06 Mar 00 - 02:03 PM (#190463) Subject: Lyrics request - 'Roll on buddy' From: Max Tone Anybody know the lyrics to Roll on Buddy, and who wrote it/first recorded it? |
06 Mar 00 - 02:43 PM (#190489) Subject: Lyr Add: ROLL ON BUDDY From: Froodo I don't know its origin, but I got a record of Jack elliot doing "roll on buddy"... Something like:
Roll on buddy, roll on
I've got a home in Tennessee
My baby wants a $9 shawl
Baby where you been so long
Roll on Buddy, roll on |
06 Mar 00 - 03:31 PM (#190509) Subject: RE: Lyrics request - 'Roll on buddy' From: Max Tone Ta, Froodo, I heard cajun band Le Rue do it on a live tape I recorded in 87 or so. I've made out somma da wurds, but most are different from yours, or I can't make em out so maybe there's lotsa verses. I'll post mine when I've listened to them again & typed em up, by which time we might have a few more replies. Rob |
06 Mar 00 - 03:46 PM (#190517) Subject: RE: Lyrics request - 'Roll on buddy' From: Froodo Yeah, I think Jack did a bunch of his lyrics off the top of his head, especially in the early days. But, that's one of the things I love about old folk & blues tunes...there are as many different sets of lyrics as there are people that sing 'em. Make each tune your own, froodo |
06 Mar 00 - 05:31 PM (#190586) Subject: RE: Lyrics request - 'Roll on buddy' From: Amos The one couplet I learned to this song goes: Roll on buddy |
06 Mar 00 - 06:58 PM (#190659) Subject: RE: Lyrics request - 'Roll on buddy' From: Gary T Amos, at first I thought, as it seems you might have, that the song in question was "Nine Pound Hammer", in which the chorus is exactly what you wrote. It appears, however, that this is indeed a different song, with the TITLE of "Roll on Buddy". |
06 Mar 00 - 07:41 PM (#190688) Subject: RE: Lyrics request - 'Roll on buddy' From: Stewie Froodo I agree. Ramblin' Jack sang different lyrics each time he recorded it. It seems to be made up of floaters anyway. He sometimes sings 'Tempe got a nine dollar shawl' etc. In one version, these macabre lines appear:
Well I never liked no railroad man --Stewie. |
06 Mar 00 - 08:30 PM (#190715) Subject: Lyr Add: KIMBIE (Jackson C. Frank) From: Stewie The late Jackson C. Frank also used the melody for a song, also made up of floaters, that shares some of the lyrics posted by Froodo. He was another American singing around the London folk scene about the same time as Ramblin' Jack and Derroll were there. He gave a poignant performance: KIMBIE
Kimbie wants a nine dollar shawl
Kimbie let your hair hang down
Well, I wished I was a mole in the ground Transcribed from Jackson C. Frank 'Blues Run the Game' Mooncrest CRESTCD 021. --Stewie. |
07 Mar 00 - 04:31 PM (#191360) Subject: Lyr Add: NINE POUND HAMER (Roll On Buddy) From: Pontiac Joe NINE POUND HAMMER (Roll on Buddy)
chorus: Roll on buddy! Don't you roll so slow.
This nine pound hammer is a little too heavy
I'm a- goin' on the mountain for to see my baby
Well when I die, you can make my tombstone
Ain't nobody's hammer on this here mountain
Well this old hammer, it killed John Henry
An' this old hammer rings like silver
It's a long way to Harlan, it's a long way to Hazard
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07 Mar 00 - 05:19 PM (#191403) Subject: RE: Lyrics request - 'Roll on buddy' From: GUEST,dick greenhaus The version quoted most frequently (9 Pound Hammer) was assembled from earlier sources, with a largely re-written tune, by Merle Travis in 1941. Earlier versions (or at leasat songs with overlapping verses) incclued Brad Kincaid's (193?) Roll On John and Swannanoa Tunnel, collected by Cecil Sharp in 1918 (he thought it was Swannanoa Town-O). Archie Green's fine book "Only a Miner" devotes a chapter to this one. |