> Folk Music > Songs > What Would You Do?

What Would You Do? / Kitty Lie Over

[ Roud 3051 ; Ballad Index OCC191 ; trad.]

Elizabeth Cronin (1879-1956) of Ballymakeera, Co. Cork, sang What Would You Do? on 7 August 1957 (BBC recording 12614) and in 1951 to Alan Lomax. The latter recording was included in 1955 on his Columbia anthology World Library of Folk & Primitive Music: Ireland. She also sang it in 1954 to Peter Kennedy; this recording was included in 1995 on the Saydisc anthology Traditional Songs of Ireland.

Iontach sang and played the jig Kitty Lie Over on their 2007 album Jiggin’ It. They noted:

There are several recordings of this song, for example: The Clancy Brothers’ and Tommy Makem’s Isn’t It Grand Boys (1966), Planxty’s Cold Blow and the Rainy Night (1974) or Séamus Ennis’ Forty Years of Irish Piping (1977). It is also known as What Would You Do If You Married a Soldier and appears as The Frost Is All Over in Francis O’Neill’s tune collection The Dance Music of Ireland (#313), published in 1907. How nice to think that exactly one century later it is still alive and kicking and being recorded time and again! Our arrangement of this piece is different in the sense that we didn’t use any backing instruments, just voices, whistles and percussive hands and feet. This one’s for Peadar.

The Petrels—Jackie Oates accompanied by Belinda O’Hooley—sang What Would You Do? in 2011 on Fresh Handmade Sound: Validation.

Compare to this Mary Delaney’s What Will We Do?.

Lyrics

Elizabeth Cronin sings What Would You Do?

What would you do if you married a soldier?
What would I do but to follow his gun.
And what would you do if he died in the ocean?
What would I do but to marry again.

And what would you do if the kettle boiled over?
What would I do but to full it again.
And what would you do if the cows ate the clover?
What would I do but to seed it again.

Iontach sing Kitty Lie Over

What would you do if you married a soldier?
What would I do but to follow his gun.
And what would you do if he drowned in the ocean?
What would I do but to marry again.

The praties are dug and the frost is all over,
Kitty lie over close to the wall.
How would you like to be wed to a soldier?
Kitty lie over close to the wall.

What would you do if you married a soldier?
What would I do but to follow his gun.
And what would you do if he drowned in the ocean?
What would I do but to marry again.

What would you do if the kettle boiled over?
What would I do only fill it again.
What would you do if the cow ate the clover?
What would I do only set it again.

The praties all boil and the herring’s a roasting,
Kitty lie over close to the wall.
You to be drunk and me to be sober,
Kitty lie over close to the wall.