Click on the headline to link to a "YouTube" film clip of Rabbit Brown performing the classic "James Alley Blues".
The Other "Roots" Historian
The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute To “The Anthology Of American Folk Music", various artists, Smithsonian Folkways, 1998
John and Alan Lomax are just famous for their herculean efforts over many years to gather “roots” music from sources all over the American continent, the bayous, the hollows, the mountains and the plains. Not as well known but as worthy of praise is the work of the “roots” historian Harry Smith, the subject of this tribute CD. During the 1940’s and 1950’s Smith was working the highways and byways of the South and elsewhere recording whatever music was at hand with whatever recording device he could put to together. No less a later folk historian that the singer Dan Van Ronk remarked that he learned much of his early folk repertoire from the Harry Smith collection. Others, including Bob Dylan, also "cribbed” from the Smith collection. That tells the tale.
This tribute CD is a treasure trove of songs some familiar and some long forgotten by this reviewer. The most interesting point that always catches my attention on these anthologies is how much crossover there is despite the differences in geography, ethnicity or race. For example, listen to the two versions of “The Coo Coo Bird” here. Or consider “The Butcher Boy” that I have heard under the names “The Railroad Boy” or “In London Town” but which however tell the same old tale of abandoned love and its tragic consequences. And how many versions of “John Henry” have been recorded? The one done here by John Jackson, by the way, is excellent. As is his rendition of “Frankie and Johnnie”.
“John The Revelator” done by Ethel Caffie-Austin is the best version I have heard this side of Son House. The lead vocal by Geoff Muldaur of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band makes “Minglewood Blues” pop. Van Ronk’s “Spike Driver Blues" is vintage Dave as is Jeff Tweedy and company on Rabbit Brown’s “James Alley Blues”. The Fugs’ on “Nothing" is just the kind of tune that old Harry was looking for. To top thing off listen to Pete Stampfel on his Harry Smith tribute song “His Tapes Roll On”. That is the kind of tune that latter day cyberspace “roots” historians will pick on to continue the traditions. Listen on.
James Alley Blues
Times right now ain't nothin' like they used to be
Well times right now ain't nothin' like they used to be
You know I'll tell you all the truth, won't you take my word from me
Well I seen better days, but I ain't puttin' up with these
Well I've seen better days, but I ain't puttin' up with these
I had a lot better time with those women down in New Orleans
Well I was born in the country so she thinks I'm easy to lose
Well I was born in the country so she thinks I'm easy to lose
She wants to hitch me to a wagon and drive me like a mule
I bought her a gold ring and I pay the rent
I bought her a gold ring and I pay the rent
She tried to get me to wash her clothes but I got good common sense
Well if you don't want me then why don't you just tell me so?
Well if you don't want me then why don't you just tell me so?
It ain't like I'm a man that ain't got nowhere else to go
I give you sugar for sugar, but all you want is salt for salt
I give you sugar for sugar, but all you want is salt for salt
Well if you can't get along with me, then it's your own fault
Well, you want me to love you, but then you just treat me mean
Yea, you want me to love you, but then you just treat me mean
You're my daily thought and you're my nightly dream
Well, sometimes I think that you're just too sweet to die
Ah, sometimes I think that you're just too sweet to die
And other times I think that you ought to be buried alive
found on: The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute
words: Rabbit Brown (traditional)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
U.S. Stop Military Aid To Israel Now!!
Commentary
Repost of December 29, 2008 Entry
Israel Hands Off Gaza!-Military Victory To Hamas!
At this moment there is no need for some greatly detailed analysis of who or what went wrong in the Middle East that has caused Israel to rain hell down on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Now is the time to outline an anti-imperialist policy toward this unfolding struggle. As I write this entry Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza causing several hundred deaths, many injuries and much physical destruction, as can be expected when an advanced capitalist country puts the hammer down militarily on essentially defenseless people. Israel, moreover, appears to be preparing to launch ground forces into Gaza. I believe that that military possibility is only a matter of time. Israel Hands Off Gaza! Meanwhile American policy continues, as it has been throughout the Bush Administration, to let Israel run the show on its own terms (except, as was shown in Lebanon in 2006, on that little issue of America providing military materials to Israel on the fast track when things got tight).
I have mentioned before that a just solution to the Palestinian questions today seems far beyond any possible solution. That understanding, however, does not mean we have no policy when, as today, the Palestinian people are under the gun. Today we call, as we did in Lebanon with Hezbollah, for military victory to Hamas, even if we do so holding our noses. We have some things to settle with the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas but that is for another day. Today, let’s be clear, the main enemy of the Palestinian people is Israel. An Israeli military victory, especially in the context of a new American presidential administration coming into power in a few weeks, only postpones a just solution to the national question in that area of the world. Military Victory To Hamas! More later.
Posted December 30, 2008
I should add a slogan here for anti-imperialist militants worldwide to take up. This is an episodic slogan appropriate now that Israel appears to be going full bore toward invasion of Gaza. U.S. Stop Military Aid To Israel Now! I would also add that our trade union friends should be raising the question of ‘hot-cargoing’ military shipments to Israel.
Note: As always when the question of Palestine takes center stage the local Zionists here in America are plowing ahead with their uncritical support for any and all Israeli military actions in Gaza (and elsewhere). Of particular notice is a comment made by one such supporter. When asked by a local reporter what his solution to the festering Palestinian question should be he answered-“I would drop an atomic bomb on Gaza and get rid of those bastards”. Well, that is plain enough. Not only does it tell us how far away a just solution is to the question but that yesterday’s former oppressed population, the Jews, are capable, or at least one of them is and I fear he is not alone, of working out their own xenophobic nationalist “final solution”. I would only add that the person interviewed should check his geography and, perhaps, a little physics, because an atomic bomb dropped in Gaza is going to have “blow back” into Israel. Big time. Of course, nationalists of every stripe can never be accused of rational thought when they are on their little hobbyhorses. More later.
Repost of December 29, 2008 Entry
Israel Hands Off Gaza!-Military Victory To Hamas!
