|
Old Soldier/Geezer And The Guiser /Red Haired Boy
Traditional Irish (originally), Scottish, English; Air or Hornpipe: American, Canadian; Reel or Breakdown. A Mixolydian. Standard. AABB (most versions): AA'BB' (Moylan). 'Red Haired Boy' is the English translation of the Gaelic title "Giolla Rua"
ARTIST: Ray Wood- Texas, 1939
Listen Ray Wood: http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/259/2594b1.mp3
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes;
DATE: Bunting's 1840: A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland;
RECORDING INFO: Austen, Seth. Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Finger Style Guitar, Kicking Mule KM 174, LP (1982), cut# 2. Bowers, Bryan. View from Home, Flying Fish FF-037, LP (1977), cut# 7. Bromberg, David; Band. Midnight on the Water, Columbia PC 33397, LP (1975), cut#A.02b .Brown, Sullivan & Company. Magnum Banjos, Sequatchie --, LP (197?), cut# 8 .Grossman, Stefan. Thunder on the Run, Kicking Mule KM 171, LP (1980), cut#A.04b (Redhaired Boy). Phipps, Bonnie. Autoharpin', Kicking Mule KM 228, LP (1982), cut# 5. Skylark. Favorites, Little Bird LB 1001, Cas (1990), cut#A.04; Stinnett, Cyril. Plain Old Time Fiddling, Stinnett SLP 1013, LP (197?), cut#B.06 (Gilroy) . Thomason, Ron. Mandolin and Other Stuff, Kanawha RT-3, LP (198?), cut#A.01a. Watson, Doc. Doc Watson's Favorites, Liberty LN-10201, LP (1983), cut#A.05a (Little Beggarman)
OTHER NAMES: "The Duck Chews Tobacco," "The First of May", "Gilderoy" (Ire.), "Giolla Rua" (Ire.), "Johnny Dhu," "The Little Beggarman" (Ire.), "The Little Beggar Boy," "An Maidrin Ruadh" (The Little Red Fox)," "The Old Soldier with a Wooden Leg" (W.Va.), "Old Soldier," "The Red Haired Lad," "The Red Headed/Haired Irishman" (Ky.), "Wooden Leg" (W.Va.).
SOURCES: J.P. Fraley (Rush, Ky.) [Phillips]; learned from fiddler Padraig O'Keeffe by accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan]; fiddler Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Begin]. Begin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 27, pg. 40. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 81. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 69, pg. 44. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 132. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 300, pg. 173. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 356, pg. 173 (appears as "The Redhaired Lad"). O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 209. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1748, pg. 325. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 921, pg. 157. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), 1994. pg. 196. Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 34. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 77. Columbia C 33397, Dave Bromberg Band - "Midnight on the Water" (1975). Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40126, Northern Spy - "Choose Your Partners!: Contra Dance & Square Dance Music of New Hampshire" (1999).
NOTES: "Geezer and the Guiser " tune is known in the US as the bluegrass fiddle tune, “Red Haired Boy.” Another US version of the “Red Haired Boy” tune is "Old Soldier with a Wooden Leg" from the Civil War period. Here’s some information about “Red Haired Boy:”
From A Fiddler’s Companion: The English translation of the Gaelic title "Giolla Rua" (or, Englished, "Gilderoy"), and is generally thought to commemorate a real-life rogue and bandit, however, Baring-Gould remarks that in Scotland the "Beggar" of the title is also identified with King James V. The song was quite common under the Gaelic and the alternate title "The Little Beggarman" (or "The Beggarman," "The Beggar") throughout the British Isles. For example, it appears in Baring-Gould's 1895 London publication Garland of Country Song and in The Forsaken Lover's Garland, and in the original Scots in The Scots Musical Museum.(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
A similarly titled song, "Beggar's Meal Poke's," was composed by James VI of Scotland (who in course became James the I of England), an ascription confused often with his ancestor James I, who was the reputed author of the verses of a song called "The Jolly Beggar." The tune is printed in Bunting's 1840 A Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland as "An Maidrin Ruadh" (The Little Red Fox). The melody is one of the relatively few common to fiddlers throughout Scotland and Ireland, and was transferred nearly intact to the American fiddle tradition (both North and South) where it has been a favorite of bluegrass fiddlers in recent times.
"Geezer and the Guiser " tune is obsure, the origin of these lyrics is unknown. A version was discussed in the Mudcat Forum: Moe Hirsch pulled this one out of his hat recently, and I am intrigued. First, because the tune resembles a minor-key adaptation of the Little Beggarman, and second, because the lyrics hint at a fuller dialog somewhere back there. The title is my addition. Clearly it's related to There was an old soldier, I had a little chicken, etc. etc. But "guiser"? I think the term has to do with English ritual personnel, no? Anyway, here it is; I'm frankly trolling it as bait to see if it stirs up anyone's memory, who might want to share. Moe thinks he heard Frank Warner sing it with banjo, in Moe's youth in NYC (that would be in the days of the Early to Middle Folk Scare, as Bruce Phillips put it: around WWII, more or less).” (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Here are the lyrics for Old Soldier: "There Was an Old Soldier" (circa 1861-1865)
Words/Music -- anonymous
1. O there was an old soldier and he had a wooden leg.
He had no tobacco but tobacco could be beg.
Another old soldier as sly as a fox,
He always had tobacco in his old tobacco box.
2. Said the one old soldier, "Won't you give me a chew?"
Said the other old soldier, "I'll be hanged if I do,
Save up your pennies and put away your rocks,
And you'll always have tobacco in your tobacco box."
3. Well, the one old soldier was feelin' very bad,
He says, "I'll get even, begad!"
He goes to a corner, takes a rifle from his pig,
And stabs the other soldier with a splinter in his leg.
4. There was an old hen and she had a wooden foot,
And she made her nest by a mulberry root,
And she laid more eggs than any hen on the farm;
And another wooden foot wouldn't do her any harm.
OLD SOLDIER- Ray Wood- Texas, 1939
Wooden-legged soldier (THE OLD SOLDIER) [Red-haired Boy]
Listen: http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/259/2594b1.mp3
There was an old soldier and he had a wooden leg,
He had no tobacco so tobacco he would beg.
Said the first old soldier to soldier number two,
My tobacco box is empty won't you give me a chew.
2. Said the second old soldier, "I'll be danged if I do,
If you've no tobacco buy, you've no tobacco chew.
So save up your pennies, your nickles and your rocks,
And you'll always have tobacco in your tobacco box."
|