Solve, create, share and talk about jigsaw puzzles

A Folkie Halloween: Old Dan Tucker

Bookmarked Bookmark Solve this jigsaw puzzle later
ShareShare with your friends
ReportReport as inappropriate
18
41
Solve puzzle
18 pieces
41 solves
Solve puzzle

Thanks for sharing. Here is your html-code:

Why are you reporting this puzzle?

[25 or 30 years ago, when I was living in an old-time music co-op, we had a Halloween party. Since staples of traditional music include mayhem, infidelity, murder, and accidental death, a housemate and I decided we should augment the normal decorations with tombstones of figures who died in the old songs. We took a field trip to the Mount Auburn Cemetery, then - with pencil, ink washes, and a touch of colored pencil - we made four tombstones on watercolor paper bonded to foam-core and then cut out. Unpacking from the latest move, I rediscovered them.]

Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man,
Washed his face in a frying pan,
Combed his hair with a wagon wheel,
And died with a toothache in his heel.

Git out the way, Old Dan Tucker,
You're too late to come to supper.
Supper's over, breakfast cookin',
Old Dan Tucker just standin' there a-lookin'.

This one is by my housemate. Old Dan Tucker is pretty well-known; it's even used as a camp song. Like most folk tunes, different people sing it different ways; they borrow verses from other songs, or make up their own. Here are a few versions on YouTube:

Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers - I'm not sure if this was originally released on cylinder or 78-rpm record; no doubt this was part of the explosion in "hillbilly" music back in the '20s when the new record companies found there was a market for it. It's certainly a version every old-time musician knew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-adnK_jZn0

A contemporary string band playing their version on the old instruments and in traditional styles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbnInYCM-80

Far out: Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band in Dublin (note the audience all know it, and are singing along while Springsteen is still coming on stage):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO0yV_HcXx4
Why this advertisement?

Leaderboard

  1. JennyG660:27
  2. Grump0:28
  3. Kizzykat0:33
  4. JM_Cookie0:33
  5. jvsofield0:34
  6. pumpkinhead0:34
  7. MeMaw230:38
  8. Robbos0:38
  9. badenglish0:39
  10. wshealy0:40

Comments

Please sign in to comment. Don't have a profile? Join now! Joining is absolutely free and no personal information is required.

pumpkinhead

We sang this at camp....a great old song.....and LOVE the history that you have created with the tombstones!!

dondi

I know what you mean, Jacki - it's been running through my head, too. Probably why it's continued to be popular, and is even used as a children's song. :-). It was quite interesting to see that the Irish audience in Dublin knew it too - at least the chorus!

bluebird42

Ok, Don, now I can't get this out of my head. Frustrating when the only words I remember are "Get out the way Old Dan Tucker, It's too late to get your supper". I know most of the words to Darcy Farrow, we used to play that one a lot, but it's Old Dan Tucker who's stuck there.

Fabulous gravestones!

JM_Cookie

I think I have heard this one !

LadyGator

These are great! Thanx for sharing, Happy Halloween!

Why this advertisement?