Old Dan Tucker
Encyclopedia
"Old Dan Tucker", also known as "Ole Dan Tucker", "Dan Tucker", and other variants, is a popular American song
. Its origins remain obscure; the tune may have come from oral tradition, and the words may have been written by songwriter and performer Dan Emmett
. The blackface
troupe the Virginia Minstrels
popularized "Old Dan Tucker" in 1843, and it quickly became a minstrel
hit, behind only "Miss Lucy Long
" and "Mary Blane
" in popularity during the antebellum period. "Old Dan Tucker" entered the folk vernacular
around the same time. Today it is a bluegrass
and country music
standard.
The first sheet music
edition of "Old Dan Tucker", published in 1843, is a song of boasts and nonsense
in the vein of previous minstrel hits such as "Jump Jim Crow
" and "Gumbo Chaff
". In exaggerated Black Vernacular English
, the lyrics tell of Dan Tucker's exploits in a strange town, where he fights, gets drunk, overeats, and breaks other social taboo
s. Minstrel troupes freely added and removed verses, and folk singers have since added hundreds more. Parodies and political versions are also known.
The song falls into the idiom
of previous minstrel music, relying on rhythm
and text declamation as its primary motivation. Its melody
is simple and the harmony
little developed. Nevertheless, contemporary critics found the song more pleasant than previous minstrel fare. Musicologist Dale Cockrell argues that the song represents a transition between early minstrel music and the more European-style songs of minstrelsy's later years.
"Old Dan Tucker" as originally published exemplifies the masculine boasting songs that predominated in early minstrelsy
. Modern analysts emphasize the song's rawness, racism
, and disdain for social taboos. In ersatz Black Vernacular English
, the song uses short, active words such as runnin and cryin, to portray Dan Tucker as a rough-and-ready black
man in the mold of Jim Crow
, Gumbo Chaff
, and ultimately the tall tale
frontiersman:
Tucker is an animalistic character, driven by sex, violence, and strong drink. He is ugly, unrefined, and unintelligent, even infantilized. As a stranger in town, his devil-may-care actions show his problems with or ambivalence to adapting to local mores
. More broadly, Tucker's disdain for social norms
allows the song to send up respectable middle class
American society, as evidenced by the final verse:
Other verses are simply nonsense
that do not go along with the main narrative. Their lines seem to serve no other purpose than to make a rhyme or extend the patter scheme. The third verse is one example:
Dan Tucker is both the teller and subject of the story. Verses 1, 3, and 5 of the 1843 edition are in the first person
, whereas verses 2, 4, and 7 are in the third. This reflects the song's intended performance by an entire minstrel troupe. The lead minstrel played Tucker and began the song, but backup singers took over at times to allow Tucker to act out the scenario, dance, and do another comedy bit. There was probably an element of competition to the various dance and music solos. The third-person verses also allowed for commentary to suggest to the audience how they were to judge the character and his antics.
Individual companies probably selectively performed verses from the song or added new ones. For example, the Virginia Serenaders added verses about the Irish
, Dutch
, and French
. At least four versions of the song were published with different lyrics during the 19th century. A parody
called "Clar de Track
" appears in some playbills and songsters.
soon after it was written. Its simple and malleable nature means that singers may begin or end it at any point or invent new verses on the spot. In fact, hundreds of folk verses have been recorded. This is a common folk variant:
A common chorus variant goes:
For decades "Old Dan Tucker" was used as part of a dancing
game. The players formed a ring, and one man moved to the center. He selected women to swing around according to the lyrics:
The third woman chosen then became his new partner, and her old partner now took the role of "Old Dan".
These folk versions can be quite ribald. This one, recalled by a man from his boyhood in Benton County, Arkansas
, in the 1910s, is one example:
Another version, sung by Charles Edward Carpenter-- a Lawrenceburg, Tennessee business man and World War II Veteran (born in Crewstown, TN)--to his children and grandchildren in Middle Tennessee during the mid- to late 1900's speaks of Old Dan Tucker's love of a hard drink. The last line appears to have been sung in the first person ("Oh my goodness, what'll I do?):
"Old Dan Tucker" entered the folklore of slaves
as well. This version from Orange County, North Carolina
, was recorded in the 1850s:
The original "Old Dan Tucker" and most folk variants are not political in nature. However, as early as 1844, the Hutchinson Family Singers
were performing "Get off the Track!" to its tune, billed as "A song for Emancipation
" One verse and the chorus say:
That same year, supporters of Henry Clay
at a Whig
rally sang a version that makes references to Clay ("Ole Kentucky"), Martin Van Buren
, and James Buchanan
:
In 1856, supporters of John C. Frémont
's run for the Republican Party
nomination adopted the tune as his campaign song
with the changed refrain "Get out the way, old Buchanan". William Jennings Bryan
's campaign song for the 1900 Democratic National Convention
in Kansas City, Missouri
, changed the lyrics to say:
A version popular during the American Civil War
adds references to Abraham Lincoln
:
wherein the rhythmic accent falls on the second and fourth beats rather than on the third. The song is largely Anglo-American in nature, although it has black influences. Its repetitive melodic idiom
matches that of earlier minstrel standards, such as "Jump Jim Crow", "Coal Black Rose
", and "Old Zip Coon
".