At this moment there is no need for some greatly detailed analysis of who or what went wrong in the Middle East that has caused Israel to rain hell down on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Now is the time to outline an anti-imperialist policy toward this unfolding struggle. As I write this entry Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza causing several hundred deaths, many injuries and much physical destruction, as can be expected when an advanced capitalist country puts the hammer down militarily on essentially defenseless people. Israel, moreover, appears to be preparing to launch ground forces into Gaza. I believe that that military possibility is only a matter of time. Israel Hands Off Gaza! Meanwhile American policy continues, as it has been throughout the Bush Administration, to let Israel run the show on its own terms (except, as was shown in Lebanon in 2006, on that little issue of America providing military materials to Israel on the fast track when things got tight).
I have mentioned before that a just solution to the Palestinian questions today seems far beyond any possible solution. That understanding, however, does not mean we have no policy when, as today, the Palestinian people are under the gun. Today we call, as we did in Lebanon with Hezbollah, for military victory to Hamas, even if we do so holding our noses. We have some things to settle with the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas but that is for another day. Today, let’s be clear, the main enemy of the Palestinian people is Israel. An Israeli military victory, especially in the context of a new American presidential administration coming into power in a few weeks, only postpones a just solution to the national question in that area of the world. Military Victory To Hamas! More later.
Posted December 30, 2008
I should add a slogan here for anti-imperialist militants worldwide to take up. This is an episodic slogan appropriate now that Israel appears to be going full bore toward invasion of Gaza. U.S. Stop Military Aid To Israel Now! I would also add that our trade union friends should be raising the question of ‘hot-cargoing’ military shipments to Israel.
Note: As always when the question of Palestine takes center stage the local Zionists here in America are plowing ahead with their uncritical support for any and all Israeli military actions in Gaza (and elsewhere). Of particular notice is a comment made by one such supporter. When asked by a local reporter what his solution to the festering Palestinian question should be he answered-“I would drop an atomic bomb on Gaza and get rid of those bastards”. Well, that is plain enough. Not only does it tell us how far away a just solution is to the question but that yesterday’s former oppressed population, the Jews, are capable, or at least one of them is and I fear he is not alone, of working out their own xenophobic nationalist “final solution”. I would only add that the person interviewed should check his geography and, perhaps, a little physics, because an atomic bomb dropped in Gaza is going to have “blow back” into Israel. Big time. Of course, nationalists of every stripe can never be accused of rational thought when they are on their little hobbyhorses. More later.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Defend The Palestinian People!- Israel Hands Off Gaza!
Commentary
Ironically, and sadly, the entry originally scheduled for this space today was review of the film "The Visitor" a story of a Palestinian diaspora immigrant (from Syria)and his travails with the American immigration authorities. That film will be reviewed on January 11, 2009.
Israel Hands Off Gaza!-Military Victory To Hamas!
At this moment there is no need for some greatly detailed analysis of who or what went wrong in the Middle East that has caused Israel to rain hell down on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Now is the time to outline an anti-imperialist policy toward this unfolding struggle. As I write this entry Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza causing several hundred deaths, many injuries and much physical destruction, as can be expected when an advanced capitalist country puts the hammer down militarily on essentially defenseless people. Israel, moreover, appears to be preparing to launch ground forces into Gaza. I believe that that military possibility is only a matter of time. Israel Hands Off Gaza! Meanwhile American policy continues, as it has been throughout the Bush Administration, to let Israel run the show on its own terms (except, as was shown in Lebanon in 2006, on that little issue of America providing military materials to Israel on the fast track when things got tight).
I have mentioned before that a just solution to the Palestinian questions today seems far beyond any possible solution. That understanding, however, does not mean we have no policy when, as today, the Palestinian people are under the gun. Today we call, as we did in Lebanon with Hezbollah, for military victory to Hamas, even if we do so holding our noses. We have some things to settle with the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas but that is for another day. Today, let’s be clear, the main enemy of the Palestinian people is Israel. An Israeli military victory, especially in the context of a new American presidential administration coming into power in a few weeks, only postpones a just solution to the national question in that area of the world. Military Victory To Hamas! More later.
Ironically, and sadly, the entry originally scheduled for this space today was review of the film "The Visitor" a story of a Palestinian diaspora immigrant (from Syria)and his travails with the American immigration authorities. That film will be reviewed on January 11, 2009.
Israel Hands Off Gaza!-Military Victory To Hamas!
At this moment there is no need for some greatly detailed analysis of who or what went wrong in the Middle East that has caused Israel to rain hell down on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Now is the time to outline an anti-imperialist policy toward this unfolding struggle. As I write this entry Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza causing several hundred deaths, many injuries and much physical destruction, as can be expected when an advanced capitalist country puts the hammer down militarily on essentially defenseless people. Israel, moreover, appears to be preparing to launch ground forces into Gaza. I believe that that military possibility is only a matter of time. Israel Hands Off Gaza! Meanwhile American policy continues, as it has been throughout the Bush Administration, to let Israel run the show on its own terms (except, as was shown in Lebanon in 2006, on that little issue of America providing military materials to Israel on the fast track when things got tight).
I have mentioned before that a just solution to the Palestinian questions today seems far beyond any possible solution. That understanding, however, does not mean we have no policy when, as today, the Palestinian people are under the gun. Today we call, as we did in Lebanon with Hezbollah, for military victory to Hamas, even if we do so holding our noses. We have some things to settle with the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas but that is for another day. Today, let’s be clear, the main enemy of the Palestinian people is Israel. An Israeli military victory, especially in the context of a new American presidential administration coming into power in a few weeks, only postpones a just solution to the national question in that area of the world. Military Victory To Hamas! More later.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
*An Encore, My Arky Angel- The Music Of Iris DeMent-"My Life"
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Iris DeMent performing "He Reached Down".
