This is a time to reflect on a problem that is international in scope. Millions of women, and men as well, but far less than women, are victims of physical, emotional and verbal abuse. In situations where a gun is present, it is often used to threaten or to kill.
In response to the recognition of thesis concerning domestic violence, and the discussions that continue about this international problem, is this song I wrote nearly 40 years ago. It was used in a film called "Too Many Lickins" that was made in Hawaii about four to five years after it was written. It is done in the country western style that suits the title, with guitar, vocal and accordion:
One of those old-time but good-time traditional songs is Wabash Cannonball. Who hasn't stood up and clapped and tapped their feet? And for those who haven't heard the song, the time is now.
This is one of those songs people can play easily with three chords. It is done here with a uke banjo and accordion.
The song is about a fictional train of the 19th century. It first was seen on sheet music in 1882 and called "The Great Rock Island Route," authored by J.A. Roff. There are several different versions of the song with variations of the chorus.
Leave it to the ingenuity of the French to combine a child's simple song and romantic love. Au Claire de la Lune is really a song that is taught to young children or they listen and learn about music from this charming melody, often presented with an instrument or music box.
The delightful tune is written in French, and there are a few translations in English that don't quite fit the melody. So it is translated here with a somewhat different flair. Just as others in the world have done, when languages, customs and time have separated original meanings and changed songs somewhat, this one is changed as well in this American rendition of the song with ukulele strum, vocal and accordion.
Among the many spirituals, the African American traditional called "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" crosses over into other genres with a number of singers across many years to become a classic for everyone.
The song expresses the sadness and loneliness sometimes people feel during times of hardship. But it is also in a way a song of celebration of the fact of humankind's link to common feelings and the search for finding the source of respite and help. In this case, the answer is God. Two of the more famous versions are done by Odetta and also Mahalia Jackson.
It is performed here with a solitary voice and guitar.
War has been protested in some way ever since men fought each other on the battlefields. Women pleaded for peace, as men took up swords in those early days of man's history. And in modern times protestrrs have demonstrated their objections in many ways, often times in song.
The song "Willie Dale" is rots music that relates the death of a young man, the mourning that occurs when someone dies too soon. And the depiction of the loved one in remembrance is always poignantly best expressed in song, as performed here.
One of the most amazing songs is one called "Amazing Grace." It is performed at funerals and at times when people face considerable emotional or physical stress. It is almost a song for protection, a plea people send through song when they feel lost.
But the song is a hopeful one as well, for it relates the grace from God that is said to be infinite, both within the song and the contexts in which it has been performed.
The song was written by a minister, in some ways as a redemption from a young adulthood where the plight of the slaves was awful, and the captain, a minister, maintained the job of taking unwilling and tortured people to a life of enslavement.
It was a song of the abolitionists and a song for us all, in good or bad times, as a reminder that wherever we may be, we can be surrounded by grace that is amazing.
Recently the nation celebrated the 50 year anniversary of the March on Washington, a time that heralded a change in America, as it brought women and African Americans, as well as other minority groups, into the mainstream. That happened through action, demonstration, laws and even music, as the latter blew the trumpets that opened the gates to freedom.
The Freedom Trilogy consists of traditional music but done in a form that signals to the listener that the words and melodies mean far more than something superficial. It is a reminder that freedom comes with a price and also with dimensions of suffering and resolutions of belief.
That Freedom Trilogy is done here to recall those times but as a reminder that freedom is something that must be respected as well, for many times it came at great price.
While the world waits and wonders over Syria, and whether or not there might be a war that could escalate, there are songs that offer the protest that often comes during these times.
Anthem of the Rainbow was sung by Odetta, with her rich voice and stirring delivery able to arouse listeners to the opposition of the Vietnam War. Music had much to do with stimulating debate and provoking feelings, most especially of sorrow and anger about the futility of war.
The author of the song is unknown. Odetta was a major spokesperson during the civil rights era and also during the times when musicians became part of the protest of the Vietnam war. The song is performed here, in its simplest and most traditional form.
One of the most poignant and memorable of the Hank Williams contributions to music is "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." The song has that eternal classic sound one finds in country music.
Hand Williams wrote "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" in 1949. His songs tugged at the heart strings, and this particular one is an example of it. He had a troubled relationship with his wife, and this song came as a reflection of that relationship, the lonesomeness he felt growing through the conflicts he had with a loved one.
Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan all performed this song, that remains a standout favorite not just of country music fans but of fans of different genres, as it retains the flavor of yesteryear but always seems new in its evocation of simple feelings that which we can all identify.
