Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco

Subject: Bag of Tobacco
From: Gypsy
Date: 19 May 02 - 01:50 PM

I googled, i JC'd, and not having a luck This is a renaissance-e type tune. Any one have the ABC or gif on this? Or know where i could find it? Thanks, all

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 May 02 - 02:10 PM

Bluegrass, folk or what? Any lines?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 20 May 02 - 01:18 AM

Gypsy, I checked out the Tune Finder and Fiddlers Companion at Ceolas - with no obvious success. There are several tunes with the word 'tobacco' on them but none sound very renaissance like to me.

Regardsm John

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 20 May 02 - 01:26 AM

Could it be this one?

X:1
T:Dear Tobacco
L:1/8
M:C|
K:A Dorian
eAAc BG B2|eAAf gfed|eAAc BG B2|G2 GB dedB:|
|:efge fg a2|efge dedB|efge fg a2|G2 GB dedB:|

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: Gypsy
Date: 20 May 02 - 03:47 PM

I do believe it is! Thankee kindly, John. Where'dja find it?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: MMario
Date: 20 May 02 - 03:58 PM

There words to this or just the tune?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: greg stephens
Date: 20 May 02 - 06:10 PM

That's interesting. I just recorded "Dear Tobacco" on the latest Boat Band CD and it's quite different from that version quoted: where did you get it?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 May 02 - 06:38 PM

John in Brisbane's post seems to be from HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 20 May 02 - 08:37 PM

Yep, dead right! I had actually glossed over this entry, but re-considered the fact that the Dorian mode might be what you were chasing.

Greg, I haven't gone back to look, but from memory there were a few references to Dear Tobacco at Fiddler's Companion.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 21 May 02 - 02:43 AM

Greg, there is a reference to a 2/2 tune in G in the Ceolas TuneIndex, but the reference to a book titled 'Bill Charlton's p. 20' means nothing to me. I couldn't find the cross reference in the bibliography on that site.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: greg stephens
Date: 21 May 02 - 05:39 AM

John and Masato: many thanks for that info. The version I have came from Cumbrian sources and seems to be a quite different tune(also Dorian mode. Just how different I shall shortly dicover, I am trying to decipher the abc notation but I'm finding it a bit laborious!). The Fiddler's Companion entry glosses "dear" as meaning "expensive" which of course it can, but judging by the way tobacco was written and sung about in songs from the same era as the tune, I would feel the sense of "dear friend" would be more likely. Just because tobacco takes a lot of stick nowadays shouldn't blind us to the fact that a lot of people were(and still are) very fond of it!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bag of Tobacco
From: greg stephens
Date: 21 May 02 - 06:10 AM

Great, I've mastered abc notation. Well the version John quoted is different from mine but obviously from the same family, I would guess they both derive from the very popular song "Tobacco is an Indian Weed" which dates from 100years or more earlier(1700ish), which deals with the philosohical reflections induced by smoking a pipe."Tobacco is an Indian weed/ Grows green at morn is cut down at eve/ It shows our decay we are but clay/ Think on this when you smoke tobacco". I imagine searching under that title would throw up an early version of the tune, and perhaps Gypsy's "bag of Tobacco" is another member of the family? Where did you hearthat title, Gypsy? The song was later reworked by various divines (notably Samuel Wesley) who kitted it out with assorted tunes and more improving words of a specifically Christian nature (rather than the general philosophical musings of the earlier printed versions).