CD Review
My Life, Iris DeMent, Warner Brothers, 1994
Well, everyone by now knows that I love Iris Dement (see review of her “Infamous Angel”) so we need not get back on that track. I am, however, due to that unrequited love, in the process trying to find every Iris CD I can get my hands on. That search brings me to this Warner Brother produced CD from 1994 “My Life”. Does this effort measure up to the others? No. Does it have any songs with the power of “Walking Home Alone”, “A Wall In Washington”, “These Hills Of Home” or “After Laughter”. Hell no. I believe that it is probably due to the fact that it is a little over-produced.
Iris’ voice left with a simple guitar, or better yet, piano as accompaniment can carry her rich and thoughtful lyrics. Again, as is her forte she sings of loves lost (or misunderstood), spiritual longing (she might argue religious but I will not quibble) and those long ago formed and fastened roots to family, home and hearth. Although no song here took my breath away “You’ve Done Nothing Wrong” was evocative. “Childhood Memories” was fine and also evoked a response in me to my very different childhood.
The winner here though is clearly “Easy’s Getting Harder Every Day”. The story line (Is it somewhat autobiographical?) and Iris’ Arkie twang drive home a very strong message about the hard struggle to keep one’s head up that many, too many people face on a day to day basis. Oh, yes. Iris, don’t forget that proposal I made in my review of “Infamous Angel” if you tire of Greg. It is still on the table.
LIFELINE- IRIS DEMENTFlariella Records - 2004
I'VE GOT THAT OLD TIME RELIGION (Hurdist Milsap)
Stamps-Baxter Music, (BMI)
I’m glad Jesus came, glory to His name oh what a Friend is He
He so freely gave, His own life to save. From bonds of sins set free.
CHORUS
And I’ve got that old time religion in my heart
And its way down inside.
I’ve got that new kind of feeling in my heart
Real love abides
Nobody knows what it means to me
Nobody knows but my God and me
I’ve got that old time religion in my heart
And it’s way down inside.
What a joy to know one who loves us so
He is so kind and true
He has changed my life from all sin and strife
He’ll do the same for you.
BLESSED ASSURANCE (Fanny J. Crosby)
Public Domain
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a fortaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
ChorusThis is my story, this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long;This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long;
Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.Angels descending bring from above, Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Saviour am happy and blest.Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His Goodness, lost in His love
FILL MY WAY WITH LOVE (George W. Sebren)Public DomainLet me walked blessed Lord, in the way Thou hast gone, Leading straight to the land above;Giving cheer ev'rywhere, to the sad and the lone, Fill my way ev'ry day with loveChorusFill my way ev'ry day with love (with love), As I walk with the heavn'ly Dove;Let me go all the while, with a song and a smile, Fill my way ev'ry day with love.
Keep me close to the side of my Saviour and Guide, Let me never in darkness rove;Keep my path free from wrath, and my soul satisfied, Fill my way eve'ry day with love.
Soon the race will be o'er and I'll travel no more, But abide in my home above;Let me sing blessed King, all the way to the shore, Fill my way ev'ry day with love.
LET THE MYSTERY BE (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Infamous Angel
Everybody's wonderin' what and where they they all came from
everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go
when the whole thing's done
but no one knows for certain
and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Some say once you're gone you're gone forever
and some say you're gonna come back
Some say you rest in the arms of the Saviour
if in sinful ways you lack
Some say that they're comin' back in a garden
bunch of carrots and little sweet peas
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Everybody's wonderin' what and where they they all came from
everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go
when the whole thing's done
but no one knows for certain
and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Some say they're goin' to a place called Glory
and I ain't saying it ain't a fact
but I've heard that I'm on the road to purgatory
and I don't like the sound of that
I believe in love and I live my life accordingly
but I choose to let the mystery be
Everybody is wondering what and where they they all came from
everybody is worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go
when the whole thing's done
but no one knows for certain
and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be
I think I'll just let the mystery be
THESE HILLS (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Far away I've traveled
to stand once more alone
and hear my memories echo
through these hills that I call home
As a child I roamed this valley
I watched the seasons come and go
I spent many hours dreaming
on these hills that I call home
The wind is rushing through the valley
and I don't feel so all alone
When I see the dandelions blowing
across the hills that I call home
Like the flowers I am fading
into my setting sun
Brother and sister passed before me
Mama and Daddy they've long since gone
The wind is rushing through the valley
and I don't feel so all alone
When I see the dandelions blowing
across the hills that I call home
These are the hills that I call home
HOTTER THAN MOJAVE IN MY HEART (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Well, I've heard them say there's one for everybody
and I just knew somehow that you'd be the one for me
'cause making love with you's not just a hobby
no, it's the flame that burnt the forest down in me
And darling was it day or was it nighttime
were them whippoorwills a-moaning through the trees,
through the trees
I don't remember just what you said but ooh, right from the start
you made me hotter than Mojave in my heart
Well baby, I could stay this way forever
just passing time at ninety-nine degrees
'cause loving you's my favorite kind of weather
oh, forever let the flame burn down in me
And I'll not prepare my heart for the change of season
and I'll whip old Winter Wind there if she blows, if she blows
Well, God bless the day that you came along
and you tipped my apple cart
and you made me hotter than Mojave in my heart
And I'll not prepare my heart for the change of season
and I'm a-gonna whip old Winter Wind there if she blows, if she blows
Well, God bless the day that you came along
and you tipped my apple cart
you made me hotter than Mojave in my heart
Now it's hotter than Mojave in my heart
WHEN LOVE WAS YOUNG (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Look at you, look at me
my heart breaks as I read our sad story
Never thought that I'd be
here with you wishing I was free
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
There was nothing I would not do
for the chance to see your face
How could I have known back then
that today I'd hesitate
When you hold me in your arms
I don't yearn for that charm
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
Look at how our curtain fell
Guess it's true only time can tell
'bout an ending
Kids are grown, we've had our day
Guess it's time now to go away
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
There was nothing I would not do
for the chance to see your face
How could I have known back then
that today I'd hesitate
When you hold me in your arms
I don't yearn for that charm
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
OUR TOWN (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
And you know the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
Up the street beside that red neon light
that's where I met my baby on one hot summer night
He was the tender and I ordered a beer
It's been forty years and I'm still sitting here
But you know the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
It's here I had my babies and I had my first kiss
I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist
Over there is where I bought my first car
it turned over once but then it never went far
And I can see the sun settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa
They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall
I bring them flowers about every day
but I just gotta cry when I think what they'd say
If they could see how the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning-bugs fly
but I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes
I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't wanna go
I love you my town, you'll always live in my soul
But I can see the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on I gotta kiss you goodbye but I'll hold to my lover
'cause my heart's 'bout to die
Go on now and say goodbye to my town, to my town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on my town, on my town
Goodnight, goodnight
CD Review
My Life, Iris DeMent, Warner Brothers, 1994
Well, everyone by now knows that I love Iris Dement (see review of her “Infamous Angel”) so we need not get back on that track. I am, however, due to that unrequited love, in the process trying to find every Iris CD I can get my hands on. That search brings me to this Warner Brother produced CD from 1994 “My Life”. Does this effort measure up to the others? No. Does it have any songs with the power of “Walking Home Alone”, “A Wall In Washington”, “These Hills Of Home” or “After Laughter”. Hell no. I believe that it is probably due to the fact that it is a little over-produced.