The song consists of 28 bars
. It begins with a boisterous eight-bar introduction. Four bars follow to frame the coda
. The remainder consists of sixteen bars with lyrics, half devoted to verse
, and half to refrain
. Each phrase
gives way directly to the next with no rests
between sections.
Rhythm
is perhaps the most important component of "Old Dan Tucker". It begins with a cadenced introduction and little melody. Even when the tune begins in earnest, it is flat and non-harmonized and does little more than provide a beat on which words are uttered. The refrain
is syncopated
in a way that had only previously been used in the minstrel song "Old Zip Coon". The intense rhythm on the line "Get out the way!" generates a forward momentum and is answered by instruments in one example of the song's black-influenced call and response
.
"Old Dan Tucker" was, of course, intended for stage performance. The verses are not only to be played but also acted out and danced to. Minstrels could begin leaping about at the introduction and coda, beginning the full music at the vocal section. Performers probably included instrumental versions of the chorus while they played, a rare practice in early minstrelsy.
Musicologist
Dale Cockrell argues that "Old Dan Tucker" in fact represents a bridge between the percussive blackface
songs of the 1830s and the more refined compositions of songwriters such as Stephen Foster
. Cockrell says that, unlike previous minstrel songs, "Old Dan Tucker" is meant for more than just dancing; its tune is developed enough to stand on its own. Contemporary critics certainly noticed the difference. Y. S. Nathanson called it "the best of what I have denominated the ancient negro ballads. The melody is far superior to anything that had preceded it." Nathanson compared the song to works by Gaetano Donizetti
and Daniel Auber
.
The origin of the music of "Old Dan Tucker" has always been obscure, and no sheet music
edition from 1843, its year of its first publication, names a composer. The first performance of the tune (but not lyrics) may have happened as early as 1841. The music may in fact be from the oral tradition or may have been a product of collaboration.
Nevertheless, "Old Dan Tucker" has been credited to at least three different songwriters: Dan Emmett
, J. R. Jenkins, and Henry Russell
. In his old age, Emmett related the traditional story to his biographer, H. Ogden Wintermute
: "I composed Old Dan Tucker in 1830 or 1831, when I was fifteen or sixteen years old." The biography claims that Emmett first played the song in public at a performance by a group of traveling entertainers. They lacked a fiddle player, and the local innkeeper suggested young Emmett to fill in. Emmett played "Old Dan Tucker" to the troupe manager's liking, and he debuted on the Mount Vernon, Ohio
, village green in blackface to perform the song on the Fourth of July
. Wintermute claims that the name Dan Tucker is a combination of Emmett's own name and that of his dog. However, there is no evidence for any of this. Instead, Emmett may merely have written the words. Even these seem to partially derive from an earlier minstrel song called "Walk Along John
" or "Oh, Come Along John", first published in various songsters in the early 1840s. Some verses have clear echoes in versions of "Old Dan Tucker":
The Charles Keith company
published "Old Dan Tucker" in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1843. The sheet music credits words to Dan Emmett but says that the song is from "Old Dan Emmit's Original Banjo Melodies". The lack of attribution of the melody may be another sign that Emmett did not write it.
A story dating to at least 1965 claims that "Old Dan Tucker" was written by slaves about a man named Daniel Tucker
who lived in Elbert County, Georgia
. Tucker was a farmer, ferryman, and minister who appears in records from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The story, as related by Mrs. Guy Rucker, the great-great-granddaughter of one of Tucker's neighbors, claims that Tucker became quite well liked by the slaves in his area through his ministry to them.
According to this interpretation, the lyrics address Tucker directly. The chorus, "You're too late to get your supper" is a kindhearted taunt to a man who often arrived after dark, forcing his hosts to scrape up a meal for him. The song's occasional lewdness is explained by the natural impromptu nature of its supposed origin.
"Old Dan Tucker" does show evidence of black influence. For example, bizarre imagery in folk versions of the song (e.g., "toothache in his heel") may be a sign of legitimate black input (or of someone poking fun of slaves who had an incomplete knowledge of English). "Old Dan Tucker" most closely resembles African music
in its call-and-response refrain.
