Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 15 Oct 19 - 01:07 AM

Thanks, Dan. What I hear is much like the tune collected by the Lomaxes in 1933 from "Iron Head" Baker (b. 1870) at the Texas state prison farm near Sugar Land.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7DA1pkJTso

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Dan
Date: 15 Oct 19 - 12:33 AM

Hello, I'm new here and I too have been looking for this version. Actually, it's how I found this thread. Here is the Metv promo (if the link will work). It's only a snippet, but whoever it is, has done an incredible job.

Metv Streets of Laredo

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Pseudonymous
Date: 22 Jul 19 - 04:14 AM

Good point, Doug.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 07:30 PM

Discussing resemblances, vague or otherwise, of various tunes to that of The Streets of Laredo, seems to be missing the point. We are not discussing the origins of the Streets of Laredo but, rather, trying to identify an alternative tune for the song, which the OP descibes as being more mournful than the familiar tune. It doesn't matter whether a tune is similar or not to the well known version. As long as the words fits the music. it's a valid candidate for consideration.

DC

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Thompson
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 02:25 PM

Can't we enjoy and admire each other's tunes and songs without jealous spite and anger?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 12:06 PM

The familiar "Streets of Laredo" tune - first printed, I believe, in John Lomax's "Cowboy Songs" in 1910 - bears a vague resemblance to the first part of "Banks of the Devon," but is clearly not the same tune, though it may belong to the same family.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 12:01 PM

As I read it, the Kremser tune has only a vague resemblance to the familiar "Streets of Laredo."

It also seems as though "Streets of Laredo" has latterly been adopted as a hymn tune rather than the other way round.

Jack, much as I'm ready to accept that the Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) of "Hohenlinden" wrote the "Bard," I find no evidence. It doesn't appear in his collected works, and I there seems to have been no book or broadside printing of "The Bard" before mid-century. But he *did* write the words of "The Exile of Erin."

How did Campbell's name become associate with "The Bard of Armagh"? It's certainly not mentioned in his Wikipedia article.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 06:53 AM

Thomas Campbell was one of the most popular poets of his time. That song was republished many times in his lifetime, with his name on it, and he described explicitly how he came to write it. You might as well doubt whether Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land is Your Land".

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Pseudonymous
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 06:42 AM

This "Bard of Armagh" stuff has been a red herring for a long time in relation to origins of Streets of Loredo. Not sure what the evidence is that Thomas Campbell wrote the lyrics, though they are often 'attributed' to him. The other candidate is an Irish Roman Catholic bishop.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 06:09 AM

The Bard of Armagh (written by the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell when he was in Germany) uses the tune for "The Banks of the Devon" popularized by Burns - he found it near Inverness, used for a Jacobite song dating back to the late 1740s. It's very likely that "The Streets of Laredo" variant also derives from Burns, since "Banks of the Devon" was an international hit and many broadsides used its tune. But it doesn't owe its origin to Ireland in any way. Campbell had never even been there when he wrote his song (I don't think he ever did visit it) and the Irish translation dates from much later.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 04:17 AM

The tune linked just above is the tune which I have known for many years. I believe it's the 'standard' tune for this song.

The first link in my post above, Date: 20 Jul 19 - 07:34 AM, (textt as "This site") gives the standard tune as a MIDI audio file. If you scroll down, you will see a box labelled "Alternative Tune" which contains the link "Kremser". This will take you to the site with the alternative tune.

The second link in my post above (text as "Kremser") will take you to the second site directly.

DC

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Thompson
Date: 21 Jul 19 - 02:43 AM

That tune posted as a YouTube link by Lighter (thank you!) is the one I've always heard - based roughly on the tune of Priosún Chluain Meala, sung in English here by Luke Kelly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUMDcoU7FbE

Lovely voice. And the old postcards are haunting. Is the show any good?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 20 Jul 19 - 08:19 PM

19th century printings of "The Bard of Armagh" indicate the tune as "The Exile of Erin."

But that's essentially "A Mhúirnín Dílis," which is quite a bit different from "The Streets of Laredo."

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Jul 19 - 01:25 PM

The tune linked just above is the tune which I have known for many years. I believe it's the 'standard' tune for this song.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jul 19 - 11:58 AM

Texas border town along the Rio Grande.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 19 - 11:54 AM

where is Laredo?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 20 Jul 19 - 07:34 AM

This site gives an alternative tune arranged by Eduard Kremser. The lyrics of Streets of Laredo fit well to this hymn tune.

DC

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Jul 19 - 03:49 AM

I tried to transcribe the tune from the 1927 record. It seems like it ought to be easy, but it just won't come. Odd.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Jul 19 - 04:02 PM

If you think of it, Jack, please let us know.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Jul 19 - 02:29 PM

Hmmm... The only song I know with 2 tunes is Master McGrath; one is Sweet Betsy from Pike, the other is hauntingly lovely.

