Pass Around the Bottle (As We Go Marching Home)

DESCRIPTION: "Pass around the bottle and we'll all take a drink (x2) As we go marching home." "Pull out the stopper and fill it up again." "Hang John Brown on a sour apple tree." "Grasshopper sitting on a sweet potato vine." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers)
KEYWORDS: drink floatingverses Civilwar execution drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 296-297, "Pass Around Your Bottle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 34, "Pass Around the Bottle" (1 text)
Roud #7858
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Grey Gull 4210/Radiex 4210/Van Dyke 74210, 1928; Madison 5094, c. 1930)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Victor 20550, 1927; Montgomery Ward M-8054, 1939)
Sim Harris, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Oriole 916, 1927)
North Carolina Hawaiians, "Pass Around the Bottle" (OKeh 45405, 1930; rec. 1928)
Ernest Stoneman, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Banner 2157/Domino 3985/Regal 8346/Homestead 16490 [as by Sim Harris], c. 1929/Oriole 916 [as by Harris]/Challenge 665/Conqueror 7064/Conqueror 7755, 1931/Paramount 3021/Broadway 8054, c. 1930; rec. 1927) Pathe 32278/Perfect 12357/Cameo 8217/Romeo 597/Lincoln 2882, 1927); "Hang John Brown" (on Stonemans01); (Edison, unissued, 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Pass Around the Bottle and We'll All Take a Drink" (Columbia 15074-D, 1926)
Walter Williams, "Pass Around the Bottle" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching On" (lyrics)
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [71 words]: Since this is almost entirely floating verses, with a floating chorus, it probably is actually a version of something else. But without a tune, we can't really tell what.
Paul Stamler tells me that Gid Tanner recorded this to the tune of "John Brown's Body." However, this does not fit the text printed by Brown (which is only three lines long rather than four). The Lomax version, on the other hand, has four-line stanzas. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Br3034

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