The song is here, performed by Carol and Del Forsloff, the Oregon Meadowlarks
The songs we learn in childhood we often cherish as we do the events that remind us of good times and special occasions, or the people we associate with pleasant experiences. We move on as adults and may forget them for awhile, but often they will appear when we pass a group of children, turn on a program where a familiar tune is played. So it is with Grandfather's Clock.
The song is an old, traditional song, performed by many people, including Johnny Cash, and one I learned on a Victrola at the home of an elderly couple in La Grande, Oregon. The couple both had white hair, so for me they represented the oldest people I knew. They were known as loving and kind and would often give me cocoa and a piece of cake or cookies when I came to visit. They were the parents of a step-grandfather, but the distant relationship was made a close one by the way they treated me. One of those special moments came when they turned on the old, wind-up Victrola so I could listen to the collection of music they had, one of which was Grandfather's clock.
For me the song is identified with a walk to the home of that elderly couple, especially in the warm days of summer in a small town where everyone knew everyone else. It is associated with those cookies and a simple life.
Let me share those moments with you by way of this special song, that some of you may know, and some may not. But if it offers good memories or good moments than it has served its purpose now for both you and me, as this song is presented in its traditional, yet modernized way.
The working man's lot has been written about and songs have been written about it for many years, particularly during the initial times when the struggle for equality was at is height.
But these days the struggle remains in a different way. As local and national budgets become restricted, often worker pensions, raises and other benefits are the first to go, even before reduction in force.
Nowhere are the rights of the workers better expressed than in the song about the controversial Joe Hill. History records him as the authorities found him a petty thief and one involved in desperate crimes, however his efforts for the working man are also shown to demonstrate how people used, and abuse, the protests against unfair labor practices. The song, "Which Side Are You On" by Pete Seeger, shows how controversial the issue has been.
Paul Robeson was one of the first singers to express the sentiments of Joe Hill. Joan Baez, an advocate for equal rights and a major folk singer in America, also has performed and recorded Joe Hill, using her beautiful soprano voice as a major emotional emphasis to the issues raised about the working man.
The song Joe Hill is a traditional folk song, while "Which Side Are You On" represents the variety of songs by Pete Seeger. They are both done here together in honor of the working man and Labor Day as well, a day that remembers the contributions of ordinary folk to the rise of the middle class throughout most of the developed world.
One of the more popular folk songs of the 1960's was performed by a variety of folk artists, including Joan Baez, Pete Seegar, and Odetta.
The song was written by Holly West, although there is some discussion about it as there are similar songs that have been written, dating back decades. It has words and a rhythm that make it easy to remember and difficult to forget, as is the case of many folk songs that endure.
900 miles is a classic folk song that is part of the history of music in the United States but represents the style of music that continues to delight people now and likely people in the future.
One of the joys of roots music is how it allows for variations. As copyright laws become strictly applied around the world, most musicians either compose their own music or find/make variations of old songs and remake them with a different stamp.
John Henry is one of those old folk songs, with a basic rhythm and lines that lend themselves to expressing feelings, especially strong feelings, as it is about a man who works so hard in driving a tunnel through the mountains that the big, strapping man, depicted in the song simply gives up and "lays down his hammer, and he dies."
That is the essence of a remake. The tone or theme of the song, in this case a sad situation that is related as a story but that can be updated into a blues song. That's especially true given the fact that some music historians believe that John Henry was a real person, an African American prisoner who had fought in the Civil War but then ended up as virtual slave labor, as prisoners were found among the poor and the vagrant as well as the criminals around but often with trumped-up charges. He is then depicted as that man who never gives up. He helps that tunnel become reality, then he dies as he has become the hero of the work accomplished.
One of the most poignant anti-war songs was written about Australian soldiers who went through World War I with some of the worst injuries and crises of the war.
The song And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, among
the top 30 of Australian songs ever written, is not the light-hearted and
familiar folk song but instead a song about war composed by Eric Bogle in 1971
and performed variously by many groups around the war, including John Currie,
Katie Noonan, The Irish Rovers, Joan Baez, Priscilla Herdman, Liam Clancy, the
Dulbiners and others including Garrison Keillor in a Prairie Home Companion,
Phil Coulter, the Pogues, The Weavers and John Kerry when he was elected to the
United States Senate.
A poignant tune, And the Song Played Waltzing Mathilda it is
considered to be among the world's greatest songs of wars, protesting the
honoring of battle celebrations instead of the peace that comes later.