Daniel Tucker was buried in Elbert County in 1818. The Elbert County Chamber of Commerce today promotes his grave as a tourist attraction
due to his possible connection with the character from the song.
In December 1842 and January 1843, Dan Emmett portrayed the character Old Dan Tucker in solo and duo performances; the playbills do not indicate whether he included the song in his act. The Virginia Minstrels
probably made "Old Dan Tucker" a regular part of their show beginning with their first performance at the Bowery Amphitheatre
on February 6, 1843. Their minstrel show also included a comic scene loosely based on the song, "Dan Tucker on Horseback", about a black riding master. The piece starred Richard Pelham
in the title role and Frank Brower
as a black clown. "Old Dan Tucker" did not appear on a Virginia Minstrels playbill until a March 7 and 8 performance at Boston's Masonic Temple. There, the playbill described it as "OLD DAN TUCKER, a Virginian Refrain, in which is described the ups and downs of Negro life." As early as February 15, Emmett billed himself as "Old Dan Emmett".
By the end of March, "Old Dan Tucker" was a hit, and it quickly became the Virginia Minstrels' most popular song. Robert Winans found the song on 49% of the minstrel playbills he surveyed from the 1843–1847 period (behind only "Miss Lucy Long
"), and research by musicologist William J. Mahar suggests that it was behind only "Mary Blane
" and "Lucy Long" in its frequency of publication in antebellum songsters. The next year, Dan Tucker returned in the popular "Ole Bull and Old Dan Tucker
", which pits him against Ole Bull in a contest of skill. Sequels such as "De New Ole Dan Tucker" and "Old Dan Tucker's Wedding" followed. Other companies adopted Tucker for comedy sketches, such as burlesques of La sonnambula
by Buckley's Serenaders
in 1850 and Sanford's Opera Troupe
in 1853.
The song became so identified with Emmett and the Virginia Minstrels that it became part of their foundation myth. Billy Whitlock
and George B. Wooldridge
both claimed that the troupe members played "Old Dan Tucker" in their first impromptu performance together:
, although other details changed. The press began to refer to Emmett as "Ole Dan Tucker", and Emmett eventually adopted the nickname. The Virginia Minstrels sometimes went by "Ole Dan Tucker and Co." They were called "Old Dan Tucker & Co.," either by themselves or by the press, as early as February 16, 1843.
The song's disdain for the customs of the upper class
es hit a chord with working class
audiences. On January 28, 1843, The New York Sporting Whip
reported that the song had been adopted by a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, street gang
called the Hallow Guards. As their leader, Stovepipe Bill, led them against a military raid, he sang the verses followed by the gang singing the chorus. Two years later, The Knickerbocker
remarked, "At this present moment, a certain ubiquitous person seems to be in the way of the whole people of these United States simultaneously." Nathanson claimed that "Old Dan Tucker" had "been sung, perhaps, oftener than any melody ever written."
In 1871, 28 years after its first published edition, Board and Trade listed editions of "Old Dan Tucker" in print from seven different publishers. The song had by default fallen into the public domain
. In later decades, "Old Dan Tucker" became a standard of bluegrass
and country music
, with recordings by such artists as Fiddlin' John Carson
, Uncle Dave Macon
, Pete Seeger
, and Gid Tanner
and his Skillet Lickers
. It is referred to in John Steinbeck
's novel The Grapes of Wrath
. More recently, rock musician Bruce Springsteen
made a recording
. Children's music collections frequently feature the song. In Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus, it appears in the context of powerless Crawfish trying to be heard in an assembly of animals, and Harris writes, “but dey might ez well er sung Ole Dan Tucker ter a harrycane." In the 1935 novel Little House on the Prairie
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
, the character Mr. Edwards sings the song as his trademark; accordingly, the Little House on the Prairie television series
from the 1970s and 1980s uses the song as a leitmotif
for the character.
American popular music
American popular music had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno,...
. Its origins remain obscure; the tune may have come from oral tradition, and the words may have been written by songwriter and performer Dan Emmett
Dan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.-Biography:...
. The blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
troupe the Virginia Minstrels
Virginia Minstrels
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th century American entertainers known for helping to invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show...
popularized "Old Dan Tucker" in 1843, and it quickly became a minstrel
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
hit, behind only "Miss Lucy Long
Miss Lucy Long
"Miss Lucy Long", also known as "Lucy Long" and other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show. A comic banjo tune, the lyrics, written in exaggerated Black Vernacular English, tell of the courtship or marriage of the male singer and the title character...
" and "Mary Blane
Mary Blane
"Mary Blane", also known as "Mary Blain" and other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show. Several different versions are known, but all feature a male protagonist singing of his lover Mary Blane, her abduction, and eventual death...
