The 'When You and I Were Young, Maggie' Blues played by the Drivons (Octofone and tuba)

This is a song from 1922 about jazzing up a song from 1866.

The original song "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (which Steve sings in the second half) started life as a poem written by Canadian schoolteacher George Washington Johnson to a student with him he had fallen in love, Maggie Clark. They wed in 1864 but she died in 1865, a year before the poem was set to music by an American, James Butterfield.

This 1922 song about jazzing up the old "Maggie tune" was the work of Jack Frost and Jimmie McHugh.

The instrument Steve is playing is a Regal Octofone. These were made in the late 1920s, advertised as "eight instruments in one" with instructions on how to tune it and play it to emulate an ukulele, tenor banjo, tenor guitar, mandolin, mandola, mando-cello, tiple, or taro-patch. (Yes, there were many more varieties of plucked instruments being played commonly in those days than there are now.)

Steve is accompanied on tuba by his wife, Robyn.

This was at the 2010 Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival.
http://www.suttercreekragtime.com

You can download the original sheet music of The 'When You and I Were Young, Maggie' Blues here:
http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/devincent/LL-SDV-190005-01

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ragtime
• jazz
• regal
• octofone
• tuba
• singing
• whistling
• rag
• 19th century
• 1800s

[Mrunknown194]

Wow, I didn't know this song, and i liked it so much :)

I'll find a piano version, i suppose there is one :S

Thanks Keeper.

[Keeper1st]

@Mrunknown194 I just added a link to the description. It's just the 1922 song -- not the original "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" song, but I'm sure that's easy to find.