Soldier's Joy- Version 12 Guy Clark

Soldier's Joy- Version 11
Soldier's Joy 1864

Soldier's Joy/Love Somebody/

Old-Time, Bluegrass, American, Canadian, English, Irish, Scottish; Breakdown, Scottish Measure, Hornpipe, Reel, Country Dance and Morris Dance Tune.

ARTIST: Guy Clark- Original song that uses fiddle melody as fills between verses only

CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes

DATE: Bayard (1981) dates it to "at least" the latter part of the 18th century, citing a version that has become standard in Aird's 1778 collection (Vol. 1, No. 109_) and Skillern's 1780 collection (pg. 21). John Glen (1891) and Francis Collinson (1966) maintain the first appearence in print of this tune is in Joshua Campbell's 1778 A Collection of the Newest and Best Reels and Minuets with improvements.

According to Bruce Olson the song and tune were published as a single sheet song with music in London, c 1760 (listed in BUCEM). Olson also says that Robert Burns' lyrics to the tune commences "I am a Son of Mars who have been in many wars."

Meade gives the early date as 1680s  as "Logan Waters" and 1781 date by McGlashan under the title Soldier's Joy. 

RECORDING INFO:  Love Somebody (Yes I Do) [Me IV-B 2]
At - Missouri Mule; Ten Nights in a Bar Room
Sm - Soldier's Joy
Uf - Too Young to Marry ; My Love She's But a Lassie Yet

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Thompson, Joe. Family Tradition, Rounder 2161, CD (1999), trk# 12 (Soldier's Joy)

RECORDING INFO: Soldier's Joy [ON1642/OND 868/Me IV-B 2/Me IV-B 2]

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Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] & his Square Dance Band, "Soldier's Joy" (OKeh 06297, 1941)
Blue Ridge Highballers, "Soldier's Joy" (Columbia 15168-D, 1927)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Soldier's Joy" (OKeh 45011, 1925)
Zeb Harrelson & M. B. Padgett, "Soldier's Joy" (OKeh 45078, 1927; rec. 1926)
Sid Harkreader w. Uncle Dave Macon, "Soldier's Joy" (Vocalion 14887, 1924)
Kessinger Brothers, "Soldier's Joy" (Brunswick 341, c. 1929)
John D. Mounce et al, "Soldier's Joy" (on MusOzarks01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Soldier's Joy" (on NLCR07) (on NLCR16)
Aulton Ray, "Soldier Joy" (Gennett 6205, 1927)
Glenn Smith, "Soldier's Joy" [instrumental] (on GraysonCarroll1)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Soldier's Joy" (Bluebird B-5658, 1934; RCA Victor 21-2168, 1947) (Columbia 15538-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on Tanner2)
Taylor's Kentucky Boys, "Soldier Joy" (Gennett 6205, 1927)
Doc Watson, "Soldier's Joy" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)

Soldier's Joy - Driftwood, Jimmy/Traditional: Driftwood, Jimmie. Best of Jimmy Driftwood, Monument MC6639, LP (1975/1966), trk# 8

OTHER NAMES: "I Am My Mamma's Darlin' Child," "John White," "The King's Head," "The King's Hornpipe," "Love Somebody/I Love Somebody Yes I Do" "Payday in the Army," "Rock the Cradle Lucy" New Soldier's Joy; My Stetson Hat

RELATED TO: Brisk Young Soldier; Soldier's Hornpipe; Ole Turkey Buzzard; Bert's Tune; Pas D'Ete; French Four; Farewell Mary Ann; Soldier's Round;