Iris’ voice left with a simple guitar, or better yet, piano as accompaniment can carry her rich and thoughtful lyrics. Again, as is her forte she sings of loves lost (or misunderstood), spiritual longing (she might argue religious but I will not quibble) and those long ago formed and fastened roots to family, home and hearth. Although no song here took my breath away “You’ve Done Nothing Wrong” was evocative. “Childhood Memories” was fine and also evoked a response in me to my very different childhood.
The winner here though is clearly “Easy’s Getting Harder Every Day”. The story line (Is it somewhat autobiographical?) and Iris’ Arkie twang drive home a very strong message about the hard struggle to keep one’s head up that many, too many people face on a day to day basis. Oh, yes. Iris, don’t forget that proposal I made in my review of “Infamous Angel” if you tire of Greg. It is still on the table.
LIFELINE- IRIS DEMENTFlariella Records - 2004
I'VE GOT THAT OLD TIME RELIGION (Hurdist Milsap)
Stamps-Baxter Music, (BMI)
I’m glad Jesus came, glory to His name oh what a Friend is He
He so freely gave, His own life to save. From bonds of sins set free.
CHORUS
And I’ve got that old time religion in my heart
And its way down inside.
I’ve got that new kind of feeling in my heart
Real love abides
Nobody knows what it means to me
Nobody knows but my God and me
I’ve got that old time religion in my heart
And it’s way down inside.
What a joy to know one who loves us so
He is so kind and true
He has changed my life from all sin and strife
He’ll do the same for you.
BLESSED ASSURANCE (Fanny J. Crosby)
Public Domain
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a fortaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
ChorusThis is my story, this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long;This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long;
Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.Angels descending bring from above, Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Saviour am happy and blest.Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His Goodness, lost in His love
FILL MY WAY WITH LOVE (George W. Sebren)Public DomainLet me walked blessed Lord, in the way Thou hast gone, Leading straight to the land above;Giving cheer ev'rywhere, to the sad and the lone, Fill my way ev'ry day with loveChorusFill my way ev'ry day with love (with love), As I walk with the heavn'ly Dove;Let me go all the while, with a song and a smile, Fill my way ev'ry day with love.
Keep me close to the side of my Saviour and Guide, Let me never in darkness rove;Keep my path free from wrath, and my soul satisfied, Fill my way eve'ry day with love.
Soon the race will be o'er and I'll travel no more, But abide in my home above;Let me sing blessed King, all the way to the shore, Fill my way ev'ry day with love.
LET THE MYSTERY BE (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Infamous Angel
Everybody's wonderin' what and where they they all came from
everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go
when the whole thing's done
but no one knows for certain
and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Some say once you're gone you're gone forever
and some say you're gonna come back
Some say you rest in the arms of the Saviour
if in sinful ways you lack
Some say that they're comin' back in a garden
bunch of carrots and little sweet peas
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Everybody's wonderin' what and where they they all came from
everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go
when the whole thing's done
but no one knows for certain
and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Some say they're goin' to a place called Glory
and I ain't saying it ain't a fact
but I've heard that I'm on the road to purgatory
and I don't like the sound of that
I believe in love and I live my life accordingly
but I choose to let the mystery be
Everybody is wondering what and where they they all came from
everybody is worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go
when the whole thing's done
but no one knows for certain
and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be
I think I'll just let the mystery be
THESE HILLS (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Far away I've traveled
to stand once more alone
and hear my memories echo
through these hills that I call home
As a child I roamed this valley
I watched the seasons come and go
I spent many hours dreaming
on these hills that I call home
The wind is rushing through the valley
and I don't feel so all alone
When I see the dandelions blowing
across the hills that I call home
Like the flowers I am fading
into my setting sun
Brother and sister passed before me
Mama and Daddy they've long since gone
The wind is rushing through the valley
and I don't feel so all alone
When I see the dandelions blowing
across the hills that I call home
These are the hills that I call home
HOTTER THAN MOJAVE IN MY HEART (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Well, I've heard them say there's one for everybody
and I just knew somehow that you'd be the one for me
'cause making love with you's not just a hobby
no, it's the flame that burnt the forest down in me
And darling was it day or was it nighttime
were them whippoorwills a-moaning through the trees,
through the trees
I don't remember just what you said but ooh, right from the start
you made me hotter than Mojave in my heart
Well baby, I could stay this way forever
just passing time at ninety-nine degrees
'cause loving you's my favorite kind of weather
oh, forever let the flame burn down in me
And I'll not prepare my heart for the change of season
and I'll whip old Winter Wind there if she blows, if she blows
Well, God bless the day that you came along
and you tipped my apple cart
and you made me hotter than Mojave in my heart
And I'll not prepare my heart for the change of season
and I'm a-gonna whip old Winter Wind there if she blows, if she blows
Well, God bless the day that you came along
and you tipped my apple cart
you made me hotter than Mojave in my heart
Now it's hotter than Mojave in my heart
WHEN LOVE WAS YOUNG (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Look at you, look at me
my heart breaks as I read our sad story
Never thought that I'd be
here with you wishing I was free
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
There was nothing I would not do
for the chance to see your face
How could I have known back then
that today I'd hesitate
When you hold me in your arms
I don't yearn for that charm
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
Look at how our curtain fell
Guess it's true only time can tell
'bout an ending
Kids are grown, we've had our day
Guess it's time now to go away
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
There was nothing I would not do
for the chance to see your face
How could I have known back then
that today I'd hesitate
When you hold me in your arms
I don't yearn for that charm
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
I never dreamed today would come
when love was young
OUR TOWN (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
And you know the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
Up the street beside that red neon light
that's where I met my baby on one hot summer night
He was the tender and I ordered a beer
It's been forty years and I'm still sitting here
But you know the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
It's here I had my babies and I had my first kiss
I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist
Over there is where I bought my first car
it turned over once but then it never went far
And I can see the sun settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa
They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall
I bring them flowers about every day
but I just gotta cry when I think what they'd say
If they could see how the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover
'cause your heart's bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town
goodnight
Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning-bugs fly
but I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes
I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't wanna go
I love you my town, you'll always live in my soul
But I can see the sun's settin' fast
and just like they say nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on I gotta kiss you goodbye but I'll hold to my lover
'cause my heart's 'bout to die
Go on now and say goodbye to my town, to my town
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on my town, on my town
Goodnight, goodnight
* Once More, My Arkie Angel-The Music Of Iris Dement-"The Way I Should"
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Iris DeMent performing "Sweet Is The Melody".
