Origins: Old Rosin the Bow / Rosin the Beau

Subject: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From:
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 11:30 PM

I can't believe the database doesn't seem to have Old Rosin the Bow. Does anybody have the words? I think I can supply the tune.

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 11:51 PM

Do a search for [rosin the beau], using the box in the above right corner. As usual, spelling is everything! Wish search engines could work with "sounds like."

Sandy

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 11:52 PM

Type in "Rosin the Beau" and it comes up. Also, you might do a forum search. I seem to recall a whole thread on this.

I do not recognise the words in the DT as the ones I grew up with, but I may be wrong.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 11:53 PM

Ah, Sandy, just a key stroke ahead o'me!

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 11:54 PM

Nice to know we're both on-line tonight, Kat, m'luv! It's almost like having a conversation, ain't it?

Grandpa Paton

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 12:06 AM

Well, we could, if anybody would go into the chat room that that wicked boy, Max, so nicely set up for us. The last few top of the hours I've gone in, it's just been me, myself, and I!

Still and all, I'm glad ta know yer there, and what's with the "Grandpa", your picture doesn't come anywhere near to portraying your age.....hope I can look as well at your stage of the game!

Love ya'

kat

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 12:29 AM

Kat: You said I was a keystroke ahead of you. More accurately, if I did the arithmetic right, I'm about two and a half decades ahead of you! Hence, the "Grandpa." But I've gotten a bit off subject, haven't I? Something we old geezers are often known to do. :-)

Now what did I come into this room for?

Sandy

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Alan B
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 03:01 AM

Try also
An Ancient & old Irish COndom

in the database. Same tune, funnier words
alan B

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Banjer
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 04:34 AM

If you want more words to the same tune, Lincoln and Liberty is a favorite of many Civil War reenactors.

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Night Owl
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 04:44 AM

And then there was the aging gentleman, whose preacher warned him that he should be thinking about the "hereafter". He replied "I do think about it all the time....whenever I walk into a room I ask myself....now what did I come in 'hereafter'?

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From:
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 01:27 PM

Ain't Rosin spelled Resin?

I used to hear this tune when I played in an Irish show band a few years back. They were not particularly devoted to folk music -- most Irish show bands are not -- but this one had a rootsy sound.

James.

Subject: ADD Version: Rosin The Bow
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 11:20 PM

I was looking for something else, and came across this version of "Rosin the Beau" in Sam Henry's Songs of the People.
The notes date the song at 10 April 1937. Alternate titles are "Gentle Maiden," "rosin the Beau," and "Rosin-a-Beau."

ROSIN THE BOW

I've travelled this wide world over,
And now to another I'll go,
For I know what good quarters are waiting
To welcome old 'Rosin the Bow.'
To welcome old 'Rosin the Bow,'
To welcome old 'Rosin the Bow,'
For I know that good quarters are waiting
To welcome old 'Rosin the Bow.'

When I'm dead and laid out on the counter,
A voice you will hear from below,
Crying out, 'Whiskey and water
To drink to old "Rosin the Bow."
To drink...

And when I am dead, I reckon
The ladies will want to, I know,
Just lift off the lid of the coffin
And look at old 'Rosin the Bow.'
And look...

Then get a full dozen stout fellows
And stand them all round in a row,
And drink out of half-gallon bottles
To the name of old 'Rosin the Bow.'
To the name...

Then get half a dozen young fellows,
And let them all staggering go,
And dig a great hole in the meadow,
And in it toss 'Rosin the Bow.'
And in it...

Then get you a couple of tombstones,
Put one at my head and my toe,
And do not fail to scratch on it
The name of old 'Rosin the Bow.'
The name ...

I feel that great tyrant approaching,
That cruel implacable foe
That spares neither age nor condition,
Not even old 'Rosin the Bow.'
Not even...

Subject: RE: Help: Rosin The Beau
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 06:12 AM

Joe

That "Gentle Maiden" reference is to anther song to the same air.

Regards

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,rank neophyte
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 11:45 PM

I can remember two verses:

I've travelled this whole world all over
And found mighty little of wealth
And now I am done as a rover,
While I still have some of my health

I'll build be a snug little cabin
Where hot dusty winds never blow
And I'll never more go a-ramblin'
A-ramblin' old rosin the beau.

