Today’s post was written by Paul.

One pal deserves another pal… a couple of weeks ago I shared the old song “Please Come Back Little Pal.” In that post I explained that in the early 20th Century, it seems that male country music singers sometimes referred to their girlfriends as their pals.

The song “Down at the End of Memory Lane” is another example. This old timey song also harkens back to a time when a lot of breakup news was delivered via letter. I guess today’s equivalent, though much faster, is texting.

According to Google, Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell wrote this song. Jimmie Davis recorded it in 1939. You may remember from a previous post that Jimmie Davis is the country singer who became Governor of Louisiana, and he popularized the song “You are My Sunshine.”

I first heard “Down at the End of Memory Lane” one Sunday evening on the Country Roots radio show on WCQS in Asheville, NC, hosted by Wayne Erbsen. Wayne had an extensive collection of old country and bluegrass music. He spun this tune one evening in the early 1990’s. Wayne was always good about telling you who he was playing, but I tuned in too late to hear the names of the performers. If I recall correctly, the recording featured only guitar and mandolin.

After searching online, I think the recording I heard could have been of Charlie Monroe (Bill’s brother). Someone sang some great tenor on it (in G major, where I sang it, which is quite high). It might have been Bill, but I don’t think it was. I’m fairly sure that I faintly hear an electric guitar in the recording, and I can’t see Bill abiding that way back in 1948. Also, if it had been Bill singing the tenor, I don’t think he would have let the song be released under Charlie’s name alone, but I could definitely be wrong.

The mandolin playing is also quite a bit different than Bill’s typical playing. It involves two mandolins, one playing lead and one playing harmony. Twin fiddles were common in Bill’s recordings as well as in many other old time country and bluegrass records, but twin mandolins weren’t common.

Charlie and his group changed chords a little differently than I did in this video, and some of their changes sound slightly awkward to me. They also seemed to speed up and slow down; however, I really like that recording. Somehow, this song suits Charlie’s voice and the tenor singer’s voice very well. I suspect that the mandolin playing (at least one half of it) was Red Rector.

Here’s a link to Charlie Monroe’s recording of the song.

In preparation for this upload, I listened to Jimmie Davis’ original recording of the song, and I was surprised by how different it is. The chorus has a completely different melody line and chord pattern. It’s also completely missing the line about the girl’s “little freckled nose,” which is my favorite part of the song. It’s such a specific detail that it gives the song authenticity (as opposed to the more generic “eyes of blue” in Davis’ recording). I suspect that Charlie Monroe or someone reworked that second verse so that it would rhyme. Maybe he also had a girlfriend who had freckles.

To me, Jimmie’s recording was done in more of a swing style. It features very Hawaiian-styled steel guitar playing. To me, that style seems to take away from the sincerity of the song. Here’s a link to Davis’ recording for comparison.

You can let me know in the comments which approach to the song you like best: Charlie Monroe’s or Jimmie Davis’.

I definitely prefer Charlie Monroe’s approach. If you listen to Davis’ recording, you may notice that the old Decca 45 record pictured in the video plainly says that the song was written by Buddy and Buster Jones. Google says that Davis and Mitchell “published” the song in 1940 (a year after the recording). That makes me wonder if they bought the song from the Jones and then put their names on it, as I read happened with regard to “You are My Sunshine.” I don’t know. I’m just speculating. 🙂 Buying a song and then identifying yourself as the writer is legal.

I hope you enjoyed this old timey song. Thanks for watching!

Paul

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