CD Review
The Way I Should, Iris Dement, Warner Brothers Records, 1996
I first heard Iris DeMent doing a cover of a Greg Brown tribute to Jimmy Rodgers, the old time Texas yodeller, on Brown's tribute album, "Driftless". I then looked for this album and for the most part was blown away by the power of DeMent's voice, her piano accompaniment and her lyrics (which are contained in the liner notes, read them, please). It is hard to type her style. Is it folk? Is it Country Pop? Is it semi-torch songstress? Well, whatever it may be you are in for a listening treat, especially if you are in a sentimental mood.
Stand outs here include- "There is a Wall in Washington" about the Vietnam Memorial probably one of the best anti-war songs you will ever hear. It is fairly easy to write a "Give Peace a Chance" or "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" type of anti-war song. It is another to capture the pathos of what happened to too many families when we were unable to stop that war. "When My Morning Comes" hits home with all the baggage working class kids have about their inferiority when they screw up in this world. Lastly- "Walking Home Alone" evokes all the humor, bathos, pathos and sheer exhilaration of saying one was able to survive, and not badly, after growing up poor amid the riches of America. Listen on. Yo will be glad you did.
“Walkin' Home”
I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I'm walkin' home
Once again I hear my mother's voice
and all us kids making a bunch of noise
If I'm not careful I might start to cry
Just walkin' home tonight
I turn my head and hear the screen door slam
and there he is, that tall and dark-haired man
He looks my way but all alone he stands
and I am walkin' home
He's my Dad, you know I was his girl
He taught me all he knew about this world
and then he traveled right on out of sight
and I'm just walkin' home tonight
I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I am walkin' home
Old worn-out couches and a bunch of kids
Four to a bedroom and all Mom's plates were chipped
but I never knew about the things I missed
and I'm walkin' home
You see, it's just the place where I come from
and, good or bad, it's where the deal was done
Mom and Dad, their daughters and their sons
and I'm just walkin' home tonight
I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I'm walkin' home
Once again I hear my mother's voice
and all us kids making a bunch of noise
If I'm not careful I might start to cry
Just walkin' home tonight
No Time To Cry lyrics Y
My father died a year ago today.
The rooster started crowing when they carried Dad away.
There beside my mother, in the living room, I stood,
With my brothers and my sisters, knowing Dad was gone for good.
Well, I stayed at home just long enough,
To lay him in the ground and then I,
Caught a plane to do a show up north in Detroit town.
Because I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I've got no time to look back, I've got no time to see,
The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
And if the feeling starts to coming, I've learned to stop 'em fast.
`Cause I don't know, if I let 'em go, they might not wanna pass.
And there's just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
And there's bills to pay, and songs to play,
And a house to make a home.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I can still remember when I was a girl.
But so many things have changed so much here in my world.
I remember sitting on the front yard when an ambulance went by,
And just listening to those sirens I would breakdown and cry.
But now I'm walking and I'm talking,
Doing just what I'm supposed to do.
Working overtime to make sure that I don't come unglued.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I've got no time to look back, I've got no time to see,
The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
And if the feeling starts to coming, I've learned to stop 'em fast.
`Cause I don't know, if I let 'em go, they might not wanna pass.
And there's just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
And there's bills to pay, and songs to play,
And a house to make a home.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
Now I sit down on the sofa and I watch the evening news:
There's a half a dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose.
The baby that was missing was found in a ditch today.
And there's bombs a'flying and people dying not so far away.
And I'll take a beer from the 'fridgerator,
And go sit out in the yard and with a cold one in my hand,
I'm gonna bite down and swallow hard.
Because I'm older now: I've got no time to cry.
I've got no time to look back, I've got no time to see,
The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
And if the feeling starts to coming, I've learned to stop 'em fast.
`Cause I don't know, if I let 'em go, they might not wanna pass.
And there's just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
And there's bills to pay, and songs to play,
And a house to make a home.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I guess I'm older now: I just ain't got no time to cry.
No time to cry.
No time to cry.
No time to cry.
CD Review
The Way I Should, Iris Dement, Warner Brothers Records, 1996
I first heard Iris DeMent doing a cover of a Greg Brown tribute to Jimmy Rodgers, the old time Texas yodeller, on Brown's tribute album, "Driftless". I then looked for this album and for the most part was blown away by the power of DeMent's voice, her piano accompaniment and her lyrics (which are contained in the liner notes, read them, please). It is hard to type her style. Is it folk? Is it Country Pop? Is it semi-torch songstress? Well, whatever it may be you are in for a listening treat, especially if you are in a sentimental mood.
