Tune of the Day: Rosin the Bow
This melody has been popular as a song and dance air in several genres, in multiple forms and tempos. A song version, titled “Old Rosin the Beau”, was published in the US in 1838 (“A Comic Song Dedicated to the Members of the Falcon Barge by the Publisher”), but while this may be one of the earliest printings, it is thought that many other versions of the air from Great Britain and Ireland predate it.
I've travelled this wide world over
And now to another I'll go,
For I know that good quarters are waiting
To welcome old Rosin the Beau.
The tune was borrowed for numerous songs, particularly in America, where it notably became the vehicle for Frances D. Henry's 1874 “Old Settler's Song” (a.k.a. “Acres of Clams”) and Arthur L. Kellog's “A Hayseed Like Me” (circa 1890).