The King's Head
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The King's Head", also known as "Soldier's Joy", "King's Hornpipe", "I Love<br> Somebody", or "Payday in the Army" is an English (origianlly) and American reel<br> in D Major. The parts are played AB.<br> "Kings Head" was the name "Soldiers Joy" went by in areas of the northern U.S.,<br> especially in Pennsylvania; it is known to most folk fiddlers.<br> The title "The King's Head" probably has something to do with its<br> association to the alternate titles "Soldier's Joy" and "Payday in the Army".<br> It may refer to coins with the king's portrait stamped on the obverse.<br> The King's Head was also the name of many taverns in England, referred to from the<br> 16th century on. One famous King's Head was at the<br> corner of Chancery Lane, dating from the time of Edward VI, was the residence of<br> Izaak Walton and appears in all the illustrated editions of his book The Compleat<br> Angler, which he advertised to be "sold at his shopp in Fleet Street; under the<br> King's Head tavern".<br> The term, especially in pub names, probably originated in the reign of Henry VIII when<br> pubs called The Pope's Head where renamed The King's Head.<br> Bayard traces the tune itself to Europe and cites a number of French, Danish and<br> Finnish sources. In his 1981 publication he stated the tune<br> dated back to the latter part of the 1700's, and that it had since become as<br> popular on the fife as on the fiddle.<br> Tunes by this name were collected by Samuel Bayard from Mrs. Sarah Armstrong,<br> (Derry, Pennsylvania, 1943), Hiram White (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa.,<br> 1930's), George Reed (elderly fiddler from Centre County, Pa., 1930's), and George<br> Strosnider (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's).<br> It was printed in Adam's Old Time Fiddlers' Favorite Barn Dance Tunes (1928),<br> Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (1782),<br> American Veteran Fifer, No. 93,<br> Bayard's Hill Country Tunes (1944),<br> Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981),<br> Burchenal's American Country Dances, vol. 1 (1918),<br> Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940),<br> DeVille & Gold's Universal Album (1912),<br> Ford's Traditional Music in America (1940),<br> Greenleaf and Mansfield's Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland,<br> Harding's Original Collection,<br> Howe's School for the Violin (1851),<br> Jigs and Reels, vol. 2 (1908),<br> Kerr's Merry Melodies, vol. 1 (c. 1875),<br> Krassen's Appalachian Fiddle (1973),<br> Levey's Dance Music of Ireland, 1st Collection (1858),<br> Linscott's Folk Songs of Old New England,<br> O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903),<br> Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984),<br> Robbins's Collection of 200 Jigs, Reels, and Country Dances (1933),<br> Roche's Collection, vol. 2,<br> Saar's Fifty Country Dances (1932),<br> O'Malley & Atwood's Seventy Good Old Dances (1919),<br> Sweet's Fifer's Delight (1964),<br> Sym's Old Time Dances (1930),<br> Thede's The Fiddle Book (1970) and<br> White's Excelsior Collection. <br>
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