" in popularity during the antebellum period. "Old Dan Tucker" entered the folk vernacular
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
around the same time. Today it is a bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
standard.
The first sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
edition of "Old Dan Tucker", published in 1843, is a song of boasts and nonsense
Nonsense
Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous...
in the vein of previous minstrel hits such as "Jump Jim Crow
Jump Jim Crow
Jump Jim Crow is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E. Riley. The number was supposedly inspired by the song and dance of a crippled African slave called Jim...
" and "Gumbo Chaff
Gumbo Chaff
"Gumbo Chaff", also spelled "Gombo Chaff", is an American song, first performed in the early 1830s. It was part of the repertoire of early blackface performers, including Thomas D. Rice and George Washington Dixon....
". In exaggerated Black Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
, the lyrics tell of Dan Tucker's exploits in a strange town, where he fights, gets drunk, overeats, and breaks other social taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
s. Minstrel troupes freely added and removed verses, and folk singers have since added hundreds more. Parodies and political versions are also known.
The song falls into the idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
of previous minstrel music, relying on rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
and text declamation as its primary motivation. Its melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
is simple and the harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
little developed. Nevertheless, contemporary critics found the song more pleasant than previous minstrel fare. Musicologist Dale Cockrell argues that the song represents a transition between early minstrel music and the more European-style songs of minstrelsy's later years.
Lyrics
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
. Modern analysts emphasize the song's rawness, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, and disdain for social taboos. In ersatz Black Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
, the song uses short, active words such as runnin and cryin, to portray Dan Tucker as a rough-and-ready black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
man in the mold of Jim Crow
Jump Jim Crow
Jump Jim Crow is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E. Riley. The number was supposedly inspired by the song and dance of a crippled African slave called Jim...
, Gumbo Chaff
Gumbo Chaff
"Gumbo Chaff", also spelled "Gombo Chaff", is an American song, first performed in the early 1830s. It was part of the repertoire of early blackface performers, including Thomas D. Rice and George Washington Dixon....
, and ultimately the tall tale
Tall tale
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some such stories are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories such as, "that fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely...
frontiersman:
- I come to town de udder night,
- I hear de noise an saw de fight,
- De watchman was a runnin roun,
- Cryin Old Dan Tucker's come to town.
- Gran' Chorus.
-
- So get out de way! Get out de way!
- Get out de way! Old Dan Tucker.
- You're too late to come to supper.
Tucker is an animalistic character, driven by sex, violence, and strong drink. He is ugly, unrefined, and unintelligent, even infantilized. As a stranger in town, his devil-may-care actions show his problems with or ambivalence to adapting to local mores
Mores
Mores, in sociology, are any given society's particular norms, virtues, or values. The word mores is a plurale tantum term borrowed from Latin, which has been used in the English language since the 1890s....
. More broadly, Tucker's disdain for social norms
Norm (sociology)
Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...
allows the song to send up respectable middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
American society, as evidenced by the final verse:
- Tucker was a hardened sinner,
- He nebber said his grace at dinner;
- De ole sow squeel, de pigs did squall
- He 'hole hog wid de tail and all.
Other verses are simply nonsense
Nonsense
Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous...
that do not go along with the main narrative. Their lines seem to serve no other purpose than to make a rhyme or extend the patter scheme. The third verse is one example:
- Here's my razor in good order
- Magnum bonum -- jis hab bought 'er;
- Sheep shell oats, Tucker shell de corn,
- I'll shabe you soon as de water get warm.
Dan Tucker is both the teller and subject of the story. Verses 1, 3, and 5 of the 1843 edition are in the first person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
, whereas verses 2, 4, and 7 are in the third. This reflects the song's intended performance by an entire minstrel troupe. The lead minstrel played Tucker and began the song, but backup singers took over at times to allow Tucker to act out the scenario, dance, and do another comedy bit. There was probably an element of competition to the various dance and music solos. The third-person verses also allowed for commentary to suggest to the audience how they were to judge the character and his antics.
Individual companies probably selectively performed verses from the song or added new ones. For example, the Virginia Serenaders added verses about the Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
, Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
, and French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
. At least four versions of the song were published with different lyrics during the 19th century. A parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
called "Clar de Track
Clar de Track
"Clar de Track" is an American song written for the blackface minstrel show stage. The song was a parody of the minstrel hit "Old Dan Tucker".-References:...
" appears in some playbills and songsters.
Folk versions
"Old Dan Tucker" entered American folkloreFolklore of the United States
The folklore of the United States, or American folklore, is one of the folk traditions which has evolved on the North American continent since Europeans arrived in the 16th century. While it contains much in the way of Native American tradition, it should not be confused with the tribal beliefs of...
soon after it was written. Its simple and malleable nature means that singers may begin or end it at any point or invent new verses on the spot. In fact, hundreds of folk verses have been recorded. This is a common folk variant:
- Old Daniel Tucker wuz a mighty man,
- He washed his face in a fryin' pan;
- Combed his head wid a wagon wheel
- And he died wid de toofache in his heel.
