Oh Didn't He Ramble
Jelly Roll Mortons Lyrics

Ashes to ashes dust to dust
If the women don't get you the liquor must

He rambled and he rambled but the butchers had to cut him down
He was such a good man

Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Will Handy, Claude Garreau

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

@paradisepipeco

@@robertwilliams4646 I appreciate the reply. I really thought I went over the top after that midnight rambling comment I posted, so glad it was received in the spirit in which it was intended, And I ain't never seen no giraffe in Wyoming too, buckaroo.
As the song goes,

🎼 "I seen a front porch swing, heard a diamond ring," 🎵
🎷 "Seen a needle that winked its eye" 🎶
🎵 "But I be done seein' 'bout everything" 🎸
🎺 "When I see a elephant fly" 🎶

Ahem. Now where was I? Oh yes. Sorry about that.
So..... I finally mention Ramblin' Jack to somebody who knows who he is. Thank you for that, my friend. That caper is a story in and of itself; a story for another time I suppose, but Jack dragged me onstage at the very last moment on the night I met him, and he made me back him up for a full set, just the two of us. We were both thoroughly baked, on my dime....

Much more to that story...... and like a lot of old dinosaurs, I got plenty lots more tales of drunkenness and cruelty, about a long time ago in a Ford Galaxie far away, including 420 encounters (as with Jack) with Zimmy from Hibbing, Paul Ramon, Captain Trips (NOT the disease), The Wembley Whammer, et al......

Somehow it all seemed perfectly normal at the time.
I was only a fly on the wall, my friend. My stories are mostly in my tunes, a few of which are on my "Top 40 from the Back 40" playlist on my channel. Thanks again, Amigo.
Namaste.

All comments from YouTube:

@claudiamendoza2211

5y↑12

"Didn't He Ramble" (also referred to as "Oh! Didn't He Ramble") was composed by J. Rosamond Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, and Bob Cole in 1902. The trio worked as a songwriting team, creating numerous songs that are still played in today's Traditional New Orleans Jazz Repertoire. (Preservation Hall Foundation site)

@itsRemco

Thanks for the info!

@RagaBopHepCat

2y↑3

The song "Oh, Didn't He Ramble" was originally an Irish song, sung at Irish wakes (which have a similar spirit and attitude as a Jazz funeral, in that both festivities function as a kind of celebration of a person's life (rather, than as a mourning of their passing). There are earlier renditions of the song, recorded to a different (more traditional euro-centric beat). it wasn't originally a jazz number, but is said to have been adapted & ~reinterpreted by early New Orleans jazz bands, where it became part of the New Orleans music repertoire.

@paradisepipeco

3y↑6

Once in the middle of Wyoming, me and the boys got an old Rambler wagon and covered it completely with glued on newspaper, as the local newspaper in the one horse town of Greybull was our sponser for the upcoming demolition derby. We christened the old hooptie "The Midnight Rambler" but this here tune was our totem anthem, contrary to the popular myth that it was some Rolling Stones song. Just thought y'all needed to know.

@robertwilliams4646

2y↑1

Interesting story! I know Greybull well (or did once). My mother grew up there, actually on a ranch outside of town, but she went to school in Greybull and always claimed it as her home. She moved to Denver, where I was born and still live, but as a kid I spent a lot of time in Greybull with her and my favorite aunt, who spent most of her life in and around there. Not often do I see the name "Greybull" in print, especially on YouTube, so I thank you for the memory. Just thought y'all needed to know. :-)

@paradisepipeco

@@robertwilliams4646 Thanks for posting. I spent my life as a musician, originally out of Hollywood, mostly in saloons after that; including Robert's Roost in Greybull. Before that, I lived in Worland (I came up from Cheyenne), played on KWOR radio there, played all over the Big Horn Basin from Thermopolis, Worland, Basin, Cody, Wapiti......and around the state, Casper, Lander, Sheridan, Gillette, Jackson Hole, up to Billings and Miles City MT, etc........

I rambled all around, I did. Even played onstage once with Ramblin' Jack Elliott...... and boys, dint he ramble. He rambled all around.....

The Midnight Rambler broke down just before the demo derby, so we never got to demolish it in the arena. I remember after we got it ready for the derby, we took it out into the badlands for a test run and chased a herd of mule deer all around the dunes. I think it was mule deer. It weren't giraffes, I can tell you that, and it weren't the legendary white buffalo (the original grey bull). It was a long time ago, when the Earth was young.....and so was Willie Nelson.

@robertwilliams4646

@@paradisepipeco That's a great story about the Midnight Rambler never making it to the derby to get herself demolished -- thanks for sharing that. Never seen a giraffe in Wyoming either (lots of buffalo and pronghorns, and of course jackalopes, the Official State Animal). I know all the towns you named, I had family in Greybull, Worland, Basin, Cody, and I worked for years as an archaeologist, Wyoming was part of my beat. My Wyoming days are long ago too (except for just passing through), no family left up there, all my Wyoming aunts/uncles/cousins are long gone, or fled to California. And you were onstage with Ramblin' Jack? Great stories, Jones, better start writing your memoirs, dude. :-)

@paradisepipeco

@argdansk

12y↑4

Maybe the best version of "Oh Didn't He...." - especially with Sidney Bechet, my all time favourite clarinet and soprano sax player.

