Subject: Rosin the Bow From: Date: 13 Dec 97 - 03:17 PM Can anybody tell me the source for Rosin the Bow? This is the version that goes: "...You'd better rosin up your bow, before it's time to go..." The attribution is needed for this to go into the sequel to Rise Up Singing, the new songbook being created by Sing Out, by Peter Blood, Annie Patterson, and their friends. I like the song and recommended it for the book, but I don't know where it came from. If you know, please send email to: conant@uic.edu because I don't often check in here. Thanks. Roger Conant |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Jon Date: 13 Dec 97 - 10:17 PM Funny, I know of a song named "Rosin the Beau" ("I've traveled this wide world over/and now to another I'll go..."). It is any funny strange relation? Jon |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Dec 97 - 01:24 AM Yeah, and I know the TUNE, but I didn't know the "Rosin the Beau" lyrics. What other songs use the "Rosin the Beau" tune? The other lyrics are on the tip of my tongue, but they won't come out. Given my musical background (or lack thereof), it's probably an Alan Sherman song, or something. -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Bruce O. Date: 14 Dec 97 - 01:31 PM I can't find my reference now, but recall that "Rosin the Beau" was published in the U. S. in 1838. There have been claims and counter claims as to whether the song was really an older Irish one. No one seems to have found an earlier Irish version. For discussion of the origins of the tune (earlier tunes are quite similar) see S. P. Bayard's 'Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife', #620, 1982.
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Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Bob Schwarer Date: 14 Dec 97 - 01:33 PM Check your Clancy Brothers(& Tommy Makem) records. I don't remember which one it's on Right off the top of my brain. Bob S. |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Alice Date: 14 Dec 97 - 04:58 PM If you search the database @drink @death, you will find the lyrics that were used by Clancy/Makem. There may be confusion with the title, since The Clancy Brother songbook (©64) uses Bow, not Beau. I could never understand how that French word "Beau" ever got inserted in the title, since it is about a dying fiddler, and it only makes sense to use "bow" with the word "rosin". Could this be an old example of a mondegreen? Alice in Montana |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: dulcimer Date: 14 Dec 97 - 07:21 PM I'm sure BruceO. can be more specific and accurate, but having played Rosin and other Irish tunes, I find it very similiar to Down in the Sally Gardens and Men of the West (referring to an uprising at the end of the 1800 century in Ireland.) The tune was used many times during the 1800 as a tune to political songs--ie, praising Lincoln in 1860. |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Bill Date: 15 Dec 97 - 02:08 AM Howdy All, Other songs that I know of (mostly thanks to Pete Seeger recordings, but I've also found them elsewhere) that use the Rosin the Beau tune for, "I've travelled this wide world all over" include: Lincoln and Liberty, Too; Old Settler's Song or Acres of Clams (from the Pacific Northwest); and Acres of Clams (from the Clamshell Alliance demonstrations about the Seabrook, New Hampshire Nuclear Plant written by Charlie King). There have been other sets of words to the tune from what I've heard. Both versions of Acres of Clams can be found in Rise Up Singing, and the Old Settler's Song is in DT.
