Flop Eared Mule

This tune started out as a couples dance, a schottische or polka, before it became a breakdown. Paul Gifford thinks the likely source is the "Detroit Schottische," published in 1854 by Adam Couse, a Detroit dancing master who ran a music store. Ira Ford pointed to the similar "College Schottische."

Northern fiddlers told Simon Bronner it was an old schottische tune, also called "The Barn Dance," popular in New York before World War II. The Helton Brothers recorded it in 1924, and Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers in 1934.