The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53454   Message #3806300
Posted By: Joe Offer
23-Aug-16 - 03:49 AM
Thread Name: Origin: Additional verses to Good Old Mountain Dew
Subject: RE: Origin: Additional verses to Good Old Mountain Dew
Here is the Traditional Ballad Index entry for "Good Old Mountain Dew," first found by O'Lochlainn in 1916.

Good Old Mountain Dew

DESCRIPTION: "Beside a hill there is a still Where the smoke runs up to the sky." The smell reveals that "the liquor boys are nigh." The making of the dew is described, and it is said to have been praised by scholars. The singer calls for more dew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
BrownIII 41, "The Hidden Still" (1 fragment, probably this piece)
OLochlainn 64, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 23, pp. 53-54,112,166, "The Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 180-182, "Good Old Mountain Dew' (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 288-289, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, filed with "Old Mountain Dew")
Silber-FSWB, p. 229, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text)
DT, MTDEW2*

Roud #938
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on Abbott1)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on IRClancyMakem01)
John Griffin and Ed Geoghegan?, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on Voice13)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Are You There Moriarity" (tune, per OLochlainn)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Let the Grasses Grow
NOTES: OLochlainn: "I am told it was written by Phil O Neill of Kinsale." - BS
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 37, on the other hand, attributes it to Samuel Lover. But I should observe that few of his song notes seem to find support in reputable sources. And, of course, it's possible that Lover published a version without actually writing it.
Not to be confused with Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "Old Mountain Dew." - RBW
File: LxA180

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.


In the Digital Tradition, this is MTDEW2*:

REAL OLD MOUNTAIN DEW (from DT, version 2)

Beside a hill there is a still,
Where the smoke runs up to the sky;
You ean always tell by the whiff and the smell
That the liquor boys are nigh.

That the liquor boys are nigh,
That the liquor boys are nigh,
You ean always tell by the whiff and the smell,
That the liquor boys are nigh.

This mountain dew is made from grain,
And mixed with water pure,
And the alcohol that it eontains
Will all your troubles cure.

Will all your troubles cure,
Will all your troubles cure,
And the alcohol that it contains
Will all your troubles eure.

AII learned men who use the pen
Have writ its praises high;
It fills the air with perfume rare
Distilled with wheat and rye.

Distilled with wheat and rye,
Distilled with wheat and rye,
It fills the air with perfume rare
Distilled with wheat and rye.

Away with pills,'twill cure the ills
Of Pagan, Christian and Jew,
Off with your coat and wet your throat
With the real old mountain dew.

With the real old mountain dew,
With the real old mountain dew,
Off with your coat and wet your throat
With the real old mountain dew.

So before we roll won't you have another bowl
Of the good old mountain dew?
Of the good old mountain dew?
Of the good old mountain dew?

Of the good old mountain dew?
Of the good old mountain dew?
So before we roll won't you have another bowl
Of the good old mountain dew?
WE DO

From American Ballads and Folk Songs, Lomax
Recorded by Patrick Galvin, Clancys
@drink
filename[ MTDEW2
TUNE FILE: MTDEW2
CLICK TO PLAY
RG