maryzcox - Posted - 04/01/2007:  13:03:02

Sugar in the Gourd (old time radio station)
www.sugarinthegourd.com
is playing a whole list of different artists playing "Soldier's Joy" in old time styles right now. I don't know how many have already been played or how long the list goes--but it is pretty cool to listen to all these different versions.
Best wishes,
Mary Z. Cox

www.maryzcox.com

If you suspect you need a new banjo--you do. Trust your musical instincts. If a banjo calls to you to buy it, don't fight destiny. It was meant to be. :)

KE - Posted - 04/01/2007:  13:14:11

Thanks! I just tuned in. Looks like they've played a couple dozen already, including some BHO regulars.

KE - Posted - 04/01/2007:  13:37:24

Sure did like Hank Schwartz version that played!

And dang! Bill Monroe and Doc Watson from "Live Duet Recordings" just came up. My, oh my!! Mercy!!

J-Walk - Posted - 04/01/2007:  13:40:45

I just did a search on my music collection. I have 27 versions of that tune!

KE - Posted - 04/01/2007:  13:48:29

R.D. Lunceford -- outstanding! And followed by Dan Levenson!

INFP47 - Posted - 04/01/2007:  13:49:24

I really like the RD Lunceford version that just finished - wait a second now I"m really lovin' Dan Levenson's version. This is fantastic! Unfortunately, I just missed Doc and Bll Monroe . That must have been really hot.

KE - Posted - 04/01/2007:  14:01:13

Further reflections --

Don't care what anybody says. Tommy Jarrell has the definitive last word on this tune. Sorry. banjoistas.

When it comes to banjo versions, I like the contemporary players the best. It's heresy to say, I know. but we are at the zenith of banjo playing right now.

KE - Posted - 04/01/2007:  14:24:36

All right!! -- knew it had to be coming. Here's Mary's version -- superb. Love the tone -- and the interpretation is by far the most varied and creative. Great sound!!

Thanks Mary -- I would have regretted missing this.

Edited by - KE on 04/01/2007 14:25:25

KE - Posted - 04/01/2007:  14:38:43

Now we've hit a repeat: John Balch and Keith Arneson -- both stellar!!

Couchie - Posted - 04/01/2007:  14:53:24

Soldiers Joy... on my top ten for sure

Don.

O=='=#

maryzcox - Posted - 04/01/2007:  16:03:01

Hello,
Tommy Jarrell and Fred are playing it right now. Brad Leftwhich just finished. :)
Skillet Lickers and Uncle Dave just played too. Definitely a lot of fun to listen.
Best wishes,
Mary Z. Cox

www.maryzcox.com

If you suspect you need a new banjo--you do. Trust your musical instincts. If a banjo calls to you to buy it, don't fight destiny. It was meant to be. :)

Bill Rogers - Posted - 04/01/2007:  16:16:52

"There ain't no joy about being no soldier" -- Hank Bradley

Bill

bw - Posted - 04/01/2007:  16:42:14

Of course, I have to be sarcastic now! "'Soldier's Joy" is kinda like the OT world's "Stairway to Heaven." I think the tune deserves a rest....for at least a generation!!!........Ok, Lemme have it, folks!.....Brian in NC...(smiley face inserts and devilish grins inserts anyone?)

sugarinthegourd - Posted - 04/01/2007:  20:47:04

This was meant to be an April Fool's joke, but I'm getting lots of feedback that people really like it, which is great!

I'll have to make this a regular feature. Next time we'll do "Arkansas Traveler."

Cheers,

John

http://sugarinthegourd.com
http://www.myspace.com/sugarinthegourd

Edited by - sugarinthegourd on 04/01/2007 20:48:56

rendesvous1840 - Posted - 04/01/2007:  22:02:19

Several years ago I was learning Arkansas Traveler on Mt. dulcimer. Our young daughters knew it as Baby Bumblebee. My wife amused herself by making sure the girls knew 'Daddy's playing the bumble Bee song'. It backfired. After a month of the 3 of us repeating it several times every evening, the Mrs. could no longer stand to hear it. Iwas 'asked' to change songs(BUSTER!)

rendesvous1840

"As I see it, every newborn should be issued a banjo." .....Linus

wormpicker - Posted - 04/02/2007:  00:10:14

quote:

---

Originally posted by rendesvous1840

Several years ago I was learning Arkansas Traveler on Mt. dulcimer. Our young daughters knew it as Baby Bumblebee.

---

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 04/02/2007:  00:57:20

My tune title database shows 110 entires for "Soldier's Joy" - some are duplicates - I know I have the 1934 Skillet Lickers version on at least 3 albums - but that doesn't take in to account the "Love Somebody" recordings or at least one version named "French Four" on a L.O.C. album.
Everyone puts it down but I can name a awful lot of people who've essentially said to me "Everybody is tired of it, but me." The fact is that it is a lot of fun to play. In the years when I went to fiddle festivals there were always "hot" tunes one year that nobody wanted to play the following year, and of course there are always the people who act as if they would rather be caught molesting a child than playing "those old warhorses", but once you get going on the old tunes everyone who isn't more concerned with image than fun has a great time.
Instead of the "slow jam" I think it would be better for inexperienced players to have "oldies jams" - Soldier's Joy, Julie Ann Johnson, Leather Breeches, Cluck Old Hen, Rock The Cradle Joe, Boatsman, Cherokee Shuffle, Arkansas Traveler and all the other tunes the trendy guys think are too un-cool. After all, most of the new tres cool super hot numbers de jour are just bits and pieces of the warhorses assembled in different order.