It is performed here, as I wear a hat of some of the great heroes of World War
II, as a reminder of those who have suffered the most. The song is done
with guitar, harmonica, vocals.
The history of some songs is almost as entertaining as the music itself. So it might be with "Lord, Lord I've Got Some Singing to Do."
The song was a favorite of Vivian Richman, known during the 60's through most of the 80's as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's most famous folk singers. She had traveled and performed with Pete Seegar, learned the guitar from Woody Guthrie and paid her proverbial dues in music in many ways.
One of Richman's signature songs was "Lord, Lord I've Got Some Singing to Do." It was written by Bob Schmertz and is printed in a book honoring the author and including other songs he had written. Many of Schmertz's songs can be found in folk music collections, particularly those of Burl Ives. But this song was not formally recorded, although it was often performed in the Pittsburgh area by Vivian Richman. On YouTube someone has done a piano arrangement of the song and claimed it as original, which is further evidence of how some songs get lost and then are recaptured by others who did not write the song but only performed it.
This song, a favorite of Richman and one that offers a positive message for us all about our universe and each other is done in the style done by the famous folksinger of Pittsburgh, whose music is in the Smithsonian and whose music remains in the hearts of many, including myriad of those who were her friends---like me.
The early blues songs of the United States had the guitar ragtime players and the earthy tones that remain identified with the blues. These songs often emanated from gospel or from raw experiences of living. One of those songs is St. James Infirmary, a song that is known and performed by many musicians, but still remains fresh because of the melody and the lyrics that remind us of the commonality of social issues that continue to be part of our world.
St. James Infirmary speaks of that raw living, the man who lives his life carelessly and dies of venereal disease. Some say it was written in the 18th century, but its origins remain somewhat vague, as there are a number of different verses with changes to them, and additions made, over the years. Nevertheless it speaks of that human experience of living hard and not dying well. It is reputed to have been about a soldier, making his way around and getting his needs met by a prostitute, then finds himself in trouble at the end.
One of the early recordings of the song was by Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) who spent much of his life in prison and who also frequented prostitutes and developed a venereal disease as a result.
The song is one that continues to resound well with audiences, and it is here in its traditional, yet modern form:
C. C. Rider is a popular American 12-bar
blues"[1] song,
originally recorded by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey in 1924, and is considered a traditional.
The song is a blues song that tells the story of an
unfaithful lover, as many songs of the period do. It is one of the early blues songs that set
the standard for those who came later, repeating the familiar patterns that
make the blues a specific type of music.
C.C. Rider has been widely recorded by many different
artists. These include Elvis
Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Gary Lewis and the
Playboys, The Who, The Everly Brothers, Charlie Rich, Ian & Sylvia, Janis
Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Leon Thomas, Snooks Eaglin, John Fahey and Old Crow
Medicine Show, among others.
And it is here, done in its traditional style, with a twinge
of those 1920’s style with the ukulele and accompanied also by the harmonica.
One of the songs that most clearly defined the 1960's, especially the folk music movement, was Where Have All the Flowers Gone. The song was written by Pete Seegar, who took some of the ideas from a poem he read some years before and found appropriate for the era of the 60's, which personified some of the issues of the time, namely war and the loss of youth.
Pete Seeger had years of standing up for liberal social causes. His music reflected that stance, as he espoused women's rights, the rights of labor and the reduction of violence in any form.
Peter, Paul and Mary as well as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez all performed Where Have All the Flowers Gone. It was virtually an anthem of most folksingers and has been performed around many a campfire for decades.
It is performed here with vocal and guitar in its simplest form, the way it was done by those folk artists of the past and that continues to reflect the roots of the music of the 1960's and the era that set the tone for decades to come.
In the 1920's women began to "cut loose," during the era of dancing, flappers, booze, partying and women's right to vote. But even as there was an air of independence, the sexual independence remained one-sided, with males still having the right to be assertive sexually and women remaining coy and discreet. Bessie Smith, however, broke the mold.
Bessie Smith was an African American blues singer whose music set the standard for blues songs in her day, as she was popular across the board for her sultry songs that took liberties where other women had not. Smith expressed the sexy side of woman, even to the point of having the woman as the very assertive and demanding type and one who wanted her own needs met.
And a bed that's empty, well that's a shame. It wasn't a bed that was necessarily matrimonial either for Smith, who alluded to a woman's interest in having the independence to choose and the knowledge there were competitors for a man's attention that required a woman to shed some inhibitions in relating with men.
