Cotton-eyed Joe reel

Heard on track 11 of The Chieftains 10, this reel is suggested on the liner notes to be descended from The Mountain Top (with which it is paired on the track).

Do you remember Long time ago
Daddy worked a man called Cotton Eyed Joe
Daddy worked a man called Cotton Eyed Joe

I could have been married long time ago
If it hadn’t ‘a been for Cotton Eyed Joe
If it hadn’t ’a been for Cotton Eyed Joe

Old bull fiddle and a shoe-string bow
Wouldn’t play nothin’ but Cotton Eyed Joe
Wouldn’t play nothin’ but Cotton Eyed Joe

Play it fast or play it slow
Didn’t play nothing but Cotton Eyed Joe
Didn’t play nothing but Cotton Eyed Joe

Where do you come from where do you go
Where do you come from Cotton Eyed Joe
Where do you come from Cotton Eyed Joe

Come for to see you come for to sing
Come for to show you my diamond ring
Come for to show you my diamond ring

The unholy laugh that Paddy Moloney lets out at the end of that track had me laughing for a week.

There’s a rendition of this tune by Michelle Shocked; she calls her’s “Prodigal Daughter”, framing it as a song about abortion, and recorded a studio version on Arkansas Traveler (Mercury 314 512 101-2)

this doesn’t seem to be the version of the tune I’m familiar with (the pop-song version, I think) can anyone reconcile this …?

The version posted here is much different than the American tune… I might agree with the Chieftans archeomusicological observation in comparsion with their version and “The Mountain Top”, but the American Cotton Eyed Joe could be compared to a lot of standard reels and don’t see the similarities myself.

I’d have to disagree with Mary-Highlander’s statement that“The version posted here is much different than the American tune“. This version is quite close to the version used for the Texas dance of the same name, and entirely cognate with many other American versions, especially song airs, such as Doc Watson’s. To be sure, there are a great many variants of this tune in American tradition, many barely recognizable when compared with this more or less standard version, and some arguably distinct. The Chieftains appear to have adapted a very common version of this classic Old-time tune.

It just goes to show that there are many styles of playing and variations of tunes in the good old USA. I have to admit that I don’t know much about Texas style fiddling and this version is new to me. I shouldn’t have made such a general statement.

On the Chieftain’s recording, Ricky Skaggs starts playing something else–what i’ve always thought of as Cotton Eyed Joe–and then it goes into the reel posted here. Does anyone know the first part?

Isn’t this also an Old-TIme tune? I’ve never heard it as an Irish tune.

Here it is paired with The Mountain Top:
http://www.dailymotion.com/vidlad/video/x5i1qr_mick-oconnor-bob-n-along-banjo-guit_music