Old Drum and the "Eulogy on the Dog"

Growing up mainly in the small Missouri town of Warrensburg, one couldn't help but become acquainted with the town's famous canine 'mascot'  Old Drum. Over the years I've heard many incarnations of and references to the eulogy written about him in 1870 by George Graham Vest.
The oft-recorded "Tribute to a Dog" text was originated by Mr. Vest after he took the case in Sedalia, Missouri, working for a farmer who was suing for the top dollar of the day- $150.00, because his prize foxhound had been shot by a neighbor, who had warned him, by the way, that he'd better keep his dawg at home.
Vest's closing arguments in the case became known as his much-quoted "Eulogy on the Dog". Mr. Vest was a Missouri secessionist who served on the Confederate Senate at one time, and in 1853 had defended a young African American man accused of murder, later acquitted, the poor fellow was burned at the stake anyway by an angry mob. From 1882 on Vest was well-known for his spirited defense and political protection of Yellowstone Park.
I recently came across yet another recording of the text (or at least the pertinent part of it that everyone seems to quote) as well as an a capella rendition of the Old Drum story on a seven-inch single, produced in Kansas City on the Damon label and performed by the Dockery Four (Bill Grace, Jerry Fuchs, John Chronister and Ed Grace). It went a bit higher than most singles that I buy, and I hoped that it would be in playable condition. I wasn't disappointed- it's actually rather nice. On the personal side, I was also interested because during my mother's singing career in the late 1940's and early 1950's, she had recorded a number of sides at Damon, and they were the only records that I had on that obscure label up to the present.
Sadly, I couldn't track down much info about the Dockery Four themselves, although I haven't searched on their individual names. The label informs us that this version of Old Dog Drum was originally titled Old Dog Tray. Well, be it tray or drum, I'll always give a listen to any songs about dogs or food. I had expected that this would be some snappy little country song, but was pleasantly surprised with the actual style and content of the single.
To flesh out this subject a bit, I have included another version of the "Triubute to a Dog" text, by my main man Walter Brennan (some people used to say that I could always steer any subject back to Brennan eventually), and a bonus tear-jerking dog song as well: Old Shep.  I learned recently from experience that it IS actually easier to write a tragic dog song, rather than a happy-go-lucky dog song. Oh yeah, these pieces are from Walter's brilliant Dutchman's Gold lp, really his best work, in my opinion.  I hope y'all enjoy these melodramatic servings of Dawg Music.                   The MP3s:
OLD DOG DRUM

TRIBUTE TO A DOG  - The Dockery Four version

OLD SHEP     TRIBUTE TO A DOG  - Walter Brennan version

Comments

[Me]

You know its a slow news day when you have to blog about one of those road side signs.

[Belgrave Joe]

Woof, woof!

[Clayton]

Ah, love Walter Brennan. Once, he had almost every one of his teeth kicked out by a horse.

[K.]

I call bullshit on this claim. Some years ago I used to jog at the local athletic field. Every once and a while an old man came to exercise his dog. The dog would see me run, and go into a barking frenzy. I got tired of this after a few iterations, and decided to make peace with the dog. I sat on the ground, and waited. The dog barked for a while, eventually moving close enough to pet. I let him sniff me, and scratched his head. Getting up, the dog followed, and we ran around the track for a while. I got tired, and ran off towards my home. The dog followed close behind. I tried to discourage him, but he wouldn't have it. The old man called and called, and with the greatest reluctance, the dog turned and left. I never saw the old man again after that. The dog would have happily abandoned his long-time friend just to run around with some knucklehead like me. And he knew it.

That's not to say that there aren't some loyal dogs. But pack animals tend to follow the alpha, and that can be anyone. If you slip, the dog will follow someone else. That's what makes dog ownership so trying at times.

[izdelava spletnih strani]

How true is that? Searching for the idea of my new post. Maybe i should write about Road side signs ...

[rand]

if ur interested in tragic AND happy go lucky dog songs you need to check out mc esoteric's "saving seamus ryan" GOOGLE THAT SHIT

whole album dedicated to and about a dog, and it's all indie underground hip-hop

[easy]

writing about road signs is so 2009

[Mindwrecker]

After a couple of 'roadside sign' comments, I've gotta respond- Some folks seem to have totally missed the point of this posting, which is actually very personal and not derived from a random sign. Admittedly my usually vague writing doesn't help, but this story relates to a statue of a dog that stands out in my memories of this small town I spent a lot of my childhood in. It was just a weird icon that had a historical story attached to it, which when I got older I began to learn more about.
When I moved back to the area after 30 years, I happened to find a 7-inch record that tied in with that Dog Statue, and which I kinda dug, too, so I thought it would be a perfect, compact 'regional' type of post, a very small specific thing relating to a particular obscure area of the country.
That's the nugget of this post. Cheers!

[Beau Varnado]

Where was the physcal adress that Old Drum lived