James P. Johnson wrote the song "Empty Bed Blues" that was recorded not just by Smith but by Etta James, Billie Holiday, and even Woody Guthrie. It's Smith's version, however, that stands out as the first major recording, that along with other of Smith's songs gave the message that women's freedom was coming out in ways that would usher in decades of change.
When Johnny Cash spoke with his daughter, Roseanne Cash, about her future in music, he gave her a list of his top ten songs he believed she should know and perform. One of them is the song "Motherless Children."
The song is a traditional folk song, but one that steps beyond the usual to focus on the lot of children everywhere. Cash was a sensitive, religious man whose love for others radiated from his music. "Motherless Children" is a song that takes us on a journey of how children are deprived and how important it is to provide that mothering many have lost.
Roseanne Cash recorded the song as did Blind Willie Johnson, Eric Clapton. Blind Willie recorded the song first in 1927, but it had been written years before that recording.
No one knows who wrote the song, but folks who have heard or have performed the song recognize it as a classic in its message and its melody. Here it is in its traditional form.
Coal mine excavation where you could get a splinter
Clementine is one of those songs with a mixed history, mixed
in the sense it is cited by different sources with unique information about its
origin. The folk ballad is usually credited as having been written by
Percy Montrose in 1884. Others believe it was written by a man named
Barker Bradford. Still others, many years ago, believed the song came
from Mexican workers during the time of the gold rush.
At the outset the song appears to be a sad one, a ballad where someone is
grieving the loss of a lover or grown daughter. Yet the song turns to
speak of size 9 shoes and herring boxes without top-ses that are parodies that
take away from the possible romantic ballad one presumes at the outset.
And it is performed here with that tongue-in-cheek, upbeat style:
In the 21st century religious music has been digitized, set to elaborate music tracks and electronic beats, drums, synthesizers and a host of different instruments, but it began its history as the human voice.
For thousands of years humans have registered their feelings in chants or songs, from the very beginnings of history. Music translated that history in the court of kings, on the battlefields, in the villages and towns as people settled everywhere.
And when people were in pain, felt lost, were enslaved they sang, to each other and in praise or plea to God.
So it is with our spirituals that have these deep roots in the world's diverse instrument, one that offers music in a variety of styles, keys and forms.
Stand By Me is a spiritual favorite that lends itself to the human voice as the instrument, as it is on this video.
One of the earliest blues is one that is still done by many
blues artists and roots music performers. The song was published in 1902 with
words and music by Hughie Cannon and remains a standard with jazz and Dixieland
bands.
Many artists have performed this song including Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Patsy
Cline, Bobby Darin, Aretha Franklin, Brenda Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy
Durante, Danny Barker, Harry Connick Jr, Renee Olstead, Michael Buble, Sam
Cooke, Al Hirt and Della Reese.
Here is the song, done both straight and with conversation parody, with the costuming
and narrative that brings it home again. A song that remains a perennial
favorite is this one, "Bill Bailey."
Mountain music, or bluegrass music, has a way of staying with us, regardless of where we live, as much of it is descended from the English and Irish ballads and special songs. Religion is expressed in simple ways, especially when faith is accompanied by a love, the love of family, the love for a mother. So it is with Will the Circle Be Unbroken. It was a Carter family favorite, also recorded by Johnny Cash and many other country western singers. But it was a favorite of folk singers as well.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a hymn that has been popular for generations. It was written by Ada R. Habershon with melody by Charles H. Gabriel.
Do you like stories and songs about pirates? Very often the folksingers and writers of yester year actually told stories of real events when they sang their ballads. Some songs lend themselves to modern events, as does the song "High Barbaree."
Now the song has a colorful history, as a traditional sea shanty that was popular with British and American sailors alike. The story is of a sailing ship that encounters pirates off the Barbary Coast.
But an even earlier version of the song speaks of two merchant ships, one French and the other English, who got into a war on the seas, resulting in the French throwing the crew of the opposing ship overboard and were then overtaken and defeated.
There is another version of what the song is about, with its lyrics somewhat different than the others and it tells the story of European and North American traders who were involved with North African pirates in the 18th and 19th centuries.
And it is that third version of events that resembles the stories about pirates today, as they come from Somalia with the same intent, to overcome those they capture on the seas, hold for ransom or steal the goods aboard ships. The song story is told here with modern illustrations.
