“Mary Anne McGuinan”
Description
Mary Anne McGuigan: if your "pritties" are good you must spray them again with bluestone. John James leads the dance with her and buys her a blouse of silk. Who will help her fix her house and thresh her oats? She is "swiggin'" her porter.
Notes
Each verse is independent of the others and of the chorus. Bluestone is sprayed as a potato fungicide. - BS
"Bluestone" in this case is not lapis lazuli, which is sometimes called by that name, but rather copper (II) sulfate, or chalcanthite, a copper mineral (CuSO4.5H2O), also known as blue vitriol. According to John Emsley, _Nature's Building Blocks_, p. 124, "Copper in the form of Bordeaux mixture(a blue gelatinous suspension of copper sulfate and lime in water) was one of the first agrochemical pesticides, developed to control downy mildew on vines." For another song involving bluestone, see "Sergeant Neill." - RBW
References
- Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 68, "Mary Anne McGuinan" (1 text)
- Roud #17843
- BI, TSF068