Beer barrel polka

Posted by M H on May 07, 2021 - 12:04pm

Beer barrel polka

- I think a lot of you have heard this song connected with WWII - the song which helped the winners -

In many countries, it has even become so popular that its inhabitants would put their hand in the fire for the fact that it is their polka.

But they are mistaken - it is composed by a Czech musician with quite a different text. Here the history of it.

Jaromír Vejvoda (1902 - 1988)

Vejvoda was born and died in Zbraslav, nowadays part of capital Praha. One of the kings of the Czech brass band came from a large family of musicians, so it was not surprising that he had been playing various musical instruments since childhood. At the age of six he played the violin, at the age of fourteen the trumpet and at the age of fifteen he began performing with his father's band. Later he played these instruments in a military band. He started to compose in the 1920s while he worked as a bartender in a pub owned by his father-in-law. He wrote first version in 1927 named the Modřanská polka after Modřany, a suburb of Prague where it was played the first time.
This catchy tune became a hit and allowed Vejvoda to pursue music as a full-time professional. It was published in 1934 with lyrics Škoda lásky, kterou jsem tobě dala... in English Pity of the love I gave you .

Publishing house Shapiro Bernstein acquired the rights shortly before World War II and the polka, now the "Beer Barrel Polka" with the English lyrics "Roll out the barrel...", became the most popular song of the Allies in the West, although the original Czech lyrics have a very different meaning and do not speak about beer. (What a surprise in a country known as maybe having the largest beer consumption in the world per year ! ) After the war this polka became popular around the world, in German-speaking countries as "Rosamunde".
It was played also in many films, among them
in film: A Night in Casablanca (1946)

On youtube you can find dozens of interpretations of this song, here some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyI9Pj4CEdE Czech version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZeswPHDSnU with Czech interpreters Gott and Holanová

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kIizl25VQ German version Rosamunde recorded in Praha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j11MOncimNQ Roll out the barrels - jazz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq0pCQXuh6g Welk Accordionists & Dancers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMAQln0eLJY Roll Out the Barrel Ronnie Kennedy Lyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrwPE0Z07ug Vera Lynn-Roll Out The Barrel

or a Czech jazz version without singing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzal4Nb2XbA Karel Krautgartner jazz orchestra - which I like very much

Here a piece of Czech text of this polka:

Škoda lásky kterou jsem tobě dala, škoda slzí,které jsem vyplakala, moje mládi uprchlo tak jako sen, ze všeho mi zbyla jenom v srdci mém vzpomínka jen....
Pity of the love I gave you , pity of the tears I wept ,my youth fled like a dream, all I had left was a memory in my heart....

Or another version for those who like it with pretty Czech girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFcpQZ38-AI