Subject: ADD Version: All Gone for Grog (Paton)
From:
Joe Offer
Date: 25 Feb 05 - 02:06 AM
I got a nice message from Sandy Paton this evening. He didn't have time to post the lyrics, but he gave me some interesting background information and gave me permission to post it:Haven't had a chance to look at the Mudcat lately, Joe, so I've only just now seen your note. The version I sing of "All Gone for Grog" was collected from Kate Koons, a Connecticut gal I met one night at a coffeehouse gig I did alone because Caroline had the flu. I failed to get her address or phone number, but she had sung the song for me after the program and I really wanted to learn it from her. Caroline went to work and, through the owner of the coffeehouse, managed to locate her father, that took a series of phone calls. When we finally reached him, we discovered that, while we were trying to locate her, she had married and moved to New Hampshire. We tracked her down, visited her at her home in New Hampshire, and recorded her singing the song.
She told us that she had learned the song from the singing of her grandfather, an educated man who lived in South Carolina -- not a rustic from the hill country. She had no idea where he might have heard it.
I've always like the somewhat pensive quality of the song as we learned it from Kate. Quite different from the more rowdy versions we've heard from England, Ireland and Australia. I'd not located another version of the song from anywhere in the U.S., although it may exist in some U.S. collection I haven't seen.
I thought I had used Kate's singing of the song on the field recording I did for New World Records, which I thought you had, but I don't have a copy here at hand, so I'll have to check on that later.
Too late now to look for the thread on the Mudcat, but you can tell the story for me, if you wish.
It's not on the Brave Boys collection Sandy recorded for New World, but I transcribed it from Sandy and Caroline's recording on their New Harmony CD. If somebody is willing to notate it for us, send me a personal message and I'll send you a realplayer recording of the song.
-Joe Offer-
^^
ALL GONE FOR GROG
I had but one old hat,
The hat it had no crown,
All wore out, tore out, and asunder;
If I cannot buy another, I will keep this hat I've got,
I will keep this old hat to remember.
CHORUS:
It's all gone for grog,
Jolly, jolly grog;
All gone for whiskey and tobacco.
Oh, I spent all I had in cash
On those girls to cut a dash;
Now I'm left in this wide world to wander.
I had but one old coat,
The coat it had no back,
All wore out, tore out, and asunder;
If I cannot buy another, I will keep this coat I've got,
I will keep this old coat to remember.
CHORUS
I had but one old shirt,
The shirt it had no sleeves,
All wore out, tore out, and asunder;
If I cannot buy another, I will keep this shirt I've got,
I will keep this old shirt to remember.
CHORUS
I had one pair of pants,
The pants they had no knees,
All wore out, tore out, and asunder;
If I cannot buy another, I will keep this pair I've got,
I will keep these old pants to remember.
CHORUS
I had one pair of boots,
The boots they had no knees,
All wore out, tore out, and asunder;
If I cannot buy another, I will keep this pair I've got,
I will keep these old boots to remember.
CHORUS
From the Sandy & Caroline Paton recording, New Harmony
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