Where there's smoke there's fire exclaims this picture, but also illustrates Wild Women Don't Have the Blues
While white women sat in their parlors waiting for the fellow to meet their parents and have the young man hope to hold a gloved hand once parents gave their approval, black women were speaking out about sexuality, opening the door to women's emancipation that would continue to be reinforced by the rewards of pleasure and advancement.
Wild Women Don't Have the Blues is in some ways an affirmation of that woman being herself, showing herself as someone with needs, ideas, dreams of pleasure, sexual emancipation and all those things that make for a free person individually.
And Bessie Smith was at the head of the line in expressing woman's independence, the kind of woman that spoke up for herself and let folks know her personhood did not come from an association with a man but her own special ways instead. A woman could be a bit wild and still be totally a woman of value. Still Smith's affirmation, taking place as it did largely in the 1920's and 1930's took its time to get to the 1960's civil rights movements that swept women's rights along even as it made history with integration and the abolition of Jim Crow laws.
The song was written in 1924 by Ida Cox. Wild Women Don't Have the Blues came along and expressed a feminist message and is a classic female blues song.
Some songs are familiar to many people and remain favorites over the years. They are modernized in one format, then changed for another. That is particularly true of folk songs like Shenandoah, a song that has been recorded by many people, as a standard, as a folk and even as a country song. But it's familiarity has not bred contempt, as its melody and words call out to that something inside all of us, that longing for the beauty of country and the love in our lives.
According to the Library of Congress, it is difficult to
determine the authorship of the song or exactly when it was written, although
it was likely before the Civil War because it was popular by then, from America
to Europe.
Alan Lomax, a well-known expert in his time about music
origins supposes the song "Shenandoah" was a sea-shanty. The composition, he believes, was done by
French Canadian sailors as a sea shanty, the kind of song the sailors sang as
they were coordinating their work aboard ship.
It has that simple sound of verse and solo lead with chorus, and the
refrain is familiar and easy to remember.
Indeed many believe it has that very essence of the sea shanties of old
and was included among the “Sailor Songs” published in an article by William L.
Alden in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine of 1882.
The song could be about the river of the same name or the
story of the daughter of the Indian Chief Shenandoah who is courted for seven
years by a white man, a Missouri river trader.
The song is a classic, a traditional, recorded by Jo
Stafford, as a standard, but as a folk song by many, and will likely continue
to be a classic in years to come.
That old adage about money, how it talks, doesn't bring happiness, but still people don't seem to come around as much when a person is broke. So a song that tells that story is surely an eternal one, as this one, the anthem of those down on their luck, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out.
Now this song is not only relevant for today, but some things about it also tell the story of how not to believe everything you read on the Internet, as one source maintains the song was written by John Lennon in 1974 and that he wrote it during a separation from his wife. It is said to be on his album Walls and Bridges, yet it was not Lennon who wrote the song. Instead it is an old blues standard from the 1920's, but has been recorded by other singers as well, most relevantly for its beginning, Bessie Smith. In the major citation, the one that is accurate about the song, no mention is made of John Lennon even recording the song.
The song was also recorded by Eric Clapton, Count Basie, Tom Jones, B. B. King, Katie Mehula, and Rod Stewart.
The song, as it came around in the 1920's, was a clear expression of the times. Many people were indeed down and out. We've heard those stories about rich people jumping out the window during the stock market crash, and this story does talk about the rich man and how no one knows him after he loses his money.
Bessie Smith was the voice of the blues at the time this song was written, and who better to give it that authentic sound than the Empress of the Blues, that folks have called the woman who made the song famous back then, so famous that some people have erred and credited others who just sang it with writing it as well. It was written by Jimmy Cox in 1923.
One of the greatest hymns ever written was created in 1885 by a 26-year-old Carl Boberg, who wrote the words only of a poem entitled, “O Store Gud," that evolved in the song we know as "How Great Thou Art."
Boberg never intended the song become a hymn, but over the years the poem was read by a number of Christians and the melody added, then additional words. It was a minister, Stuart K. Hine, who wrote original English words, and made his own arrangement of the Swedish melody.
Lawrence Welk once said it was the most requested song on his television program.
How Great Thou Art has been recorded by such singers as Johnny Cash, Mahalia Jackson, Elvis Presley and a host of individual singers and choruses for decades.
Here it is performed with a nylon string folk guitar and vocal only.
While many people mourned the Civil War and its atrocities between brothers, the lot of the rebel soldier was often lost in the midst of the celebrations after the war. But the intense fighting and losses were immeasurable, and like their counterparts on the Union side, the rebels fought valiantly and many died in great agony in the numerous battles that took place.