A common chorus variant goes:
- So, git outa de way for old Dan Tucker,
- He's come too late to git his supper.
- Supper's over and breakfast cookin',
- Old Dan Tucker standin' lookin'.
For decades "Old Dan Tucker" was used as part of a dancing
Folk dance
The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....
game. The players formed a ring, and one man moved to the center. He selected women to swing around according to the lyrics:
- Here's old Dan, he comes to town;
- He swings the ladies round and round.
- He swings one east, he swings one west,
- He swings with the one he loves the best.
The third woman chosen then became his new partner, and her old partner now took the role of "Old Dan".
These folk versions can be quite ribald. This one, recalled by a man from his boyhood in Benton County, Arkansas
Benton County, Arkansas
Benton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, the population was 153,406. The U.S. Census Bureau 2010 population is 221,339. The county seat is Bentonville. Benton County was formed on 30 September 1836 and was named after Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S...
, in the 1910s, is one example:
- Old Dan Tucker was a fine old soul,
- Buckskin belly and a rubber ass-hole,
- Swallowed a barrel of cider down
- And then he shit all over town.
Another version, sung by Charles Edward Carpenter-- a Lawrenceburg, Tennessee business man and World War II Veteran (born in Crewstown, TN)--to his children and grandchildren in Middle Tennessee during the mid- to late 1900's speaks of Old Dan Tucker's love of a hard drink. The last line appears to have been sung in the first person ("Oh my goodness, what'll I do?):
- Old Dan Tucker, he got drunk,
- He fell in the far (fire) and kicked up a chunk,
- A red hot coal fell down his shoe,
- Oh my goodness, what'll I do?
- Go on home, ole Dan Tucker,
- You're too late to get your supper.
"Old Dan Tucker" entered the folklore of slaves
History of slavery in the United States
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
as well. This version from Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...
, was recorded in the 1850s:
- Marster and Missus look' might fine—
- Gwine to take a journey, gwine whar dey gwine,
- Crab grass a-dyin', red sun in de west,
- Saturday's comin', nigger gwine to rest.
Political versions
Hutchinson Family Singers
The Hutchinson Family Singers were a 19th-century American family singing group who became the most popular American entertainers of the 1840s. The group sang in four-part harmony a repertoire of political, social, comic, sentimental and dramatic works, and are considered by many to be the first...
were performing "Get off the Track!" to its tune, billed as "A song for Emancipation
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
" One verse and the chorus say:
- Ho! the car Emancipation
- Rides majestic thro' our nation,
- Bearing on its train the story;
- Liberty! a nation's glory.
- Get out the way! Every station!
- Freedom's car, Emancipation!
That same year, supporters of Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
at a Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
rally sang a version that makes references to Clay ("Ole Kentucky"), Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
, and James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
:
- The people's fav'rite, Henry Clay, is now the 'fashion' of the day;
- And let the track be dry or mucky, we'll stake our pile on Ole Kentucky.
- Get out of the way, he's swift and lucky; clear the track for Ole Kentucky!
In 1856, supporters of John C. Frémont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
's run for the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
nomination adopted the tune as his campaign song
Campaign song
Campaign songs are partisan ditties used in American political canvasses and more especially in presidential contests. The words were commonly set to established melodies like "Yankee Doodle," "Hail, Columbia," "Rosin the Bow," "Hail to the Chief" "John Brown's Body," "Dixie" and "O Tannenbaum" ;...
with the changed refrain "Get out the way, old Buchanan". William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
's campaign song for the 1900 Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, changed the lyrics to say:
- Voters, come and hear my ditty,
- What was done at Kansas City:
- David Hill, the New York lion,
- Nominated Billy Bryan.
- Get out of the way, you Grand Old Party,
- You're so old, you're getting warty.
A version popular during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
adds references to Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
:
- Old Abe is coming down to fight,
- And put the DemocratsDemocratic Party (United States)The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
to flight; - He's coming with the wedge and maul
- And he will split 'em one and all.
- Get out the way, you little giantStephen A. DouglasStephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
- You can't come in, you're too short and pliant.
Structure
"Old Dan Tucker" is a breakdown, a dance songDance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
wherein the rhythmic accent falls on the second and fourth beats rather than on the third. The song is largely Anglo-American in nature, although it has black influences. Its repetitive melodic idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
matches that of earlier minstrel standards, such as "Jump Jim Crow", "Coal Black Rose
Coal Black Rose
"Coal Black Rose" is a folk song, one of the earliest songs to be sung by a man in blackface. The song was first performed in the United States in the late 1820s, possibly by George Washington Dixon. It was certainly Dixon who popularized the song when he put on three blackface performances at the...
