Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler

Subject: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Kevin
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 10:49 AM

I'm looking for the lyrics to a song I believe the Clancy Brothers sang that began "I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home..."

Ithought it would be in the data base but I couldn't find it.

Thanks,

Kevin

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 11:13 AM

"Moonshiner" in teh DT is a version of it - though not as sung by Clancys, Margaret Barry etc.

Regards

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Jon W.
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 11:14 AM

This was posted in the Moonshine songs thread a few months ago.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MOONSHINER^^
From: Alice
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 12:30 PM

Kevin, It's called "The Moonshiner". I tried a few searches @Irish @drink, plus searching keywords, and didn't find it. Dick and Susan, are we doing something wrong? Is it there? Here it is as in the Clancy Bros. songbook:

THE MOONSHINER

1. I've been a moonshiner for many a year,
I've spent all my money on whiskey and beer,
I'll go to some hollow and I'll set up my still,
And I'll make you a gallon for a ten shilling bill.

chorus
I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home,
And if you don't like me, well leave me alone,
I'll eat when I'm hungry and I'll drink when I'm dry,
And if moonshine don't kill me, I'll live til I die.

2. I'll go to some hollow in this country,
Ten gallons of wash, I can go on a spree,
No woman to follow, the world is all mine,
And I love none so well as I love the moonshine.

chorus

3. O Moonshine, Dear Moonshine, O how I love thee,
You killed me old father, but dare you try me.
O bless all moonshiners and bless all moonshine,
Its breath smells as sweet as the dew on the vine.

(adapted by Tom Clancy, TIPARM Music Publishers, INC)

alice in mt.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Martin
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 02:51 PM

Alice

I dunno! Searching on "moonshiner" brings it up for me. Green fingers?

Regards

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Kevin
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 03:21 PM

Thanks a lot for the help! I didn't know the name of the song and I was searching on RAMBLER, GAMBLER, and other words and phrases from the chorus and had no luck.

Thanks again,

Kevin

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Alice
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 03:24 PM

No, I tried moonshiner, [the moonshiner], @Irish @drink, whiskey* @Irish, and others, and never got The Moonshiner. Could this be for the same reason I could never talk in the chatroom? (ha) I also can't hear the sound when I log on here, even when my cache is emptied. Well, I did get other songs when I tried the whiskey wildcard.... and have found lots of songs with other searches, but once in awhile....nada.

alice

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Barry Finn
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 09:03 PM

I'm a rambler Lord I'm a gambler
I'm a long way from my home
And the people who don't like
They can leave me alone

For it's dark & it's raining
And the moon gives off no light
My pony can't hardly travel
On this dark road at night

Repeat 1st verse

I had me a pretty little sweetheart
Her age it was 19
She's the flower of Denton
Lord the rose of Saline

But her parents were against me
And now she is the same
If I'm on your books Lord
Won't you blot out my name

repeat 1st verse

I don't remember where this came from, hope it's still close after all these yrs. Barry

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Dale Rose
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 10:42 PM

Pretty close, Barry, just a few variations from that of Ian and Sylvia on their self titled first album in 1963, available on Vanguard CD 2113. Ian states that he learned Rambler Gambler from the singing of Peggy Seeger.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Barry Finn
Date: 19 Feb 98 - 10:57 PM

Thanks Dale, I guess going back that far & not remembering the source is ok, although inexcusable. Now if you could only tell me where I got this song I'd, again be really be greatfull, what was it, had it just a moment ago. Barry, I think.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Art Thieme
Date: 22 Feb 98 - 10:38 PM

Barry,

I hear Alan Lomax singin' it in my mind's ear! Art

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Barry Finn
Date: 23 Feb 98 - 12:43 AM

Well I'll be, first it was Dale, now bumped by Art. When I saw this last post something hit me (embarrassment) & I pulled out "Texas Folk Songs Sung by Allan Lomax" on the Tradition lable 1958 & there it was, as the "The Wild Rippling Water". Your minds eye's got a good ear. Thanks both for setting me strait. Barry

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Jon W.
Date: 23 Feb 98 - 11:04 AM

I was on a Winter Camp with the scouts this past Friday night and the following came into my mind without so much as asking leave:

I've been a Scoutmaster for many a year
I spend all me money on new camping gear
I go to some campground and I set up me tent
But when I go camping I can't pay the rent

Chorus: I'm a rambler, I'm a rover, I'm a long way from home
, My wife and my children, why I scarce even know 'em
, I put up with antics that make me ask why
, But if Scouting don't kill me I'll live 'til I die

I go to some campground in this coun-ter-ree,
Ten Scouts and their gear all stashed in my Chev-vee,
They run 'round like crazy, 'til I pull out my hair,
Oh, if only that one could be et by a bear!

