1902© Music by Bob Cole Lyrics by Will Handy

Wil Handy pseudonym (James Weldon Johnson / John Rosamond Johnson / 
                                             Bob Cole)

James Weldon Johnson    * Jacksonville, Fla Jun 17, 1871
                                              † Wiscasset, Me Jun 26, 1938
John Rosamond Johnson * Jacksonville, Fla Aug 11, 1873
                                              † New York City, NY Nov 11, 1954
Robert "Bob" Cole             * Athens, Ga Jul 1, 1868
                                              † Catskill, NY Aug 2, 1911

James Weldon Johnson wrote words to music for the music show stage in New York. He was collaborating with his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, and the late Bob Cole. He remembers that they appropriated about the last one of the old "jes' grew" songs. It was a song which had been sung for years all through the South. The words were unprintable, but the tune was irresistible, and belonged to nobody. "We took it, re-wrote the verses, telling an entirely different story from the original, left the chorus as it was, and published the song, at first under the name of "Will Handy". It became very popular with college boys, especially at football games.
The song was "Oh, Didn't He Ramble!"i1

David Grillier of the Excelsior Brassband told about “Didn’t He Ramble”:
This song “Didn’t He Ramble” is a tune that we’d use a lot in Brass Bands for a wake or a funeral, because the words were perfect, singing about the deceased -- they had a nice time, but now that the time has come to an end. We’d play it after the body was left at the cemetery in the processional on the way back… that would be appropriate for his friends … or even people who weren’t his friends would get to talking about the things he did. That was like a conversation piece – “Didn’t he ramble.”
For a Brass Band, we would play it slow, so people could march. Otherwise, you’d be burnt out by the time you got to the end of the block.i2

Brass Bands often played this tune when they came back from the funeral. Small symbolic acts attached themselves tot the pattern. Notorious rounders were treated with Oh, didn't he ramble.

Lyrics:

We sing the chorus and the common verse:

Verse:
His head was in the market,
His feet were in the street, (or square)
All the folks that passin' by said:
"Look at that market meat".

Chorus:
Oh! didn't he ramble, ramble?
He rambled all around, in and out of town,
Oh! didn't he ramble, ramble,
He rambled till the butchers cut him down

Original lyrics:

Verse:
Old Beebe had three full grown sons, Buster, Bill and Bee,
And Buster was the black sheep of the Beebe family;
They tried their best to break him of his rough and rowdy ways,
At last they had to get a judge to give him ninety days.

Chorus:
Oh! didn't he ramble, ramble?
He rambled all around, in and out of town,
Oh! didn't he ramble, ramble,
He rambled till the butchers cut him down

Verses:
This black sheep was a terror, oh! and such a ram was he,
That every "copper" knew by heart his rambling pedigree
And when he took his ladder out to go and paint the town,
They had to take their megaphones to call the rambler down.

He rambled in a swell hotel, his appetite was stout,
When he refused to pay his bill the landlord kicked him out.
He reached to strike him with a brick but when he went to stoop,
The landlord kicked him in the pants and made him loop the loop.

He rambled in a gambling house, to gamble on the green,
But there they showed the ram a trick that he had never seen.
He lost his roll and jewelry and nearly lost his life,
He lost the car that took him home, and then he lost his wife.

He rambled to an Irish wake on one St. Patrick's night,
They asked him what he'd like to drink, they meant to treat him right.
But like the old Kilkenny cats, their backs began to arch,
When he called for orange phosphate, on the seventeenth of March.

He rambled to the races, to make a gallery bet,
He backed a horse named Hydrant, and Hydrant's running yet.
He would have had to walk back home, his friends all from him hid
By luck he met old George Sedam, it's a damn good thing he did.

He rambled through the tunnel once on board a moving train,
Another train came rumbling in, and rammed him out again.
It rammed him just a block, and then, they caught him on the fly
And with a ton of dynamite, they rammed him to the sky.

Sources (internet):
i1 http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/johnson/preface1.htm
i2 http://www.browardcenter.org/images/StGuidePresHall.pdf

Sources (brassband history):

If you have supplementary information about this song, please let us know.