The Flop-Eared Mule polka

Not a tune I’m familiar with, I just located the abc elsewhere (I know, I know, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa … I’ll say a couple of decades if it makes people feel better) and posting as a favour to someone who requested it …

Cheers. I’ll check it out later (at work, shouldnt even be on tinternet, Damn I’m a rebel!!!). I’m hoping its the one that the dubliners play with the prefix‘ C’mon mule, get off the road’ on their live at Albert Hall LP

Looks like the Dubliners’ one to me . It’s an American “old-timey” tune , I think. Somebody must recognise it.

Well … if anybody does recognise it and the setting’s execrable, please suggest amendments here!

Also known as “Flop Eared Mule”

mop-eared fule

as Molesworth might sa

D Euro MP fella

It

IT4S NOT A

It’s not a Celtic tune,it’s an American sqare dance tune and it usually goes like this
|:f2f2d2d2|ABAF D2 D2|E2 EF GF E2|1DEFG A2 A2:|2D2FD2D2|:efec efec|efec A2 A2|B2 Bc dc B2|1ABcd e2 e2:|2A2c2A2A2|

It is played quite a bit in these parts ( Canada, USA) and is generally known as Flop Eared Mule.
The tune can be ornamented a bit by plucking the E string at the start of the B part.
It also can be played as a schottische.

X:3 - As played at my local sessions in Bristol (UK) - where we know it as “The Flop-Eared Mule”.

# Added by Aidan Crossey - November 12th, 2003 ~ 2/4

An American tune that has been ‘borrowed’, and has been adapted and included as on tune in a set of polkas as played played for dance…

X 4: No repeat sign needed at end of 3rd line, methinks!

This tune is a shortened version of “Detroit Schottische” written and published in 1854 by Adam Couse. It was one of the most popular dance tunes in America at that time. From the Traditional Tune Archive here is the original score:
X:1
T:Detroit Schottische
M:4/4
L:1/8
C:Adam Couse
N:AABBACCDDCCAA
S:Original Sheet Music
K:D
A2|.f2.f2.d2.d2|(ABAF) .D2.D2|C>DE>F G>GG>E|D>EF>G A2A2|
.f2.f2.d2.d2|(ABAF) .D2.D2|C>DE>F G>AB>c|d2d2d2:|
|:(cd)|{f}(e^d)ez {f}(e^d)ez|{f}(e^dec) A2A2|^G>AB>c d>cd>B|A>Bc>d e2e2|
{f}(e^d)ez {f}(e^d)ez|{f}(e^dec) A2A2|^G>AB>c d>cd>B|A2A2A2:|
A2|.f2.f2.d2.d2|(ABAF) .D2.D2|C>DE>F G>GG>E|D>EF>G A2A2|
.f2.f2.d2.d2|(ABAF) .D2.D2|C>DE>F G>AB>c|d2d2d2||
K:G
|:(Bc)|d>ed>^c d>ed>c|d>bd>b (d2b2)|c>ac>a (c2a2)|B>gB>g (B2g2)|
d>ed>^c d>ed>c|d>bd>b (d2b2)|c>ac>a (c2a2)|g2g2g2:|
K:C
|:G2|c2c2 (EGce)|(gag^f) (g2e2)|(e2d2) {e}d^c d2|a2g2 {a}gf e2|
c2c2 (EGce)|(gag^f) (g2e‘2)|(e’2d‘2) d’c’d‘c’|c‘2c’2c’2:||
K:G
|:(Bc)|d>ed>^c d>ed>c|d>bd>b (d2b2)|c>ac>a (c2a2)|B>gB>g (B2g2)|
d>ed>^c d>ed>c|d>bd>b (d2b2)|c>ac>a (c2a2)|g2g2g2:|
K:D
A2|.f2.f2.d2.d2|(ABAF) .D2.D2|C>DE>F G>GG>E|D>EF>G A2A2|
.f2.f2.d2.d2|(ABAF) .D2.D2|C>DE>F G>AB>c|d2d2d2:|

I have copied the ABC code from Bill Scates’ comment about his tune with a known composer being the origin of the Flop Eared Mule.
It’s X:6 above

American dance tune, known here as a hornpipe, and played with that hornpipe bounce. When it’s played too fast, as it commonly is in the U.S., it loses the bounce, but still swings a little. No reason not to play it as a polka, but…

There’s a digital facsimile of Couse’s sheet music for “The Detroit Schottisch” at

https://www.loc.gov/item/sm1854.230240/

X:6 doesn’t quite match it and I’ll gladly add a more precise transcription if anyone indicates that they would like to see it. Part of the problem — which I’m guessing has already been discussed at length on this forum — appears to be that the ABC parser doesn’t process a curly apostrophe as it does a straight one, and fails to place a note marked with a curly apostrophe in the proper octave in the staff notation. (At least on a Mac, the Chrome browser always uses the curly form when an apostrophe is entered via the keyboard, so this can be a real pitfall.)

Also, although there seems to be an entrenched belief that “The Flop-Eared Mule” was a simplified derivative of “The Detroit Schottisch,” I can’t find any documentation from the time that corroborates this. How do we know that the tune’s development didn’t follow the opposite path?