The Love Bridge Waltz by Iry LeJeune takes the same melody that was done in 1929 by Delin Guillory and Lewis Lafleur with the title Alone at Home. That's on the Cajun Country 2 cd I mentioned in an earlier thread.
Surprising group, that Guillory and Lafleur! Did they originate some of these tunes or were they already being done by everybody and just were the first lucky ones to record them? We have little chance of finding out. They also did the first recording with the Bosco Stomp melody (Quelqu'un est Jaloux) and their song Ma Petite Blonde has the same part A as Valse de Bayou Chêne. Iry's J'ai été au Bal has the same melody as Joe Falcon's Ne Bouvez Plus Jamais.
The song titles of the 1920s and 30s were not yet standardized and set in stone. I am finding quite a few instances of recordings of songs that now have the title Perrodin Two Step, for example. The period right after World War II is when quite a few titles became the standard. Not just with Iry, but also Nathan Abshire, Lawrence Walker, and Austin Pitre, maybe others.
There are many instances of completely unrelated songs that have the same title. Not just variations. I mean completely different tunes. You really have to listen to them before concluding that two recordings with the same title are really the same song at all.
Confusing thing more is the fact that the songs are often parts of different songs. A part of one song, totally different B part.
Now we have recordings that we can easily play over and over again, but I picture in the old days the only time to hear a song was at a dance, and then going home to try to play what you remember hearing. Inevitable that changes be made. A good example is how Iry changed each of Amede's songs he played, some not much, some quite a bit.
Blues de Voyage also has kept it's name, though it's not done much. In fact, quite a few of his have been sorta forgotten. Shame. I've been working on La Valse Des Puits D'Huille, odd song that's fun to play.
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
