My Brother Sylveste

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard about the big strong man Who lives in a caravan?" The singer's "brother" Sylveste has medals on his chest, has fought Indians, has swum the Atlantic Ocean, beaten boxing champions, can overcome anything
AUTHOR: original by Jesse Lsaky (words) and Fred Fisher (music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear); original version published 1908
KEYWORDS: talltale travel
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 180-181, "My Brother Sylveste" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 139-140, "My Brother Sylvest" (1 text, with tune on p. 155)
Roud #10682
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sylveste
Big Strong Man
NOTES [256 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear for some reason files this among the bawdy songs, perhaps because one verse has Sylveste invading the harems of Arabia or perhaps because it was often sung with the unpleasantly dirty "Salome." But I didn't tag it as bawdy; it may have been sung in all-male contexts, but it's mostly suitable for mixed company. Indeed, two of Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's informants appear to have been women. I think it is more bothersome for people like *me*, who hate stupid exaggeration.
Although not every collection is from a veteran, the song does seem to have strong military links, e.g. Ernle Bradford, The Mighty Hood, 1959 (I use the 1977 Coronet paperback), p. 120, describes it as being sung by Royal Navy sailors in Gibraltar in the early 1940s. And it appears he did get it from oral tradition, not print, because he spells the hero's name "Silvest."
According to Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 282, this began with a 1908 popular song "My Bruddah Sylvest," with words by Jesse Laske and music by Fred Fisher, which Gardner believes was the #7 song in America in December 1908. The versions we hear today, with their references to the Lusitania and Jack Dempsey and such, are clearly newer rewrites. It's also noteworthy that the traditional versions seem mostly to come from Britain and Canada. The path from the 1908 pop song to the World War II pop song must have been complex. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk180

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