Origin: Old Soldiers of the King

Subject: Background on Old Soldiers of the King
From: Jim Krause
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 04:41 PM

I guess it's a sign of the times when you begin to forget names of once prominent singers and performers. There is a folk singer of the late '50s to early '60s otherwise a contemporary of Ed McCurdy, Ewan MacColl, and others whose name I cannot for the life of me remember. The clue is that he copyrighted the melody to The Old Soldiers of the King. Furthermore, he claims to have composed the melody to that lyric, which is attributed to Ben Franklin. I believe the performer in question is an American, and still alive. He is well known, or at least was well known. He had a few hits during the folk scare, some of which are still sung.

He isn't Phil Ochs, nor Ramblin' Jack Elliot, nor Tom Paxton. Glen Yarbrough is out, too. He is younger than John Jacob Niles, (I think) and he isn't Richard Dyer Bennett, either. I don't recall that he was ever a member of a group such as the Limeliters, the Brothers Four, Kingston Trio, nor The New Christy Minstrels either.

I hate getting old and losing my memory. Who is this guy? This isn't a quiz, either.
Jimwhohatestoadmithesgettin'forgetful

Subject: RE: Help: Background on Old Soldiers of the King
From: Jim Krause
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 05:09 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Help: Background on Old Soldiers of the King
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 07:44 PM

Oscar Brand maybe? I get the impression he was alleged to have a tendency to claim to have written every song he ever sung. (He never made much impact this side of the Atlantic, I think.)

Subject: RE: Help: Background on Old Soldiers of the King
From: Jim Krause
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 09:58 PM

Subject: RE: Help: Background on Old Soldiers of the King
From: Jim Krause
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 10:00 PM

Oops. I goofed someshere in the above post. It was supposed to read:

YES!

Thank you, McG.
Jim

Subject: RE: Help: Background on Old Soldiers of the King
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 10:21 PM

From Folk Music Index:

The Old Soldiers of the King
1. Brand, Oscar. Laughing America, Tradition TLP 1014, LP (195?), cut#B.07
2. Frandsen, Erik. Songs of Rebels and Redcoats, National Geographic Soc. 07788, LP (1972), cut#B.09

"The Old Soldiers of the King" (words & music) [the DT version] is in Oscar Brand's Songs of '76: A Folksinger's History of the Revolution (Evans, 1972, p. 89), with this credit: "New music and edited text © 1957 by Oscar Brand."

Original 16-stanza lyrics are in Edward Arthur Dolph, Sound Off!: Soldier Songs (Cosmopolitan, 1929, p. 477).

~Masato

Subject: RE: Help: Background on Old Soldiers of the King
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 11:23 PM

An early 17th century song, "Old Soldiers of the Queen" (Elizabeth I), has been reworked several times. A sampling of texts and the original tune can be found in the Scarce Songs 2 file at Click