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I'll Never Get Drunk Any More/Fortune
Traditional Old-Time, Song and Breakdown- "most popular around Galax, Va." (Krassen, 1973).
ARTIST:Perrow: From East Tennessee; negroes; from memory; 1905
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1905 Late 1800’s
RECORDING INFO: Biograph 6003, The Bogtrotters (Galax, Va.) - "The Original Bogtrotters" (Wade, Crockett, and Fields Ward). County 705, Otis Burris- "Virginia Breakdown." County 778, Tommy Jarrell- "Picklin' On Tommy's Porch" (1984). Folkways FTS 31038, Roger Sprung- "Bluegrass Blast." Heritage XXIV, Smokey Valley Boys - "Music of North Carolina" (Brandywine, 1978). Marimac 9009, Andy Cahan - "Old Time Friends" (1987). Tennvale 003, Pete Parish- "Clawhammer Banjo." Rounder 0128, The Backwoods Band- "Jes' Fine" (1980. Influenced by the fiddling of Otis Burris and the singing of Scotty East). Tennvale 002, Barry Poss- "Galax '73." Alden, Ray. Old Time Friends, Marimac 9009, Cas (1987), cut# 3. Backwoods Band. Jes' Fine, Rounder 0128, LP (1979), cut# 1. Blue Ridge Mountain Boys. More Goodies from the Hills, Union Grove SS-3, LP (1969), cut# 1. Bogtrotters (Bog Trotters). Original Bogtrotters, Biograph RC 6003, LP (196?), cut# 12. Boiled Buzzards. Fine Dining, Marimac 9043, Cas (1991), cut#A.09. Burris, Otis; & the Mountain Ranblers. Virginia Breakdown, County 705, LP, cut# 1. Camp Creek Boys. Camp Creek Boys, County 709, LP (1967), cut# 1. Cockerham, Fred. High Atmosphere, Rounder 0028, LP (1974), cut# 12. East, Earnest; & the Pine Ridge Boys. Old Time Mountain Music, County 718, LP (1969), cut# 4. Edwards, Kenneth. Old Time Fiddling at Union Grove. The 38th Annual Old-Time Fi..., Prestige 14039, LP (1964), cut#B.04. Harold and Abe. Cornbred, Molasses and Sassafras Tea, Heritage (Galax) 023, LP, cut# 7 (Once I Had a Fortune). Molsky, Bruce. Lost Boy, Rounder 0361, CD (1996), cut# 7. Old Timers. 28th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers Convention. Galax, Virginia 1963, Kanawha 302, LP (1963), cut# 17. Round Peak Band. Round Peak Band, Marimac 9044, Cas (1992), cut#B.04. Smith, Glen. Traditional Music From Grayson and Carroll Counties, Folkways FS 3811, LP (1962), cut# 23. Smokey Valley Boys. Smokey Valley Boys, Rounder 0029, LP (1974), cut# 4. Smokey Valley Boys. Music of North Carolina, Heritage (Galax) 024 (XXIV), LP (1979), cut#A.09. Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers. Ernest V. Stoneman & his Dixie Mountaineers. 1927-28, Historical HLP-8004, LP (196?), cut# 1 (Once I Had a Fortune). Williams, Vivian. Fiddler, Voyager VLRP 323-S, LP (1978), cu.
OTHER NAMES: "Once I Had a Fortune."
SOURCES: The Bogtrotters (Galax, Va) [Brody]; Charlie Higgins (Galax, Va.) [Krassen]; The Backwoods Band (Kuntz); Tommy Jarrell (Mt. Airy, N.C.) [Kuntz]; Ottis Burris [Phillips]. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 112. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 46. Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pgs. 309-311 (two versions). Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 91; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: From Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc: D Major. Standard or ADAE. AABB. Called a "Blue-Ridge Mountain standard," it is found in western North Carolina and southwest Virginia, but has become particularly identified with Galax, southwestern Virginia, style bands. It was, for example, one of the few tunes recorded by legendary Galax, Va., fiddler Emmett Lundy. Mt. Airy, North Carolina, fiddler Tommy Jarrell (1901-1986) said of the melody: "I can recollect hearing my daddy play it as far back as I can recollect. I don't know where that started from...it was more just an old, well, a flat foot dance tune I'd say.”