Chorus:

A ramblin old rosin the beau
A ramblin old rosin the beau
And I'll never more go a-ramblin
A-ramblin old rosin the beau

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 12:19 AM

Jofield,

That's from where the confusion of the song always come.

It is properly Rosin the Beau and as far as I know it has nothing to do with resin and bows.

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD SETTLER'S SONG / ACRES OF CLAMS
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 12:48 AM

One of my altime favorites to the same tune listing of

ROSINBOW

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4436
OLD SETTLER'S SONG or ACRES OF CLAMS

I've traveled all over this country
Prospecting and digging for gold
I've tunneled, hydraulicked and cradled
And I have been frequently sold

For each man who got rich by mining
Perceiving that hundreds grew poor
I made up my mind to try farming
The only pursuit that was sure

So, rolling my grub in my blanket
I left all my tools on the ground
I started one morning to shank it
For the country they call Puget Sound

Arriving flat broke in midwinter
I found it enveloped in fog
And covered all over with timber
Thick as hair on the back of a dog

When I looked on the prospects so gloomy
The tears trickled over my face
And I thought that my travels had brought me
To the end of the jumping-off place

I staked me a claim in the forest
And sat myself down to hard toil
For two years I chopped and I struggled
But I never got down to the soil

I tried to get out of the country
But poverty forced me to stay
Until I became an old settler
Then nothing could drive me away

And now that I'm used to the climate
I think that if a man ever found
A place to live easy and happy
That Eden is on Puget Sound

No longer the slave of ambition
I laugh at the world and its shams
As I think of my pleasant condition
Surrounded by acres of clams


Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 12:51 AM

Missing from the DT version is the refrain:

Surrounded by acres of clams,
Surrounded by acres of clams,
As I think of my happy condition,
Surrounded by acres of clams

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 12:57 AM

Lots of information at Ceolas, The Fiddler's Companion. Tunes, words, etc. The Fiddler's Companion
I can't put the page directly, but click on Search the Index, type Rosin in Search, and scroll down. Apparently the tune has several names including "Old Rosin---, " Mrs. Kenny," etc.

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 01:16 AM

The correct words to "The Old Settler," (Acres of Clams) are in the DT (mis-titled the "Old Settler's Song"). The chorus also is missing.

Chorus:
And I had been frequently sold,
And I had been frequently sold.
I'd tunneled, hydraulicked and cradled,
And I had been frequently sold.

Text first published 1902, with sheet music, by the composer, Francis D. Henry. Reproduced with music in Lingenfelter and Dwyer, "Songs of the American West," pp. 555-556. The tune, as stated by Gargoyle, is "Rosin the Beau."
I think all of this is in previous threads.

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 05:20 AM

"Sawyer's Exit" in The Sacred Harp (1860, p. 338) is the Rosin the Beau tune. The melody is in the middle staff.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Burke
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 01:45 PM

Masato, take at look at Help me to Sing p. 376 in the Sacred Harp. The words keep rolling in my head because we sing it much more than Sawyer's Exit.

The meter is the same, 9,8. They are both triple time with long held notes at the beginning & end of each line so they feel a lot alike. Are these major/minor variants of a basically similar tune, or am I being decived by the similar feel of it.

Sawyer's Exit, being in the 1st appendix, was first published in 1850, Help me to Sing is in the 1859 appendix.

PS, the E-sol (round note) in the 3rd measure should be d-sol. The shape is correct, the place on the staff is wrong.

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD MOLL ROE
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 02:38 PM

"Rosin the Beau" and "Old Moll Roe," or "Molly Monroe," all use the same tune.
Lyr. Add: OLD MOLL ROE

I met old Moll Roe in the mornin',
Her tail was all drabbled in blood.
I ask' her what was the matter,
She says she's been fucked by a stud.

I met old Moll Roe in the mornin',
Her tail was all drabled in dew,
I throwed my prick over my shoulder
An' my ballyx says how-do-ye-do?

If I had a prick like a stud horse,
And ballyx like mountains of snow,
I'd fuck all to hell an' damnation
To git to the cunt of Moll Roe.

