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The Beer Barrel Polka barndance

Also known as The Beer Barrel, Roll Out The Barrel.

There are 4 recordings of this tune.

The Beer Barrel Polka has been added to 14 tunebooks.

Download ABC

One setting

1
X: 1
T: The Beer Barrel Polka
R: barndance
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
A^G | A2 F4 A^G | A2 F4 A^G | A2 d2 e3d | d2 c4 c=c |
^c2 d2 e3d | d2 c4 cd | c2 B4 Bc | B2 A4 A^G |
A2 F4 A^G |A2 F4 A^G | A2 d2 e3d | d2 c6 |
e3e e3d | d2 c4 B2 | A2 _B2 =B2 c2 | d2 ^G2 A2 _B2 |]
|:B4 _B2 =B2- | =B2 G2 F2 E2 | B8- | B2 F2 G2 ^G2 |
A4 ^G2 A2- | A2 F2 E2 D2 | A8- | A2 d2 e2 d2 |
c6 e2 | B6 A2 | c8- | c2 d2 e2 d2 |
c4 e4|1 B4 _B4 | A8- | A2 ^G2 A2 _B2 :|2 B4 c4 | d8- | d6 |]

Eleven comments

The Beer Barrel Polka

Back in the late 1970s there was an "ale" (a small folk festival) which used to be held at what had been a farm near Cheddar, Somerset (England).

Although you had to buy a ticket for it, the event was by invitation only.

The highlight of the weekend was a ceildh held in the farm’s orchard, with the band playing on an old hay wain. This is one of the tunes that they played. I noted it down at the time, but I haven’t heard it played anywhere since then.

The Beer Barrel Polka

I’ve just discovered that the tune was written in 1927 by the Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda (although probably not in the key in which I submitted it).

There are a lot of German festivals in the area of Texas that I’m from and this one is very popular at all of them.

"The Beer Barrel Polka"

Funny, I thought this was already on site, from ages back… This one spread like wildfire ~ of those I know ~ all across the U.S. & Canada, Mexico, across the collective some refer to as Australasia, and I do mean Asia too, and South America. I’d guess the war and the military had some share in spreading this too as brass bands and concert band played this one, including, if I’m remembering it rightly ~ Benny Goodman and his band and Glen Miller too…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BA6Ym8gX20


And many, many more… 😀

& not forgetting Lawrence Welk and his orchestra…

"Anyone have the nerve to add the lyrics?"

I’ll leave that to you, Ceol! 😉

My abc is a transcription of what the band actually played at that ceilidh back in the 70s… but there’s more to this tune than I actually posted - and I’m surprised that you didn’t notice, Ceol!

The next part of the tune is the section that is used for the song: "Roll Out the Barrel" - but that part of the tune is too daggy even for my taste …. 😉

~ and I quite like daggy tunes… 😛

Re: The Beer Barrel Polka

Interestingly enough Chico Marx plays this Polka in "Monkey Business" - 1931.

Hilarious!