@TheOEDLovesMeNot

8y↑11

Thank you for sharing this valuable recording. I found your helpful post here during my google search for the words "Ashes to ashes / And dust to dust / If the women don't get you / The liquor must," which I had come across in the play "Ashes to Ashes" written by Harold Pinter.

@ronwilkes2561

7y↑1

osamuhigashiyama2012 h

@williamgolding2

4y↑1

Same in doing it for gcse

@AlFrisby

14y↑2

Best Creole composer ever lived.... La chez pas a patate ..la Louisiana !!!!

@annabanana8700

20w

I love it when I’m reading a new book and it leads me to discover fantastic music✨

@48120dc

2y↑3

This is NOT by W.C. Handy. It is by WILL Handy which was a pseudonym for Bob Cole (and in this case, co-writers Rosamond and Weldon Johnson (Lift Ev're Voice & Sing). .

@RagaBopHepCat

2y↑1

The slow, beginning section, before the "Ashes to Ashes", is a different song (a funeral dirge, called "Flee as a Bird" (not a missprint/typo: "flee" as in to leave, or take flight). The Dirty Dozen brass band recorded this in the 1990's, with Danny Barker, under the name "Dead Man Blues",

@RagaBopHepCat

2y↑1

...Jelly Roll Morton also recorded the slow, beginning section, funeral dirge (before the "ashes to ashes" parody comment), using the same alternative title, "Dead Man Blues" (but the actual, official name of the song is "Flee as a Bird"). The Dirty Dozen's version was released on their 1993 tribute album, "Jelly" - A tribute album featuring the Dirty Dozen brass band playing the music of Jelly Roll Morton, on which musician, griot/storyteller, and writer Danny Barker also appeared, as a special guest, reading sections of his book "Bourbon Street Black", a history of New Orleans jazz.

Unbeknownst to many, the Dirty Dozen brass band also took it's (band) name from a 1938 composition of Morton's called "the Dirty Dozen". (And i believe both that song, and Morton's rendition of "Dead Man Blues" (alternative title for his rendition of " Flee as a Bird") both were recorded as part of his collection of recordings for the Library of Congress, which were released in 2005, several decades after Morton's death, and produced by Alan Lomax, who also conducted the recording sessions & interviews, of Morton.

@keepinguptheday

12y↑3

Indeed the song is derived from the Engliish traditional mummers' song 'The Derby Ram' perhaps by way of the country/bluegrass song "He Rambled" - he has come a long way - "he rambled till the butcher cut him down". Great.

@RatPfink66

6y↑2

Recorded in New York September 14, 1939.

@heribertvonstomp8686

8y↑3

Great performance. Jelly composed a similar tune: Dead Man Blues. Morton recorded it with his Red Hot Peppers in 1926. With kind regars, OK-Dreamband.

@Wolfganger

17w

He also recorded a piano solo of it too.

@thereorganizer

15y↑3

this is the theme to slam bang theater from Dallas Texas KTVT with Icky Twerp! Yay!

@buremo6

10y↑7

I want this playing when they lower my casket down with a silver chain.

@cotswoldcuckoo775

6y↑3

Bucklin Moon I'd like it played when they pull me back up.

@RatPfink66

6y↑2

me too but the band must include soprano, c melody, and bass saxes.

@jojoUK120

Cotswold Cuckoo 😂 to recover the contraband?

@tubemagpie

@@RatPfink66 Absolutely......Absolutely and for extra fun add in a contra bass and a subcontrabass saxophone.... seriously....

@robchalfen

13y↑5

not a Handy tune, but by black NY show composers Bob Cole & J. Rosamond Johnson, 1902 (bios in wiki)

@maralimperi7117

6y↑2

Pääsiäisenä...

@leoncoda

8y↑1

El tema "Oh! Didn't He Ramble" comienza en el minuto 1:00

@oldtimejazzfan

7y↑1

The first theme is FLEE AS A BIRD.

@leonblum7898

Y QUE IMPLICANCIA TIENE? BUENOS AIRES ~~--''ARGENTINA''.~~

@lluviadeltropico

29w

1:02

@eyalregev

3y↑4

Who else is here thanks to Tom Waits?

@robertwilliams4646

2y↑2

Me too.

@tubemagpie

8y↑2

W C Handy? Well, he did take trad tunes and claim that he composed them. This is known from the Appalachians and is a version of the English song The Derby Ram...

@Suzzannedouglasmusicjazz

O! Didn't He Ramble was composed by my husband's great uncle Bob Cole and the Johnson Brothers. This is not a W. C. Handy tune. I have confirmed this with both the Johnson and Handy families.

@Suzzannedouglasmusicjazz

Just spoke with music historian Thomas Riis about O, Didn't He Ramble and he said that Bob Cole wrote O, Didn't He Ramble alone.

@maralimperi7117

Kyllä tässä menossa kirstu tutisee..jee

@TITOMARTINOJAZZETC.

8y↑5

W. C. Handy? WRONG! he had nothing to do with this tune, except in his own funeral!

@barrygalef1277

James Weldon Johnson stated that that "We took it, re-wrote the verses, telling an entirely different story from the original, left the chorus as it was, and published the song, at first under the name of "Will Handy."* So, it's pretty understandable that some would think it was Will Handy's song.

*The Book of American Negro Poetry, James Weldon Johnson. Kindle Edition.

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