Stand outs here include- "There is a Wall in Washington" about the Vietnam Memorial probably one of the best anti-war songs you will ever hear. It is fairly easy to write a "Give Peace a Chance" or "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" type of anti-war song. It is another to capture the pathos of what happened to too many families when we were unable to stop that war. "When My Morning Comes" hits home with all the baggage working class kids have about their inferiority when they screw up in this world. Lastly- "Walking Home Alone" evokes all the humor, bathos, pathos and sheer exhilaration of saying one was able to survive, and not badly, after growing up poor amid the riches of America. Listen on. Yo will be glad you did.
“Walkin' Home”
I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I'm walkin' home
Once again I hear my mother's voice
and all us kids making a bunch of noise
If I'm not careful I might start to cry
Just walkin' home tonight
I turn my head and hear the screen door slam
and there he is, that tall and dark-haired man
He looks my way but all alone he stands
and I am walkin' home
He's my Dad, you know I was his girl
He taught me all he knew about this world
and then he traveled right on out of sight
and I'm just walkin' home tonight
I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I am walkin' home
Old worn-out couches and a bunch of kids
Four to a bedroom and all Mom's plates were chipped
but I never knew about the things I missed
and I'm walkin' home
You see, it's just the place where I come from
and, good or bad, it's where the deal was done
Mom and Dad, their daughters and their sons
and I'm just walkin' home tonight
I'm walkin' home tonight
The streets are glowing 'neath the pale moonlight
I look around, there's not a soul in sight
and I'm walkin' home
Once again I hear my mother's voice
and all us kids making a bunch of noise
If I'm not careful I might start to cry
Just walkin' home tonight
No Time To Cry lyrics Y
My father died a year ago today.
The rooster started crowing when they carried Dad away.
There beside my mother, in the living room, I stood,
With my brothers and my sisters, knowing Dad was gone for good.
Well, I stayed at home just long enough,
To lay him in the ground and then I,
Caught a plane to do a show up north in Detroit town.
Because I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I've got no time to look back, I've got no time to see,
The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
And if the feeling starts to coming, I've learned to stop 'em fast.
`Cause I don't know, if I let 'em go, they might not wanna pass.
And there's just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
And there's bills to pay, and songs to play,
And a house to make a home.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I can still remember when I was a girl.
But so many things have changed so much here in my world.
I remember sitting on the front yard when an ambulance went by,
And just listening to those sirens I would breakdown and cry.
But now I'm walking and I'm talking,
Doing just what I'm supposed to do.
Working overtime to make sure that I don't come unglued.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I've got no time to look back, I've got no time to see,
The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
And if the feeling starts to coming, I've learned to stop 'em fast.
`Cause I don't know, if I let 'em go, they might not wanna pass.
And there's just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
And there's bills to pay, and songs to play,
And a house to make a home.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
Now I sit down on the sofa and I watch the evening news:
There's a half a dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose.
The baby that was missing was found in a ditch today.
And there's bombs a'flying and people dying not so far away.
And I'll take a beer from the 'fridgerator,
And go sit out in the yard and with a cold one in my hand,
I'm gonna bite down and swallow hard.
Because I'm older now: I've got no time to cry.
I've got no time to look back, I've got no time to see,
The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
And if the feeling starts to coming, I've learned to stop 'em fast.
`Cause I don't know, if I let 'em go, they might not wanna pass.
And there's just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
And there's bills to pay, and songs to play,
And a house to make a home.
I guess I'm older now and I've got no time to cry.
I guess I'm older now: I just ain't got no time to cry.
No time to cry.
No time to cry.
No time to cry.
*My Arkie Angel- The Music Of Iris DeMent-"Infamous Angel"
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Iris DeMent performing "Our Town"
CD REVIEW
Infamous Angel, Iris Dement, Rounder Records, 1992
Frankly, and I admit this publicly for the first time in this space, I love Ms. Iris Dement. Not personally, of course, but through her voice, her lyrics and her musical presence. This ‘confession’ may seem rather startling coming from a reviewer who is as likely here to go on and on about Bolsheviks, ‘Che’, Leon Trotsky, high communist theory and the like. Especially, as well given Ms. Dement’s seemingly simple quasi- religious themes and commitment to paying homage to her rural background in song. All such discrepancies though go out the window here. Why?
Well, for one, this old radical got a lump in his throat the first time he heard “These Hills”. Okay, that happens sometimes-once- but why did he have the same reaction on the fifth and twelfth hearings? Explain that. I can easily enough. If, on the very, very remotest chance, there is a heaven then I know one of the choir members. Enough said. By the way give a listen to “Sweet Forgiveness” and “After You’ve Gone” (with that great line about 'knowing' every line in her man's face. Then you too will be in love with Ms. Iris Dement. Iris, here is my proposal. If you get tired of fishing the U.P., or wherever, with Mr. Greg Brown, get bored with his endless twaddle about old Iowa farms or going on and on about Grannma's cellar just whistle. Better yet just yodel like you did on “Jimmie Rodgers Going Home” on that “Driftless” CD.
INFAMOUS ANGEL (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Last night before I went to sleep my knees dropped to the floor
I turned me eyes up to the sky and I prayed "Please help me, Lord,
you know I've sowed my wild oats and now the fun's all gone"
and then I heard these tender words
and I put them in my song:
"Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home"
I heard heaven's choir rejoicing as the tears broke from my eyes
and all at once it lifted the weight from my past life
I found a pen and I left a note on the dresser drawer
"Infamous Angel, she don't live here anymore"
Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Then I hurried out the back door as quickly as I could
I went flying down two flights of stairs 'til on the street I stood
and there I took that final look at my old neighbourhood
Then I ran down the street proclaiming "Angel gone for good"
Infamous Angel going home
to someone who loves her and knows she needed to roam
She grabbed her things and claimed the ticket at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
SWEET FORGIVENESS (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Sweet forgiveness, that's what you give to me
when you hold me close and you say "That's all over"
You don't go looking back,
you don't hold the cards to stack,
you mean what you say.