", and "Old Zip Coon
Turkey in the Straw
"Turkey in the Straw" is a well-known American folk song dating from the early 19th century.The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the...
".
The song consists of 28 bars
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
. It begins with a boisterous eight-bar introduction. Four bars follow to frame the coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
. The remainder consists of sixteen bars with lyrics, half devoted to verse
Verse (poetry)
A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
, and half to refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
. Each phrase
Phrase (music)
In music and music theory, phrase and phrasing are concepts and practices related to grouping consecutive melodic notes, both in their composition and performance...
gives way directly to the next with no rests
Rest (music)
A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. Each rest symbol corresponds with a particular note value:The quarter rest may also be found as a form in older music....
between sections.
Rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
is perhaps the most important component of "Old Dan Tucker". It begins with a cadenced introduction and little melody. Even when the tune begins in earnest, it is flat and non-harmonized and does little more than provide a beat on which words are uttered. The refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
is syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
in a way that had only previously been used in the minstrel song "Old Zip Coon". The intense rhythm on the line "Get out the way!" generates a forward momentum and is answered by instruments in one example of the song's black-influenced call and response
Call and response (music)
In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first...
.
"Old Dan Tucker" was, of course, intended for stage performance. The verses are not only to be played but also acted out and danced to. Minstrels could begin leaping about at the introduction and coda, beginning the full music at the vocal section. Performers probably included instrumental versions of the chorus while they played, a rare practice in early minstrelsy.
Musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
Dale Cockrell argues that "Old Dan Tucker" in fact represents a bridge between the percussive blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
songs of the 1830s and the more refined compositions of songwriters such as Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
. Cockrell says that, unlike previous minstrel songs, "Old Dan Tucker" is meant for more than just dancing; its tune is developed enough to stand on its own. Contemporary critics certainly noticed the difference. Y. S. Nathanson called it "the best of what I have denominated the ancient negro ballads. The melody is far superior to anything that had preceded it." Nathanson compared the song to works by Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
and Daniel Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
.
Composition
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
edition from 1843, its year of its first publication, names a composer. The first performance of the tune (but not lyrics) may have happened as early as 1841. The music may in fact be from the oral tradition or may have been a product of collaboration.
Nevertheless, "Old Dan Tucker" has been credited to at least three different songwriters: Dan Emmett
Dan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.-Biography:...
, J. R. Jenkins, and Henry Russell
Henry Russell (musician)
Henry Russell was an English pianist, baritone singer and composer, born into a distinguished Jewish family.-Biography:...
. In his old age, Emmett related the traditional story to his biographer, H. Ogden Wintermute
H. Ogden Wintermute
H. Ogden Wintermute was an American writer and historian. He wrote a biography of minstrel show pioneer Dan Emmett. The book, Daniel Decatur Emmett, was published in 1955. Wintermute collected many of Emmett's effects and manuscripts...
: "I composed Old Dan Tucker in 1830 or 1831, when I was fifteen or sixteen years old." The biography claims that Emmett first played the song in public at a performance by a group of traveling entertainers. They lacked a fiddle player, and the local innkeeper suggested young Emmett to fill in. Emmett played "Old Dan Tucker" to the troupe manager's liking, and he debuted on the Mount Vernon, Ohio
Mount Vernon, Ohio
Mount Vernon is a city in Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 16,990 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Knox County. The city is named after Mount Vernon, the plantation owned by George Washington.-History:...
, village green in blackface to perform the song on the Fourth of July
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
. Wintermute claims that the name Dan Tucker is a combination of Emmett's own name and that of his dog. However, there is no evidence for any of this. Instead, Emmett may merely have written the words. Even these seem to partially derive from an earlier minstrel song called "Walk Along John
Walk Along John
"Walk Along John", also known as "Oh, Come Along John", is an American song written for the blackface minstrel show stage in 1843. The lyrics of the song are typical of those of the early minstrel show. They are largely nonsense about a black man who boasts about his exploits.The chorus goes:*...
" or "Oh, Come Along John", first published in various songsters in the early 1840s. Some verses have clear echoes in versions of "Old Dan Tucker":
- Johnny law on de rail road track,
- He tied de engine on his back;
- He pair's his corn wid a rail road wheel,
- It gib 'em de tooth ache in de heel.
The Charles Keith company
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
published "Old Dan Tucker" in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1843. The sheet music credits words to Dan Emmett but says that the song is from "Old Dan Emmit's Original Banjo Melodies". The lack of attribution of the melody may be another sign that Emmett did not write it.