The song is a traditional song from Southern Appalachia that speaks of the soldiers longing for home. As the soldier waits in battle he thinks of his dear Polly back home.
Many songs speak of the longing the soldier has for family, during the respites from battle. It is a common theme, and almost a protest in the way it narrates the pain of war, the loss, the love and the family that waits, often to hear the not-good news of a soldier's death.
But for us, listening to this song, perhaps we can dream instead of the young soldier finding his way home to Polly after the war, with her arms outstretched and waiting.
Vivian Richman was one of the more well-known folk singers in Pennsylvania. She sang in the coffee houses of Pittsburgh, entertained crowds at the huge arena in the city and brought folk music to thousands of people, including children. Two of her best friends had been Pete Seegar and Woody Guthrie, and I was lucky enough to call her friend and have her teach me this rare song.
The Story of Hava, as we will call the song that, given the fact it is unknown and had no name. It is that old story of girl meets boy, in a fantasy love story, rather an allegory of the young man entering an innocent girl's life and then leaving as quietly as he came.
The song captures the innocence of the young woman, whose love affair comes along, becomes a part of youthful experience then appears to fade, as the woman goes on with her life.
Perhaps the song is a lesson. Perhaps it is a recitation of someone's real experience. But this old song, that Vivian Richman translated from Yiddish into English, this song that originated in Poland, has a charm that stays with us. I recorded the song on YouTube, and it is the only rendition of the song I have heard, since Richman was given the song to translate and perform. She died about 25 years ago, but her folk music, much of it at the Smithsonian, remains part of the treasured memories of all who heard her and this song.
White horses used in religion and mythology as symbols of travel through the afterlife.
Remember those old songs you sang as a child? There is a reason these songs lasted over centuries. It's because they deal with familiar themes or with ideas that stay with us lifelong, like the notion of arriving anywhere with a flourish, "riding six white horses." And what if you could hear it rock?
We tend to sing those old songs only as they were written, as if the familiar might pass if we changed one bit of a verse or melody. But songs like "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain were often changed several times, and continue to be, as singers and writers fuse their own style onto the words and music of another, so long as they are past those copyright laws, however.
This song, while it appears to be someone waiting for a friend to arrive at a train station, has that sound of travel and moving on, but it is a symbolic one. It is a spiritual, the relating of the old story of traveling to heaven. Heaven is that place where people celebrate when you arrive, the song presumes; and that's why there are "six white horses," the symbol of purity, speed and flight of a different sort. That same symbol is used in other old songs like St. James Infirmary where again the six white horses are taking the soul to heaven.
Enjoy this rendition with the joy of life and faith as those who sang it over centuries,, with this revised and rollicking and rolling version of She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain..
Most Americans know, or have heard often, The Battle Hymn of the Republic with its familiar melody. It's words give the message of America at war, in diivision, the great Civil War between the states, as the song was written to inspire the Union troops, weary and worn out from battle. But there was another song that came before that showed the violent side of the war's issues, John Brown's Body.
John Brown, an abolitionist from the North, was hanged on
December 2, 1859. His crime was the
incident of October 16, 1959 when he and his men had been working with others
in the freeing of the slaves and had taken refuge in a farmhouse. They left the farmhouse later on that
evening, captured some prominent citizens in a town nearby and took over the
federal armory and arsenal. Brown and
his boys hoped the slaves would join in, get some of the weapons, and that more
weaponry would be provided slaves so they could fight for their own
freedom.
But Brown and his men ended up hiding in the engine house of
the arsenal, while Colonel Robert E. Lee and his troops stormed their hiding
place, killing many of the raiders.
For leading a slave rebellion and for treason Lee was
hanged.
The song John Brown’s Body is the rallying cry in music for
the abolitionists. It favored the Union
side, as did the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but the image of the man whose
life ended in death became a symbol as well of the issue of slavery and the
importance of the war’s mission with respect to it.
The roots of our music come from everywhere, fusing lyrics and melodies into a multi faceted fabric that reflects the culture of ourselves, separately and together. Some of the beautiful strains of music that remain with us come from the grand places like England, Scotland and Wales, where folk songs and stringed instruments tell the stories of people that remain eternal like Wild Mountain Thyme.
Like many other folk songs, Wild Mountain Thyme has many
versions, considering the fact that elements of the melody and the words of the
song date back to the poet Robert Tannahill, whose The Braes of Balquhither
resembles closely Francis McPeake’s version done in 1957. Actually those who have researched the
history of this song speak of the paraphrasing of the song that occurred in
order to make more modern this very old classic folk song.
