Annotation:Pass around the Bottle

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PASS AROUND THE BOTTLE. AKA - "Pass around the Bottle and We'll all take a Drink." Old-Time, Song/Breakdown. USA, Mississippi. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). A variant of "John Brown's Body." The Skillet Lickers (in the configuration of Gid Tanner and Clayton McMichen on fiddles, Riley Pucket on guitar and vocals, and Fate Norris on banjo) recorded the song in Atlanta on April 17th, 1926, one of eight sides for Columbia records. Wayne W. Daniel (in his book Pickin’ on Peachtree: A History of Country Music in Atlanta, Georgia, 1990) opines: “The output from this historic recording session makes for a rather unimpressive list of what even there were long-familiar tunes and songs: “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane,” “Bully of the Town,” “Pass Around the Bottle and We’ll All Take a Drink,” “Alabama Jubilee,” “Watermelon on the Vine,” “Don’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan,” “Ya Gotta Quit Kickin’ My Dog Aroun’,” and “Turkey in the Straw.”” The tune was also ecorded in 1939 for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the playing of Tishomingo County, Mississippi, fiddler W.E. Claunch.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: AFS 02972 B3, W.E. Claunch (1939). Columbia 15074-D (78 RPM), The Skillet Lickers (1926).

See also listing at:
Hear the Skillet Lickers' 1926 recording at the Internet Archive [1] and on youtube.com [2] [3]

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