Introducing Catchy Tune Tuesday!

[Cavalier]

I have been told, and I hope it's not true, that Garry Owen has been banned in some places. I certainly hope that's not the case.

John

 

[Pollaco]

I have been told, and I hope it's not true, that Garry Owen has been banned in some places. I certainly hope that's not the case.

John

I never could get a good explanation. I think it was banned voluntarily because the Lakota Sioux found if offensive.Something to do with Indian Burials. I am at a loss to explain it but I hope someone "in the know" will.

 

[Library Lady]

One of my favorite catchy tunes is Whiskey in the Jar.

You can imagine how pleased I was when I found there was a Civil War version.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Patty Cake Polka, anyone?

 

[Claude Bauer]

Someone mentioned that they liked to see posts here with people playing the tunes, so here's a catchy tune called "Finnigan's Wake" by the Monocacy Field Music.

A fun and popular folk song, it's also famous for providing the basis of James Joyce's final work, Finnegans Wake (1939), in which the comic resurrection of Tim Finnegan is employed as a symbol of the universal cycle of life. As whiskey, the "water of life", causes both Finnegan's death and resurrection in the ballad, so the word "wake" also represents both a passing (into death) and a rising (from sleep), not to mention the wake of the life ship traveling in between.

Video link

Lyrics:

Ah Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street
A gentleman Irish mighty odd
Well, he had a tongue both rich and sweet
An' to rise in the world he carried a hod
Ah but Tim had a sort of a tipplin' way
With the love of the liquor he was born
An' to send him on his way each day
He'd a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah will ya dance to yer partner
Around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim was rather full
His head felt heavy which made him shake
He fell off the ladder and he broke his skull
And they carried him home his corpse to wake
Well they rolled him up in a nice clean sheet
And they laid him out upon the bed
With a bottle of whiskey at his feet
And a barrel of porter at his head

Whack fol the dah will ya dance to yer partner
Around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Well his friends assembled at the wake
And Mrs Finnegan called for lunch
Well first they brought in tay and cake
Then pipes, tobacco and brandy punch
Then the widow Malone began to cry
"Such a lovely corpse, did you ever see,
Arrah, Tim avourneen, why did you die?"
"Will ye hould your gob?" said Molly McGee

Whack fol the dah will ya dance to yer partner
Around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Someone mentioned that they liked to see posts here with people playing the tunes, so here's a catchy tune called "Finnigan's Wake" by the Monocacy Field Music.

A fun and popular folk song, it's also famous for providing the basis of James Joyce's final work, Finnegans Wake (1939), in which the comic resurrection of Tim Finnegan is employed as a symbol of the universal cycle of life. As whiskey, the "water of life", causes both Finnegan's death and resurrection in the ballad, so the word "wake" also represents both a passing (into death) and a rising (from sleep), not to mention the wake of the life ship traveling in between.

Video link

Lyrics:

Ah Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street
A gentleman Irish mighty odd
Well, he had a tongue both rich and sweet
An' to rise in the world he carried a hod
Ah but Tim had a sort of a tipplin' way
With the love of the liquor he was born
An' to send him on his way each day
He'd a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah will ya dance to yer partner
Around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim was rather full
His head felt heavy which made him shake
He fell off the ladder and he broke his skull
And they carried him home his corpse to wake
Well they rolled him up in a nice clean sheet
And they laid him out upon the bed
With a bottle of whiskey at his feet
And a barrel of porter at his head

Whack fol the dah will ya dance to yer partner
Around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Well his friends assembled at the wake
And Mrs Finnegan called for lunch
Well first they brought in tay and cake
Then pipes, tobacco and brandy punch
Then the widow Malone began to cry
"Such a lovely corpse, did you ever see,
Arrah, Tim avourneen, why did you die?"
"Will ye hould your gob?" said Molly McGee

Whack fol the dah will ya dance to yer partner
Around the flure yer trotters shake
Wasn't it the truth I told you?
Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

No music on this one that I could find?

