Contemporary: Step It Out Mary
Step It Out Mary
words and tune by Sean McCarthy around
1955
First 2 verses and 2 choruses
MP3
Step It Out Mary is sung by Timber & Steam

The following notes come from Sean McCarthy's
songbook, pub 1976 and now out of print. (I found a copy at the Irish
Traditional Music Archives in Dublin.)
Step It Out Mary is based on a children's skipping-song:
Step it out Mary, my fine daughter / Step it out
Mary, if you can / Step it out Mary, my fine daughter / Cock your legs for
the
country man.
The children in the swaying circle took their
game very seriously. All along the Kanturk streets, farmers and shopkeepers
traded and argued, but the children paid no heed to them, they were too
intent
in their skipping game. The rules of the skipping game were fairly simple.
Each
skipper took it in turn to use the skipping rope, while the others changed
the
above ditty. When it came to the last line, the skipper stopped with the
left
leg cocked as high as he or she could manage and stayed still until the next
skipper took his or her place. If the skipper failed to keep their left leg
cocked or it if touched the ground, then with many jeers and catcalls they
were
banished from the game. It is only a slightly mad, or a childish Kerryman
who
would have watched the children atall. I watched them for a whole hour.
Kanturk in the County of Cork is a town of
numerous pubs, friendly people and plenty of craic. I started my search that
night, but could find no man or woman who had ever heard extra verses to the
childrens' skipping song. Indeed my own Kerry, home of strange songs and
poems,
failed to supply any more than the four lines. In desperation then, in a
London
building site, when again times were hard on folksingers, I composed the
story
of the soldier and Mary, and added it to the Kanturk childrens' skipping
ditty.
I did ti while I was hiding from the foreman
under a concrete stairway, and I used the inside of a cement bag for note
paper.
I took it home to my modest flat, stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it.
Eighteen months later, when fortune was again smiling in my direction, I
found
myself, along with two others, running a folk singing club in the Clapham
area
of London.
The folk club was called "The Crubeen"
and I suppose if you are a folk buff, you will remember that it started a
lot of
the present day trend. If you were a folk singer, then the Crubeen was the
place
to sing. Most of your present day singers, Irish, English and American,
dropped
in there to try out their material. A young Dublin ex-army rifleman named
Danny
Doyle wandered in there one night, I sung Step It Out Mary and later gave
him
the words, no longer written on the cement bag, but neatly typed on shop
paper.
The rest is folk History.
Lyrics:
In the village of Kilgory, there's a maiden young and fair
Her eyes they shine like diamonds, she has long and golden hair
But the countryman comes riding, rides up to her father's gates
Riding on a milk-white stallion, he comes at the strike of eight.
Chorus:
Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter
Step it out, mary, if you can
Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter
Show your legs to the countryman
I have come to court your daughter, Mary of the golden hair
I have gold and I have silver, I have goods beyond compare
I will buy her silks and satin and a gold ring for her hand
I will buy for her a mansion, she'll have servants to command
I don't want your gold and silver, I don't want your house and land
I am going with a soldier, I have promised him my hand
But the father spoke up sharply: You will do as you are told,
You'll get married on the Sunday and you'll wear that ring of gold
In the village of Kilgory there's a deep stream flowing by
On her marriage day at midnight she drowned with her soldier boy
In the cottage there is music, you can hear her father say:
Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter, Sunday is your wedding day.