"Sipping Cider Through a Straw"
Song
Published1894
Genre
Songwriter(s)W. Freear

"Sipping Cider Through a Straw" is a folk song of uncertain origin. A minstrel song titled "Sucking Cider Thro' a Straw", with words and music attributed to W. Freear, was published in 1894 by White-Smith in the United States;[1] this composition may be the origin of the folk song, or may owe its own origin to the folk song.

W. Freear was a comic performer with Moore & Burgess's Minstrels in the late 19th century. His song "Suckin' Cider Thro' a Straw" was published in Great Britain by Charles Sheard & Co., and Sheard also held the U.S. copyright.[2] It was noted in waltz time in the key of F. The first line is "The funniest girl that I ever saw, Was sucking cider thro' a straw". The lyrics go on to describe how a man ends up married because of sucking cider through a straw with a girl; the White-Smith sheet music advertised it as "drolly delivered to shrieks of laughter".[3]

In The American Songbag (1927), Sandburg's sources reported "Sipping Cider" as a folk song, heard in Pickens County, Georgia by one and Taylorville, Illinois by the other.[4]

"Sipping Cider Through a Straw", in numerous variations, has been part of the repertory at American summer camps for many years.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Sucking cider thro' a straw: A vocal absurdity". Sucking cider thro' a straw. Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  2. ↑ Library of Congress, Copyright Office (1894). Catalogue of Title-Entries of Books and Other Articles, January 1 to January 6, 1894. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 18. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  3. ↑ "Sucking cider thro' a straw". African American Sheet Music. Brown University Library. Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  4. ↑ Sandburg, Carl (1927). The American Songbag. Harcourt, Brace. p. 329. Retrieved 2015-03-25 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ Seeger, Anthony; Seeger, Kate (2006). "Beyond the Embers of the Campfire: The Ways of Music at a Residential Summer Children's Camp". World of Music. 48 (1): 33–65. JSTOR 41699678.
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