three, I've never seen before." While this departs noticeably from the standard cycle, the twist is slightly more clever, and takes a jab at the English (a popular ploy in some Irish songs). As this sort of wraps up the story, it is usually sung as the last verse, be it the sixth or seventh. Probably the most common version of the seventh verse involves the man seeing a "thing" in her "thing", or in "the bed", where his "thing" should be. Again his wife is ready with an answer. It is a rolling pin. The narrator then remarks, "A rolling pin made out of skin, I never saw before." Another version reuses the tin whistle excuse, upon which the narrator remarks "...hair on a tin whistle sure I never saw before." Other versions claim the "thing" involved is a candle (in which case she does not recycle an excuse from an earlier night). The narrator this time remarks that he had never before seen a pair of balls on a candle. There are also vernacular versions of the song among Irish-Americans, with at least one version referred to as "Uncle Mike." In that version, the wife's reply to the drunkard (Uncle Mike) is:Oh you darn fool, you damn fool, you son-of-a-bitch said she,It only is a milk cow my mother sent to me.The drunkard's reply to his wife is more similar to the "official" version recorded by The Dubliners and other Irish folk singing groups:Well, there's many times I've travelled, a hundred miles or more,But a saddle on a cow, sure; I've never see before.Variations such as "Uncle Mike" are common in oral, local cultures. Note how in America the pig became a milk cow, and the distance travelled by the drunkard expands considerably. "Four Nights Drunk" and "Five Nights Drunk" are just two of the many versions of this song (Cray 1999). References Bibliography Cray, Ed (1999). The Erotic Muse: AMERICAN BAWDY SONGS (Music in American Life). University of Illinois Press. pp. 11–21, 330. Smyth, G (1994). "Ireland unplugged: the roots of Irish folk/trad. (Con)Fusion." Irish Studies Review'' 12 (1): 87–97. External links Seven Drunken Nights Sheet Music The Child Ballads Project Folk Music – An Index to Recorded Resources Covers at Digital Library of Appalachia Covers at WhoSampled The Dubliners version of "Seven Drunken Nights" Uncle Mike version Studio recording of an updated version of "Four Nights