SOURCES: Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). John Carson and The Skillet Lickers (North Georgia) [Kuntz]; J.S. Price (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) [Thede]; Ben Smith (Dixon, Missouri) [Christeson]; Willie Woodward (Bristol, N.H.) [Linscott]: Floyd Woodhull (1976), Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters (1941), Pop Weir (c. 1960) {three versions from central New York State} [Bronner]; Bobbie Jamieson (Cullivoe, Yell, Shetland) [Cooke]; George Sutherland (Bressay/Vidlin, Shetland) [Cooke]; Lorin Simmons (Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1930's), James Marr (elderly fiddler from Missouri, 1949), twenty southwestern Pa. fifers and fiddlers [Bayard]; Richard Greene with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys [Phillips]; a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman]; Elliot Wright (b. 1935, Flat River, Queens County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; fiddler Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Begin].
Adam, 1928; No. 2. Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 86b, pg. 35. Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974; pg. 197. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; Appendix No. 1A-B, pgs. 571-572, and No. 332A-S, pgs. 303-310. Begin (Fiddle Music from the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 47, pg. 56. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 262. R.P. Bronner (Old-Time Music Makers of New York State), 1987; No. 12, pgs. 71-72 and No. 25, pg. 110. Burchenal (American Country Dances, Vol. 1), 1918; pg. 6. Carlin (English Concertina), 1977; pgs. 40-411. Cazden (Dances from Woodland), 1945; pg. 19. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers' Repertory, Vol. 2), 1984; pg. 61. Cole (1001 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 24. Cooke (The Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland Isles), 1986; Ex. 54, pg. 112 and Ex. 55, pg. 113. DeVille, 1905; No. 76. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 49. Harding Collection (1915) and Harding's Original Collection (1928), No. 20. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; pg. 9. Howe (School for the Violin), 1851; pg. 37. Howe (Diamond School for the Violin), pg. 41. Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes), No. or pg. 23. Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pg. 40. Karpeles & Schofield (A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; pg. 7. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune Book), Vol. 1, 1951; No. 4, pg. 2. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; Set 1, No. 6, pg. 3. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 15 and 45 (latter includes a 'A' part variation by Charlie Higgins {Galax, Va}). Kuntz (Ragged but Right), 1987; pg. 295-296 (two versions). Lerwick (Kilted Fiddler), 1985; pg. 21. Linscott (Folk Songs of Old New England), 1939; pg. 110-111. Lowinger (Bluegrass Fiddle), 1974; pg. 22. McGlashan (Collection of Scots Measures), c. 1780; pg. 32. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 38. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 183. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1642, pg. 305. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 868, pg. 150. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 71. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989{A}; pg. 38. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 227 (two versions). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 166 (appears as "King's Head"). Reiner (Anthology of Fiddle Styles), 1979; pg. 37 (includes several variations). Robbins, No. 56. Roche Collection, 1982, Vol. 2; No. 216, pg. 12 (appears as a hornpipe). Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 7, pg. 4 (an alternate title is given as "King's Head"). Shaw (Cowboy Dances), 1943; pg. 383. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 150. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; No. or pg. 43. Sym, 1930; pg. 13. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 118. Trim (Thomas Hardy), 1990; No. 43. Wade (Mally's North West Morris Book), 1988; pg. 17. White's Excelsior Collection, 1907; pg. 72. Bluebird 5658-B (78 RPM), Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers (North Ga.) {1934}. Caney Mountain Records CEP 210 (extended play LP, privately issued), Lonnie Robertson (Mo.), c. 1965-66. Columbia 191-D (78 RPM), Samantha Bumgarner {recorded as "I Am My Momma's Darlin' Child"). Columbia 15538 (78 RPM), Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers. County 405, "The Hillbillies." County 506, The Skillet Lickers- "Old-Time Tunes. County 514, Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers- "Hell Broke Loo"se in Georgia" (Originally recorded in 1934). County 756, Tommy Jarrell- "Sail Away Ladies." Edison 52370 (78 RPM), 1928, John Baltzell (appears as "Soldier's Joy Hornpipe") {Baltzell was a native of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, as was minstrel Dan Emmett (d. 1904). Emmett returned to the town in 1888, poor, but later taught Baltzell to play the fiddle}. Flying Fish 102, New Lost City Ramblers - "20 Years/Concert Performances" (1978). Folk Legacy Records FSA-17, Hobart Smith - "America's Greatest Folk Instrumentalist." Folkways FA 2381, "The Hammered Dulcimer as played by Chet Parker" (1966). Folkways FA 2492, New Lost City Ramblers - "String Band Instrumentals" (1964. Learned from Hobart Smith). Fretless 132, "Ron West: Vermont Fiddler." June Appal 007, Tommy Hunter - "Deep in Tradition" (1976. Learned from his grandfather, fiddler James W. Hunter, Madison County, N.C.). Library of Congress (2738-B-2), 1939, recording by Herbert Halpert of the Houston Bald Knob String Band (Franklin County, Va.). Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH-002, Stephen B. Tucker - "Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo-American Fiddle Music from Mississippi" (1985). Morning Star 45003, Taylor's Kentucky Boys - "Wink the Other Eye: Old Time Fiddle Band Music from Kentucky" (1980. Originally recorded in 1927). Revonah RS-924, "The West Orrtanna String Band" (1976). Rounder 0070, The Kentucky Colonels- "1965-1967." Rounder 0073, The White Brothers- "Live in Sweden." Rounder 1003, Fiddlin' John Carson- "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Goin' to Crow." Tradition TLP 1007, Lacey Phillips - "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians," 1956. United Artists 9801, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." Voyager VRCD 344, Howard Marshall & John Williams - "Fiddling Missouri" (1999). Bob Smith's Ideal Band - "Ideal Music" (1977). "Fiddlers Three Plus Two." "The Caledonian Companion" (1975).

