I Used to Play My Old Banjo (Yellow Banjo, I Used to Live in Lancashire)

DESCRIPTION: Deedling song. "I u-loo-loosed to pi-li-lay my o-lo-lold banjo-lo-lo," i.e. "I used to play my old banjo, And play it on my knee." The singer takes it to the (closed?) banjo shop. The instrument may be repaired. The singer may live in Lancashire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Mudcat thread "Yellow Banjo / Old Banjo / Banjo Song")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Deedling song. "I u-loo-loosed to pi-li-lay my o-lo-lold banjo-lo-lo," i.e. "I used to play my old banjo, And play it on my knee, But now the strings have broken so It's no more use to me." The singer takes it to the banjo shop, which may be closed, but eventually the instrument is repaired. The singer may live in Lancashire/Amsterdam/elsewhere. The deedling may be explained as the way the banjo sounds when played
KEYWORDS: music wordplay home | banjo deedling
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(England)
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "Yellow Banjo" (Piotr-Archive #388, recorded 12/18/2022)
NOTES [111 words]: Although I haven't found this in any printed collection, perhaps because it's effectively impossible to transcribe in a way that will give an idea of what it sounds like, the Mudcat thread Yellow Banjo / Old Banjo / Banjo Song shows that very, very many people know it, with dramatic variations. And no one seems able to locate the original. It is clearly a traditional song.
It does strike me that, if the song is supposed to be imitating a banjo, it is surely a tenor or other plectrum banjo, not a five-string banjo played in either frailing or Scruggs style; the meter is wrong for the latter. Frankly, it sounds to me as if the instrument should be a mandolin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio288

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