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Flop Eared Mule according to Traditional Tune Archive

Mark Wilson (1978) believes the tune is a polka of probable Central-European origin, while Ford (1940) says the tune is derived from the "College Schottische," which it closely resembles. Others point to origins in "Detroit Schottische." Actually, melodies from several traditions sound similar, as, for example, a Ukranian-American 78 RPM record from 1930 (Victor V-21034) called "Dowbush Kozak," the Scandinavian "Visslarepolska fran Ydre Harad" ("Whistler's Polska from Ydre County"), and the Irish tunes "Curlew Hills (The)" and "Little Pet Polka," as well as the English "Bluebell Polka (The)." Lovett (Good Morning...Ford, 1943, p. 100) gives it as "Military Schottische/Barn Dance." Bronner (1987) states that northern United States fiddlers often mentioned to him that the piece was an old-time tune for a schottische dance, also called "Barn Dance (The)," popular in New York state before World War II, though apparently that form of the tune was popular elsewhere in the country at the time (for example, Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner mentioned he played the melody in the early 1900's as a schottishe). Paul Gifford remarks that it seems reasonable to assume that Flop-eared Mule was derived from the "Detroit Schottische," a three-part melody written and published in 1854 by Adam Couse, a dancing master who owned a music store in Detroit. Other sources remark on the piece's popularity as a vehicle for the quadrille before the turn of the century. Bayard (1981 & 1944) believes "Flop-Eared Mule" to be a fairly modern tune, perhaps from the early 19th century, extremely popular in the South, and speculated that the tune spread north from there. It was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph in the early 1940's from Ozarks Mountains fiddlers (see Lon Jordan's "Mike and Charlie"). Marion Thede, collecting in roughly the same area, gives "Monkey in the Barbershop" as an alternate title. Osey and Ernest Helton (The Helton Brothers), fiddlers from western North Carolina, recorded the reel in 1924 for Broadway records as "Asheville." R.P. Christeson gave untitled versions of the tune in his both volumes of Old Time Fiddler's Repertory (as a "Breakdown" in vol. 2, p. 74, and a "Schottische" in vol. 1, p. 159). An early recording of "Flop Eared Mule" by the St. Louis area quadrille band Judge Sturdy Orchestra, featuring fiddler Judge John O. Sturdy, was recorded on a 78 RPM in the mid-1920's-under the title "Old Dan Tucker" (the Judge was calling the figures for Old Dan Tucker on the recording). The tune was in the repertories of Buffalo Valley, Pa., dance fiddler Harry Daddario, and of Black fiddler Cuje Bertram {Ky.} (as "Big-Eared Mule").

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