NOTES "Love Somebody": Love Somebody is the Appalachian courting song that uses the basic melody of Soldier's Joy. Land Norris recorded under the title "I Love Somebody" (see lyrics here and also Version 3 Soldier's Joy) in 1925.  Jean Ritchie and others have used the Love Somebody title. Jean sent me an email with some additional infomation about her version.

The problem is that Love Somebody is also the title for the instrumental tune based on "My Love is But A Lassie Yet" another old Scottish song with a different but similar melody. These Love Sombody tunes are usually called "Too Young to Marry" or "Sweet Sixteen." Other names are: Missouri Mule; Ten Nights in a Bar Room.

Kuntz and Meade separately list the tunes. "Love Somebody" is grouped with the "My Love Is But A Lassie Yet" songs and several with this title appear under Meade's "Too Young Too Marry" classification. The "My Love Is But A Lassie Yet" songs have a similar melody. Rather than list the songs in multiple places I've listed them under Soldier's Joy, so go there for lyrics versions of Love Somebody.

Kuntz: LOVE SOMEBODY [2]. AKA- "Buffalo Nickel," "Darling Child," "Farmer Had a Dog," "Fourth of July," "Hair in the Butter," "I Love Somebody, Yes I Do," "I'm My Momma's Darling," "Lead Out," "Midnight Serenade," "My Love is But a Lassie Yet," "Old Kingdom," "Old Lady Tucker," "Old Missouri," "Richmond Blues," "Sweet Sixteen," "Ten Nights in a Bar Room," "Too Young to Marry," "Yellow Eyed Cat." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA: Texas; Greer County, Oklahoma (main title), Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri (alternate title). D Major. Standard. AABB. The tune is used for a country dance popular in England and America called "The Cumberland Square Eight," and a version appeared in this country as early as 1839 under the title "Richmond Blues" in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, volume II (Baltimore). In Scotland the tune is called "My Love is But a Lassie Yet," a version of which Beethoven set for orchestra. "An interesting example of the re-naming of a fiddler's selection is that of a tune brought from Texas by settlers in the region which is now Greer County, Oklahoma, and called by them 'Love Somebody.' This same melody in Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana is designated 'Old Lady Tucker,' and as such was transported to the Indian Territory from that region" (Thede, 1967). In Arizona the tune is known as "Old Missouri."
***
Charles Wolfe (1991) says the tune is better-known in white repertory than black and that it was popular as a fiddle tune in middle Tennessee, often being heard at the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920's and 30's. A version was collected by African-American collector Thomas Talley (Negro Folk Rhymes), which goes:
***
I loves somebody, yes, I do;
An' I wants somebody to love me too.
Wid my chyart an' oxes stan'in' 'roun',
Her pretty liddle foot needn' tetch de groun'.
***
I loves somebody, yes I do,
Dat randsome, handsome, Sickamastew,
Wid her reddingoat an' waterfall,
She's de pretty liddle gal dat beats 'em all.
***
Versions appear in Perrow (Songs and Rhymes from the South, 1915, pg. 125), and fragments in Brown (3:140-41). Sources for notated versions: J.S. Price (Greer County, Oklahoma) [Thede]; John Powell [Chase]. Chase (American Folk Tales and Songs), 1956; pg. 206. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 47. Victor 40099 (78 RPM), the Crook Brothers Barn Dance Orchestra (1928). Vocalation 14857 (78 RPM), Uncle Dave Macon with Sid Harkreader (1924).