Mr. L. K., Cyclone, MO, 1931. He heard his Irish father sing it in 1885. Known as "Lady Monroe" in Australia.
Vance Randolph, ed. G. Legman, "Roll Me in Your Arms," pp. 119-120, with music. He says the tune "Rosin the Bow" is also known as "Tarpaulin Jacket."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Stewart
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 05:41 PM

I've always been cheerful and easy,
And scarce have I heeded a foe,
While some after money run crazy,
I merrily Rosin'd the Bow.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 06:30 PM

Verses from "Old Rosin the Beau" that appear in versions of the "Cowboy's Lament":

Wrap me up in my old stable jacket
And say a poor buffer lies low
And get six stalwart lancers to carry me
With steps mournful, sloemn and slow.

And then in the dusk of the twilight
When soft winds are whispering low
And darkening shadows are falling
Sometimes think of the buffer below.

XIII-K, From Gordon 569, reproduced in "Songs of the Cowboys," N. Howard (Jack) Thorp, added by Austin E. and Alta S. Fife. Robert W. Gordon was founder of the Archive of American Folksong, Library of Congress.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: kendall
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 06:48 PM

Buryl Ives sang one, I think it was called Tarpaulin Blanket about a dying sailor. Same tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 11:37 PM

An older version of "Tarpaulin Jacket" is in the DT. Some verses float, used in versions of "Rosin the Beau" and other songs. Other tunes used as well. Lancer, sailor, airman, cowboy have all been the poor buffer in this and other versions.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 12:21 AM

The earliest known copies, 1838, of "Rosin the Beau" are in the Levy sheet music collection. Just search for 'Rosin'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 01:22 AM

The Burl Ives version Song in America Dual, Sloan and Pearc, 1962, p. 77 "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket" while also a 3/4 waltz IS NOT the same tune as "Rosin the Beau"

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: Lyr Add: WRAP ME UP IN MY TARPAULIN JACKET
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 01:33 AM

Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket These verses are different than the DT's.

WRAP ME UP IN MY TARPAULIN JACKET
Easy-going Waltz ¾ time
Song in America Burl Ives, Dual, Sloan and Pearc, 1962, p. 77

Oh, had I the wings of a turtle dove, -
So high on my pinions I'd fly,
Slap! Bang! To the heart of my Polly love,-
And in her dears arms I would die.

CHORUS: Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket
And say a poor duffer laid low.
Send for six salty seamen to carry me
With steps mournful solemn and slow.

Oh then let them send for two holy stone –
And place then at head and at toe.
Up-on them write this – in – scrip – tion:
"Here lies a poor duffer below."

Then send for six jolly foretopmen,
And let them a-rollicking go;
And in heaping two-gallow measures
Drink the health of the duffer below.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

BTW - Max Now Works on The Schemm Team

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 02:33 AM

Burke, thanks. On "Help Me to Sing" George Pullen Jackson wrote in Down-East Spirituals and Others (1943; Da Capo, 1975, No. 50 [pp. 69-70]:

 We are fortunate in finding numerous close and distant relatives of this text and tune [from Original Sacred Harp 376]. We must first interpret B.F. White's claim to it in the Sacred Harp as pertaining merely to his harmonic arrangement of what he must have considered an "unwritten" song. The text seems to be of American origin. The tune stems from the British Isles. In England its close relatives appear under such titles as 'Sally Gray' and 'Ratcliffe Highway'; in Scotland as the old tune 'The Mucking o' Geordie's Byre' which Robert Burns used for his 'Tam Glen'.
 Its somewhat less close melodic kindred are in England 'Th Banks of the Lea', in Wales 'Llanarmon', a hymn version, 'The Green Pool', and 'The Pretty Girl Milking her Cow'. In Ireland they are 'The Rose of the Vale', 'The Lass With the Bonny Brown Hair', and 'The Pretty Girl that Milks the Cows' which was found in the Bunting Collection of 1796.
 Some members of this tune family, appearing in four-four time, tend to merge with the 'Gilderoy' melodies which reach back at least to 1719. Those with texts in iambic meter sometimes touch the 'Babe of Bethlehem' tune family, as does 'Enquire'; and major-keyed versions of this predominantly aeolian and dorian formula approach the popular 'Old Rosin the Bow' group of tunes. So the tune above [i.e., "Help Me to Sing"] may be said to swim in the middle of our broad stream of national melody.