Allinkausay, |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Wolfgang Hell Date: 15 Dec 97 - 07:37 AM Songs that use this tune? "The ancient and old Irish condome", "The catalpa", "He's the man for me", "Lincoln and liberty", "Down in a willow garden", "Rosin the beau" are songs from the DT-database in which this air is mentioned. Wolfgang |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Jon W. Date: 15 Dec 97 - 10:46 AM The Clancy/Makem version of "Rosin the Bow" is on their "Irish Drinking Songs" recording. Their version of "Men of the West" is on "Songs of the Irish Rebellions" (I believe that's the correct title but I'm probably wrong again). I like to think the Bow/Beau thing is not a mondegreen but a clever play on words. Well, not all that clever. |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Joe Offer Date: 15 Dec 97 - 04:26 PM Bill, the song I was thinking of was "I've Travelled This Wide World All Over." I can't find the lyrics in the database. Have you got 'em? -Joe- |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Bruce O. Date: 15 Dec 97 - 04:56 PM Joe, yours is in DT, at least in my downloaded Apr. 1997 version as "Rosin, the Beau". I haven't relocated my referrence to the 1838 copy yet. Sigmund Spaeth, 'Read 'em and Weep', p. 40, gives a version of "Rosin the Beau" commencing "I live for the good of the country", with the tune. He mentions 4 political songs from 1840 to 1875 to the tune, and gives 3 of them. |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Bruce O. Date: 15 Dec 97 - 05:12 PM According to 'The American Heritage Songbook', 1969, where words and music are given on p. 50, the song was published in 1838, but no details are given. |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Joe Offer Date: 15 Dec 97 - 05:35 PM I guess you're right, Bruce, but there's another song with that tune, and it still isn't coming. My brain has finally been able to spit out a corrupted fragment, but I couldn't find it in the database. I expect to live here 'til I'm 90.Oh, here it is. Bill mentioned it earlier. It's the anti-nuke version of "Acres of Clams," by Charlie King. Guess I'd better take it upon myself to post the lyrics, hey? -Joe Offer- |
Subject: Lyr Add: ROSIN THE BEAU (from Sigmund Spaeth)^^ From: rich r Date: 16 Dec 97 - 08:50 PM Following Bruce's comments above, Sigmund Spaeth insists that "Beau" is the authentic spelling and that Old Rosin was more of a playboy and boozer than a musician. He also firmly asserts that the lyrics that he published are the "correct version of the original." Sigmund was nothing if not humble. Here is his version, which has a lot in common with other versions. ROSIN THE BEAU I live for the good of my country, And my sons are all growing low, But I hope that my next generation Will resemble old Rosin, the beau. I've travelled this country all over, And now to the next I will go; For I know that good quarters await me, To welcome old Rosin the beau.
In the gay round of pleasure I've travelled.
When I'm dead and laid out on the counter,
Oh! When to my grave I am going,
Then shape me out two little donochs, rich r |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: dick greenhaus Date: 17 Dec 97 - 12:32 PM To return to the original query, I believe the song requested is the one with the chorus: And all the world plays like a tune That starts too late and ends too soon You'd better rosin up your bow Before it's time to go. Steve Sellors, I think. I don't know the rest. |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE GOOD IN LIVING (Sellors)^^ From: Joe Offer Date: 17 Dec 97 - 06:48 PM Oh, THAT song! THE GOOD IN LIVING (Steven Sellors) If the fiddle strings felt no bow-stroke, If the concertina bellows broke, If no one sang or cracked a joke Then where's the good in living? Chorus: And all of life plays like a tune, It sounds so sweet and ends too soon You'd better rosin up your bow Before it's time to go. If no one threw their feet about, If the Guinness boys stopped making stout You'd soon forget what life is all about And soon become quite thirsty. Chorus When all you own is hocked or pawned, When all your money's spent and gone You'll find out what you've been living on And never even knew! Chorus If the fiddle strings felt no bow-stroke, If the concertina bellows broke, If no one sang or cracked a joke Then where's the good in living?^^ (On "Faith's Favorites," a CD by Faith Petric, FaithPet@aol.com) Also recorded by Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen on "When Howie Met Sally." Anybody know of other recordings? Glad you brought us back on track, Dick. Anybody know how to get hold of Sellors? -Joe Offer- Click to play |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: dick greenhaus Date: 18 Dec 97 - 02:59 PM Or (less reverently) ..And all the night plays like a song |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Alice Date: 18 Dec 97 - 03:17 PM I love this forum. It never ceases to amaze me how much interesting music information we share with each other. Definitely enhances my day. Alice in Montana |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: Date: 17 Jan 98 - 01:25 PM Rosin the bow is correct as in putting resin on your fiddle bow to play. I have the lyrics if anyone is interested they can contact me at deni@atcon.com. |
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow From: dick greenhaus Date: 17 Jan 98 - 02:07 PM A couple of people have asked me how to find songs in the Digital Tradition that share a tune. There's a trick: ROSINBOW won't do it, because there's a sneaky unprintable character preceding all the tunefile names. *ROSINBOW, on the other hand, will. |
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