NOTES "Soldier's Joy" is one of the most popular fiddle tunes. According to Bruce Olson the song and tune were published as a single sheet song with music in London, c 1760 (listed in BUCEM). Olson also says that Robert Burns' lyrics to the tune commences "I am a Son of Mars who have been in many wars."

Meade gives the early date as 1680s  as "Logan Waters" and 1781 date by McGlashan under the title Soldier's Joy. The country/bluegrass versions usually have two strains AABB with the lyrics sung over ths A parts. The first country/old-time recording was an instrumental titled "I Am My Mama's Darling Child" by Samantha Bumgarner and Eva Davis in 1924. Land Norris recorded the first lyrics under the title "I Love Somebody" (see version 3) in 1925. The next important recording with vocals was also from the Atlanta area; Gid Tanner and The Skillet Lickers in 1934.

Many groups use the Skillet Lickers lyrics including Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. The Old Crow Medicine Show uses the Skillet Lickers along with the "I am my Mama's darlin' child" verse. Others use the Love Somebody verses.

The problem is that Love Somebody, the title for lyric versions of Soldier's Joy, is also the title for the instrumental tune based on "My Love is But A Lassie Yet" another old Scottish song with a different but similar melody. These Love Sombody tunes are usually called "Too Young to Marry" or "Sweet Sixteen." Other names are: Missouri Mule; Ten Nights in a Bar Room. See info on Love Somebody above.

Kuntz "Soldier's Joy": D Major (almost all versions): G Major (Bacon, Bayard-Simmons). Standard or ADAE. AB (Athole, Bayard-Simmons, Shaw): AABB (most versions): ABCDE (Cooke {Ex. 54}). One of, if not the most popular fiddle tune in history, widely disseminated in North America and Europe in nearly every tradition; as Bronner (1987) perhaps understatedly remarks, it has enjoyed a "vigarous" life. There is quite a bit of speculation on just what the name 'soldier's joy' refers to. Proffered thoughts seem to gravitate toward money and drugs. In support of the latter is the 1920's vintage Georgia band the Skillet Lickers, who sang to the melody:
***
Well twenty-five cents for the morphene,
and fifteen cents for the beer.
Twenty-five cents for the old morphene
now carry me away from here.
***
Bayard (1981) dates it to "at least" the latter part of the 18th century, citing a version that has become standard in Aird's 1778 collection (Vol. 1, No. 109_) and Skillern's 1780 collection (pg. 21). John Glen (1891) and Francis Collinson (1966) maintain the first appearence in print of this tune is in Joshua Campbell's 1778 A Collection of the Newest and Best Reels and Minuets with improvements. It has been attributed to Campbell himself but Collinson notes it is hardly likely as it is a well known folk dance tune in other countries of Europe. There is also a dance by the same name which is "one of the earliest dances recorded in England, but no date of origin has been established. It is still done in Girton Village as part of a festival dance. The tune is also well known in Ireland" (Linscott, 1939). The melody was used in North-West England morris dance tradition for a polka step, and also is to be found in the Cotswold morris tradition where it appears as "The Morris Reel," collected from the village of Headington, Oxfordshire. The Scots national poet Robert Burns set some verses to the tune which were published in his Merry Muses of Caledonia. In the first song of Burns' cantata, The Jolly Beggars, by the soldier, is to the tune of "Soldier's Joy." Early versions of "Soldier's Joy" can be traced to a Scottish source as far back as 1781; variants can be found in Scandanavia, the French Alps, and Newfoundland (Linda Burman-Hall, "Southern American Folk Fiddle Styles," Ethnomusicology, Vol. 19, #1, Jan. 1975).
***
In America the melody is ubiquitous. It was cited as having commonly been played for country dances in Orange County, New York, in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly), and Bronner (1987) confirms it was a popular piece at New York square dances in the early 20th century. The title appears in a repertoire list of Norway, Maine, fiddler Mellie Dunham (the elderly Dunahm {b. 1853} was Henry Ford's champion fiddler in the late 1920's). Musicologist Charles Wolfe (1982) says it was popular with Kentucky fiddlers. The tune was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, from the playing of Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's, and, for the same institution by Herbert Halpert in 1939 from the playing of Mississippi fiddlers John Hatcher, W.E. Claunch and Stephen B. Tucker. It was also recorded by legendary Galax fiddler Emmett Lundy, and is listed as one of the tunes played at a fiddlers' convention at the Pike County Fairgrounds, Alabama (as recorded in the Troy Herald of July 6, 1926) {Cauthen, 1990}. Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner said: "Every fiddler plays this. Some not so good" (Shumway). Burchenal prints a New England contra dance of the same name with the tune.

