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Favorite Old Halloween tunes

Bushman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,138
Location
Joliet
Good old Henry Hall...
[video=youtube;2fAjyFbyb4o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fAjyFbyb4o[/video]
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,040
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
He was an old man with a very crooked nose who lived in a log hut and died in his bed. And when we looked in thru the window we saw that old man Mose had kicked the bucket.

The song had been around for a few years, notably recorded by Louis Armstrong, when it became a fad in 1938-39 due to the Eddy Duchin/Patricia Norman record I referenced above. During the vocal, Norman sang several repeated riffs on the phrase "buck-buck-bucket," and the story spread that in one of them she actually substituted an F for the B of "bucket." Her diction at one point is indistinct enough to give just enough legitimacy to this claim, and she seems to be on the verge of breaking up laughing, as are several members of the band who are singing with her in a call-and-response style.

Because of this story, the record became what we'd call today a "viral hit." Norman left the Duchin band not long after to join Al Kavelin, but continued to perform her version of "Old Man Mose" with him, intentionally blurring her diction and recreating the near-break-up. She also made a solo recording of a sequel tune, "Pluckin' On A Golden Harp," which followed Mose into the afterlife where he sat on a cloud making angelic music, with Norman urging him to "pluck-pluck-pluckit."

Patricia Norman herself died in 2008, without ever coming definitively clean on what she'd actually said in the original record.
 

Blackjack

One Too Many
Messages
1,198
Location
Crystal Lake, Il
He was an old man with a very crooked nose who lived in a log hut and died in his bed. And when we looked in thru the window we saw that old man Mose had kicked the bucket.

The song had been around for a few years, notably recorded by Louis Armstrong, when it became a fad in 1938-39 due to the Eddy Duchin/Patricia Norman record I referenced above. During the vocal, Norman sang several repeated riffs on the phrase "buck-buck-bucket," and the story spread that in one of them she actually substituted an F for the B of "bucket." Her diction at one point is indistinct enough to give just enough legitimacy to this claim, and she seems to be on the verge of breaking up laughing, as are several members of the band who are singing with her in a call-and-response style.

Because of this story, the record became what we'd call today a "viral hit." Norman left the Duchin band not long after to join Al Kavelin, but continued to perform her version of "Old Man Mose" with him, intentionally blurring her diction and recreating the near-break-up. She also made a solo recording of a sequel tune, "Pluckin' On A Golden Harp," which followed Mose into the afterlife where he sat on a cloud making angelic music, with Norman urging him to "pluck-pluck-pluckit."

Patricia Norman herself died in 2008, without ever coming definitively clean on what she'd actually said in the original record.

The song was written in 35 by Louis Armstrong and Zilner Randolph after he returned from a trip to Europe. The character in question came directly from a favorite newspaper comic of Louis, Lil Abner. Ol' Man Mose: The mysterious Mose was reportedly hundreds of "y'ars" old, and lived like a hermit in a cave atop a mountain. (He obstinately refused to "kick the bucket", which was conveniently positioned just outside his cave door.) His wisdom was absolute, and his sought-after annual Sadie Hawkins Day predictions–though frustratingly cryptic and infuriatingly misleading - were nonetheless 100% accurate.
 

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