Other songs to the tune of "Rosin the Beau/Bow" include:

1. "The Trumpet of Freedom" ("The Home of the Free") - No. 152
2. "The Liberty Ball" - No. 166
3. "The True Spirit" - No. 287
(In Vicki L. Eaklor, American Antislavery Songs, Greenwood, 1988)

4. "Little Vanity"
5. "Old Tippecanoe"
6. "Two Dollars a Day and Roast Beef"
7. "Lincoln and Liberty"
8. "Then It's Irishmen, What Are You Doing?"
9. "Straight-Out Democrat"
10. "Tippecanoe and Morton Too"
11. "Grandfather's Hat"
12. "The Hayseed"
(In Irwin Silber, Songs America Voted By, Stackpole Books, 1971)

13. "He's the Man for Me"
(In Richard A. Dwyer and Richard E. Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush, University of California Press, 1965)

14. "The Agrarian Ball"
(In Philip S. Foner, American Labor Songs of the Nineteenth Century, University of Illinois Press, 1975)

15. "The Mill-Boy of the Slashes"
16. "Old Hal o' the West"
17. (= 7.) "Lincoln and Liberty"
(In Sinmund Spaeth, Read 'Em and Weep, Doubleday, 1927)

18. "Sherman's March to the Sea"
(In John Anthony Scott, The Ballad of America, Bantam, 1966)

19. Freemen, rally! (New York, New York: H. De Marsan, n.d.)
20. I cannot support him! Can you? (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: James D. Gay, 1864)
21. Brownell, the gallant Zouave (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. H. Johnson. n.d.)
(At America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: ooh-aah
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 03:13 AM

A.L Lloyd does a lovely version of 'Rosin the Beau' on his 1961 album 'English Drinking Songs', recorded in a pub with the wonderful name of 'The Eel's Foot'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 05:08 AM

Correction in my post just above:

4. "Little Vanny"

Addition:

22. "Democratic Ode"
(In Vera Brodsky Lawrence, Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents, Macmillan, 1975)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 04:15 PM

Musicologists often disagree on the identities of tunes. The tune for Burns' "Tam Glen" is generally agreed to be a version of "My Name is old Hewson the Cobler". Burns friend Robert Riddell misidentified the tune as "Mall Roe (Irish)".

These two tunes and "Old Rosin the Beau" are all somewhat similar. Perhaps this explains why Moll Roe above got sung to "Old Rosin the Beau" instead of "Moll Roe in the morning".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Amos
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 04:24 PM

A verse I learned long ago -- I can't remnember whence -- that is not in the DT version:

I live for the good of my country
And my sons are all growing low
But I hope that the next generation
Will resemble old Rosin the Beau.

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 06:20 PM

"Wrap Me Up In My Tarpaulin Jacket," in Sandburg's The American Songbag, is different, but reminiscent, of "Rosin the Beau."
The tarpaulin jacket got around, appearing in versions of St. James-Streets of Laredo.
Singers often varied tunes to suit their voices or mood.

Subject: Lyr Add: OL' ROISIN LE BEAU (from Bob Dylan)
From: GUEST,Willem Lindeboom / The Netherlands
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 07:09 PM

OL' ROISIN LE BEAU
(Incomplete)
Traditional / Arranged by Bob Dylan

Recorded: The Big Pink, West Saugerties - 1967
By Bob Dylan & The Band
Release: The Genuine Basement Tapes - Volume 5 (bootleg)

I traveled all over this world
And now to another I'll go
An' I know I should find good quarters
To wait an' welcome Le Beau.
Welcome ol' Roisin Le Beau
To welcome ol' Roisin Le Beau
I know how good quarters are waitin'
For to welcome ol' Roisin Le Beau.

When I'm dead an' laid out on the counter
A voice you will hear from below
Say, "Send out a hogshead of whiskey
To drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau."
To drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau
To drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau
Say, "Send out a hogshead of whiskey
To drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau."

