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Lyr Req: Rosin the Bow? / The Good in Living

13 Dec 97 - 03:17 PM (#17485)
Subject: Rosin the Bow
From:

Can anybody tell me the source for Rosin the Bow? This is the version that goes: "...You'd better rosin up your bow, before it's time to go..." The attribution is needed for this to go into the sequel to Rise Up Singing, the new songbook being created by Sing Out, by Peter Blood, Annie Patterson, and their friends. I like the song and recommended it for the book, but I don't know where it came from.

If you know, please send email to: conant@uic.edu because I don't often check in here. Thanks.

Roger Conant

13 Dec 97 - 10:17 PM (#17507)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Jon

Funny, I know of a song named "Rosin the Beau" ("I've traveled this wide world over/and now to another I'll go..."). It is any funny strange relation?

Jon

14 Dec 97 - 01:24 AM (#17523)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Joe Offer

Yeah, and I know the TUNE, but I didn't know the "Rosin the Beau" lyrics. What other songs use the "Rosin the Beau" tune? The other lyrics are on the tip of my tongue, but they won't come out. Given my musical background (or lack thereof), it's probably an Alan Sherman song, or something.
-Joe Offer-

14 Dec 97 - 01:31 PM (#17524)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Bruce O.

I can't find my reference now, but recall that "Rosin the Beau" was published in the U. S. in 1838. There have been claims and counter claims as to whether the song was really an older Irish one. No one seems to have found an earlier Irish version. For discussion of the origins of the tune (earlier tunes are quite similar) see S. P. Bayard's 'Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife', #620, 1982.

14 Dec 97 - 01:33 PM (#17525)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Bob Schwarer

Check your Clancy Brothers(& Tommy Makem) records. I don't remember which one it's on Right off the top of my brain.

Bob S.

14 Dec 97 - 04:58 PM (#17533)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Alice

If you search the database @drink @death, you will find the lyrics that were used by Clancy/Makem. There may be confusion with the title, since The Clancy Brother songbook (©64) uses Bow, not Beau. I could never understand how that French word "Beau" ever got inserted in the title, since it is about a dying fiddler, and it only makes sense to use "bow" with the word "rosin". Could this be an old example of a mondegreen? Alice in Montana

14 Dec 97 - 07:21 PM (#17539)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: dulcimer

I'm sure BruceO. can be more specific and accurate, but having played Rosin and other Irish tunes, I find it very similiar to Down in the Sally Gardens and Men of the West (referring to an uprising at the end of the 1800 century in Ireland.) The tune was used many times during the 1800 as a tune to political songs--ie, praising Lincoln in 1860.

15 Dec 97 - 02:08 AM (#17560)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Bill

Howdy All,

Other songs that I know of (mostly thanks to Pete Seeger recordings, but I've also found them elsewhere) that use the Rosin the Beau tune for, "I've travelled this wide world all over" include: Lincoln and Liberty, Too; Old Settler's Song or Acres of Clams (from the Pacific Northwest); and Acres of Clams (from the Clamshell Alliance demonstrations about the Seabrook, New Hampshire Nuclear Plant written by Charlie King). There have been other sets of words to the tune from what I've heard. Both versions of Acres of Clams can be found in Rise Up Singing, and the Old Settler's Song is in DT.

Allinkausay,
Bill

15 Dec 97 - 07:37 AM (#17562)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Wolfgang Hell

Songs that use this tune? "The ancient and old Irish condome", "The catalpa", "He's the man for me", "Lincoln and liberty", "Down in a willow garden", "Rosin the beau" are songs from the DT-database in which this air is mentioned.
Wolfgang

15 Dec 97 - 10:46 AM (#17571)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Jon W.

The Clancy/Makem version of "Rosin the Bow" is on their "Irish Drinking Songs" recording. Their version of "Men of the West" is on "Songs of the Irish Rebellions" (I believe that's the correct title but I'm probably wrong again).

I like to think the Bow/Beau thing is not a mondegreen but a clever play on words. Well, not all that clever.

15 Dec 97 - 04:26 PM (#17591)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Joe Offer

Bill, the song I was thinking of was "I've Travelled This Wide World All Over." I can't find the lyrics in the database. Have you got 'em?
-Joe-

15 Dec 97 - 04:56 PM (#17597)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Bruce O.

Joe, yours is in DT, at least in my downloaded Apr. 1997 version as "Rosin, the Beau".

I haven't relocated my referrence to the 1838 copy yet. Sigmund Spaeth, 'Read 'em and Weep', p. 40, gives a version of "Rosin the Beau" commencing "I live for the good of the country", with the tune. He mentions 4 political songs from 1840 to 1875 to the tune, and gives 3 of them.

15 Dec 97 - 05:12 PM (#17600)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Bruce O.

According to 'The American Heritage Songbook', 1969, where words and music are given on p. 50, the song was published in 1838, but no details are given.