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Whippoorwill
Date: 23 Feb 98 - 11:38 AM

I learned a very different form of the song many years ago under the name "Rye Whiskey."

I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home;
And if you don't like me, just leave me alone.
I'll eat when I 'm hungry , I'll drink when I'm dry,
And if the whiskey don't kill me, I'll live till I die.

If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck,
I'd dive to the bottom and never come up.
But the ocean ain't whiskey and I ain't no duck,
So I'll play Jack of Diamonds and trust to my luck.

Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, before me I see,
You killed my granddaddy, now durn you, try me.
Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry,
If I don't get rye whiskey, I surely will die.

An alternate last line goes: If a limb don't fall on me, I'll live till I die.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Earl
Date: 23 Feb 98 - 12:21 PM

I also learned it as "Rye Whiskey" with a couple more verses:

For work I'm too lazy, investment's too slow
Train robbin's too risky, it's gamblin' I'll go
Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry,
If I don't get rye whiskey, I surely will die.

It's beefsteak when I'm hungry, Rye Whiskey when I'm dry
Greenbacks when I'm hard up and religion when I die
Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry,
If I don't get rye whiskey, I surely will die.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Feb 98 - 01:34 PM

Also: I'm an old rebel soldier---that's just what I am,

For your great constitution I don't give a damn,

I fought in the army with Robert E. Lee,

Aint no goddamn yankee can reconstruct me!

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Murray
Date: 05 Apr 98 - 01:53 AM

One confusing thing is that the Clancys & co. will call it an Irish song, and it isn't, but American of course. [They do this sort of thing all the time, **** them!]--but there is maybe a reason, i.e. that it was recorded, in the same version. many years ago by Delia Murphy, Irish singer [and composer, it seems, of "The Spinning Wheel"]. But she got it from an American singer; so there.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Paul Stamler
Date: 05 Apr 98 - 02:07 PM

Two other recordings of this widely-traveled song: Gordon Bok's (I believe it's on "A Tune for November", his first Folk-Legacy LP, but it might be on the one he recorded for Verve-Folkways), which is excellent and mellow, and Bob Dylan's (as "Moonshiner", on "The Bootleg Tapes", Columbia), which IMHO is the best performance he ever did. The power of this song, as sung and slightly folk-processed by Dylan, is astonishing -- the sense of weary hopelessness he conveys is heartbreaking, and doubly amazing when you consider he was only about 23 when he recorded it! That it took three decades to see the light of day is a disgrace; listening to those tapes, it's clear that, at least for the first couple of years, Columbia wasn't releasing the best stuff.

Peace. Paul

Subject: I'm rambling gambling man
From: GUEST,Cisco Houston
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 03:31 PM

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 03:51 PM

Gordon Bok modified the Lomax song with some sea coast words of his own. I recorded the Texas song (taken from the Lomax collection) back in 1965 on a record I made for Folk-Legacy that is now available only as a "custom cassette." Peggy Seeger first introduced me to the song; I'm pretty sure she recorded it somewhere. Harry Tuft also recorded it.

I always assumed it was based on an older Irish song, but have no evidence of that. It's related to the Wagoner's Lad (sometimes written as "waggoner's") - "My horses ain't hungry, they won't eat your hay... etc." which Cecil Sharp considered English enough to include in his English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Didn't John A. Lomax claim he got the song from a stove-up old cowboy who had been reduced to working at some menial job in Austin, Texas? That's a story that rattles around in the back of my mind, anyway.

Sandy

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Davey
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 03:56 PM

I have this song on one of the first Joan Baez albums from the 60's, and it's also in her songbook.. I'll take a look when I get home from "this place" and see if I can find out more.

Davey... (:>)

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: kendall
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 04:00 PM

..or..its beefsteak when I'm hungry
Whiskey when I'm dry
Tail when I'm horney and hell when I die..

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Stewie
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 08:46 PM

Sandy, I recall reading somewhere that 'My horses ain't hungry' was the title by which some of the oldtimers referred to 'The Wagoner's Lad'. It also turns up in some versions of another cowboy song - 'Goodbye Old Paint'. The image must have struck a strong chord.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Amos
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 09:07 PM

What a mishmash! First I ever heard the Unreconstructed Rebel stuck into that tune! And Wagoner's Lad tossed in for good measure. Sounds like a folkie slurpee to me!

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 07:11 PM

A lot of the old lyric songs are verbal slurpees (or, perhaps drawn from a Chinese Restaurant menu: One verse from Column A, one from Column B, etc.). A lot of the old fiddle and banjo tunes used "zipper verses" to create what were, essentially, new songs. "My horses ain't hungry" would qualify as being "one from Column A."