Great thread.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 16 Jul 19 - 11:33 AM

That Vernon Dalhart tune is helluva familiar. It's used for an entirely unrelated text in Scotland but I can't recall what just now.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Jul 19 - 08:53 PM

Hi, Bob.

Vance Randolph ("Ozark Folk Songs" Vol. II) collected a version of "Streets of Laredo" to the Dalhart tune as early as 1919, a decade before Dalhart's recording.

I've often wondered where the tune came from.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 12:23 PM

OK, I should have checked out those METV versions. Here's the scoop on the promos I was able to find:

Don Gibson sings the Vernon Dalhart tune to Streets of Laredo I mentioned in the previous message.

Tom Roush sings the Lomax / Burl Ives standard Cowboy's Lament tune.

In short, no new or different tune here.

But those are the two singers that (so far as I can tell), were featured in the promos. Help, anybody knowledgeable about METV, do you know if there are other METV promo performers that sing other, different tunes to this song?

Bob

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 12:13 PM

It is worth noting that Ewen Hail's contemporary, the widely popular Vernon Dalhart, also sang a version of the Cowboy's Lament, and his tune differs from both the standard one and Hail's.

I can best describe it by saying that it's the tune I remember to:

I am a vaquero, I wear a sombrero,
...(?)... my pony is Taw,   etc

It is much more cheerful than the other Streets of Laredo tunes. Dalhart can be heard singing it on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc97GED-HB0

Bob

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 11:50 AM

I sing a different tune to Streets of Laredo, dating back to when I first heard the Supertone recording of Ewen Hail (The Cowboy Minstrel), recorded in New York March 31, 1927, issued on Brunswick and Vocalion as well as on the record I heard, Supertone S2043.

Hail did not play an instrument; he was accompanied by Bert Hirsch and Carson Robison on fiddle and guitar, respectively. Hail also sang popular material for the Vocalion 15000 series catalog, but in this recording he sounds plenty authentic, comparable to Carl T. Sprague and Jules Allen, his best-known cowboy singing contemporaries of the 1920s. His mournful (though major-key) version is irresistible.

Luckily you can hear it on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_tHj5aGdOg
(help, someone, can you make this a blue clicky? I'm a duffer at it)

It seems likely this recording is the alternate tune discussed above. I don't know where Hail's version originated (he may be its composer), but IMO it rates a new life among traditional singers. I'm tickled to recommend it—give it a listen and see what you think.

Bob

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: leeneia
Date: 11 Jul 19 - 12:27 PM

Hi, Miriam. You have opened a door for me to a world I never dreamed existed. I'd never heard of MeTV. Apparently it's a channel that reruns old TV shows. When I searched for "MeTV commercials" on YouTube, I found lots of them. Also, apparently, whole episodes from series.

Can you go on YouTube and find the commercial that has the song you want, then come back here and post the URL for it?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Jul 19 - 10:27 PM

Leeneia, the first stanza and chorus made up one of the first "grown-up" songs I ever learned, at the age of about 5.

It was possibly from an episode of the "Hopalong Cassidy" TV show.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Jul 19 - 01:58 PM

Hi, Lighter. Thanks for the link; as you say, it's beautiful.

That's the tune I learned for Streets of Laredo about 1963.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Jul 19 - 02:59 PM

Come to think of it, the recorded version sung by Dick Devall in 1929 was definitely modal.

Maybe it's a cover of that.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Jul 19 - 02:13 PM

Probably not what you're looking for, but the singing and the pictures are great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a_PlG3dtl8

Are you certain the tune is minor (or modal)? I don't think I've ever heard one like that.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Don Meixner
Date: 08 Jul 19 - 11:19 PM

Seeger and Macoll did a version of The Trooper Cut Down In His Prime that has a slightly different melody. Perhaps with the close familiarity of melodies to The Streets of Laredo and The Trooper Cut Down In His Prime Peggy and Ewan had the melody they used in The Trooper do double duty.

Don

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,johann
Date: 07 Jul 19 - 04:48 PM

Been looking for this version myself. Haunting... I don't know why MeTV is being so secretive about the source.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 06 Jul 19 - 12:08 PM

I haven't seen the TV shows, but Peggy Seeger and Mike Seeger used to do a very different version.
Autoharp/guitar accompaniment.

Peggy might remember - maybe Jim Carroll has got the album with it on. He knew that lot pretty well.

Its the album with FOD and Clinch Mountain Breakdown on it. And The Romish Lady!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 05 Jul 19 - 07:50 PM

General question: Is it possible the melody is in a mode and the singer is singing the melody as a minor?? (I spend about an hour with Mr Google and haven't come across it yet.)

Subject: Tune Req: Streets of Laredo alternate tune
From: MiriamKilmer
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 05:08 PM

I'm looking for the whole tune to Streets of Laredo that's currently being used on ME TV to promo Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and The Rifleman—so I can't tell which show it comes from. The singer has a magnificent voice. On the syllables "young cow"(boy), the melody goes from one octave to the one above, like a yodel. To me, the tune seems more mournful than the familiar tune, partly because it's in a minor key. Any hint appreciated.