Sweet forgiveness, you help me see
I'm not near as bad as I sometimes appear to be
When you hold me close and say
"That's all over, and I still love you"
There's no way that I could make up for those angry words I said
Sometimes it gets to hurting and the pain goes to my head
Sweet forgiveness, dear God above
I say we all deserve a taste of this kind of love
Someone who'll hold our hand,
and whisper "I understand, and I still love you"
AFTER YOU'RE GONE (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reasons to face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death can ever erase the story they tell to me
I'll miss you, oh how I'll miss you
I'll dream of you and I'll cry a million tears
but the sorrow will pass and the one thing that will last
is the love that you've given to me
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reason and I'll face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death could ever erase the story they tell to me
MAMA'S OPRY (Iris DeMent)
[note: harmony vocals provided by Emmylou Harris]
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
She grew up plain and simple in a farming town
Her daddy played the fiddle and use to do the calling
when they had hoedowns
She said the neighbors would come
and they'd move all my grandma's furniture 'round
and there'd be twenty or more there on the old wooden floor
dancing to a country sound
The Carters and Jimmy Rodgers played her favourite songs
and on Saturday nights there was a radio show
and she would sing along
and I'll never forget her face when she revealed to me
that she'd dreamed about singing at The Grand Ol' Opry
Her eyes, oh how they sparkled when she sang those songs
While she was hanging the clothes on the line
I was a kid just a humming along
Well, I'd be playing in the grass,
to her what might've seemed obliviously
but there ain't no doubt about it, she sure made her mark on me
She played old gospel records on the phonograph
She turned them up loud and we'd sing along
but those days have passed
Just now that I am older it occurs to me
that I was singing in the grandest opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
HIGHER GROUND (Iris DeMent)
[note: lead vocal by Flora Mae DeMent, backing vocals by "The Infamous Angel Choir" (Iris, etc.)]
Traditional, public domain
[Spoken intro by Iris: "No voice has inspired me more than my mother's. She showed me that music is a pathway to higher ground".]
I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining every day
Still praying as I'm onward bound
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
My heart has no desire to stay
where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where these abound
my prayer, my aim, is higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
I want to scale the utmost heights
and catch a gleam of glory bright
but still I'll pray 'til heaven I've found
Lord, lead me on to higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
CD REVIEW
Infamous Angel, Iris Dement, Rounder Records, 1992
Frankly, and I admit this publicly for the first time in this space, I love Ms. Iris Dement. Not personally, of course, but through her voice, her lyrics and her musical presence. This ‘confession’ may seem rather startling coming from a reviewer who is as likely here to go on and on about Bolsheviks, ‘Che’, Leon Trotsky, high communist theory and the like. Especially, as well given Ms. Dement’s seemingly simple quasi- religious themes and commitment to paying homage to her rural background in song. All such discrepancies though go out the window here. Why?
Well, for one, this old radical got a lump in his throat the first time he heard “These Hills”. Okay, that happens sometimes-once- but why did he have the same reaction on the fifth and twelfth hearings? Explain that. I can easily enough. If, on the very, very remotest chance, there is a heaven then I know one of the choir members. Enough said. By the way give a listen to “Sweet Forgiveness” and “After You’ve Gone” (with that great line about 'knowing' every line in her man's face. Then you too will be in love with Ms. Iris Dement. Iris, here is my proposal. If you get tired of fishing the U.P., or wherever, with Mr. Greg Brown, get bored with his endless twaddle about old Iowa farms or going on and on about Grannma's cellar just whistle. Better yet just yodel like you did on “Jimmie Rodgers Going Home” on that “Driftless” CD.
INFAMOUS ANGEL (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Last night before I went to sleep my knees dropped to the floor
I turned me eyes up to the sky and I prayed "Please help me, Lord,
you know I've sowed my wild oats and now the fun's all gone"
and then I heard these tender words
and I put them in my song:
"Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home"
I heard heaven's choir rejoicing as the tears broke from my eyes
and all at once it lifted the weight from my past life
I found a pen and I left a note on the dresser drawer
"Infamous Angel, she don't live here anymore"
Infamous Angel come on home
to someone who loves you and knows you needed to roam
Grab your things, a ticket's waiting at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Then I hurried out the back door as quickly as I could
I went flying down two flights of stairs 'til on the street I stood
and there I took that final look at my old neighbourhood
Then I ran down the street proclaiming "Angel gone for good"
Infamous Angel going home
to someone who loves her and knows she needed to roam
She grabbed her things and claimed the ticket at the bus depot
for: Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
Infamous Angel, Destination: Home
SWEET FORGIVENESS (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
Sweet forgiveness, that's what you give to me
when you hold me close and you say "That's all over"
You don't go looking back,
you don't hold the cards to stack,
you mean what you say.
Sweet forgiveness, you help me see
I'm not near as bad as I sometimes appear to be
When you hold me close and say
"That's all over, and I still love you"
There's no way that I could make up for those angry words I said
Sometimes it gets to hurting and the pain goes to my head
Sweet forgiveness, dear God above
I say we all deserve a taste of this kind of love
Someone who'll hold our hand,
and whisper "I understand, and I still love you"
AFTER YOU'RE GONE (Iris DeMent)
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reasons to face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death can ever erase the story they tell to me
I'll miss you, oh how I'll miss you
I'll dream of you and I'll cry a million tears
but the sorrow will pass and the one thing that will last
is the love that you've given to me
There'll be laughter even after you're gone
I'll find reason and I'll face that empty dawn
'cause I've memorized each line in your face
and not even death could ever erase the story they tell to me
MAMA'S OPRY (Iris DeMent)
[note: harmony vocals provided by Emmylou Harris]
(c) 1992 Songs of Iris/Forerunner Music, Inc. ASCAP
She grew up plain and simple in a farming town
Her daddy played the fiddle and use to do the calling
when they had hoedowns
She said the neighbors would come
and they'd move all my grandma's furniture 'round
and there'd be twenty or more there on the old wooden floor
dancing to a country sound
The Carters and Jimmy Rodgers played her favourite songs
and on Saturday nights there was a radio show
and she would sing along
and I'll never forget her face when she revealed to me
that she'd dreamed about singing at The Grand Ol' Opry
Her eyes, oh how they sparkled when she sang those songs
While she was hanging the clothes on the line
I was a kid just a humming along
Well, I'd be playing in the grass,
to her what might've seemed obliviously
but there ain't no doubt about it, she sure made her mark on me
She played old gospel records on the phonograph
She turned them up loud and we'd sing along
but those days have passed
Just now that I am older it occurs to me
that I was singing in the grandest opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
And we sang Sweet Rose of Sharon, Abide With Me
'til I ride The Gospel Ship to Heaven's Jubilee
and In That Great Triumphant Morning my soul will be free
and My Burdens Will Be Lifted when my Saviour's face I see
So I Don't Want to Get Adjusted to This World below
but I know He'll Pilot Me 'til it comes time to go
Oh, nothing on this earth is half as dear to me
as the sound of my Mama's Opry
HIGHER GROUND (Iris DeMent)
[note: lead vocal by Flora Mae DeMent, backing vocals by "The Infamous Angel Choir" (Iris, etc.)]
