Subject: DT Tune Correction: Buckskin Bag of Gold
From: Joe Offer
I got this email last week, correcting the melody for "Buckskin Bag of Gold":
- Joe, sorry to bother you if this is the wrong avenue, or if you don't read music. I'll give you the easy part first. Last verse, line 6, there's a typo: "nocely" instead of "nicely." Now the biggie. In the sheet music, fourth line, end of first measure, that should be an 8th rest, that E flat should start the next measure, and everything following should be a half beat later.
Stephen Barry Einbinder, former sheet music engraver
Here's what we have in the Digital Tradition. I can't get the MIDI to work possibly because the missing rest messed up the conversion process.
THE BUCKSKIN BAG OF GOLD
(Henry Clay Work)
Last night I met him on the train,
A man with lovely eyes;
And he gave me such a scorching glance
Of sweetly charm'd surprise.
I knew 'twas he the lady meant,
Who once my fortune told,
By his jet black eyes, his grand moustache
And his buckskin bag of gold
cho: Yes! Yes! he is the man
Who does your fortune hold,
He has jet black eyes, a grand moustache
And a buckskin bag of gold.
Tall! Slim! quick as a flash!
And twenty two years old,
He has jet black eyes, a grand moustache
And a buckskin bag of gold!
The dearest man you ever saw
How much I love him now,
And if I should live a thousand years
No other hears my vow.
Like Judas, no, like Jupiter
He looked so brave and bold,
With his jet black eyes, his grand moustache
And his buckskin bag of gold
Sweet boy, bring me The Morning Call
Perchance I'll find his name,
At the Grand Hotel he must have stopped
I wonder when he came.
He must have charmed those Lumpkin girls
So haughty, proud and cold;
By his jet black eyes, his grand moustache
And his buckskin bag of gold
How can I seek a name unknown?
Oh, tell me where he went!
What is this I read! Why Papa's bank
Is robbed of every cent!
The thief, it seems, left town last night
Well, well! I'm nocely sold
He had jet black eyes, his grand moustache
And a buckskin bag of gold
@flirting @outlaw
filename[ BUCKBAG
TUNE FILE: BUCKBAG
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
apr96
The song is also available at http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiBUCKBAG;ttBUCKBAG.html, which uses a different converter to change the Digital Tradition SongWright file into notation. The rest is still missing, but the bar line shows up in the right place:
Here is sheet music for the song at the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.100010069/
I'll make sure that this information gets to Dick Greenhaus and Susan Friedman, curators of the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database. The missing rest is in the last measure of the verse, just before the chorus.
