This is the original version of My Darling Clementine. A lot of the lyrics are similar, but the tune is different, as you can hear. Although it is in the key of D, there is a C natural thrown in (on the "Dar" part of "Darling" in the chorus, unusual for minstrel or popular songs of the period. It is probably not unusual to the modern ear, which is atuned to blue notes, but it must have sounded odd in 1863, which is probably why the tune was rewritten to the one we know now, I'm guessing. The original was written by H S Tompson in 1863, during the American Civil War. I prefer this version of My Darling Clementine to the one we are more familiar with, probably because of that "odd" c natural.
The banjo is a reproduction of a circa 1845 banjo made by a William Boucher ("boo-shay, supposedly) of Baltimore. My repro was made by George Wunderlich of Maryland in late 1997, shipped and dated Jan 1998.
The Chorus is:
Oh my Clema,
Oh my Clema,
Oh, My Darling Clementine,
Now you are (is) gone and lost forever,
I'm dreadful sorry, Clementine.
The C natural occurs when I use my pinkie finger on the 4th string (numbered from bottom to top); it's the one which looks invisible in this video; it is below the short "d" (top) string, which is the 5th string.
Tuned: dADf#a Fretless Gut String Banjo,
18 сен 2012
