I used to have a fairly large collection of square dance 45s. My impression is that studio musicians would often make up a melody so it is possible that the A part of Dusty Road was made up. The B part does sound familiar though.
Sent from my iPad > On Oct 30, 2019, at 1:39 AM, jim saxe via Musicians > <[email protected]> wrote: > > For many years--even from before "modern western" square dance substantially > diverged from its traditional roots--square dance music producers have > sometimes released recordings of traditional tunes under new names. I'm not > sure of the reason. Perhaps the idea was to get callers to buy multiple > recordings of the same tune. Or perhaps the producers thought the new names > would help them claim copyrights. I dunno. Anyway, this page from Vic and > Debbie Ceder's square dance record database > > https://www.ceder.net/recorddb/viewsingle.php?RecordId=9791&SqlId=249698 > > includes sound clips from the A and B sides of Sets In Order record 69 / 70, > identified with the titles "Dusty Roads" and "Rubber Dolly" respectively. I > suspect that these tunes may have other, more common/familiar/traditional > titles, and I'm wondering whether any of you can help me identify them. > > "Dusty Roads" is the one I'm more curious about. It sure seems familiar, but > I can't place it. > > I've read that "Rubber Dolly" is an alternate title for "Back Up And Push". > After listening to a few versions of "Back Up And Push" that I found on the > intertubes, I find that I can just maybe possibly imagine the version of > "Rubber Dolly" cited above as a variant of the same tune. But I'm not at all > sure someone mightn't identify a different traditional title that wouldn't > require so much of a reach. > > A search for "Rubber Dolly" in the Ceder database turns up a number of other > cuts under that title that seem like closer matches to the Youtube videos > I've found of "Back Up And Push," at least in the A part. Some of those > "Back Up And Push" videos have the B part played in a very ornamented style > (derived from bluegrass and/or contest fiddling?) that makes it hard for my > musical muggle brain even to discern the underlying melody. There don't seem > to be any versions of "Dusty Roads" in the database besides the one I've > cited--at least not under that title. > > If you identify traditional titles for either of these tunes, it would be > helpful if you could also supply links to recordings (e.g., mp3 files or > Youtube videos) under those titles that illustrate the resemblance to the > clips I've asked about. I say that because whatever tune(s) you mention > might exist in widely different versions, and the titles might even be > associated with other, unrelated tunes. > > I also realize that some MWSD releases may be mishmashes stitched together > using fragments of multiple traditional tunes, but I have no idea whether > either "Dusty Roads" or "Rubber Dolly" is such a frankenstune. > > Thanks. > > --Jim > > _______________________________________________ > Musicians mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/musicians-sharedweight.net _______________________________________________ Musicians mailing list [email protected] http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/musicians-sharedweight.net