Bruce Molsky at the 1991 Fiddle Tunes Festival in Port Townsend, Washington sings the same lyrics as the Backwoods Band.
I'LL NEVER GET DRUNK ANY MORE/Fortune
SONGS AND RHYMES FROM THE SOUTH BY E. C. PERROW
(From East Tennessee; negroes; from memory; 1905.)
My father give me a fortune,
I locked it in my trunk;
I spent it one night in gamblin',
The night that I got drunk.
Oh, I'll never get drunk any more;
I'll lay my head in the bar-room door,
But I'll never get drunk any more.
36 I'll Never Get Drunk Any More/Fortune; Brown Collection
The four texts here given have little in common beyond the refrain stanza. Shearin's syllabus shows that this is known in Kentucky, and Perrovv (JAFL xxviii 151) reports it as sung by both whites and blacks in Tennessee. It is reported also from Virginia
(FSV 308) and from Missouri (OFS 11 413-14, iii 140-1). Mrs. Sutton notes that Miss Emeth Tuttle of Lenoir found it in Mississippi.
A. 'I'll Never Get Drunk Any More.' Reported by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, sometime between 1914 and 1920, with the notation : "This song was once popular around here (25 or 30 years ago). Young people sang it a great deal in those days. The tune is still well known to several of my neighbors."
1 When I go out on Sunday
What pleasure do I see?
For the girl I loved so dearly
Has gone square back on me.
Chorus:I'll never get drunk any more, any more,
I'll never get drunk any more.
I'll lay my head in my true love's door,
I'll never get drunk any more.
2 When I go out on Sunday.
My head all racked with pain,
I'll tell my little honey
I'll never get drunk again.
Once I had a fortune ;
I laid it in a trunk.
I spent it all a-gambling
The night I first got drunk.
B. No title. Reported by Miss Gertrude Allen (afterwards Mrs. R. C. Vaught) from Taylorsville, Alexander county.
1 Some say that love is pleasure.
What pleasure do I see?
The girl I loved so dearly
Has turned her back on me.
Chorus: I'll never get drunk any more,
I'll never get drunk any more,
I'll lay my head in the barroom door,
I'll never get drunk any more.
2 As I go home tonight
I'll smoke my long-stemmed pipe,
I'll have no wife to bother my life,
No children to holler and squall.
3 Dem chickens they crowed for midnight,
Dem chickens they crowed for day,
Dem chickens they crowed for midnight,
And I got drunk again.
C. I'll Never Get Drunk Any More.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton (while she was still Miss Maude Minnish) from the singing of Mrs. Woody of Jonas Ridge. Date not given.
1 One time I had an old blue hen.
I set her in a stump.
A 'possum come and got her
One night when I got drunk.
Chorus: I'll never git drunk any more, any more,
Oh, I'll never git drunk any more.
I'll lay my head in some still-house door,
But I'll never git drunk any more.
2 One time I had a fortune;
I put in a trunk.
I lost it all a-gamblin'
One night when I got drunk.
D. 'I'll Never Get Drunk Any More.' From the John Burch Blaylock
Collection.
1 I'll never get drunk any more,
I'll never get drunk any more;
I'll lay my head in some poor man's door,
I'll never get drunk any more.
2 Once I had a fortune,
I laid it on my trunk;
I lost it all hy gambling
One night when I was drunk.
3 Once I had a sweetheart
My laziness did ensnare ;
But now I've got no money
Her poor little feet go bare.
4 Once I had fine horses.
I fed them on good hay.
I swapped them off for whiskey
One cold December day.
5 There are . . . region.
The flames they do not wilt;
But down below the spring house
You'll find them at the still.
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