The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #48982   Message #3957915
Posted By: John C. Bunnell
22-Oct-18 - 05:59 PM
Thread Name: Ballad of Davy Crockett
Subject: RE: Ballad of Davy Crockett
The recent activity in this thread got me to poking around on YouTube, where I find two recordings of the 20-verse epic version posted by pdq back in 2007, one by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, the other by "Galloping Alligator". While there are some differences of diction between the two, they're clearly working from the same source text, which you'd think would be definitive.

And yet....

There's also a "custom Disney edit" of the ballad out there -- the uploader acknowledges that it's assembled from a number of different segments of the Disney film and television Crockett productions. And that one is different -- some verses from the longer iteration are omitted, some are rearranged considerably, and there are a number of verses wholly absent from the other two (many but not all evidently referring to specific plot elements of the screen stories).

If I can find some time this week, I'll see if I can manage a transcript.