Possible slave origin
Daniel Tucker
Daniel Tucker was a Methodist minister, farmer and ferryman as well as a Captain during the American Revolution...
who lived in Elbert County, Georgia
Elbert County, Georgia
Elbert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was established on December 10, 1790 and was named for Samuel Elbert. As of 2000, the population was 20,511. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 20,525...
. Tucker was a farmer, ferryman, and minister who appears in records from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The story, as related by Mrs. Guy Rucker, the great-great-granddaughter of one of Tucker's neighbors, claims that Tucker became quite well liked by the slaves in his area through his ministry to them.
According to this interpretation, the lyrics address Tucker directly. The chorus, "You're too late to get your supper" is a kindhearted taunt to a man who often arrived after dark, forcing his hosts to scrape up a meal for him. The song's occasional lewdness is explained by the natural impromptu nature of its supposed origin.
"Old Dan Tucker" does show evidence of black influence. For example, bizarre imagery in folk versions of the song (e.g., "toothache in his heel") may be a sign of legitimate black input (or of someone poking fun of slaves who had an incomplete knowledge of English). "Old Dan Tucker" most closely resembles African music
Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....
in its call-and-response refrain.
Daniel Tucker was buried in Elbert County in 1818. The Elbert County Chamber of Commerce today promotes his grave as a tourist attraction
Tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
due to his possible connection with the character from the song.
Popularity
Virginia Minstrels
The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th century American entertainers known for helping to invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show...
probably made "Old Dan Tucker" a regular part of their show beginning with their first performance at the Bowery Amphitheatre
Bowery Amphitheatre
The Bowery Amphitheatre was a building in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. It was located at 37 and 39 Bowery, across the street from the Bowery Theatre. Under a number of different names and managers, the structure served as a circus, menagerie, and theatre...
on February 6, 1843. Their minstrel show also included a comic scene loosely based on the song, "Dan Tucker on Horseback", about a black riding master. The piece starred Richard Pelham
Richard Pelham
Richard Ward "Dick" Pelham , born Richard Ward Pell, was an American blackface performer. He was born in New York City....
in the title role and Frank Brower
Frank Brower
Francis "Frank" Marion Brower was an American blackface performer active in the mid-19th century. Brower began performing blackface song-and-dance acts in circuses and variety shows when he was 13. He eventually introduced the bones to his act, helping to popularize it as a blackface instrument...
as a black clown. "Old Dan Tucker" did not appear on a Virginia Minstrels playbill until a March 7 and 8 performance at Boston's Masonic Temple. There, the playbill described it as "OLD DAN TUCKER, a Virginian Refrain, in which is described the ups and downs of Negro life." As early as February 15, Emmett billed himself as "Old Dan Emmett".
By the end of March, "Old Dan Tucker" was a hit, and it quickly became the Virginia Minstrels' most popular song. Robert Winans found the song on 49% of the minstrel playbills he surveyed from the 1843–1847 period (behind only "Miss Lucy Long
Miss Lucy Long
"Miss Lucy Long", also known as "Lucy Long" and other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show. A comic banjo tune, the lyrics, written in exaggerated Black Vernacular English, tell of the courtship or marriage of the male singer and the title character...
"), and research by musicologist William J. Mahar suggests that it was behind only "Mary Blane
Mary Blane
"Mary Blane", also known as "Mary Blain" and other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show. Several different versions are known, but all feature a male protagonist singing of his lover Mary Blane, her abduction, and eventual death...
" and "Lucy Long" in its frequency of publication in antebellum songsters. The next year, Dan Tucker returned in the popular "Ole Bull and Old Dan Tucker
Ole Bull and Old Dan Tucker
"Ole Bull and Old Dan Tucker" is a traditional American song. Several different versions are known, the earliest published in 1844 by the Boston-based Charles Keith company. The song's lyrics tell of the rivalry and contest of skill between Ole Bull and Dan Tucker...
", which pits him against Ole Bull in a contest of skill. Sequels such as "De New Ole Dan Tucker" and "Old Dan Tucker's Wedding" followed. Other companies adopted Tucker for comedy sketches, such as burlesques of La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
by Buckley's Serenaders
Buckley's Serenaders
Buckley's Serenaders was an American blackface minstrel troupe, headed by James Buckley. They were an influential troupe in the United States; while they toured England from 1846 to 1848, their absence allowed Edwin Christy's troupe to gain popularity and influence the development of the minstrel...
in 1850 and Sanford's Opera Troupe
Sanford's Opera Troupe
Sanford's Opera Troupe was an American blackface minstrel troupe headed by Samuel S. Sanford . The troupe began in 1853 under the name Sanford's Minstrels. The name changed that same year to Sanford's Opera Troupe. The lineup changed in 1856 and again in 1857, when they...
in 1853.