Many poets and songwriters have borrowed and changed songs
over the years, putting their original stamp on them, in order to add the
classics to a whole new stream of music.
The Beatles, for example, used classical music to compose many of their
songs. So it is with Wild Mountain
Thyme, a shared song for many, but with upgrades as the song passes through
generations.
As each person makes new, or original in a personal way,
songs they love, here is a version done with a tuneful ukulele, that has the
lighter, softer sound for music like this and the background rhythm, quietly
but gently prepared, sets the stage for the story of beauty that unfolds in the
song, that is here.
Bessie Smith had a tough life, lived hard and died young, but she articulated the blues like no other. Most performers who followed her used her as a yardstick for excellence.
Billie Holiday was one of those who admired Smith, as she took the hard life she had, with men and domestic violence and a host of issues African American women faced, and had that same sense of understanding and therefore ability to sing with great feeling.
Send me to the 'Lectric Chair is one of those songs that offers the story of doing wrong and suffering the consequences that people tended to accept because its hard time story was the lover kills the man who done her wrong was still wrong. In other words, one could sing about the crime but include the moral ending, of the punishment that is to suit the crime.
But still the excitement of sex, violence, drug, men and hard luck times formed the bulk of Smith's work. Folks who lived the high life in the 1920's liked the devil-may-care attitude of Smith's music. Others liked her brazenness and lived that edgy style through Smith's music. For at the same time Smith was singing "I Just Love That Thang," referencing sex for sure, white folks performed songs that alluded to physical love, but mostly of the kiss-and-hold-your-hand type. Smith's music went to more than the heart, and it was the tittilating lyrics and sultry melodies that grabbed and held both black and white audiences.
The Blues Empress she was, and Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair offers the evidence of Smith's royalty. The song, composed by George Brooks, was first recorded by Bessie Smith in 1927. Dinah Washington later recorded the song as did David Bromberg.
A tribute to Bessie Smith and a demonstration of the universal nature of her music is presented her with baritone ukulele, vocal and harmonica:
The Midnight Special has been special for a long time, recorded by many artists over the years. It continues to be one of those classic train - blues songs that stays with us because of both lyrics and melody and its familiarity usually produces immediate interest because of the song's particular lure.
The song is considered a traditional that was composed and performed by prisoners in the South. It has that sound of the forgotten, the pleading of the train to take one home, a theme often repeated in songs where trains appear, either taking someone "to Glory," or home to a loved one somewhere.
The first printed edition of this song was in the magazine Adventure in 1923. It was first recorded in 1929 by a group known as Otto Gray and the Oklahoma Cowboys.
Five years later Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, made a recording which made the song famous. He recorded it while in Angola prison in the State of Louisiana. He made several versions of the song.
Some folks say the hero of the song is the writer/singer, but others, like Carl Sandburg, maintains the hero is the train.
The song was performed in the film "Cool Hand Luke" by Harry Dean Stanton. In "Twilight Zone: The Movie" Creedance Clearwater's version again made the song a renewed hit.
The song is here, done in the 1920's style with ukulele and harmonica:
During the times of Stephen Foster, in the 19th century, 25% of the children never lived past childhood. Families anticipated the possibility of losing a child, so many made that first birthday an important occasion
Sierra Mae Lamar--a missing child
. The sensitive lyrics of Stephen Foster reveals his understanding of the culture of his times and the common thread that existed among many people, with the loss of a child.
But still Foster's songs have an aura of hope, of something precious, something beautiful to be found in one's grief or whatever tragedy befalls a person. He surely understood that, suffering from alcoholism, the loss of his family and his eventual descent into poverty, where he worked for mere pennies in the saloons of the period.
The song Virginia Belle is one of Foster's lesser known songs, but the beauty of it again underlines Foster's talent as a musician as well as his ability to tell the stories of his time. He was that troubadour of old at a time when newspapers were in business but when music also was used to convey emotions and ideas. The preciousness of life was underlined by the hardships of the time, early death of children, hard work, plagues, illnesses, financial difficulties. This song gives us a view into the world of those times, with the song that captures not just the feelings then but the emotions of everyone who has suffered the loss of a child or who waits for the lost one to return home. For loss, as Foster observes in a number of his songs, is not just a physical one.
Ry Cooder, famous guitarist, has a favorite version of Jesus on the Mainline
A bluegrass, or blues gospel, Jesus on the Mainline,
is part of the tradition of the music of the mountain people of the
United States, the type often performed in Pentecostal churches but bears close
resemblance to the gospel songs of African Americans. The song has a unique history of different
sounds played by different folks over the years, each of whom gave their own
special sound linked to the song.