Sandy

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 08:54 PM

Peggy Seeger sang this quite often at the Singers' Club in London (King's Cross) circa 1968-72, and I just assumed it was American (once I'd established that it was not a Ewan McColl song, which had been my first assumption!). When I heard a Clancys' recording, I took it for granted that they'd got it from Seeger, it was so similar. But maybe it was the other way round, and the recording came first. Can anyone date the recording?

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 10:26 PM

That wouldn't seem necessary to me, since John A. Lomax published it in his Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, which was first printed in 1910. My "revised edition" was published in 1938. He offers no credit to an informant in this book, however. Still, it's considered a cowboy variant of "The Wagoner's Lad," and I'll offer the text as it was first published:

I'm a rambler and a gambler, and a long ways from home,
If the people don't like me, they can sure leave me alone.

Oh! it's dark and a-rainin', and the moon gives no light;
My pony won't travel a dark road at night.

Go put up your pony and give him some hay,
Come take your seat by me so long as you stay.

My pony is hungry nor he won't eat your hay;
I'll go to Wyomin', I'll graze on the way.

When you get to Wyomin' a letter you'll see,
If you get into trouble, just write and tell me.

I use' to have a sweetheart, her age was fourteen,
She was the flower of Belton, and the rose of Saline;

Her parents were against me, and now she is the same,
If I'm on your book, love, please blot out my name.

The song has Anglo-Irish roots, to be sure, but this publication gives the melody as Peggy Seeger sang it, and is clearly her primary source, although I remember several other verses, such as:

There's changes in the ocean, there's changes in the sea,

There's changes in my true love. There ain't no change in me.

And Harry Tuft, out in Denver, added:

When I got to Wyoming, no letter I found.
The first snow was a-fallin', Lord, it covered the ground.

Is the big question "did the Clancys learn it from Peggy?" I have no answer. But I'd bet against it.

Sandy

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: kendall
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:28 PM

those lines also appeared in On Top of old smokey, or. at least the version I learned back in the late 40's

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 01:28 PM

The line from Rye Whiskey about "If the river was whiskey and I was a duck, I'd dive to the bottom and I'd never come up" is also in a song by (in my collection) Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, going on thus:

Oh tell me how long have I got to wait?
Can I get you now - must I hesitate?
If the river was whiskey and the bank was wine
You could see me on the bottom just any old time,
O tell me how long...

And I don't recall the rest.

Also the one about Whiskey when I'm Dry, the version I know (perhaps also Charlie Poole?) goes on "Greenbacks when I'm hard up, cold pickle when I die." I always like the visual on the pickle...

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: GUEST,MGWerks
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 06:44 AM

THe line "I'm a rambler and a gambler" also starts out another popular song from the 60's, recorded by the New Christy minstrels, entitled Rovin' Gambler.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Catrin
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 06:56 AM

In the big rock candy mountains......

There's a lake of stew, and whiskey too
And you can paddle all around them in a big canoe......

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Giac
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 08:37 AM

Didn't Tennessee Ernie Ford do Rovin' Gambler before the Minty Crystals? His is the version of that song I hear, but it's not part of the Rye Whiskey family, is it? tunes are different anyhow.

Is Unconstructed Rebel akin to Good Old Rebel? Those words are slightly different from the version I have, and Robert E. isn't mentioned until way down in the song. The tune is quite different from Rye Whiskey.

I am a good old Rebel,
Now that's just what I am.
For your fair land of freedom,
I do not give a damn.
I'm glad I fit aginst it,
I only wisht we'd won.
I don't want no pardon
For anything I done.

Very bitter and mournful song that gets moreso as it goes along. I first heard it from an elderly woman whose brother fought and was wounded in The War. She said it was always sung at Decoration (putting flowers on Confederate graves) and when The Boys (Confederate veterans) marched.

Sorry about continuing the thread creep.

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Aug 00 - 11:07 AM

Sorry, folks. I got so fixated on the "Rambler/Gambler" song that began this thread, I assumed that the Clancys had also recorded it. Now that I've had a moment to reflect, the song I remember hearing Liam sing some thirty years ago, which had the "I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler" line in it, isn't the same song at all, although it shares a couplet or two with the song in question. Liam was singing a version of a song most of us know as "Moonshiner," a song found on both sides of the pond and widely recorded, which deals with making illegal hooch. My comments above were all focused on the Rambler/Gambler version of "The Wagoner's Lad" which Lomax found transformed into a cowboy song. The key to look for in "Wagoner's Lad" versions is the "My horses ain't hungry" element. I hope this clears up some of the confusion.

