Tritzem Yodel

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 21 - 11:33 AM

Good for you, Palmetto Bug. There's a thread up now simply called "Yodeling," and I put a post on it with tips for new yodelers. Give it a look.

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 21 - 11:29 AM

Grandpa Jones could probably have yodeled beautifully if he hadn't decided to be corny instead.

cnd, thanks for the info. Yodel songs usually have two parts - verses in the singer's language alternating with yodeling, which is elaborate singing and uses nonsense syllables. It's cheap for the song to be all nonsense.

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: GUEST,cnd
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 09:43 AM

Since there's been a recent spate of yodeling threads, I thought I'd revive this in the event there's more interest.

I made the acquaintance of a Swiss man recently and asked him if he could translate the song. He admitted he didn't listen to much yodeling and didn't always understand the singers very well, but said the song sounded like mostly nonsense words. Which I think most people assumed, but it's good to be sure.

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: GUEST,Palmetto Bug
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 06:15 PM

Thanks everyone. You don't hear much yodeling in music any more. I took a yodeling workshop at a folk festival a few years ago. I'm not very good at it, but I'm trying to take a stab at it.

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 03:42 AM

I think the best yodeller ever is Franzl Lang. He's on Youtube and yodels at breakneck speed entirely on the correct notes. Phenomenal!

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 01:35 AM

I went on a hiking trip in the Swiss Alps with a Swiss group. I understood them just fine when they spoke German (Hochdeutsch), but they lost me when they started talking Swiss (Schweizerdeutsch). Grandpa Jones sounds like he was making a pretty good approximation of Schweizerdeutsch.

And of course, all my Swiss companions spoke perfect English and French, but they liked it that I could understand German.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: cnd
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 07:04 PM

Here's another live recording (https://youtu.be/VLKyOgaMl0s?t=413) where he says he actually did learn the Swiss lyrics, so maybe he could actually be singing in Swiss. He also seems to keep the words pretty consistent between recordings I've heard.

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: cnd
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 06:52 PM

Glad to help.

After doing a bit more research, it looks like it was also recorded and released well before Jones' release of the song; in 1948, "Pie Plant Pete" (Claude Moye) and Bashful Brother Oswald recorded the song on Process 515.

You can also hear a more formal recording here: https://youtu.be/GdWKyXwVvhs?t=140

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: GUEST,Palmetto Bug
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 12:44 PM

Thanks, the information you just gave me at least gives me a lead to follow. Grandpa Jones called in "Tritzem Yodel" but it was probably "Dritzen" I may just have to dig through some traditional Swiss songs. I have a blues-playing friend who married a Swiss gal and spends summers playing festivals over there. I'll see if he or his wife know anything.

Best Regards,
Gary Fuller (Palmetto Bug)

Subject: RE: Tritzem Yodel
From: cnd
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 11:08 AM

It's Jones attempting to sing Swiss, so I doubt much of it is any actual words.

Grandpa Jones refers to learning it from a Swiss yodeling act who worked with Lum and Abner -- this is probably the Dritzen Boys, variously described as either a Swiss or Scandinavian yodeling act. (source)

Searches for the Dritzen Boys turn up little of information. I did find several mentions of Swiss yodelers on WTAM in the 1930s (as that paper linked above mentioned), but none gave names, or if they did, they weren't remotely close to Dritzen.

I think if you really want to find what the lyrics should have been, you'd have to find the original Swiss song, and then see if Grandpa actually remembered it correctly!

Subject: Tritzem Yodel
From: GUEST,Palmetto Bug
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 10:20 AM

Can anyone here share the lyrics to the old Grandpa Jones song "Tritzem Yodel?" It was the B-Side to his "T For Texas" Single from 1962. I've heard it since I was a kid, and I've figured out how play it on the banjo. (simple I-IV-V-I progression) I'm assuming it's some German or Pennsylvania Deutsch dialect, or maybe even fake pseudo German.

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