The song became so identified with Emmett and the Virginia Minstrels that it became part of their foundation myth. Billy Whitlock
Billy Whitlock
William M. "Billy" Whitlock was an American blackface performer. He began his career in entertainment doing blackface banjo routines in circuses and dime shows, and by 1843, he was well known in New York City. He is best known for his role in forming the original minstrel troupe, the Virginia...
and George B. Wooldridge
George B. Wooldridge
George B. Wooldridge was the business manager of the first blackface minstrel troupe, the Virginia Minstrels, in the mid-19th century. He sometimes went by the name Tom Quick.-References:...
both claimed that the troupe members played "Old Dan Tucker" in their first impromptu performance together:
. . . as if by accident, each one picked up his tools and joined in a chorus of "Old Dan Tucker," while Emmett was playing and singing. It went well, and they repeated it without saying a word. Each did his best, and such a rattling of the principal and original instruments in a minstrel band was never heard before.Emmett repeated this story in the May 19, 1877, New York Clipper
New York Clipper
The New York Clipper, also known as The Clipper, was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a circulation of about 25,000. The publishers also produced the...
, although other details changed. The press began to refer to Emmett as "Ole Dan Tucker", and Emmett eventually adopted the nickname. The Virginia Minstrels sometimes went by "Ole Dan Tucker and Co." They were called "Old Dan Tucker & Co.," either by themselves or by the press, as early as February 16, 1843.
The song's disdain for the customs of the upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
es hit a chord with working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
audiences. On January 28, 1843, The New York Sporting Whip
The New York Sporting Whip
The New York Sporting Whip was a 19th-century New York City newspaper. It was one of several penny or flash publications popular at the time.-References:...
reported that the song had been adopted by a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, street gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
called the Hallow Guards. As their leader, Stovepipe Bill, led them against a military raid, he sang the verses followed by the gang singing the chorus. Two years later, The Knickerbocker
The Knickerbocker
The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, was a literary magazine of New York City, founded by Charles Fenno Hoffman in 1833, and published until 1865 under various titles, including:...
remarked, "At this present moment, a certain ubiquitous person seems to be in the way of the whole people of these United States simultaneously." Nathanson claimed that "Old Dan Tucker" had "been sung, perhaps, oftener than any melody ever written."
In 1871, 28 years after its first published edition, Board and Trade listed editions of "Old Dan Tucker" in print from seven different publishers. The song had by default fallen into the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. In later decades, "Old Dan Tucker" became a standard of bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, with recordings by such artists as Fiddlin' John Carson
Fiddlin' John Carson
Fiddlin' John Carson was an American old time fiddler and an early-recorded country musician.-Early life:...
, Uncle Dave Macon
Uncle Dave Macon
Uncle Dave Macon , born David Harrison Macon—also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop"—was an American banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian...
, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, and Gid Tanner
Gid Tanner
James Gideon 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...
and his Skillet Lickers
Skillet Lickers
The Skillet Lickers were an old-time band from Georgia, USA.When Gid Tanner teamed up with blind guitarist Riley Puckett and signed to Columbia in 1924, they created the label's earliest so-called "hillbilly" recording. Gid Tanner formed The Skillet Lickers in 1926. The first line-up was Gid...
. It is referred to in John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's novel The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
. More recently, rock musician Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
made a recording
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
-Personnel:* Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, B-3 organ, and percussion* Sam Bardfeld – violin* Art Baron – tuba* Frank Bruno – guitar* Jeremy Chatzky – upright bass* Mark Clifford – banjo...
. Children's music collections frequently feature the song. In Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus, it appears in the context of powerless Crawfish trying to be heard in an assembly of animals, and Harris writes, “but dey might ez well er sung Ole Dan Tucker ter a harrycane." In the 1935 novel Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (novel)
Little House on the Prairie is a children's novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder and was published in 1935. This book is the third of the series of books known as the Little House series....
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
, the character Mr. Edwards sings the song as his trademark; accordingly, the Little House on the Prairie television series
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
from the 1970s and 1980s uses the song as a leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
for the character.
External links
- "Old Dan Tucker" performed by Japher's Original Sandy River Minstrels
- "Old Dan Tucker" performed by Uncle Dave Macon
- "Old Dan Tucker" (two recordings, one of folk musicians and one of a square danceSquare danceSquare dance is a folk dance with four couples arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, beginning with Couple 1 facing away from the music and going counter-clockwise until getting to Couple 4. Couples 1 and 3 are known as the head couples, while Couples 2 and 4 are the side couples...
) - "Old Dan Tucker" (various recordings)
- "Old Dan Tucker" (various folk recordings)