A Song from The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg

[Gene C]

Here's the Elvis version -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNfCAzY1U4I

this one has a little more of a old country and western version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IJmDlHL-...re=related

[LincolnMan]

Thanks Gene for providing those links!

[Gene C]

Your welcome Bill

Hey everybody, it's time to sing long with Bill and Gene

Hmmmmmmmm...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQc_WPUCE-o

[L Verge]

Where's Mitch Miller and that bouncing ball??? Am I the only one to remember that show - or, how about Name That Tune?

[JMadonna]

(10-18-2012 06:20 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Where's Mitch Miller and that bouncing ball??? Am I the only one to remember that show - or, how about Name That Tune?

No Laurie, I too am pre-Mtv.

[Gene C]

I couldn't find any Mitch Miller WITH the bouncing ball, but I did find this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYVvuhaeg6Q

[LincolnMan]

I sure remember him and the bouncing ball too, Laurie. Seems so corny now!

[LincolnMan]

Another one from Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag is Hey Betty Martin. The book gives some background on it:

In the early 1800's, in the tank towns of the corn belt, few women bobbed their hair. Often when a woman who had taken this liberty walked along Main Street on a night when there was to be a band concert on the public square, she was an object of special scrutiny. Young men would sing at her:

Chippy, get your hair cut, hair cut, hair cut,
Chippy, get your hair cut, hair cut short.

The tune went back to a ditty sung in the 1800's during the War between the States, as follows:

Johnny, git your gun and your sword and your pistol,
Johnny, git your gun and come with me.




The tune is at least as old as the War of 1812, when drummer boys beat it on their drums and sang words about "Hey Betty Martin Tiptoe." We have that drummer's melody and words from A.T. Vance, a Long Island, New York, fisherman who was raised in Kansas and whose great-grandfather was a drummer in the War of 1812. The tune is traditionary in the Vance family and is executed with variations by Comfort Vance, son of A.T. The tempo, Wathall indicates, is allegretto scherzando, which in 1812 meant "Make it snappy," or "Let's go."

HEY BETTY MARTIN


Hey Betty Martin, tip-toe, tip-toe,
Hey Betty Martin, tip-toe fine.

[Gene C]

Here's Mitch Miller's version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFddz7pBBdY

[RJNorton]

Love it.

[LincolnMan]

It's great to hear what the song sounded like. This is a lot of fun!

[LincolnMan]

Well, I think we need another tune from The American Songbag to lighten our day. This number is called: Hoosen Johnny.

The books says this about the song (in part):

Lawyers sat around the wood stoves of the taverns and hotels of the Eighth Circuit in Illinois and sang this on many a winter night. Lincoln heard it often. It was a favorite of his singing friend with the banjo, Ward Hill Lamon...

Hoosen Johnny

De little black bull kem down the medder,
Hoosen Johnny, Hoosen Johnny.
De little black bull kem down the medder,
Long time ago.

Chorus:

Long time ago, long time ago,
De little black bull kem down de medder,
Long time ago.


There are six additional stanzas given in the book. Sounds like a fun tune!

[Gene C]

Couldn't find a very good sample of the music that I liked, but these may give you an idea of the tune

http://www.musickit.com/resources/littleblackbull.html
http://www.amazon.com/Hoosen-Johnny/dp/B004XQTUVW

[LincolnMan]

Catchy little tune! Sounded familar to me.

[LincolnMan]

In our next edition of tunes from The American Songbag, Carl Sandburg provides us with the song The Brown Girl or Fair Eleanor.

Here are some partial introductory comments on the song as found in the book:

Nancy Hanks in her old Kentucky home, sang ballads the western pioneers brought throygh the Cumberland Gap from the uplands and mountains farther east. The story of the Brown Girl stabbing Fair Eleanor, then having her head cut off by Lord Thomas, who killed herself and was buried with the two women, sounds almost like a grand opera plot...Little Abe Lincoln, as a child, probably heard The Brown Girl, according to persons familiar with Kentucky backgrounds...

The Brown Girl or Fair Eleanor


"The Brown Girl she has houses and lands,
Fair Eleanor she has none;
The best advice I can give you, my son,
Is to bring the Brown Girl Home."

There are 14 additional stanzas in the book.