# Help me identify an old-timey tune, please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 22, 2025, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649 "2025-05-22T07:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/61 "2025-05-23T17:39:18Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > And, yes, I know that song well. Would never associate it with the Old West, though. Same here. Ironically, it was the first song I thought of when I read ‘banjo’; but I dismissed the thought because it isn’t a ‘cowboy song’. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/62 "2025-05-23T19:02:32Z")
The song was a plot point in the HBO series _The Outsider_ but I’m not sure if the song itself was heard. (Several people in the comments section for the Youtube video looked it up after watching the show.) Also, is there a name for that really fast string picking that recurs throughout the song? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/63 "2025-05-23T23:12:53Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Also, is there a name for that really fast string picking that recurs throughout the song? Is that a tremolo? I dunno nothin’ ‘bout no banjo playin’, but that’s what Google says. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2025, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/64 "2025-05-23T23:50:20Z")
1963? That banjo player probably had a stack of Dick Dale records. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/65 "2025-05-24T00:27:13Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > It’s a kind of slow, rambling, banjo or rinkey-tink piano “wagon-train/way out West” piece that might have once been played in a saloon or out on the prairie. In my defense, I said it was “old-timey” and might have once been played “on a rinkey-tink piano in a saloon” or “maybe out on the prairie.” A tune can call up "wagon train-way out West” images without necessarily mentioning cowboys. I might think of a crusty old prospector out in the desert or a gamblin’ dandy from back East instead. Like Yancy Derringer, f’rinstance. [Yancy Derringer - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yancy_Derringer) The second part of the song (does it actually have lyrics?) is for sure New Orleans-jazzy, but it took me a while to remember it. On the other hand, the first part definitely has an “out West” vibe with the banjo music and he clip-clop rhythm of a horse’s gait. It was hearing the first part on TV or YouTube (I don’t remember what clip was from) that planted the earworm and got me thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/66 "2025-05-24T00:35:13Z")
A riff, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/67 "2025-05-24T00:49:29Z")
This song has to be understood in the context of the early-'60s folk revival movement, which it both described and participated in. The folkies came in between the beatniks and the hippies as the youth trend of the day. Folk music was the serious, intellectual trend for those who found pop music too shallow and bebop too abstruse. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/68 "2025-05-24T10:57:10Z")
I did _not_ know that! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/69 "2025-05-24T16:55:50Z")
In fact, it has lyrics, describing the folk music scene. Sample verse: In New Orleans, we saw a gal a-walkin’ with no shoes, An’ from her throat there comes a growl, she sure was singin’ the blues. She sang for all humanity, this gal with raven hair. I said, “It’s for the world to hear, c’mon to Washington Square.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/e_KWZY8pTCk/hqdefault.jpg "Washington Square （with lyrics）- The Ames Brothers") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_KWZY8pTCk) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/70 "2025-05-24T17:12:09Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Yancy Derringer - Wikipedia I remember watching that one as a kid. Blast from the past. > [@Johanna](#): > > In fact, it has lyrics, describing the folk music scene. Thanks! I never knew it had lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/71 "2025-05-24T19:20:38Z")
Good to know, thanks! 👍 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/72 "2025-05-24T19:29:20Z")
Wow, I never thought my old-timey earworm would lead to a course in mid-20th century American music! Do I see Ed “Tomahawk” Ames on that record album? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/73 "2025-05-24T20:25:57Z")
Yes. Yes, you did. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/74 "2025-05-29T01:19:25Z")
> [@terentii](#): > “Frontier bris”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/75 "2025-05-29T01:22:41Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > “Frontier bris”. Whenever I hear ‘bris’ or ‘vasectomy’, I think [‘Hassan chop!’](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siqPMOYh7DA) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2025, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649/76 "2025-05-29T01:23:44Z")
Nice to know someone else caught the reference 👍 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-an-old-timey-tune-please/1018649.md?page=3)