[Musicians] Tune IDs? ("Dusty Roads" and "Rubber Dolly")

[jim saxe]

Thanks to Jim McKinney, David Firestine, and John Beland for identifying "Dusty Roads" as "My Love Is [/She's] but a Lassie-O [/Lassie Yet]," also known by many other names (see

     https://tunearch.org/wiki/My_Love_is_but_a_Lassie_Yet_(1)

) including "Too Young to Marry," and not to be confused, by the way, with "Take Me Back to Tulsa," also also known as "Too Young to Marry."

Regarding "Rubber Dolly"/"Back Up And Push," the annotations at 

     https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Rubber_Dolly_(1)

mention the song lyrics

     My mama told me, If I'd be goody
     That she would buy me, a rubber dolly
     ...

one version of which can be heard, for example, here:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPquvsacG5M

Looking at the musical score on 

     https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Rubber_Dolly_(1)

I believe the words "told" and "me" in the song correspond the first two notes of the first full measure: a quarter-note for "told" and a quarter note tied to an eighth note for "me", both on C-sharp, or scale degree 3 (mi) in the key of A major.  In the music for "Back Up and Push" at

     https://tunearch.org/wiki/Back_Up_and_Push_(1)

(notated as 2/2 instead of 4/4 and in the key of G instead of A), I believe the corresponding notes are a half note on D (sol in G major) and a half note tied to a quarter note on A (re).  So those notes are rhythmically the same in (the cited transcription of) "Rubber Dolly" as in (the cited transcription of) "Back Up and Push,  but melodically different: "mi mi" in RD vs. "sol re" in BUAP). 

Listening to the rendition of "Rubber Dolly" at

    https://www.ceder.net/recorddb/viewsingle.php?RecordId=9791&SqlId=249698

that I cited in my earlier message, I think that in the place where I've just described transcriptions on tunearch as having two long notes, the banjo player (Jack Hawes) on the record plays seven notes:

     told (ti-ka) me (ti-ka) ee

And yet I can still detect (albeit with a little stretching) a resemblance between that recording and some recordings I've found of "Back Up and Push."  But it does set me wondering just how much two musical performances can differ from each other rhythmically and/or melodically and still be regarded as renditions of the "same" tune.

As I write this, I'm reminded of an occasion about 15 years ago when I was sitting in a dining area with one of my aunts and she asked if I knew what tune was playing on the P.A. system.  I said I thought it was "Tea for Two" but she said it sounded nothing like "Tea for Two".  Years later (unfortunately when my aunt was no longer living), I happened to hear this on the radio

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLDHCDz7S2g

and the mystery was solved when the DJ announced the title.

--Jim