Then get you half a dozen smart fellows
Let them all staggerin' go
An' dig a great hole in the meadow
An' in it put Roisin Le Beau
An' in it put Roisin Le Beau
An' in it put Roisin Le Beau
Go dig you a hole in the meadow
An' in it put Roisin Le Beau.

An' get you a half dozen barrels
Put water at me head an' me toes
With a diamond ring scratch in upon it
With the name of ol' Roisin Le Beau.
With the name of ol' Roisin Le Beau
With the name of ol' Roisin Le Beau
With a diamond ring scratch in upon it
With the name of ol' Roisin Le Beau.

I hear that old tyrant approachin'
That cruel d.........?
An' I lift up me glass in his honor
Take a drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau.
Take a drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau
Take a drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau
An' I lift up my glass in his honor
Take a drink with ol' Roisin Le Beau.

Converted from all caps. --JoeClone, 1-May-03.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 01:23 AM

Mr. Q. -

Sincerely sorry, but aside from 3/4 time the tunes are NOT similar based on the Ive's book cited. First four bars. Rosin goes UP and Tarpalin DOWN

ie. both placed in key of C L:1/8

"Rosin the Bow" G2/C2C2C2/E3D2DC2/E2g4

"Tarpaulin" g2/e2e2e2/f2g2f2/efG4

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 01:29 AM

WHOOPS - CAPS came off on Tarpaulin Tune.

Mr. Q. -

Sincerely sorry, but aside from 3/4 time the tunes are NOT similar based on the Ive's book cited. First four bars. Rosin goes UP and Tarpalin DOWN


ie. both placed in key of C L:1/8


"Rosin the Bow" G2/C2C2C2/E3D2DC2/E2g4


"Tarpaulin" G2/E2E2E2/F2G2F2/EFG4


Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 06:54 AM

Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket in Sandburg is similar to Old Rosin the Beau in Randolph, vol. 4, Ozark Folk Songs. In turn this is similar to Old Moll Roe in Randolph ed. Legman in Roll Me in Your Arms. How similar is similar and where do you cut?

First line:
I live for the good of the nation (ending high)- Randolph, Rosin...
Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket (rising, but not as high)- Sandburg, Tarpaulin Jacket.
I met old Moll Roe in the mornin' (ending high)- Randolph-Legman.

2nd line:
My sons they are all growing low (ending low)- Randolph, Rosin.
And say a poor buffer lies low, lies low (ending low)- Sandburg, Tarpaulin
Her tail was all drabbled in blood (ending low)- R-L

3-4 lines:
Third lines end high, 4th lines start high, then drop low in all three songs.

Haven't seen Ives. Randolph-Legman, commenting on Old Moll Roe, says "Tune identified as "Tarpaulin Jacket" or "Rosin the Beau" by J. S. Manifold."
Music for "The Old Settler," first two lines, is similar to Sandburg's Tarpaulin Jacket. It is identified as "Rosin the Beau." (Lingenfelter and Dwyer).

Where do you make the cut? Sounds to me like some do and some don't separate the tunes. How much variance is "allowed"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 11:17 AM

I've travelled this wide world over
And now to another I'll go
For I know that good quarters are waiting
To welcome old Rosin the Bow
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 11:29 AM

Editions at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads are:

rosin the beau [title]

rosin the beau. followed by encore verses [title]

rosin the bow [tune]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Apr 03 - 04:51 PM

Yes Masato that 1st version is the one I learned.
Thank-you.....Giok

Subject: Lyr Add: ROSIN, THE BEAU (from Bodleian)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 May 03 - 10:49 PM

Wow! That Bodleian is a great resource!

Transcribed by me from the broadside image at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads catalog # Johnson d.1773(p. 120v)

ROSIN, THE BEAU.

I have travelled this wide world over,
And now to another I'll go;
I know that good quarters are waiting,
To welcome old Rosin, the beau.
    To welcome old Rosin, the beau,
    To welcome old Rosin, the beau,
    I know that good quarters are waiting,
    To welcome old Rosin, the beau.

