Old Mountain Dew

DESCRIPTION: The praises of mountain dew are sung. "Oh, they call it that good old mountain dew, And those who refuse it are few...." Doctor, preacher, conductor, lawyer (and, in some versions, Uncle Nort, Aunt June, Brother Bill) derive various benefits from it.
AUTHOR: Bascom Lamar Lunsford
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: drink family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 36-38, "Mountain Dew" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 736, "Good Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 289, "Good Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, filed with "Real Old Mountain Dew"="Good Old Mountain Dew")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 236, "Mountain Dew" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107, 114, 282, 289, 291, "Mountain Dew" (notes only)
DT, MTDEW3*
Roud #9133
RECORDINGS:
Delmore Brothers, "Old Mountain Dew" (Decca 5890, 1940)
John Griffin, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (Columbia 33145-F, n.d.)
Grandpa Jones, "Mountain Dew" (King 624, 1947)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "Mountain Dew" (Conqueror 9249, 1939) (on CrowTold02; this may be the reissue of the Conqueror recording, but it's not certain)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Mountain Dew" (Brunswick 219, 1928); "Old Mountain Dew" (on BLLunsford01) (Rounder LP 0065, 1957)
NOTES [204 words]: Botkin's text is from a 1949 field recording. He says Lunsford composed and recorded it in the twenties, but that it has already changed substantially in oral tradition. - NR
Some have thought that Lunsford took a traditional song and made it his own. His recording, however, remains the first known version -- and there is no evidence that Lunsford did this with any other song. - RBW
Lunsford himself said he wrote it in the early years of this century, and that it was made up out of whole cloth, not adapted. It should not be confused with the traditional Irish song usually called "Real Old Mountain Dew" [or "Good Old Mountain Dew"]. - PJS
If Lunsford did have a model, it was perhaps the Harrigan/Braham song "The Mountain Dew" by Edward Harrigan and David Braham (for Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block.") Most of that song bear no relationship to this, but the first verse ends "When home you roll, come take a bowl of teh rale [real] old mountain dew." These lines are repeated in the second vese; the third ends "Then off with coat and wet your throat with the rale old mountain dew." For the Harrigan/Braham song, see Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #75, pp. 278-279. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BSoF736

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography