Origins: Song about a slide player named Ben

Subject: Origins: Song about a slide player named Ben
From: GUEST,Arlie
Date: 23 Nov 24 - 12:36 PM

Tried the search function but kept getting 500 Internal Server Error.

Looking for info on a song about a slide whistle playing character named Ben.
I remember it from a tape my dad made back in the 70s, most likely recorded from WHFS in the DC area.

Had guitar, maybe banjo and of course a slide whistle.

The lyrics I can remember are something like:

The slide whistle seems to be so awkward
Unless its played by someone like Ben
An old drunk I knew who used to play one
We'll never see the likes of him again

Chorus
The slide whistle screeches as it sounds out a tune
You pull and you push it with your thumb
Late in the evening, at the edge of town
Uncle Ben would play it as he drank his rum

Now old Ben lived all his life a bachelor
A bigger drunk than him there's never been
His slide whistle drove the whole town crazy
"                        "

Chorus

Now old Ben has gone to the next life
I heard he died, just the other day
I hope I never hear no more slide whistles
But as it seems I can hear him play

Chorus

I had it in my head that it might have been John Hartford but Google refuses to turn up anything. It was the sort of tune he might have done. If anyone remembers this tune and who wrote or played it I would be grateful.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Origins: Song about a slide player named Ben
From: cnd
Date: 25 Nov 24 - 11:00 AM

Best lead I've got so far is the song "Old Ben" by Scotty Reed, released 1974. Written by Scotty Reed & Joe "Red" Simpson. No recording online I've been able to find, though numerous copies are for sale on eBay

Subject: RE: Origins: Song about a slide player named Ben
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 09:01 PM

I got a children's slide whistle and did a thing that turned it into quite an amazing instrument.

Inside there's this slidy rubber (I guess) piston thing, with a wire that pokes out the end. It's almost impossible to gauge where to slide it to, to get a specific note when you want it.

I lengthened the wire by bending the loop at the end into a U instead of an O, glueing a piece of brass tubing on the end, and a new wire into that, with a new loop bent into the end of that. So the wire now turns and comes back along the barrel. Here, I'll try to draw a diagram:
                           __________
   ___________[__________
C________________O

Now there's a loop that travels along the side of the whistle's barrel. It's easy to snap some rubber bands around the barrel and position them as indexes for the fingers.

Then I went and put it somewhere in my house and I can't find it.

Subject: RE: Origins: Song about a slide player named Ben
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 30 Nov 24 - 09:33 AM

> Then I went and put it somewhere in my house and I
> can't find it.

My sympathies, but at least you're not in the position of the poor chap I heard of once who had a Do Not Let This Out Of Your Sight document, which for undisclosed reasons he had at home. So blood-curdling were the restrictions about the document that he took it with him when he took his dog for a walk on the local heath; then the dog ran off. By the time the dog was recaptured, the document was gawn.