When I'm dead and laid out on the counter,
A voice you will hear from below,
Singing out whiskey and water
To drink to old Rosin, the beau.
    To drink, &c.

And when I am dead, I reckon
The ladies will all want to know--
Just lift the lid off the coffin,
And look at old Rosin, the beau.
    And look, &c.

You must get some dozen good fellows,
And stand them all round in a row,
And drink out of half gallon bottles,
To the name of old Rosin, the beau.
    To the name, &c.

Get four or five jovial young fellows,
And let them all staggering go
And dig a deep hole in the meadow,
And in it toss Rosin, the beau.
    And in it, &c.

Then get you a couple of tombstones,
Place one at my head and my toe;
And do not fail to scratch on it
The name of old Rosin, the beau.
    The name, &c.

I feel the grim tyrant approaching,
That cruel implacable foe,
Who spares neither age nor condition,
Nor even old Rosin, the beau.
    Nor even, &c.

Subject: Lyr Add: ROSIN THE BEAU
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 01 May 03 - 11:25 PM

All of the items listed under "rosin" in the Bodleian Library seem to be mid-19th century or later. I was amused by this one, printed in London, but obviously based on an American parody. Harding B11 (3340).

Lyr. Add: ROSIN THE BEAU

I'm a Yankey boy seeking my fortin,
I knows where for fodder to go,
And as I've just began my promotion
I'll tip you Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip you old Rosin the Beau, oh,oh,
I'll tip you old Rosin the Beau,
And I'll show you how I shall keep rising
To the tune of old Rosin the Beau.

Of a bank then I'll be a director,
While my paper shall be all the go,
And if there's a run for the specie
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau, oh, oh,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau,
And I'll show you how I shall keep rising
To the tune of old Rosin the Beau.

For the president's chair nominated
Like a rooster I'll jump up and crow,
And when Congress is waiting my message
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the beau,
The ditty will please every party
As they all sing old Rosin the Beau.

Then I'll live like a jolly old trojan
While the wine and the whisky shall flow
For to play a good tune on life's fiddle
We should now and then Rosin the Beau,
Now and then Rosin the Peau (sic), oh, oh,
We should now and then Rosin the Beau
'Tis but giving a help to old nater
When we now and then Rosin the Beau.

Encore verses (4) are given:
Then I'll slick myself out in my fixins,
And courting a girl I will go,
I'll buss her as loud as a musket,
And tip her old Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip her old Rosin the Beau, oh, oh,
I'll teach my whole dozen of babbies
To chirrup old Rosin the Beau.

Next to a volunteer's company captain,
If ever I'm fighting the foe,
I'll sing out, make ready - present
And tip 'em old Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau, oh, oh,
My band shall march home from the battle
All playing old Rosin the Beau.

Of my State Legislature then member
With eloquence how I shall glow,
And should that fail to carry my measure
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau, oh, oh,
Till the governor, senate, and member
All chorus old Rosin the Beau.

An Ambassador next sent to London,
A smart go ahead Pleuipo,
Should they touch on reputation,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau,
I'll tip 'em old Rosin the Beau, oh, oh,
They'll cancel our bonds in a jiffy
As I sing them old Rosin the Beau.

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: ROSIN THE BOW
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 02 May 03 - 05:35 AM

This is the arrangement that I sing. I compiled it from several different versions and added some of my own wording.
The song is PD and I would never claim copyright on my version so feel free to use it. However what would piss me off is to see anyone else put a copyright mark on this. :-}
I suppose that by posting this it at least puts a date on it.
Slainte,
Sandy

ROSIN THE BOW

I (D) traveled this whole world all over and soon to another I'll (G) go
I (D) know that good quarters are waiting (G) to (D) welcome old (A7) Rosin The (D)Bow
To welcome old Rosin The (A7)Bow-o-o; To welcome old Rosin The (D)Bow
I know that good quarters are waiting (G) to (D) welcome old (A7) Rosin The (D) Bow

And when I'm laid out in my coffin, the people all making a show
Then send down a hogshead of whiskey to drink to old Rosin The Bow
To drink to old rosin the Bow-o-o; To drink to old Rosin the Bow
Just send down a hogshead of whiskey to drink to old Rosin The Bow

