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Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?

26 Sep 04 - 09:22 PM (#1281868)
Subject: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: Kudzuman

Someone I know recently saw that one particular old-time band spelled the well known fiddle tune "Dubuque" as "Debuque" and insists that this is the correct spelling. That is the only time I've seen the tune title spelled that way. Any consensus? Thanks in advance!

Kudzuman


26 Sep 04 - 09:54 PM (#1281888)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: Jerry Rasmussen

Dubuque, Iowa is Dubuque. Don't know about the fiddle tune. Sounds like Debunk to me.

Jerry


27 Sep 04 - 09:06 AM (#1282202)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: Wilfried Schaum

MA FERGUSON. Old-Time, Breakdown. A version of "Duck River," and part of the larger "Dubuque" tune family. Moses Bonner, who recorded the tune in the 1920's, was a fiddler from Fort Worth, Texas, although he was born in Alabama. Victor 19669 (78 RPM), Moses J. Bonner (1925).

can be found here

more about Dubuque

Semms to me that Dubuque is right, could be muddled up with Debuque, Ill., or simply bad orthography = FSC (Failed Spelling Contest)


27 Sep 04 - 01:34 PM (#1282411)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme

...and then there's the short little song I sang for ten years out on the Mississippi River gigging on a steamboat:

Dubuque, Dubuque, you make me want to........shiver,
With your wide, wide streets and your Mississippi River,
I love you with my heart---I love you with my liver,
Dubuque----boom, boom--------by the river!!

Art Thieme


27 Sep 04 - 02:00 PM (#1282431)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: GUEST,Russ

Who insisted? The person you know? The old-time band? What was the band's source for the spelling? We they serious about the claim?


27 Sep 04 - 02:26 PM (#1282448)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

If you look at google, there are a number of listings for "Debuque," Iowa- all mistaken. A common spelling error that makes some dubuquians laugh and others cry. Some merchants stick both in their internet adds.


28 Sep 04 - 02:08 PM (#1283338)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: Geoff the Duck

Okay folks - you've told us how to spell it. Now can somebody explain how I should pronounce it?
Serious question - honest!
It is a tune I first heard about 20 years back on one of Bill Spence's (Fennigs All Stars) hammered dulcimer records. It is one I never got around to learning, but as I am teaching myself to play Old-time fiddle, it seems like one I ought to get to grips with. Which - of course - leaves me with the problem that if somebody asks the title of the tune, I can at this point only guess how locals would pronounce the name.
Can anybody put it down in non-expert phonetics - i.e. "sounds like" ....

And thanks to Wilfried Schaum for the link to The Fiddler's Companion website. It seems to be an absolute gem just for its cross-referencing of alternatiuve titles for tunes, plus the listing of related tunes. When we then add the number of them which are in ABC format so we can listen to them if we don't already know the tune.
I've got it bookmarked.
Quack!!
Geoff the Duck.


28 Sep 04 - 02:54 PM (#1283369)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: PoppaGator

Geoff:

duh-BYUKE. Rhymes with "puke."

Best I can do.


28 Sep 04 - 04:39 PM (#1283457)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: Geoff the Duck

tHANKS!1
qUACK!
gTd.
OH BUGGER THE CAPSLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


29 Sep 04 - 12:17 AM (#1283730)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: leeneia

Dubuque. Rhymes with "the Duke."


29 Sep 04 - 04:27 AM (#1283820)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: Geoff the Duck

The Duke?
That means I'll probably get confused and end up calling it John Wayne's reel :0)
Quack!!!
GtD.


29 Sep 04 - 09:09 PM (#1284524)
Subject: RE: Origins: Dubuque or Debuque?
From: GUEST,Augie

if you're from Chicago, then its DaBuque-as in DaBulls,DaBears...well, you get daIdea.