Drunkard’s Hiccups – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 79

Doh! Who would have thought it would be so tough to document that Drunkard’s Hiccups was a public domain tune. According to my sources, this tune is REALLY old, like 400 years old give or take.

I have known the basic Jack of Diamonds melody for long enough that I don’t know where I heard it first, but my favorite version is Bruce Molsky’s. He is just plain cool.

Get sheet music for Drunkard’s Hiccups here

 

DRUNKEN HICCUPS [1]. AKA‑ “Drunkard’s Hiccups,” “Drunken Hiccoughs.” AKA and see “Clinch Mountain,” “The Cuckoo [5]” (Ford), “Jack of Diamonds [3],” “The Lame Beggar” (Ire.), “The Mocking Bird” (Pa.), “My Name is Dick Kelly” (Ire.), “Rye Whiskey [1],” “Un livre de tabac” (A pound of tobacco), “Way Up on Clinch Mountain.” Old‑Time, Texas Style; Air, Waltz, Jig, and Song Tune (3/4 time). USA; Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona. A Major. AEac# (Brody, Jarrell, Reiner & Anick, Shumway): AEae (Ford) tunings. AABCC (Brody, Ford, Thede): AA’BB’CC’DD’ (Reiner & Anick, Shumway). Paul Clayton identifies the tune as “old and of English origin.” Arizona fiddler Kartchner called it a “favorite from the South.” The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940’s by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph. It was listed by the Tuscaloosa News of March 28, 1971, as one of the specialty tunes of Tuscalosa, Alabama, fiddler “Monkey Brown,” who frequently competed in fiddlers’ contests in the 1920’s and 30’s (Cauthen, 1990), and it was recorded by Herbert Halpert for the Library of Congress in 1939 on two separate occasions by Mississippi fiddlers Charles Long and W.E. Claunch. Mt. Airy, North Carlolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell knew the melody as a show piece in a repertoire heavy with dance tunes, having learned it from his father, Ben Jarrell (who recorded it with Frank Jenkins in 1927). Ben Jarrell, according to Tommy, had the tune from “old man” Houston Galyen at Low Gap, North Carolina. Bayard (1981) states it was a vocal piece before it was an instrumental one, and identifies the following songs from the British Isles and America as using the tune: “Johnnie Armstrong,” “Tod(d)lin’ Hame,” “Bacach,” “Robie Donua Gorach,” “The Wagoner’s Lad,” “Clinch Mountain,” “The Cuckoo [5],” “Rye Whiskey [1],” “Jack of Diamonds [3],” “Saints Bound for Heaven,” “Separation,” “John Adkins’ Farewell.” Instrumental variations from the British Isles he has identified include “Drunk at Night and Dry i’ the Morning [1]” (noted variously in 3/4 and 6/8 time) and “Lude’s Lament.”  Two and a half pages of the song can be found in “The Oxford Book of Light Verse.” InPennsylvania, reported Bayard, it was customary for fiddlers to sing the repeated line:

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Oh, I will never get drunk anymore!

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to the first (or sometimes second) strain. Most American versions include a part that is supposed to suggest hiccups.

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I’m a rambler and a gambler a long ways from home,

And them that don’t like me can leave me alone.

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I’ll take up my fiddle and rosin my bow,

I’ll make myself welcome wherever I go.

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I’ll eat when I’m hungry and drink when I’m dry,

If a tree don’t fall on me I’ll live till I die.

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Its beefsteak when I’m hungry and whiskey when I’m dry,

Money when I’m hard up, sweet heaven when I die.

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I’ll cross the wide ocean my fortune to try,

And when I get over I’ll sit down and cry.

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It isn’t the long journey that troubles me so,

Its leavin’ the darlin’ I’ve courted so long.

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Hic‑cough, O Lawdy, how bad do I feel,

Hic‑cough, O Lawdy, how bad do I feel.

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Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, you’re no friend to me,

You killed my poor daddy, goddam you try me.

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Raw whiskey, raw whiskey, raw whiskey, I cry,

Sweet heaven, sweet heaven, whenever I die.      (Thede)

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Rye Whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I crave,

If I don’t get rye whiskey I’ll go to my grave.

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I eat when I’m hungry, and drink when I’m dry,

And if whiskey don’t kill me I’ll live till I die.      (Ford)

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Way out on Clinch Mountain I wander alone,

Drunk as the devil and can’t find my home.

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Oh Lordy, how drunk I do feel {Hic}

Oh Lordy how sleepy I feel.                 (Clayton)

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Played cards in England, I’ve gambled in Spain,

Goin’ back to Rhode Island, Gonna’ play my last game.

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I’ll tune up my fiddle, and rosin the bow,

Make myself welcome, wherever I go.

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Jack o’ diamonds, jack o’ diamonds, I know you from old,

Robbed by poor pockets of silver and gold.

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Corn whiskey and pretty women, they’ve been my downfall,

Beat me and they bang me, but I love them for all.

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My shoes is all tore up, my toes’re stickin out,

Don’t get some corn whiskey, I’m agoin’ up the spout.

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Gonna’ beat on the counter, or I’ll make the glass ring,

More brandy, more brandy, more brandy to bring.

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Gonna’ drink I’m gonna’ gamble, my money is my own,

Them that don’t like me can leave me alone.               (T. Jarrell)

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A Cajun tune (in the repertoire of Dewey Balfa) called “Un liver de tabac” (A Pound of Tobacco) is the same melody but employs an entirely different lyric.

JACK OF DIAMONDS [3]. AKA and see “Rye Whiskey [1],” “The Drunken Hiccups [1].” Old-Time, Fiddle Piece (3/4 time). USA; central West Virginia, western North Carolina. DGdg tuning (Harvey Sampson). This old tune (which often goes by the name “Rye Whiskey” or “Drunken Hiccoughs” in the South and Midwest) has been often used as a song tune as well as an instrumental piece; Bayard (1981) thinks the vocal set preceded the instrumental versions (see notes for “Drunken Hiccups [1].” North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell learned the tune from his father, Ben Jarrell (who recorded it in 1927), who had it from a renowned 19th century fiddler named Houston Galyean, “which seems to date (the tune) back at least to the Civil War days” (Richard Nevins). The tune can be heard played by the band in the bar room scene of Walter Hill’s 1980 film The Long Riders. Augusta Heritage Recordings AHR-004C, Harvey Sampson and the Big Possum String Band – “Flat Foot in the Ashes” (1986/1994. Learned by Calhoun County, W.Va., fiddler Harvey Sampson from his father). County 723, Cockerham, Jenkins, and Jarrell‑ “Back Home in the Blue Ridge.” County 790, Leftwich & Higginbotham – “No One to Bring Home Tonight” (1984).