Last spring, guest author Brad Kay wrote a marvelous biography of saw player Sam Moore for our blog. You can read it here. In the post, you can hear a recording of “The Last Rose Of Summer” played by Sam Moore. He made quite a few beautiful saw recordings, including “Dear Old Pal of Mine” in 1924. In this recording he’s playing saw along with Roy Smeck on the guitar. Roy Smeck went on to become a big star on the ukulele, playing a lot of Hawaiian music and novelty songs. And, as you know, Sam Moore went on to become a fine saw player and a well-known radio personality.
Here’s the flip side of of “Dear Old Pal of Mine” from the original 78, “I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls.” The song is from the opera The Bohemian Girl written in 1843 by Michael William Balfe, an Irish composer. In this recording Moore plays Hawaiian guitar with Horace Davis on guitar. There isn’t a saw in this recording, but it’s beautiful anyway.
“I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls” has been a popular song through the years and was also included in a film version of the opera that starred Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in 1936. The film starred Jacqueline Wells as the Bohemian girl, but her singing in the clip is dubbed by Rosina Lawrence. You hear her sing the song in the second clip below. You can watch Stan eat his breakfast too.
With vassals and serfs at my side,
And of all who assembled within those walls
That I was the hope and the pride.
I had riches all too great to count
And a high ancestral name.
That you loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same.
That knights upon bended knee
And with vows no maidens heart could withstand,
They pledged their faith to me.
And I dreamt that one of that noble host
Came forth my hand to claim.
That you loved me still the same
That you loved me
You loved me still the same,
That you loved me
You loved me still the same.