 

[nc native]

A song loved and sung North and South-

That is a great song! I see why soldiers on both sides loved listening to and singing it so much. My 2nd great grandfather Corp. A. David Honeycutt who fought for almost four years with the 24th N.C. Infantry named one of his daughters Lorena after the Civil War.
I'd bet he was thinking about this song and some of the better times with friends and fellow soldiers during the war when it came time to name her.

 

[reading48]

As an Old Salt, Tin Can Saylor I can recall a Few drunken Sailor Mornings ..

 

[Claude Bauer]

No music on this one that I could find?

What do you mean, specifically? Are you looking for the sheet music?

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

What do you mean, specifically? Are you looking for the sheet music?

When I first played the video it was just the musicians talking amongst themselves - no music was played, but now when I click the video they play the song. Whatever I was doing wrong seems to have corrected itself!

 

[Library Lady]

Today's catchy tune is a Negro spiritual performed by Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York on 03/18/1990. The concert was broadcast on PBS. The CD, Spirituals in Concert, is available through Deutsche Grammophon.

In That Great Getting Up Morning

Because I love this disc so much, here is Jessye Norman singing You Can Tell the World.

And one more just for fun: Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman singing Scandalize My Name.

 

[Claude Bauer]

For today, here's Ashokan Farewell for Brass Quintet Arr. Jari Villanueva. Everybody is familiar with this tune, and no it's not from the Civil War era. This is a wonderful new arrangement.

 

[JOHN42768]

For today, here's Ashokan Farewell for Brass Quintet Arr. Jari Villanueva. Everybody is familiar with this tune, and no it's not from the Civil War era. This is a wonderful new arrangement.

Might be just me, but like the string version a lot better

 

[Claude Bauer]

Might be just me, but like the string version a lot better

This version will probably sound better when played on period instruments.

 

[Library Lady]

For today, here's Ashokan Farewell for Brass Quintet Arr. Jari Villanueva. Everybody is familiar with this tune, and no it's not from the Civil War era. This is a wonderful new arrangement.

My first thought on hearing this is that it could be a pipe organ with the appropriate stops set for low and mid-brass with a trumpet soloist. If my Gran were still alive, she could figure out how to set the organ after a couple listens and could reproduce the tune by ear. Thank you for reminding me of her.

 

[Library Lady]

This catchy tune is for my friends over on the Railroads and Steam Engines Forum.

When I was a kid, I heard the story of John Henry and figured it was just a story. I also thought that John Henry was driving spikes to lay track (like the Golden Spike that finished the Transcon). It seems I was wrong on both counts. John Henry was a tarrier. He drove steel spikes to make holes to place explosives to blow a tunnel and, according to this book, he was a real person and contests between humans and steam-powered drills did occur on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (later known as Chessie Systems - with the cute cat logo - and CSX).

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson. This is going onto my "Needs Hold" list for sure.

Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend by Scott Reynolds Nelson

According to the ballad that made him famous, John Henry did battle with a steam-powered drill, beat the machine and died. Folkl...

www.publishersweekly.com

John Henry performed by Bruce Springsteen. This is available on the disc We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

 

[Pollaco]

Did they have Calliope music during the Civil War? I'm pretty sure that Calliopes were invented prior but how common were they?

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

This one is heartfelt

 

[Claude Bauer]

For this week's CTC, here's the toe tapper "Angelina Baker" played by the 9th Illinois String Band, part of a US Civil War reenactment group in Eastern Europe.

Published by Stephen Foster in 1850, this song relates the heartbreak of slaves who lost loved ones through death or sale. Interestingly, up to 1850, the lyrics of minstrel songs were one of the few places (other than Abolitionist literature) where sympathetic interpretations of the plight of slaves could be found.

 

[JOHN42768]

For this week's CTC, here's the toe tapper "Angelina Baker" played by the 9th Illinois String Band, part of a US Civil War reenactment group in Eastern Europe.

Published by Stephen Foster in 1850, this song relates the heartbreak of slaves who lost loved ones through death or sale. Interestingly, up to 1850, the lyrics of minstrel songs were one of the few places (other than Abolitionist literature) where sympathetic interpretations of the plight of slaves could be found.

Very enjoyable and a great looking camp