Today, I was in the mood for something a little bit fast and a little bit old timey. I played a little of the basic melody before fiddling around with it.

This song takes me back to sitting in the Lunch Room (Warm Up Room for the National Old Time Fiddle Contest) at the Weiser, ID High School. Often when you were sitting there, you would find yourself in the middle of a Jam Session by LEGENDS. At this moment, Dick Barrett and Texas Shorty were fiddling, and they started playing Soldier’s Joy. They played it for about 5 minutes, and really played the heck out of it, really sweet stuff. Shorty leaned over to me after all that great playing and said, “Do you remember what that song’s called?”

The  truth be told, I have those moments all the time, where I know the melody to a tune, I know I have played it before, and I have no trouble playing it, but I can’t remember for the life of me what it’s name is. In this case, I can, and I hope you enjoy Soldier’s Joy.

Soldier’s Joy according to Wikipedia

“Soldier’s Joy” is a fiddle tune, classified as a reel or country dance. It is popular in the American fiddle canon, in which it is touted as “an American classic” but traces its origin to Scottish fiddling traditions.  and Irish fiddle traditions. It has been played in Scotland for over 200 years, and Robert Burns used it for the first song of his cantata ‘The Jolly Beggars’. According to documentation at the United States Library of Congress, it is “one of the oldest and most widely distributed tunes” and is rated in the top ten most-played Old Time Fiddle tune. According to the Illinois Humanities Center, the tune dates as early as the 1760s. In spite of its upbeat tempo and catchy melody, the term “soldier’s joy” has a much darker meaning than is portrayed by the tune. This term eventually came to refer to the combination of whiskey, beer, and morphine used by Civil War soldiers.

Like many pure tunes with ancient pedigree, the melody of Soldier’s Joy has been used as a basis for construction of songs, which, unlike pure tunes, have lyrics. Robert Burns wrote lyrics for the tune in which a dismembered, homeless veteran sarcastically recounts his delight with battle.Melody as basis for song

Civil War era and post-bellum cultural references

According to the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC), the tune came to represent substance abuse during the Civil War. This is corroborated in concurring secondary sources.

Gimme some of that Soldier’s Joy, you know what I mean

I don’t want to hurt no more my leg is turnin’ green

The IHIC version is as follows:
Twenty-five cents for whiskey, twenty-five cents for beer

Twenty-five cents for morphine, get me out of here.

Chorus: I’m my momma’s pride and joy

I’m my momma’s pride and joy

I’m my momma’s pride and joy

Sing you a song called the soldier’s joy.

Country

Twenty five cents for whiskey, 25 cents for beer

Twenty five cents for morphine get me out of here

cho: I’m my momma’s pride and joy (3X)

Sing you a song called the soldier’s joy

Grasshopper sitting on a sweet potato vine (3X)

Along come a chicken and he’s say your mine.

I’m gonna get you there don’t you want to go (3X)

All for the soldier’s joy

Chicken in a bread pan scratching that dough

Granny does your dog bite no child no…

All for the soldier’s joy

Soldier’s Joy according to the Fiddler’s Companion

SOLDIER’S JOY [1] (Lutgair An Sigeadoir/t-Saigdiura). AKA and see “French Four” [2], “I Am My Mamma’s Darlin’ Child,” “John White,” “The King’s Head,” “The King’s Hornpipe [1],” “(I) Love Somebody [1],” “Payday in the Army,”  ”Rock the Cradle Lucy.” Old‑Time, Bluegrass, American, Canadian, English, Irish, Scottish; Breakdown, Scottish Measure, Hornpipe, Reel, Country Dance and Morris Dance Tune. D Major (almost all versions): G Major (Bacon, Bayard‑Simmons). Standard or ADae (Edden Hammons) tunings. AB (Athole, Bayard‑Simmons, Shaw): AABB (most versions): ABCDE (Cooke {Ex. 54}). One of, if not the most popular fiddle tune in history, widely disseminated in North America and Europe in nearly every tradition; as Bronner (1987) perhaps understatedly remarks, it has enjoyed a “vigorous” life. There is quite a bit of speculation on just what the name ‘soldier’s joy’ refers to. Proffered thoughts seem to gravitate toward money and drugs. In support of the latter is the 1920’s vintage Georgia band the Skillet Lickers, who sang to the melody:

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Well twenty-five cents for the morphine,

and fifteen cents for the beer.

Twenty-five cents for the old morphine

now carry me away from here.

