1987). Old-time Music Makers of New York State. Syracuse University Press. pp. 125–. ISBN 978-0-8156-0216-3.
^ ^a ^b Roesgen, Jeffrey T. (2008). The Pogues' Rum, Sodomy and the Lash. Bloomsbury. pp. 38–39. ISBN 9781441105707.