[Dixielandjazz] 50 Miles of Elbow Room -- probably not Buffum

[Jim Hillesheim]

Is Turk’s recording of 50 Miles available out there somewhere, to hear/buy?

Jim Hillesheim
Lawrence, Kansas

> On Nov 24, 2014, at 6:41 PM, Dick Baker <djml at dickbaker.org> wrote:
> 
> The story so far, as to the provenance of this tune, most famously (for us) recorded by Turk Murphy:
> 
> Bill Haesler reported that it was first recorded by the Vaughan Happy Two in 1930, but the seminal early recording was 1933 by Rev. F. W. McGee -- and McGee copyrighted the song in 1933 and renewed that copyright in 1960.
> 
> But more than a few reliable-looking sources claim that the song was written by Herbert Buffum, a famous and prolific writer of gospel music.  At this point I picked up the cudgel and looked through all the Buffum copyrights in the books from his first in 1910 until well into the 1930s, several dozen in all.  Nothing like "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room" in that list, but there was one song that seemed to have the same underlying theme, called "There'll Be Room Enough in Heaven," from 1923.
> 
> Could McGee have sung Buffum's song with a different title, perhaps based on a line from the lyrics?  Well, there was, amazingly, a copy of the published sheet on sale on amazon.com, so I just plunked down my credit card and bought it.  (10 cents in 1923; $10 in 2014--at least the inflation rate is easy to calculate.)  I've scanned it and put it on my Stomp Off site for all to see:
> 
>                http://stompoff.dickbaker.org/50miles/Buffum.pdf
> 
> Alas, it's a different song.  Lyrics not even close, and while I don't read music, I doesn't appear to me that Buffum's lyrics could be sung to the same tune as the Carter Family's and Turk's:
> 
> First verse:
>        When our work on earth  is ended, and we lay our burdens down,
>        And we answer to the final, solemn call;
>        When we go to meet the  Saviour and receive the promised crown,
>        There'll be room enough in Heaven for us all.
> 
> Chorus
>        There'll be room enough in Heaven for us all,
>        For the wise and foolish, for  the great and small;
>        When we safely make the landing,
>        There'll be no misunder standing,
>        There'll be room enough in heaven for us all.
> 
> Now what'll we work on?
> 
> 
> 
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