I've had a bit of a hankering for going back and looking at some classic tunes. Old Joe Clark is one of those songs that are in all the tutor books and its usually the one which is used to introduce the F chord. Its also such a simple tune that I'd over looked it. The other night I saw Rebecca Findlay playing fiddle at the local pub and on top of being a fantastic musician she played a version of Old Joe Clark and I thought hang on this is a bloody great tune - I should have another look. It's one of those tunes like Cripple Creek that are apparently simple but once learned leave a lot of room for improvisation or elaboration. Not that I've got that far yet but there is something hypnotic about a tune which is seven and a half bars of one chord, G, and half a bar of a second F. It has a really archaic feel to it, apparently it's a modal tune in the mixolydian mode.
As a song its got about ninety-five verses and lots of them can be found here http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiJOECLARK;ttJOECLARK.html
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