Sandy

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: GUEST,akgshark
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 12:07 AM

I know this thread is very old, but there was ALSO a version of this song sung by Tex Ritter, with slightly different lyrics as well. My Dad used to sing it to me when I was a kid, and I sing it to my daughter (I'm a bad Mommy, I sing my daughter to sleep with a song about gambling and whiskey)

Subject: RE: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 12:19 AM

heloo akgshark-

PLEASE - post the lyrics you sing to your daughter - within this thread.

Thank you - they would be nice to read.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Slag
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 04:50 PM

I had an LP in the 60's by a fella and his group, Tex Johnson and the Six-Shooters. We're talking platinum here. Any how their version, in no particular order and by no means complete, included:

Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds
I know you of old.
You've robbed my poor pockets of silver and gold.

I 'm an old rebel soldier and Dixie's home
But gamblin' and rambling has caused me to roam.

Well I'll build me a castle on yon mountain high
So my true love can see me when she comes ridin' by

Her mother don't like me, sez my money isn't my own
She sez I drink whisky and I ain't got a home.

I'll eat when I'm hungry and I'll drink dry
But if I don't get rye whisky I'll lay down and die.

If'n the ocean were whisky and I were a duck
I'd dive to the bottom and never come

Now the ocean ain't whisky and I ain't a duck
I'll play Jack o' Diamonds and trust to my luck.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 05:32 PM

After all this time I recall where I got this. Allan Lomax got this from Alec Moore, " was a crippled up, retired cowboy who sold ice-cream for his living on the streets of Austin Texas". I got this from a recording 'Texas Folksongs sung by Alan Lomax' on Tradition Records (TLP)#1029 1958. Looking at the jacket now, what a great collection of songs on it. From that recording I also learnt "Long Summer Days", "Ain't No More Cane On This Brazos", "Wild Rippling Waters", "Sam Bass" & "Eadie". Playing the large, funny looking, 2 sided CD type of thing on an old playing machine that's got some sort of arm with a needle on it's end & it's supported over a circlular disk where this CD kind of thing sits on.

I've still never found more words than what I posted above. If there's more I love to hear them but it could be complete as it stands?

Thanks to all of you who've posted to this over the past 8 years.

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 05:33 PM

Forgot to mention that I sure miss Dale Rose & her posts.
Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 06:21 PM

Didn't think to look at the notes to that record, Barry, when I was trying to remember where I'd heard that Lomax got it from a "stove up" old cowboy selling ice cream (Good Humor truck?) in Austin. You've found my source for the memory! Y'know, I think that's a dandy recording, too. Beats the hell out of Alan's "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" effort to join the big hootenanny fad with back-up doo-wah chorus.
    Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Jul 06 - 07:33 PM

Yup, Sandy, it's a great recording all the way around.

I like the 2 Wyoming/letter verses that you printed out above, I'll have to commit them, to add to what I already have.

Thanks
Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 02:20 PM

I remembered one more verse:

    Ah whisky, you villan, you've been my down fall.
    You've cursed me and cuffed me but I love ya for all.

I think that one came in just before the "ocean" verse. Glad I could contribute.

Also, I had an aunt who died in her late 80's about 10 years ago who remembered "Jack of Diamonds" as a child! Her father, my grandfather, was born in Indian Terr. Oklahoma ca. 1880 Pike Co. Chief Red Cloud was on the reservation by then and was their neighbor.

She had some old alternate verses to Red River Valley but those are lost forever as well as some different verses to Sweet Betsy from Pike. I do remember some of my Grandmother's stories about growing up in those times. A lot of it had to do with hunger and hard times and cotton.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Scoville
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 02:38 PM

I always think of Ian Tyson's version when I see that title.


"Wagoner's Lad" is also called "Hard is the Fortune", although probably less commonly.



I think "Red River Valley" was originally written/published as "Bright Mohawk Valley" or something to that effect. I know y'all hate Wikipedia but too bad (this is not the only reference I've seen, of course).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Slag
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 03:04 PM

Sorry, I came in as "GUEST" up there when I flushed my cookie while dumping a suspected spy. Yes, the popular "Red River Valley" is more recent but the song's roots go way back and the tune as I remember it was very different too. Least wise, that's how it was told to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 04:22 PM

Hey, Barry! What do you mean Dale Rose and HER posts?

I'm around every now and then, just don't find much to post.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: Barry Finn
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 04:34 PM

Hi Dale, didn't know you were about & glad that you are. I hadn't seen your name in so long & the top of this post reminded me of how much you used to contribute & how much I enjoyed those posts that I thought I make mention of it. I'll be looking out for guest Dale from now on.

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler
From: GUEST,Slappis2ramble
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 09:26 AM

Jeeez!
I just wanted a reminder of the lyrics to the old song we sang, when busking around Europe in the late 60's and I've spent almost an hour reading all the history and different versions....
Thanks, I really enjoyed it!