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Bayard (1981) dates it to “at least” the latter part of the 18th century, citing a version that has become standard in James Aird’s 1778 collection (vol. 1, No. 109) and Skillern’s 1780 collection (pg. 21). London publishers Longman and Broderip included it in their Entire New and Compleat Instructions for the Fife in 1785. Kate Van Winkler Keller (1992) says that the hornpipe “Soldier’s Joy” appeared with a song in London in about 1760. John Glen (1891) and Francis Collinson (1966) maintain the first appearance in print of this tune is in Joshua Campbell’s 1778 A Collection of the Newest and Best Reels and Minuets with improvements.  It has been attributed to Campbell himself but Collinson notes it is hardly likely as it is a well known folk dance tune in other countries of Europe. There is also a dance by the same name which is “one of the earliest dances recorded in England, but no date of origin has been established. It is still done in Girton Village as part of a festival dance. The tune is also well known in Ireland” (Linscott, 1939). The melody was used in North‑West England morris dance tradition for a polka step, and also is to be found in the Cotswold morris tradition where it appears as “The Morris Reel,” collected from the village of Headington, Oxfordshire. Scots national poet Robert Burns set some verses to the tune which were published in his Merry Muses of Caledonia. In the first song of Burns’ cantata, The Jolly Beggars, by the soldier, is to the tune of “Soldier’s Joy.” Early versions of “Soldier’s Joy” can be traced to a Scottish source as far back as 1781; variants can be found in Scandinavia, the French Alps, and Newfoundland (Linda Burman‑Hall, “Southern American Folk Fiddle Styles,” Ethnomusicology, vol. 19, #1, Jan. 1975). Jean-Paul Carton identifies a version of “Soldier’s Joy” in the tablature manuscript of French fiddler Pierre Martin, dating from around 1880. He says: “I find (Martin’s) version of Soldier’s Joy—simply referred to as Été [a type of dance], tab #132—surprisingly close to some of the American versions, including the bowing, which is indicated in the tab.” [Reference: Claude Ribouillault, Violon du Poitou, Répertoire de danses en tablatures (Cahier de Pierre Martin, vers 1880), UPCP-Métive, Les Cahiers du CERDO No. 1, CPCP-Métive: 2003].

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Swedish folklorist Jonas Liljestrom writes to say that Danish folk dance researcher Per Sørensen has traced the history of “Soldier’s Joy” in Denmark and Scandinavia, and has written that it can be found in the third volume of Rutherford’s Compleat Collection of two hundred of the most Celebrated Country Dances, Both Old and New, published in Scotland circa 1756. Sørensen’s article includes a transcription of the Rutherford version, nearly identical to the usual melody, and indicates the “Soldier’s Joy” title was used by Rutherford and that it was published with dance directions. Liljestrom cites: Sørensen, Per: “Dansens og musikkens rødder 42: Hornfiffen fra Randers 2.del” (“The Roots of the dance and music part 42: The Randers Hornpipe part 2″), (Published in “Hjemstavnsliv” issue nr. 11, 1999. The magazine is issued by “Landsforeningen Danske Folkedansere” ["National Association of Danish Folk Dancers"] in association with Danske Folkedanseres Spillemandskreds  ["Danish Folkdancers' Association of Fiddlers"].)