The film that accompanies this song in the video on this
post includes video clips from the Internet Archives of the "Holy
Ghosters" of Scrabble Creek, West Virginia in the 1960's, but many of the
traditions remain in parts of the United States.
Jesus on the Mainline is one of those traditional bluegrass gospel songs.
Performed by such country elites as Randy Travis and Ry Cooder, it is also done
in an old style, gospel blues style with slide guitar.
Despite the fact this is considered a traditional gospel, some writers
speculate the lyrics may have been written in the 1920's, as the words seem to
be similar to those of the blues tradition, of those blues composed during that
time. And the references about "calling Him up" also indicate
the song to have been written in the 20th century early on.
Alan Lomax's recording by Mississippi Fred McDowell in the early 1950's is the
first known one made of this song. Afterward, however, many musicians
have recorded/performed the song, including Wynona Judd and Randy Travis.
Ry Cooder's 1974 version is among the most famous. Cooder is
accompanied by The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces in his version, which has a ring of
association with the original recording.
The song is underlined as an important one, linked with the struggles of the
civil rights movement and of the traditions brought by African Americans, with
its blues beat and rhythms.
One of the most famous American songs is Battle Hymn of the Republic, but it is less a comment just on the history but the mood of the country during the Civil War, because the song was written as a rallying cry, based upon another song, John Brown's Body, that had a more controversial origin.
Julia Howe wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic while visiting a Union camp and listening to the soldiers in the weary, sometimes frightened, moods as the war raged on all about them. The Civil War pitted brother against brother, with each side having its cause. The Union cause, to preserve the Union, was that orientation of the song Howe wrote.
On Nov. 18, 1861, Julia Ward Howe, a well-known poet
living in Boston at the time, wrote the song based on one of the popular songs
of the day, “John Brown’s Body,” which she was encouraged to rewrite with
different words, to give a rousing battle cry for the troops and the cause they
were fighting for.
Howe later related that the song had come to her in an early
morning, as she maintained,“I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the
dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind.
Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to myself, ‘I must get up and write
these verses down, lest I fall asleep again and forget them.’ ” She jumped out
of bed, found an old stump of a pen nearby, and scrawled the verses on the back
of a piece of stationery. Falling back to sleep with a drowsy sense of
satisfaction, she thought to herself, “I like this better than most things that
I have written.”
When Howe awakened later that morning she found the paper on which she had
written six stanzas, beginning, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of
the Lord,” those first words of the famous poem that has endured
within the body of the song.
Howe understood the song’s value and hoped it would motivate
and inspire the Northern troops. Much of
the original song has been left intact, but like many of these historical
masterpieces, the words were changed soon after Howe wrote the song, to give it
an even more patriotic flavor.
But here, with the original lyrics of Julia Howe, is the
famous Battle Hymn of the Republic done in the simple style it was likely once
performed, with the exception of the video that illustrates the song:
Ain't Nobody's Business is one of the earliest blues songs, making its entrance into the world of music sometime in the early 1920's. Most sources cite Porter Grange as the author of the song.
The song, in its older forms, sounds like those vaudeville tunes, but one can hear the rumblings of new music, as the blues was a way to challenge some of the standard music of the day. Many of the early blues singers were African Americans, who had limited opportunities to work and make money, so they became entertainers or worked in the fields.
The blues began in the belly of gospel but soon was making it on its own, as the rhythms and the wailing were similar but not the words. Bessie Smith's rendition of Ain't Nobody's Business with her other songs about women and men doing what comes naturally described in the most vivid way underlined how blues matched the 1920's "let the good times roll." And Ain't Nobody's Business had a little "attitude" that seemed to describe the elements of the era in which the song was created. Some of that attitude was particularly explicit about women with early verses narrating how "Poppa" beats the errant gal.
Some of those music artists who have performed this song include Dinah Washington, Diana Ross, Otis Spann, Hank Williams Jr., Freddie King, Frank Stokes, Mississippi John Hurt, Eric Clapton, Wingnut Dishwasher's Union, Willie Nelson and Shirley Witherspoon.
The blues the way it was done in those early days had that distinctive sound we find today in the threads of modern music, especially the blues, that is now popular around the world.
The song is here, done with ukulele and vocal and a solo with the ukulele to demonstrate the popularity of the uke with the songs of the 1920's.