The Whiskey Before Breakfast variations and a few tunes in "F" tuning are now available on the web at:
http://home.thegrid.net/~fjbrad/id20.html

pastorharry - Posted - 04/03/2007:  01:22:58

I was listening with my son in law as we ate dinner together (girls nite out), after awhile I just had to laugh and say "Enough already,John!!" But, right after dinner we pulled out the Martin and the Reiter and guess what we started playing?? It was great to hear the variations ,and get some new life in that old tune with all the different licks I learned over dinner.Thanks to John , and to all you folks that play that tune so well.
Side note; I heard somewhere that Soldier's joy was the nickname for the moraphine they administered in the civil war....any other urban (or rural) legends about the title out there? God bless y'all, PH

Isaiah 38:20 -played on banjo,guitar,dulcimer

janolov - Posted - 04/03/2007:  04:24:48

Soldier's Joy is an old fiddle tune. It has been traced back to London 1760. It has many other names: King's Head, King's Hornpipe, Shaking Hands, Payday In The Army and others. The oldest source indicates that it may have been a tribute to the King (the English King) during a war campaign. It is known also in Swedish folk music as "Engelska" ("English Dance") (I think before 1900), and it have been heard in several other European Countries.

The coupling to morphine is probably not original, but may have arised during the civil war. Some of the early sting bands recordings (Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers) have a very clear coupling: "15 cents for the morphine, 25 cents for the beer, 15 five cents for the morphine, gonna take me away from here". Therer are also other lyrics to the tune, so the morphine is only one interpretation of many other of the "Joy".

Here are some interesting links for those who want to learn more about this tune:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/afc/afccc/soldiersjoy/
http://www.voyagerrecords.com/LN358.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/SO_SOR.htm
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25627



Janolov

Jeremy Steele - Posted - 04/03/2007:  08:43:01

Actually, the "Baby Bumblebee" lyrics for Arkansas Traveller pre-date Barney by quite a while. They appeared originally in a Bugs Bunny cartoon featuring a doofy young buzzard, proud of bringing his first quarry home to his formidable mom.

Emiel - Posted - 04/03/2007:  08:55:43

There is a nice sung version by Guy Clark, called ‘Soldier's Joy, 1864’ with these lyrics:

First I thought a snake had got me it happened dreadful quick
T'was a bullet bit my leg, right off I got sick
I came to in a wagon load of ten more wounded men
Five was dead by the time we reached that bloody tent

Gimme some of that Soldier's Joy, you know what I mean
I don't want to hurt no more my leg is turnin' green

The doctor came and looked at me and this is what he said
Your dancin' days are done, son, it's a wonder you ain't dead
Then he went to work with a carvin' knife sweat fell from his brow
'Bout killed me tryin' to save my life when he cut that lead ball out

Give me some of that Soldier's Joy, ain't you got no more
Hand me down my walkin' cane I ain't cut out for war

Red blood run right through my veins run all over the floor
Run right down his apron strings like a river out the door
He handed me a bottle and said, son drink deep as you can
He turned away then he turned right back with a hacksaw in his hand

Gimme some of that Soldier's Joy you know what I like
Bear down on that fiddle boys just like Saturday night

Gimme some of that Soldier's Joy you know what I crave
I'll be hittin' that Soldier's Joy til I'm in my grave


Emiel


http://www.nowhereradio.com/emiel
http://www.bluerounders.com

jojo25 - Posted - 04/03/2007:  09:19:56

gruesome, Emiel, just gruesome...

also heard the chorus that at least some of my chums like to sing over the B part of Soldier's Joy

Jimmy get your fiddle out
rosin up your bow
Johnny tune the banjo up
we're gonna have a show
Charlie pass the jug around to corporal McCoy
we're gonna have a tune called soldier's joy

quite a mouthful, but it works
I think it was the version by the Holy Modal Rounders that had those lyrics in it
or at least something real close

supposedly derived from the era of the american revolutionary war

there are a bunch of verses to go with that
the only ones I still remember (got'em written down somewheres at home, lord knows where) are...

here comes general Washington
he's got his horse in a sweeping run
the bare foot boys are beggin for a fight
gonna cross the Deleware river tonight

John Paul Jones was a fighting man
John Paul Jones was a fighting man
John Paul Jones was a fighting man
He sailed the seas in an old tin can

nice John, real nice...and I appreciate that you are trying to inject your sense of humor into the stream

and thanks, Mary, for alerting us to this...otherwise I would have missed it





Banjonically yours

Joe

Edited by - jojo25 on 04/03/2007 09:21:52

brokenstrings - Posted - 04/04/2007:  00:46:22

While we're at it, what's the better-known title for "Pay Day in the Army"?

Jessy

Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!

janolov - Posted - 04/04/2007:  02:37:32

quote:

---

Originally posted by brokenstrings

While we're at it, what's the better-known title for "Pay Day in the Army"?

---

brokenstrings - Posted - 04/04/2007:  20:47:35

Janolov, I just looked back at your earlier post. Duh! I feel like a dimwit!

Jessy

Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!

jpearly - Posted - 04/05/2007:  15:23:06

A band called Pert Near Sandstone does a version called "Jungle Joy" using the lyrics from Guns N Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle." You can hear it at archive.org

rendesvous1840 - Posted - 04/05/2007:  23:51:47

My daughters were too old to be interested when Barney came to be. They may have gotten Baby Bumblebee from Bugs Bunny, or from school friends.
As to Soldiers Joy, I saw a reference somewhere that said it may have been written by an Irishman imprisoned in England.He played it on a fiddle, supposedly the King heard it, and released the Irishman, who then named the tune Soldiers Joy. Sounds pretty unlikely, but we may never know the stories behind the old songs. I don't think i've ever jammed with a fiddler who didn't play it.



"As I see it, every newborn should be issued a banjo." .....Linus