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In America the melody is ubiquitous. Early printings of the melody are in Benjamin and Joseph Carr’s Evening Amusement (Philadelphia, 1796), Joshua Cushing’s Fifer’s Companion (Salem, Mass., 1804) and Daniel Steele’s New and Compleat Preceptor for the Flute (Albany, 1815). It was cited as having commonly been played for country dances in Orange County, New York, in the 1930′s (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly), and Bronner (1987) confirms it was a popular piece at New York square dances in the early 20th century. The title appears in a repertoire list of Norway, Maine, fiddler Mellie Dunham (the elderly Dunahm {b. 1853} was Henry Ford’s champion fiddler in the late 1920′s). Musicologist Charles Wolfe (1982) says it was popular with Kentucky fiddlers. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, from the playing of Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940′s, and, for the same institution by Herbert Halpert in 1939 from the playing of Mississippi fiddlers John Hatcher, W.E. Claunch and Stephen B. Tucker. Fiddler and outdoorsman Leizime Brusoe (Rhinelander, Wisconsin), born in Canada around 1870, recorded it on 78 RPM under the title “French Four,” which was actually the name of the dance he usually played it for. “Soldier’s Joy” is one of ‘100 essential Missouri tunes’ listed by Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden. It was also recorded by legendary Galax fiddler Emmett Lundy, and is listed as one of the tunes played at a fiddlers’ convention at the Pike County Fairgrounds, Alabama (as recorded in the Troy Herald of July 6, 1926) {Cauthen, 1990}. Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner said: “Every fiddler plays this. Some not so good” (Shumway). Howe (c. 1867) and Burchenal (1918) print a New England contra dances of the same name with the tune. Tommy Jarrell, the influential fiddler from Mt. Airy, North Carolina, told Peter Anick in 1982 that it was a tune he learned in the early 1920′s when he first began learning the fiddle, at which time it was known as “I Love Somebody” in his region. Soon after it was known in Mt. Airy as “Soldier’s Joy” and, after World War II, as “Payday in the Army.” Another North Carolina fiddler, African-American Joe Thompson, played the tune in CFgd tuning. Gerald Milnes (1999, pg. 12) remarks that tune origins were of significant value to West Virginia musicians who often tried to trace tunes to original sources. It was the first tune learned by Randolph County, W.Va., fiddler Woody Simmons (b. 1911). Braxton County fiddler Melvin Wine (1909-1999), says Milnes, used family lore to attribute the tune to his great-grandfather, Smithy Wine, of Civil War era. Smithy, it seems, had been detained by the Confederates in Richmond under charges of aiding Union soldiers. Although imprisoned, his captors found out he was a fiddler and made him play for a dance, and Smithy later associated the tune with this incident, calling it “Soldier’s Joy.” For further information see Bayard’s (1944) extensive note on this tune and tune family under “The King’s Head.” During a Senate campaign in the 1960′s the piece was played to crowds by Albert Gore Sr., the fiddling father of the Vice President during the Clinton administration (Wolfe, 1997).

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In England, the title appears in Henry Robson’s list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes (“The Northern Minstrel’s Budget”), which he published c. 1800. The novelist Thomas Hardy, himself an accordionist and fiddler, mentions the tune in his Far From the Madding Crowd:

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‘Then,’ said the fiddler, ‘I’ll venture to name that the right

and proper thing is ‘The Soldier’s Joy’ ‑ there being a

gallant soldier married into the farm ‑ hey, my sonnies,

and gentlemen all?’ So the dance begins. As to the merits

of ‘The Soldier’s Joy’, there cannot be, and never were,

two options. It has been observed in the musical circles

of Weatherbury and its vacinity that this melody, at the

end of three‑quarters of an hour of thunderous footing,

still possesses more stimulative properties for the heel

and toe than the majority of other dances at their first opening.

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At the turn into the 20th century the melody was in the repertoire of fiddler William Tilbury (who lived at Pitch Place, midway between Churt and Thursley, Surrey), the last of a family of village fiddlers who had learned his repertoire from an uncle, Fiddler Hammond (died c. 1870), who had taught him to play and who had been the village musician before him. The author of English Folk-Song and Dance concludes that “Soldier’s Joy” was enjoyed in the tradition of this southwest Surry village about 1870, and was one of a number of country dances which survived well into the second half of the 19th century (pg. 144).

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Some of the lyrics which have been sung to the tune are:

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Chicken in the bread tray scratchin’ out dough,

Granny will your dog bite? No, child, no.

Ladies to the center and gents to the bar,

Hold on you don’t go too far.

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Grasshopper sittin on a sweet potato vine, (x3)

Along come a chicken and says she’s mine.

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I’m a‑gonna get a drink, don’t you wanna go? (x3)

Hold on Soldier’s Joy.

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Twenty‑five cents for the malteen,

Fifteen cents for the beer;

Twenty-five cents for the malteen,

I’m gonna take me away from here.

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Love somebody, yes I do, (x3)

Love somebody but I won’t say who.

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I am my mama’s darling child (x3)

And I don’t care for you.

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Refrain

Dance all night, fiddle all day,

That’s a Soldier’s Joy.  (Kuntz)

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The Holy Modal Rounders sang:

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Bold General Washington and old Rochambeau

Buggering the hessians while the fire light’s aglow

Spending all their money, drinking all their pay

They’re never going to end the war this a way.

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In Newfoundland, it is sometimes known as “John White” and sung accompanied by the fiddle or accordion:

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Did you see, did you see, did you see John White?

Did you see, did you see, did you see John White?

Did you see, did you see, did you see John White?

He’s gone around the harbour for to stay all night.

He’s gone around the harbour for to get a dozen beer.

He’s gone around the harbour and he won’t be coming here.

He’s gone around the harbour for to get a cup of tea.

If you sees him will you tell him that I wants he?

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