Comments on: Beat the Band

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:27:34 +0000

Saw it in the Great Gatsby. After Myrtle found out that Wilson had borrowed a suit for their wedding she claimed to have “lay down and cried to beat the band all afternoon”.

By: Haymoon

Haymoon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:24:51 +0000

I have heard an addition to the phrase “to beat Banagher” – in Ireland – “Well that beat Banagher, and Banagher beat the devil”
Incidentally the town of Banagher which is supposedly the origin of the phrase is in County Offaly in the Irish midlands. There is another Banagher in County Derry in the north of the country

By: David Evans

David Evans — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 18:13:08 +0000

I found a 1854 use of the phrase “to beat the band” in The Yale Literary Magazine
http://books.google.com/books?id=b1ZOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22to+beat+the+band%22&dq=%22to+beat+the+band%22&hl=en&ei=DTMWTdf6K4us8Abm_JnsBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA