Lyr Req: Three Little Drummers (Beers Family)

Subject: Lyr/Info request Three Little Drummers
From: Susan A-R
Date: 06 Dec 00 - 10:34 PM

I've been listening to a song entitled Three Little. It turns out there's a dance tune by that namewhich sounds as if it's pretty similar to the song. Does anyone know which came first? Also, does anyone already have the lyrics to this one? I can transcribe them, but it'd take a while.

Susan A-R

Subject: RE: Lyr/Info request Three Little Drummers
From: Hollowfox
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 11:27 AM

Is this the one that starts "Three little drummers stood on the hugh ground
They marched all about and they circled around
When they were abreast, three in a line
Then off they did go for to follow the sign."

If so, it was written(I believe) by Bob "Fiddler" Beers of the Beers Family, and it's on their Christmas album, put out by Columbia Records sometime before 1967.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Info request Three Little Drummers
From: Susan A-R
Date: 07 Dec 00 - 08:32 PM

That's the one, and that's my source (a cassete copy) What a great recording. There is material on it which I have never heard anywhere else, and it's lovely. A friend just mentioned the dance tune Thre Little Drummers and was intrigued to find out that there were lyrics. Did Bob write the tune as well?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Info request Three Little Drummers
From: Hollowfox
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 02:11 PM

I always assumed that he wrote both the tune and the lyrics, but I don't own the record to (obsessively) double check. I *think* it said on the album cover that he did. Great album, I wish that I did own it.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Info request Three Little Drummers
From: Susan A-R
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 11:08 PM

As I've said, I do have a cassette. If you want the music, since the album seems to be out of print, let me know and I'll see if I can put together the technology for a copy. Wonder of Sandy has thought of re releasing this through Folk Legacy?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Info request Three Little Drummers
From: GUEST,Marcus Campus Bellorum
Date: 13 Dec 00 - 07:44 PM

I hope that you intend to perform this piece with drummers in the band.

I hope this is not another folk song where people sing about drums and drummers but do not actually have any drums in the lineup.

Can you imagine singing a song about didgeridoo without actually having the instrument being played.

Or, even more abstract, an instrumental written about a singer or a song, but with nothing sung and no words.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Info request Three Little Drummers
From: Hollowfox
Date: 14 Dec 00 - 01:08 PM

Sounds good to me, Susan. PM me sometime after the holiday crunch if you can scare up the technology. Maybe I have something interesting-and-out-of-print that I can tape for you in exchange.

Subject: Lyr Add: THREE LITTLE DRUMMERS FROM AFRICA
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Mar 08 - 10:43 PM

I transcribed this from a sound sample:

THREE LITTLE DRUMMERS FROM AFRICA
Bob Beers

…Baker and beggar and soldier and Jew
Who do as they will or as other men do.
When they were abreast, three in a line,
Then off they did go for to follow the sign.

Valley and stubble and river and rill,
Three little drummers came over the hill,
Three drummers from Africa leading the way
To play for the baby on Chris'-a-mas Day.

Sheep in the pasture…

[As sung by The Beers Family on "Seasons of Peace," 1971; also recorded by Crossing on "Court of a King," 1998.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Little Drummers
From: meself
Date: 22 Mar 08 - 11:17 PM

There was a jig of that name recorded by the Cape Breton fiddler Dan Joe MacInnis in the 1960s ... Any connection, do you suppose?

Subject: Lyr Add: THREE LITTLE DRUMMERS (Beers Family)
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 03 Jun 18 - 03:31 PM

Our Bittersweet Christmas Band is likely doing this song this year and I was checking here to see if all the verses were around. I saw that they weren't. Using the couple already included, I got the rest from youtube, since there is a version of the Beers Family doing the song there. Here are all the verses, just for you OCD folks that want them all in one spot:


THREE LITTLE DRUMMERS
As recorded by the Beers Family on "Christmas with the Beers Family" (1966)

Three little drummers stood on the high ground,
They marched all about and they circled around,
When they were abreast, three in a line,
Then off they did go for to follow the sign.

Valley and stubble and river and rill,
Three little drummers came over the hill,
Three drummers from Africa, leading the way,
To play for the baby on Chris-a-mas Day.

Baker and beggar and soldier and Jew,
Who do as they will or as other men do,
When they were abreast, three in a line,
Then off they did go for to follow the sign.

Valley, etc.

Sheep in the pasture did wander afar,
To join with their brothers and follow the star,
When they were abreast, three in a line,
Then off they did go for to follow the sign.

Valley...etc.

Then cities did open and nations arise,
To follow their kings and the light in the skies,
When they were abreast, three in a line,
Then off they did go for to follow the sign.

Valley, etc.

I believe that Bob Beers wrote the words.