15 Dec 97 - 05:35 PM (#17606)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Joe Offer

I guess you're right, Bruce, but there's another song with that tune, and it still isn't coming. My brain has finally been able to spit out a corrupted fragment, but I couldn't find it in the database.
I expect to live here 'til I'm 90.
It's the nukes that must go and not me.
Oh, here it is. Bill mentioned it earlier. It's the anti-nuke version of "Acres of Clams," by Charlie King. Guess I'd better take it upon myself to post the lyrics, hey?
-Joe Offer-

16 Dec 97 - 08:50 PM (#17716)
Subject: Lyr Add: ROSIN THE BEAU (from Sigmund Spaeth)^^
From: rich r

Following Bruce's comments above, Sigmund Spaeth insists that "Beau" is the authentic spelling and that Old Rosin was more of a playboy and boozer than a musician. He also firmly asserts that the lyrics that he published are the "correct version of the original." Sigmund was nothing if not humble. Here is his version, which has a lot in common with other versions.

ROSIN THE BEAU

I live for the good of my country,
And my sons are all growing low,
But I hope that my next generation
Will resemble old Rosin, the beau.
I've travelled this country all over,
And now to the next I will go;
For I know that good quarters await me,
To welcome old Rosin the beau.

In the gay round of pleasure I've travelled.
Nor will I behind leave a foe;
And when my companions are jovial,
They will drink to old Rosin, the beau.
But my life is now drawn to a closing,
And all will at last be so:
So we'll take a full bumper at parting,
To the name of old Rosin, the beau.

When I'm dead and laid out on the counter,
The people all making a show,
Just sprinkle plain whiskey and water
On the corpse of old Rosin, the beau.
I'll have to be buried, I reckon,
And the ladies will all want to know,
And they'll lift up the lid of my coffin,
Saying, "Here lies old Rosin, the beau.

Oh! When to my grave I am going,
The children will all want to go;
They'll run to the doors and the windows,
Saying, "There goes old Rosin, the beau."
Then pick me out six trusty fellows,
And let them all stand in a row,
And dig a big hole in a circle,
And in it toss Rosin, the beau.

Then shape me out two little donochs,
Place one at my head and my toe,
And do not forget to scratch on it,
The name of old Rosin, the beau.
Then let those six trusty good fellows,
Oh! Let them all stand in a row,
And take down the big-bellied bottle,
And drink to old Rosin, the beau.^^

rich r

17 Dec 97 - 12:32 PM (#17748)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: dick greenhaus

To return to the original query, I believe the song requested is the one with the chorus: And all the world plays like a tune That starts too late and ends too soon You'd better rosin up your bow Before it's time to go.

Steve Sellors, I think. I don't know the rest.

17 Dec 97 - 06:48 PM (#17780)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE GOOD IN LIVING (Sellors)^^
From: Joe Offer

Oh, THAT song!

THE GOOD IN LIVING
(Steven Sellors)

If the fiddle strings felt no bow-stroke,
If the concertina bellows broke,
If no one sang or cracked a joke
Then where's the good in living?

Chorus:
And all of life plays like a tune,
It sounds so sweet and ends too soon
You'd better rosin up your bow
Before it's time to go.

If no one threw their feet about,
If the Guinness boys stopped making stout
You'd soon forget what life is all about
And soon become quite thirsty.
Chorus

When all you own is hocked or pawned,
When all your money's spent and gone
You'll find out what you've been living on
And never even knew!
Chorus

If the fiddle strings felt no bow-stroke,
If the concertina bellows broke,
If no one sang or cracked a joke
Then where's the good in living?^^

(On "Faith's Favorites," a CD by Faith Petric, FaithPet@aol.com)
Also recorded by Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen on "When Howie Met Sally." Anybody know of other recordings?
Glad you brought us back on track, Dick. Anybody know how to get hold of Sellors?
-Joe Offer-

Click to play

18 Dec 97 - 02:59 PM (#17858)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: dick greenhaus

Or (less reverently)
..And all the night plays like a song
That starts too soon and lasts too long
I hope the words are in The Book
There's no place else to look.

18 Dec 97 - 03:17 PM (#17866)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: Alice

I love this forum. It never ceases to amaze me how much interesting music information we share with each other. Definitely enhances my day. Alice in Montana

17 Jan 98 - 01:25 PM (#19380)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From:

Rosin the bow is correct as in putting resin on your fiddle bow to play. I have the lyrics if anyone is interested they can contact me at deni@atcon.com.

17 Jan 98 - 02:07 PM (#19382)
Subject: RE: Rosin the Bow
From: dick greenhaus

A couple of people have asked me how to find songs in the Digital Tradition that share a tune. There's a trick: ROSINBOW won't do it, because there's a sneaky unprintable character preceding all the tunefile names. *ROSINBOW, on the other hand, will.