Ducks In the Pond/ Ducks On The Millpond
Traditional Old-Time Breakdown- North Carolina- Mt. Airy, Virginia-Grayson County,
ARTIST: Alan Lomax collected the tune in 1937 from Fields Ward- Last verse from Tommy Jarrell.
Listen: Emmett Lundy; Ducks On The Millpond
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1937;
RECORDING INFO: Phillips/Sutphin, Hollow Rock String Band. County 748, Tommy Jarrell- "Come and Go with Me." Rounder 0035, Fuzzy Mountain String Band- "Summer Oaks and Porch" (1973. Learned from Tommy Jarrell, Mt. Airy, N.C.). Creed, Kyle. Clawhammer Banjo, County 701, LP (1965), cut# 4; Fuzzy Mountain String Band. Summer Oaks and Porch, Rounder 0035, LP (197?), cut# 14a; Iron Mountain String Band (Galax). Music from the Mountain, Heritage (Galax) 101C, Cas (1992), cut# 9; Jarrell, Tommy. Come and Go With Me, County 748, LP (1974), cut# 2; Lundy, Emmett. Round the Heart of Old Galax, Vol 3., County 535, LP (1980), cut# 4; Lundy, Emmett. Fiddle Tunes from Grayson County, String 802, LP (1977), cut# 14; Melton, Isaac. Old Five String, Vol 2, Heritage (Galax) 052, Cas (1991), cut# 14; Rutherford, Ernest; and the Gold Hill Band. Old Cap'n Rabbit, Heritage (Galax) 080, Cas (1989), cut# 1;
OTHER NAMES: "Deaf Woman's Courtship."
SOURCES: Fuzzy Mountain String Band (N.C.) [Brody]; Emmett Lundy (Galax, Va.) b. 1864 who had the tune from legendary Grayson County fiddler Greenberry Leonard [Krassen, Phillips]; Kirk Sutphin [Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 93. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1983; pg. 31-32. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 76 (two versions). Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 19; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: Collected by Alan Lomax from Field's Ward (Wade Ward's father) in 1937. Title and verses tend to be floaters.
Kuntz: "Old-Time, Breakdown found in southwest Va. (Grayson County), Mt. Airy, N.C. D Major. ADAE tuning. AABB; AA'BB'. Not related to “Ducks on the Pond.” According to Lomax, the tune is related to "Old Dan Tucker." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Below is a version by Fields Ward, Galax Area, 1937:
DUCKS ON THE MILLPOND- Fields Ward/Tommy Jarrell
1. Ducks in the millpond,
A-geese in the ocean
A-hug them pretty girls
If I take a notion.
2. Ducks in the millpond,
A-geese in the clover,
A-jumped in the bed,
And the bed turned over.
Chorus:
Lord, Lord, gonna get on a rinktum,
Lord, Lord, gonna get on a rinktum.
3. Ducks in the millpond,
A-geese in the clover,
A-fell in the millpond,
Wet all over.
4. Up the hickory,
Down the pine,
Tore my shirt-tail
Way up behind.
5. I looked down the road.
Saw Sal a-comin?,
Thought to my soul
I'd kill myself a-runnin
6. Monkey in the barnyard,
Monkey in the stable.
Monkey git your hair cut
Soon as you are able.
7. Had a little pony,
His name was Jack;
Put him in a stable,
And he jumped through a crack.
8. Chew my terbacker
And spit my juice,
Want to go to heaven,
But it ain't no use.
--------------------Additional verses
9. Ducks in the millpond,
Geese in the clover,
Fell in the millpond,
Wet all over. (Lomax)
10. Rain come and wet me,
Sun come and dry me,
Step back pretty girl,
Don’t you come nigh me. (Tommy Jarrell)
|