Tune Req: Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling/Jim Croce)

Subject: Anybody ever hear "Gunga Din"
From: Inigo
Date: 28 Nov 98 - 01:37 AM

Anybody ever hear the song "Gunga Din" by Jim Croce? It was a very early in his career, back when he was singing mostly folk (like "Greenback Dollar etc.)

Anyway, Croce took Rudyard Kipling's famous poem and wrote a really great tune for it. I heard it years ago, but now that I play guitar I'd like to play this song. The song is fingerpicked on a guitar or two if I remember correctly. I can't even find anybody who's ever heard of it. Does anyone know of a CD that has this song on it, or guitar tabs, or any info on this song?

Thanks, Inigo [e-mail]

Subject: RE:
From: rich r
Date: 28 Nov 98 - 05:54 PM

Sorry, not that one, but I am familiar with "Gunga Din" as recorded in the mid 60's by a Utah based trio, The Three D's. Their most interesting album was "New Dimensions in Folk Songs" (CApitol T2171) on which they set a number of poems to music. Besides "Gunga Din" there was "Jabberwocky" (Lewis Carroll), "The Vinegar Man" (Ruth Comfort Mitchell), "Crayon Box" (derived from Colors by Christina Rossetti), Annabel Lee (Edgar Allan Poe), The Highjwayman (Alfred Noyes), Soft Rain (Sara Teasdale), Richard Cory (Edward Arlington Robinson), "Charge of the Light Brigade" (Tennyson), Riddling Knight (Anon.). It would be interesting to know hw the tunes varied or were similar. The Three D's version of Highwayman, is quite different from Phil Och's. LIekwise their version of Annabel Lee and one recorded by Joan BAez are also different.

rich r

Subject: ADD: Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling/Jim Croce)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jun 23 - 03:18 PM

Lyr Add: BNP broadcast folk song
(234* d)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling/Jim Croce)
From: Charmion
Date: 27 Jun 23 - 03:52 PM

That early Croce album — “Facets” — is available on remastered CD, and you can find it on YouTube and Spotify.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling/Jim Croce)
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 27 Jun 23 - 04:59 PM

I got the song from the Jim Croce album The Faces I've Been, a posthumous 2-disc LP that was released in the 1970's.

Gunga Din - Jim Croce

Basically, it's a simple chord progression. Croce is playing in the key of C, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

It should be noted that Croce did not do all the Kipling lyrics; he condensed them quite a bit.

Regardless, it's a great interpretation IMO.

Jay

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling/Jim Croce)
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 09 Jul 23 - 08:26 PM

I decided to do a little digging and found I had the companion book to The Faces I’ve Been, from 1975. Totally forgot it was right there on the shelf, staring me in the face. Had it all along. Another Senior Moment.

Anyway, the chords for Gunga Din are there. Actually, the intro is fingerpicked on the banjo and I can’t really reproduce it properly, but the chords are as follows. They repeat throughout the whole song, even during the spoken parts. The Ab chord is played on the fourth fret.

Gunga Din (by Rudyard Kipling, adapted by Jim Croce)

[Spoken over banjo intro:]
You may talk of gin and beer
When you're stationed 'way out here
An' you're sent to penny fights
An' Aldershot it
But when it comes to slaughter
You'll do your work for water
An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots
Of 'im that's got it

Now in [Cm]Inja's sunny [Bb]clime
Where I [Ab]used to spend my [Gm]time
[Ab]Servin' Her [Bb]Majesty the [Cm]Queen
Of [Eb]all the black faced [Bb]crew
The [Ab]finest man I [Gm]knew
Was [Ab]regimental bhisti, Gunga [Cm]Din

The uniform he wore
Was nothin' much before
An' rather less than half of that behind
But a piece of twisty rag
An' a goatskin water bag
Was all the field equipment he could find

When a sweatin' troop train lay
In a sidin' through the day
Where the heat would make
Your bloomin' eyebrows crawl
We shouted, "Harry by"
Till our throats were bricky-dry
Then whopped him 'cause he
Couldn't serve us all

He would dot an' carry one
Till the longest day was done
An' never seemed to knew the use of fear
If we charged a broke or cut
You could bet your bloomin' nut
He'd be waitin' fifty paces
Right flank rear

With his mussick on his back
He would skip to our attack
An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire"
An' for all his dirty hide
He was white, clear white inside
When he went to tend the wounded under fire

[Spoken:]
It was Din, Din, Din
With the bullets kickin' dust
Spots on the green
And when the cartridges ran out
You could hear the front files shout
Send ammunition mules, and Gunga Din!

I shan't forget the night
When I fell behind the fight
With a bullet where my belt plate
Should a' been
I was chokin' mad with thirst
An' the man that spied me first
Was our good ol' grinnin'
Gruntin' Gunga Din

He lifted up my head
An' he plugged me where I bled
An' he gave me half a pint of water green
It was crawlin' and it stunk
But of all the drinks I've drunk
I'm most grateful to the one from Gunga Din

He carried me away to where I duly lay
An' a bullet came and
Drilled the beggar clean
He carried me inside
An' just before he died
"I hope you liked your drink"
Said Gunga Din

So, I'll meet him later on
In the place where he as gone
Where it's always double drill
And no canteen
He'll be squattin' on the coals
Givin' drinks to poor damned souls
I'll catch a swig in hell from Gunga Din

[Spoken:]
It was Din, Din, Din
You Lazarushian leather Gunga Din
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you
By the livin' God that made you
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling/Jim Croce)
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 09 Jul 23 - 08:59 PM

FACETS
  1. Steel Rail Blues
  2. Coal Tattoo
  3. Texas Rodeo
  4. Charley Green, Play That Slide Trombone
  5. The Ballad Of Gunga Din
  6. Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp From Savannah)
  7. Sun Come Up
  8. The Blizzard
  9. Running Maggie
  10. Until It's Time For Me To Go
  11. Big Fat Woman

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Gunga Din (Rudyard Kipling/Jim Croce)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Aug 23 - 07:23 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_rcX8axfFI