Tommy Jarrell, the influential fiddler from Mt. Airy, North Carolina, told Peter Anick in 1982 that it was a tune he learned in the early 1920's when he first began learning the fiddle, at which time it was known as "I Love Somebody" in his region. Soon after it was known in Mt. Airy as "Soldier's Joy" and, after World War II, as "Payday in the Army."

Another North Carolina fiddler, African-American Joe Thompson, played the tune in CFGD tuning. Gerald Milnes (1999, pg. 12) remarks that tune origins were of significant value to West Virginia musicians who often tried to trace tunes to original sources. It was the first tune learned by Randolph County, W.Va., fiddler Woody Simmons (b. 1911). Braxton County fiddler Melvin Wine (1909-1999), says Milnes, used family lore to attribute the tune to his great-grandfather, Smithy Wine, of Civil War era. Smithy, it seems, had been detained by the Confederates in Richmond under charges of aiding Union soldiers. Although imprisoned, his captors found out he was a fiddler and made him play for a dance, and Smithy later associated the tune with this incident, calling it "Soldier's Joy." For further information see Bayard's (1944) extensive note on this tune and tune family under "The King's Head." During a Senate campaign in the 1960's the piece was played to crowds by Albert Gore Sr., the fiddling father of the Vice President during the Clinton administration (Wolfe, 1997).
***
In England, the title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. The novelist Thomas Hardy, himself an accordionist and fiddler, mentions the tune in his Far From the Madding Crowd:
***
'Then,' said the fiddler, 'I'll venture to name that the right
and proper thing is 'The Soldier's Joy' - there being a
gallant soldier married into the farm - hey, my sonnies,
and gentlemen all?' So the dance begins. As to the merits
of 'The Soldier's Joy', there cannot be, and never were,
two options. It has been observed in the musical circles
of Weatherbury and its vacinity that this melody, at the
end of three-quarters of an hour of thunderous footing,
still possesses more stimulative properties for the heel
and toe than the majority of other dances at their first opening.
***
At the turn into the 20th century the melody was in the repertoire of fiddler William Tilbury (who lived at Pitch Place, midway between Churt and Thursley, Surrey), the last of a family of village fiddlers who had learned his repertoire from an uncle, Fiddler Hammond (died c. 1870), who had taught him to play and who had been the village musician before him. The author of English Folk-Song and Dance concludes that "Soldier's Joy" was enjoyed in the tradition of this southwest Surry village about 1870, and was one of a number of country dances which survived well into the second half of the 19th century (pg. 144).
***
Some of the lyrics which have been sung to the tune are:
***
Chicken in the bread tray scratchin' out dough,
Granny will your dog bite? No, child, no.
Ladies to the center and gents to the bar,
Hold on you don't go too far.
***
Grasshopper sittin on a sweet potato vine, (x3)
Along come a chicken and says she's mine.
***
I'm a-gonna get a drink, don't you wanna go? (x3)
Hold on Soldier's Joy.
***
Twenty-five cents for the malteen,
Fifteen cents for the beer;
Twenty-five cents for the malteen,
I'm gonna take me away from here.
***
Love somebody, yes I do, (x3)
Love somebody but I won't say who.
***
Refrain
Dance all night, fiddle all day,
That's a Soldier's Joy. (Kuntz)
***
In Newfoundland, it is sometimes known as "John White" and sung accompanied by the fiddle or accordion:
***
Did you see, did you see, did you see John White?
Did you see, did you see, did you see John White?
Did you see, did you see, did you see John White?
He's gone around the harbour for to stay all night.

He's gone around the harbour for to get a dozen beer.
He's gone around the harbour and he won't be coming here.
He's gone around the harbour for to get a cup of tea.
If you sees him will you tell him that I wants he?

Soldier’s Joy was used for the melody of My Stetson Hat: The singer praises his hat: "Stained with alkali, sand, and mud, Smeared with grease and crimson blood, Battered and bent from constant use, Still you have stood the darned abuse." "You've been a good pal... You dirty old gray Stetson hat." The date is 1935 (Hoofs and Horns) and is found in Ohrlin-HBT 83, "My Stetson Hat" (1 text, 1 tune).

