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The Greenback Dollar (Traditional Song)
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown and Song. USA; Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma.
ARTIST: From George Turner Middlesboro, KY., 1937- Library of Congress AFS record 1404 A2.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: Early 1900’s
RECORDING INFO (Song): Armstrong Twins. Just Country Boys, Arhoolie 5022, LP (1981), cut# 7. Axton, Hoyt. Greenback Dollar, Vee-Jay VJS-1126, LP (1964), cut#A.01. Blue Sky Boys. Presenting The Blue Sky Boys, JEMF 104, LP (1965), cut# 7 (I Don't Want Your Greenback Dollar Morris Brothers and Homer Sherrill. Wiley, Zeke and Homer, Rounder 0022, LP (1973), cut# 15. New Lost City Ramblers. String Band Instrumentals, Folkways FA 2492, LP (1964), cut#A.02. Parmley, Don; and Billy Strange. Don Parmley and Billy Strange, GNP Crescendo GNP-98, LP (196?), cut# 9. Ramsey, Obray. Obray Ramsey Sings Folksongs from the Three Laurels, Prestige International INT 13020, LP (195?), cut#B.06 (Green Back Dollars/Dollar) . Rosmini, Dick; and Jim Helms. 5-String Banjo Greats, Liberty LST 7357, LP (196?), cut# 9. Rosmini, Dick; and Jim Helms. Feuding Banjos, Olympic 7105, LP (197?), cut#B.01. Stover, Don; & the White Oak Mountain Boys. West Virginia Coal Miner Blues, Old Homestead 90011, LP (197?), cut# 11. West, Jeanie. Roamin' the Blue Ridge, Prestige International INT 13038, LP (196?), cut#A.02
RECORDING INFO (Fiddle Tune): Brunswick 275 (78 RPM), 1928, Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters (Nashville, Tenn.). Columbia 15300 (78 RPM), Weems String Band. Folkways FA 2492, New Lost City Ramblers - "String Band Instrumentals" (1964. Learned from the Weems String Band recording). ). East, Earnest; & the Pine Ridge Boys. Old Time Mountain Music, County 718, LP (1969), cut# 2. Harman, Bob; and the Blue Ridge Descendants. Music of the Blue Ridge, Galaxie, LP (198?), cut#B.07 (Green Back Dollars/Dollar).
OTHER NAMES: "Green Backed Dollar Bill," "Old Greenback Dollar," I Don't Want Your Greenback Dollar; Don't Forget Me, Little Darling; I Don't Want Your Millions Mister; Beefsteaks ; Answer to Greenback Dollar.
RELATED SONG: In my opinion "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", a song written by Jack Rhodes and Dick Reynolds and first recorded by Wanda Jackson in 1956, is based on the Greenback Dollar songs. Other versions include:
UK pop group the Springfields had a 1962 hit.
An early 1960s recording by Janis Joplin is on the 1975 Janis Joplin compilation album Janis.
The Grateful Dead performed the song several times between 1966 and 1970 featuring Bob Weir on the lead vocal and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan singing harmony.
Linda Ronstadt covered the song on her 1969 studio album Hand Sown ... Home Grown.
English folk rock singer Sandy Denny recorded the song on her 1977 album Rendezvous.
In 1993, the country trio Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn recorded the song together on the album Honky Tonk Angels. Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris also performed the song as a trio on an episode of Parton's 1976 variety show Dolly!
SOURCES: Randolph 733, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" Pat Turney (Okpuskee County, Oklahoma) [Thede]; John Hartford [Phillips]. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, Vol. 1), 1994; pg. 104. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 91. Turney, Pat. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 91 (Green Back Dollars/Dollar). Cooper, Wilma Lee. Songs to Remember, Cooper, Fol (19??), p 3. Forrester, Howdy. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 24/3, p39a. Hartford, John. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 27/1, p39; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: "A Major (Thede): C Major (Hartford, New Lost City Ramblers). AEAE or Standard. AAB. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Versions 3-6 in this collection more closely resemble the faster the fiddle version while the the other versions are ballads. All use the text reference to "Greenback Dollar" and are related to the "Old Virginny/East Virginia" songs. The earliest recording entitled "Green Back Dollar" was made in 1928 by the Weems String Band. Other early recordings under the title are: Davis and Nelson in 1929 - 'I Don't Want Your Greenback Dollar'[Pmt 3188]; Tom Ashley and Gwen Foster- 'Greenback Dollar' in 1933; Callahan Brothers and Roy Acuff in 1936." Version 8 is an early collection is by Alan Lomax in 1937.
The fiddle tune version as done by Weems and others is different than the songs collected by Randolph and Lomax. The famous versions of “Greenback Dollar” by Ken Ramsey and Hoyt Axton are based on the “Greenback Dollar” song. The “Greenback Dollar” song is closely related to “Dark Hollow” and is a branch of “East Virginia/East Virginia Blues” family, which is categorized by Sharp as “In Old Virginny.” Below is a outline of the Old Virginny/East Virginia” songs:
The first published versions of “East Virginia” are the “Farewell Song” from a 1913 songbook printed by Richard Burnett of Monticello, Ky. and “In Old Virginny” from Sharp’s English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Both “The Farewell Song” and Sharp’s “In Old Virginny” Version C are early versions of “The Man of Constant Sorrow,” which is usually referred to as “East Virginia Blues.” The differences between “East Virginia” and “East Virginia Blues” are transparent at best. I categorize the various branches under “In Old Virginny” from Sharp’s No. 167- English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. These are separate branches:
1) “Man of Constant Sorrow/Girl of Constant Sorrow” or “East Virginia Blues”
2) "East Virginia" including the “Dark Holler” Versions
2a)“Dark Hollow”- Browning
3) "East Virginia" including “Greenback Dollar” versions (Carter Family).
3a) Hoyt Axton’s “Greenback Dollar”
4) “Darling, Think of What You’ve Done” versions including Tammy LaRue’s.
5) “Awake! Awake! ( Sharp No. 57 see: Version 4)” “ The Drowsy Sleeper”.
This is the “Oh Molly Dear (Go Ask Your Mother)-(Mike Seegar)”
“Silver Dagger;” and “Katie Dear” branch.
The English version is entitled, “Arise! Arise!”
“Greenback Dollar” and related “East Virginia” also have similarities with “Dear Companion/ Fond Affection” songs. Later the melody of “Greenback Dollar” was used for the tune as "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister". Hoyt Axton’s version was a hit for The Kingston Trio. Here’s the earliest version from Lomax's collection:
LYRICS:
I don't want your greenback dollar,
I don't want your silver chain;
All I want is your heart, darling,
To say you’ll take me back again?
Won’t you love me little darling,
Just to give my poor heart ease?
When my back is turned on you, darling,
You can court just who you please.
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