Dude! Joe's Jottings, Mostly Junk

The signature tune of the BBC World Service Radio happens to be the old dance tune, "Lillibulero" (known to many The Left Feeters and English country dancers the world over). The tune itself, oddly enough, began as a 17th century anti-Catholic propaganda jingle in Northern Ireland, and the original lyrics (unrelated to "my thing is my own") are sometimes still sung in the darker pubs of Belfast these days.

The smash-hit arrangement was done by Henry Purcell, composer for the Royal Courts of Charles II, James II, and William III (of Orange), and also organist for Westminster Abbey. This became the version of the dance-tune that continues to be danced and performed to this day.

The Words of the anti-Cathlic political lyric were written by Thomas Wharton, as a satirical slant on the Irish-Gaelic rallying cry. (The opposite result of Yankee Doodle, which started life as a satirical song of the British against colonists, but later was used as a song of pride by the American army).

He later actually used the tune and lyric in England to help get rid of said James II (still Catholic in their Scottish-French heritage, as his father and grandfather were), who was under threat both in England by the proper church, and in Scotland as well by the rising Calvinstic Presbyters. Wharton later became the commissioner for the Union of England and Scotland (1706), and finally Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

The lyric, My Thing is My Own, came about by Thomas D'Urfey, who published a series of baudy song books as "Pills to Purge Melancholy" in 1719 (though the most common reprint is from the late 19th century, and like with the Playford series, has many songs likely not in the original publication). Many of the songs there had well known tunes given new baudy lyrics.

Though the popular opinion is that is the original source, I've yet to see a full listing of the titles of the original 1719 to confirm. One difficulty is that today, most songs are known by a key line in the chorus, but back then, like with the poetry of the time and most church hymns, songs were more often referred to by their first line than with any popular title.

For those interested, Burke in Twin Tracks takes the lyric and the music of the song in different directions, and eventually recombines the two in the invention of Nylon stockings (where the need for stockings was caused by rising skirt hems, and the silk that used to go to stockings was being used to make WW2 parachutes instead).

Its an interesting fact, to me anyways, that the radio service, originally conceived to support broadcasting to the entire British Empire of the early-mid 20th century, should use a tune that was used to help subjugate the first conquest of that empire, Ireland, and continues to be used as a reminder of the extent of the influence of that empire to this day...