Both Jimmy Driftwood and Michelle Shocked wrote new lyrics for the tune. Many banjo versions are played in the key C with drop C tuning GCGDB after Earl Scruggs version. Placing a capo on the 2nd fret puts the tune in the standard Key of D.

The eraliest lyrics to Soldiers Joy from The Olsen Collection: A bad old song to a good old tune. Untitled song, "The Soldier's Joy," from songbook with music (which is "The Soldier's Joy,") p. 240, Vocal Music, or the Songster's Companion, London, n.d. (c 1778). Copy in Folger Shakespeare Library. Originally a single sheet song with music, c 1760. Copy of the single sheet song is in the British Library, London, catalogued by first line in British Union Catalog of Early Music, printed before 1800. The single sheet song issue has the title "The Soldier's Joy." 
  
     When the shrill trumpet sounds on high,
     And wide the floating banners fly,
     When the fierce foe with dire alarms,
     Provoking, menaces to arms:
     When glittering swords and cannons play,
     And death in triumph guides the fray,
     The foe to slaughter and destroy:
     This is alone the soldier's joy.

I Love Somebody/ Soldier's Joy- Land Norris 1925

Bob Coltman: The widely known Love Somebody/ I Am My Mama's Darling Child uses the first strain of Soldier's Joy, but most versions don't use the 2nd (high part). Verses follow from Georgia banjo picker Land Norris' sly 1920s Okeh recording. Second strain is sometimes used for "Eyes are blue" verse:

I love somebody, yes I do,
I love somebody true,
I love somebody, yes I do,
I love somebody but I won't tell who.    [some sing it "I don't love you."]

I am my mama's darling child (3)
I ain't gonna marry for a good long while.

I am my mama's darling pet (3)
I'm not a-gonna marry for a good long whet.

Eyes are blue, cheeks are red, (3)
Lips as sweet as gingerbread.

A crosseyed dog and a one-eyed hoss (3)
My old lady is the boss.

NOTE: "whet" means yearning, as in honing.

I Love Somebody/Soldier's Joy- EC Perrow 1905
Sung to the favorite dance tune

I love somebody; yes I do,
Tween sixteen and twenty-two,
Pretty little gal and I won't tell who,
*(Sing the Soldier's Joy)

*Last line is missing; I've added the ending

LOVE SOMEBODY, YES I DO- Sandburg 1927

from Carl Sandburg's American Songbag. Fiddlers play this. It* time heat is to "all hands circle round." If the fiddlers fail to come the dancers can sing their music. The word "love" is mentioned in every line but the last, "Tween sixteen and twenty -two." It is for young folks, and has air and step from an old English contra dance, Wathall tells us. Also, for this we are indebted to the Combs collection.

1) Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, but I won't tell who.

Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do;
And I hope somebody loves me too.

2) Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, but I won't tell who.

Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do;
Love somebody, yes I do,
Tween sixteen and twenty-two.

Soldier's Joy 1864
Guy Clark- Original song uses fiddle melody as fills between verses only

Intro Soldier's Joy melody (Verse is in minor; Chorus in Major)

First I thought a snake had got me it happened dreadful quick
T’was a bullet bit my leg, right off I got sick
I came to in a wagon load of ten more wounded men
Five was dead by the time we reached that bloody tent

Gimme some of that Soldier’s Joy, you know what I mean
I don’t want to hurt no more my leg is turnin’ green

The doctor came and looked at me and this is what he said
Your dancin’ days are done, son, it’s a wonder you ain’t dead
Then he went to work with a carvin’ knife sweat fell from his brow
‘Bout killed me tryin’ to save my life when he cut that lead ball out

Give me some of that Soldier’s Joy, ain’t you got no more
Hand me down my walkin’ cane I ain’t cut out for war

Red blood run right through my veins run all over the floor
Run right down his apron strings like a river out the door
He handed me a bottle and said, son drink deep as you can
He turned away then he turned right back with a hacksaw in his hand

Gimme some of that Soldier’s Joy you know what I like
Bear down on that fiddle boys just like Saturday night

Gimme some of that Soldier’s Joy you know what I crave
I’ll be hittin’ that Soldier’s Joy til I’m in my grave

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream