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"Soldier's Joy" is a fiddle tune, classified as a reel or country dance. [1] It is popular in the American fiddle canon, in which it is touted as "an American classic" [1] but traces its origin to Scottish fiddling traditions. [2] 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'. [2] According to documentation at the United States Library of Congress, [3] it is "one of the oldest and most widely distributed tunes" [1] and is rated in the top ten most-played old time fiddle tunes.[ citation needed ] The tune dates as early as the 1760s. [4] 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 American Civil War soldiers to alleviate pain.
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.[ citation needed ]
The tune came to represent substance use to alleviate pain during the Civil War. [4] This is corroborated in concurring secondary sources.[ citation needed ]
The IHIC[ clarification needed ] 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 (3×)
Sing you a song called the soldier's joy
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 (3×)
Sing you a song called the soldier's joy
Grasshopper sitting on a sweet potato vine (3×)
Along come a chicken and he's say "you're mine"
I'm gonna get you there don't you want to go? (3×)
All for the soldier's joy
Chicken in a bread pan scratching that dough
Granny does your dog bite no child no [6]
All for the soldier's joy [7]
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Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. The genre is considered a precursor to modern country music.
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"The Parting Glass" is a Scottish traditional song, often sung at the end of a gathering of friends. It has also long been sung in Ireland, where it remains popular and has strongly influenced how it is often sung today. It was purportedly the most popular parting song sung in Scotland before Robert Burns wrote "Auld Lang Syne".
James Gideon "Gid" Tanner was an American old-time fiddler and one of the earliest stars of what would come to be known as country music. His band, the Skillet Lickers, was one of the most innovative and influential string bands of the 1920s and 1930s. Its most notable members were Clayton McMichen, Dan Hornsby (vocals), Riley Puckett and Robert Lee Sweat (guitar).
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The Skillet Lickers were an old-time band from Georgia, United States.
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Old time fiddle is a genre of American folk music. "Old time fiddle tunes" derived from European folk dance tunes such as Jig, Reel, Breakdown, Schottische, Waltz, Two Step and Polka. The fiddle may be accompanied by banjo or other instruments but are nevertheless called "fiddle tunes". The genre traces from the colonization of North America by immigrants from England, France, Germany, Ireland, and Scotland. It is separate and distinct from traditions which it has influenced or which may in part have evolved from it, such as bluegrass, country blues, variants of western swing and country rock.
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