The Orange and The Green

... featuring The Irish Rovers

Chords and Lyrics

Song Tips

Lyrics

More Information

The Orange & The Green was written by Anthony Murphy from Liverpool. It is an Irish folk song about a man who had a Protestant father (orange), and a Catholic mother (green). The song follows the life of this man from birth to adulthood, and how mixed up he was due to the religious differences of his parents.

The song has been recorded by a variety of Irish artists including, The Wolfe Tones, Brobdingnagian Bards, The Kreellers, The Irish Ceili Band, The Shamrock Singers, Carlyle Fraser, Hair of the Dog, Grehan Sisters, The Clancey's, to name a few.

This version of the song is performed by The Irish Rovers. It is an entertaining song as it tends to highlight the Catholic/Protestant situation in a light-hearted manner. It really gets the toes tapping and adrenalin pumping... a great song performed by a great band.

The Orange and The Green - Chords and Lyrics

The Orange And The Green - The Irish Rovers

Free Downloads: The Orange And The Green - chords & lyrics The Orange and The Green - original lyrics

Song Tips

Degree of Difficulty: Fairy Easy. There is possibly 1 barre chord of Bm depending on how you play it. I have included the Bm barre chord as the strumming down stroke pattern allows you to hit all strings without hitting a wrong note.
If you do want to play the Bm in an open position - instead of a barre on the second fret with your first finger, place it on the first string on the second fret, and you need to avoid strings 5 and 6, otherwise it will sound pretty ordinary as the notes E & A are note part of a Bm chord.
Key Signature: D major - 2 sharps (F# C#)
Time Signature: 4/4 time - 4 crotchet/quarter-note beats per bar. You can count each bar as | 1 2 3 4 | or | 1& 2& 3& 4& | etc.
Tempo: The tempo of the song falls into the allegro category of fast, quickly and bright, so you will set your metronome to approximately 122 bpm.
| A - A7| means you play the A chord for 2 counts and the A7 chord for 2 counts. The hyphen between the 2 chords splits the beat count evenly between the 2 chords in the bar.
When you see a simile mark in a bar, it means you repeat the previous bar, therefore | D | | A | |, means 2 bars of D followed by 2 bars of A.
Further help with reading song charts on this site.
The Orange and the Green is a lot of fun to play. Notice the guitarist uses mostly down beats for each beat count, due to the pace of the song. The 1st and 3rd beats are bass notes, while the 2nd and 4th beats are strums. It would look something like this, | Bass - Strum - Bass - Strum |. Every now and then he adds some strumming 'feels' to break it up a bit.

Lyrics

The Orange and The Green

Chorus:
Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green.

Oh my father was an Ulster man, proud Protestant was he.
My mother was a Catholic girl, from county Cork was she.
They were married in two churches, lived happily enough,
Until the day that I was born and things got rather tough.

Chorus:

Baptized by Father Riley, I was rushed away by car,
To be made a little Orange-man, me father's shining star.
I was christened "David Anthony," but still, in spite of that,
To my father, I was William, while my mother called me Pat.

Chorus:

With Mother every Sunday, to Mass I'd proudly stroll.
Then after that, the Orange lodge would try to save my soul.
For both sides tried to claim me, but I was smart because
I'd play the flute or play the harp, depending where I was.

Chorus:

One day me Ma's relations came round to visit me.
Just as my father's kinfolk were all sittin' down to tea.
We tried to smooth things over, but they all began to fight.
And me, being strictly neutral, I bashed everyone in sight.

Chorus:

Now my parents never could agree about my type of school.
My learnin' was all done at home, that's why I'm such a fool.
They've both passed on, God rest 'em, but left me caught between
That awful colour problem of the Orange and the Green.

Oh, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green.

Yes, it is the biggest mix-up that you have ever seen.
Me father, he was Orange and me mother, she was Green.

The Band

The Irish Rovers

The Irish Rovers (more information)... Official Website...

Band Origin: Toronto, Canada - all band members originated from Northern Ireland.

Music Styles: Irish, Folk, Folk Rock

Present Members: George Millar, Ian Millar, Wilcil McDowell, Fred Graham, John Reynolds, and Sean O'Driscoll.

Past Members: Jimmy Ferguson, Joe Millar, Will Millar, Wallace Hood, and Paul Lawton.

Active Years: 1963 - present

A little bit about the late, great Jimmy Ferguson

Jimmy Ferguson

Jimmy Ferguson was born James Francis Ferguson on February 26th, 1940. He was the founding member of the band, The Irish Rovers. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and emigrated to Canada as a young man. It was there that he met George Millar in 1963, at an Irish function in Toronto. They formed a folk duo, and a year later, they were joined by Millar's cousin, Joe Millar. It was after they had toured Ontario, that Millar's brother Will, joined the band in Calgary... The Irish Rovers were formed.

Jimmy Ferguson, was the only member of the band that didn't play an instrument. He suffered a heart attack while the band was touring New Zealand in 1992. Heart problems continued to plague him for the rest of his life. He died at the early age of 57 while touring Worcester, Massachusetts in 1997.

He was a great singer, and as you can see from the video, had loads of personality. He always 'sparkled' when he performed, and what a performer he was. He will always be remembered as the late, great Jimmy Ferguson.