For the time being, I grouped this song with "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago" - not because the songs are related, but just because there's a "tall tale" element in both. I'd like to find a tune for "Adam and Eve." If somebody can do a MIDI, please e-mail it to me for posting.
-Joe Offer-
joe@mudcat.org

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for the song - no tunes shown in the songbook entries:

Good Old Days of Adam and Eve, The

DESCRIPTION: "I sing, I sing of days grown older... Sing high, sing ho, I grieve, I grieve For the good old days of Adam and Eve." In the good old days, the town was smaller, the people bolder, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, p. 431, "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (1 text)
Roud #7836
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Meditations of an Old Bachelor (The Good Old-Fashioned Girl)" (theme)
cf. "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)" (theme)
cf. "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?" (theme)
cf. "You Must Live Holy" (theme)
cf. "In Old Pod-Auger Times" (theme)
Notes: Since this song is mostly whining about the new ways of doing things, it's not too surprising that the handful of known versions (Belden's, plus several known to and assembled by Sandy and Caroline Paton) have few lyrics in common. There is no question, though, that they're the same song. - RBW
File: Beld431

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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The recording by Sandy and Caroline Pation is now available on CD, Folk-Legacy CD-30, Sandy & Caroline Paton: Folksongs and Ballads - www.folklegacy.com