Then pick me out six trusty fellows and let them all stand in a row
And dig a big hole in the meadow and in it toss Rosin The Bow
And in it toss Rosin the Bow-o-o; And in it toss Rosin The Bow
Just dig a big hole in the meadow and in it toss Rosin The Bow

Then take down my two little brown jugs; place on at my head and my toe
And do not forget to scratch on them the name of old Rosin the Bow
The name of old Rosin The Bow-o-o; The name of old Rosin The bow
Do not forget to scratch on them the name of old Rosin the bow

As we stood 'round that spot in the meadow; A voice we all heard from below
Saying sprinkle some whiskey and water on the grave of old Rosin The Bow
The grave of old Rosin The Bow-o-o; The grave of old Rosin The Bow
Just sprinkle some whiskey and water on the grave of old Rosin The Bow

As the shadows of evening grew darker and the sun in the west sinking low
We drank the last drop in the bottle to the memory of Rosin The Bow
To the memory of Rosin The Bow-o-o; The memory of Rosin The Bow
We drank the last drop from the bottle to the memory of Rosin The Bow

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 May 03 - 10:19 AM

Two folk versions:

Rosin and Beau, As sung by Ollie Gilbert, Mountain View, Arkansas on October 26, 1971 (The Max Hunter Collection)

ROSIN THE BOW, Sung by: Mrs. E.P.J. Garrott; Recorded in Batesville, AR, 7/18/52 (The Wolf Collection)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 02 May 03 - 11:51 AM

Sorry but I made an error on the chords. The last two lines should be:

To welcome old (A7) Rosin The (D)Bow-o-o; To welcome old Rosin The (G)Bow
I (D) know that good quarters are waiting (G) to (D) welcome old (A7) Rosin The (D) Bow
   
          Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: GUEST,Marq
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 07:30 PM

Subject: Lyr Add: ROSIN THE BOW
From: GEST
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 11:40 AM

Newfoundland's Sharecropper Trio did a rousing 2003 variant in which Rosin the Bow is apparently the name of the singer.

Rosin The Bow

When I'm dead and laid out on the counter,
A voice you will hear from below;
Sayin' send down a hogshead of whiskey,
To drink with old Rosin the Bow.

To drink with old Rosin the Bow-o,
To drink with old Rosin the Bow;
Sayin' send down a hogshead of whiskey,
To drink with old Rosin the Bow.

And get ye a half dozen stout fellows,
And line them all up in a row;
Let them drink out of half gallon bottles,
To the memory of Rosin the Bow.

To the memory of Rosin the Bow-o,
To the memory of Rosin the Bow;
Let them drink out of half gallon bottles,
To the memory of Rosin the Bow.

And get this half dozen stout fellows,
And let them all stagger and go;
And dig a great hole in the meadow,
And in it put Rosin the Bow.

And in it put Rosin the Bow-o,
And in it put Rosin the Bow;
And dig a great hole in the meadow,
And in it put Rosin the Bow.

And get ye a couple of bottles,
Put one at me head and me toe;
With a diamond ring scratched upon them,
The name of old Rosin the Bow.

The name of old Rosin the Bow-o,
The name of old Rosin the Bow;
With a diamond ring scratched upon them,
The name of old Rosin the Bow.

I feel that old tyrant approaching,
That cruel, remorseless old foe;
And I lift up me glass in his honour,
Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow.

Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow-o,
Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow;
And I lift up me glass in his honour,
Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow.

[spoken] Let's hear ya now!

Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow-o,
Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow;
And I lift up me glass in his honour,
Take a drink with old Rosin the Bow.

####.... Variant of a traditional. Arr by the Sharecroppers (Home, Boys! © 2003 John Harvey Newman Publishing SOCAN) ....####

Liner note: Here's a great old tune that tells a fine story of everyone raising a glass even after you're dead.

From: GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anybody know 'Old Rosin the Bow'?
From: R. Padgett
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 12:39 PM

Check out 'Walter Pardon' on Google ~ specifically 'Put a bit of Powder on it Father'

CD 2 set of words makes it clear that the song is being sung from a personal point of view

Old Rosin the Bow

Ray