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An old tune on an old accordion 🙂
- Thread starter Dingo40
- Start date
Walker
🪗
Well Dingo, there's little doubt that over the years there's been many good old tunes, just like the one you sent over. And no doubt, the accordion is a fine instrument to play these lovely tunes on. But when I come to think about it, there is nothing to limit us to good ol' tunes on good ol' accordions. It gets me thinking now, whilst I'm sat here in the Auld Accordionists Forum Pub, I may as well while away a few moments of the day with another nice song.
Dingo, did you ever hear of a film set in the Old Country, at Moore Abbey in County Kildare, Ireland called Song O' My Heart, back in 1930. None other than the Irish Tenor Count John McCormack, sang a fine song called The Rose of Tralee.
But you know Dingo, you're right - the telling sign of a great song is that it endures, and eventually a hat wearing accordion player will give it a whirl. Always with the hat, don't ask me why...
Dingo, did you ever hear of a film set in the Old Country, at Moore Abbey in County Kildare, Ireland called Song O' My Heart, back in 1930. None other than the Irish Tenor Count John McCormack, sang a fine song called The Rose of Tralee.
But you know Dingo, you're right - the telling sign of a great song is that it endures, and eventually a hat wearing accordion player will give it a whirl. Always with the hat, don't ask me why...
Dingo40
Been here for ages!
Walker,
Sorry, I don't recall the film but I certainly know this great song!
Thanks for sharing the clips!
I believe there's an annual Rose of Tralee contest open to all women of Irish descent with branches around the world, including Australia
See here:
en.wikipedia.org
Sorry, I don't recall the film but I certainly know this great song!
Thanks for sharing the clips!
I believe there's an annual Rose of Tralee contest open to all women of Irish descent with branches around the world, including Australia
See here:
Rose of Tralee (festival) - Wikipedia
Last edited:
Walker
🪗
Thanks Dingo. After listening to your tune it reminded me of another similar song, and I stumbled over the Rose of Tralee film clip on Youtube by accident.
I love the old tunes, with or without accordion (mainly with). I do remember a story I read once about John McCormack, who gave a gift to Frank Borzage, the producer of Song O' My Heart. It was only a Patek Philippe pocket watch made in the late 1920s, crafted from platinum and encrusted with diamonds. It goes to show how incredibly wealthy and successful McCormack must have been to have afforded such gifts. It was sold at auction recently for around £17,750. A lot of money, but doubtless a fraction of the cost of obtaining a similar new one.
I had heard of the Rose of Tralee, but I did not know it was so global.
I love the old tunes, with or without accordion (mainly with). I do remember a story I read once about John McCormack, who gave a gift to Frank Borzage, the producer of Song O' My Heart. It was only a Patek Philippe pocket watch made in the late 1920s, crafted from platinum and encrusted with diamonds. It goes to show how incredibly wealthy and successful McCormack must have been to have afforded such gifts. It was sold at auction recently for around £17,750. A lot of money, but doubtless a fraction of the cost of obtaining a similar new one.
I had heard of the Rose of Tralee, but I did not know it was so global.
The Australian Bush ballad "Another Fall of Rain" was set to that tune by the Bushwhackers' Band back in the '70s.
Many of the Australian bush/swaggy/shearer/etc. were adaptations of tunes from Old Blighty, mainly played on accordion, concertina, fiddle, mouth organ and 'lagerfone'.
A 'lagerfone' being a variation on the "Johnny Jingler" - beer bottle tops nailed to whatever bit of spare of 2"x1" they could find lying about; struck with another stick and banged on the floor in rhythm with the song.
The variations-on-a-theme of this 'instrument' are quite remarkable in their inventiveness; modern ones being more difficult to make because the plastic 'seal' in the 'crown' type bottle tops is more difficult to extract than the old-fashioned cork ones found in previous incarnations.
Many of the Australian bush/swaggy/shearer/etc. were adaptations of tunes from Old Blighty, mainly played on accordion, concertina, fiddle, mouth organ and 'lagerfone'.
A 'lagerfone' being a variation on the "Johnny Jingler" - beer bottle tops nailed to whatever bit of spare of 2"x1" they could find lying about; struck with another stick and banged on the floor in rhythm with the song.
The variations-on-a-theme of this 'instrument' are quite remarkable in their inventiveness; modern ones being more difficult to make because the plastic 'seal' in the 'crown' type bottle tops is more difficult to extract than the old-fashioned cork ones found in previous incarnations.
Here they are variously called "zoom zoom" or "stumpf fiddle," and there is an annual contest for the building (and playing) there of. Although more ornate than your average lagerfone of bottle caps, they are derived from the same idea. The "zoom zoom" version is more associated with old time or polka bands. Interestingly enough, the sponsors of the annual contest run a custom embroidery hat store and when I went in last month to get some "Polka King" hats made, we talked about playing some polka tunes.. . We'll see!
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