Traditional, public domain
[Spoken intro by Iris: "No voice has inspired me more than my mother's. She showed me that music is a pathway to higher ground".]
I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining every day
Still praying as I'm onward bound
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
My heart has no desire to stay
where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where these abound
my prayer, my aim, is higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
I want to scale the utmost heights
and catch a gleam of glory bright
but still I'll pray 'til heaven I've found
Lord, lead me on to higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
by faith on Heaven's table land
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant me feet on higher ground
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
A Rage For Pigskin- College Division
Commentary
In post- World War II America, the time of this writer’s youth, television and its seemingly infinite possibilities settled on mass sport entertainment as one of its pillars, a wise decision from a revenue producing perspective, if not from a cultural one. Needless to say sports like football that had previously had small, stadium-bound audiences for the most part soaked up the American television airwaves. That all by way of introducing this writer’s life-long fascination with the trials and tribulations of college football and the quest of the 'mythical' national college football championship that has provided fodder for endless arguments over the fairness of the system to produce a real champion in face-to-face combat.
Who knows when a kid first becomes conscious of sports and the difference between them. Maybe in some elementary school physical education class. Maybe in front of the television on some misbegotten Saturday or Sunday afternoon watching a half understood game that is beyond the realm of recollection today. Maybe it was some late night viewing of "The Knute Rockne Story" with Pat O’Brian as Knute and the late, unlamented Ronald Reagan as the heroic George Gipp. One thing is clear it was not from a shared experience with my father. This hard-pressed, harried man was too busy trying to make ends meet (and failing) to have the luxury of watching some esoteric game like football. So we will have to leave the genesis of my football mania as undetermined. Not unlike a lot of life’s habits.
Another source that we can eliminate was an ability to master the game or to perform it at any level short of the ridiculous. There may have been earlier tag football experiences but the first clear recollection of my lack of athletic prowess in an organized team situation was in the seventh grade in those days in my part of the country the first year of junior high school (now, generally, called middle school). There were actually very few sports opportunities at that grade level and football was it in the fall. I thus dutifully and, if I am not mistaken in the fog of history here, somewhat passionately went out for the team. Not knowing much about any of the positions I tried out for center. I think the assumption there was that since I handled the ball that was the key position.
The only problem with my theory was that I was probably even then something like forty or fifty pounds too light for that position. But I remained intrepid and stuck it out as about the fourth-string center that season. Oh yes, in the spirit of good fellowship, sportsmanship or whatever the coach let me go and strut my stuff that season-for one play. The opposing defensive player lifted me about ten feet off the ground with his straight-armed tackle. Needless to say I went abjectly went back the bench full of feelings and foreboding that this was not my sport. Of course in the whirl of today’s sports frenzy I would not have been allowed on the team, even in middle school. Perhaps we can trace the demise of a sense of good sportsmanship and fair play not from the fields of Eton, as in the old days, but in the football fields of America’s middle schools. In any case that was my last team sport experience, my sense of social solidarity and collective work came from other sources.
Let’s go back to that "Knute Rockne" movie for a moment. Although it is probably not the source for my love of college football it does play into the why of my love of college football rather than professional football. I have written elsewhere that as a youth I was somewhat agnostic about my Irish heritage (on my mother’s side) due to the overwhelming problems of existence that confronted our poor bedraggled nuclear family. However, and take this for what it is worth, I very early on attached myself to Notre Dame as a team that I followed. Why? It could have been as small a reason that their team nickname was “The Fighting Irish”. Whatever the reason from middle school to this day, during football season, I scan the newspaper scoreboard to see how the lads have done. In my youth, until 1964 (and for about 20 years now as well) they were not a very good team, certainly not the stuff of the Rockne/Gipp legend. But that is how allegiances get formed.
Like many another red-blooded American high school student in the early 1960’s (or now, for that matter, but you can speak for yourselves), aside for a passion for politics, I was as devoted as anyone to my high school football team. I believe that I went to virtually every game, home or away. That was a sign, among others, of being cool. It also cleared the path a little for my odd-ball political positions. Like being very strongly for the civil rights struggle in the South in a high school that was purposefully all white (even though black neighborhoods, although not in the town itself, were only a few miles away). Or being one of the few people in the town square on Saturday morning with a placard calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament. If that protest had been on Saturday afternoon during football season what would I have done? I will leave that to the imagination of the reader.
By a quirk of fate the publicly-funded college that I attended did not have its own football team. Thus, that Notre Dame allegiance got full play. Of course, although I had not been aware of it earlier this allegiance was not some personal aberration but a significant factor in the popularity of that team. There was, and perhaps there still is, a term for it called “subway” fans meaning that urban Irish types were devoted to the team from South Bend. There were certain bars in the Boston area that one did not go into on Saturday afternoon unless one was a Notre Dame fan, passionate or lukewarm. A highlight was the famous Michigan State/ Notre Dame game that the Irish won 10-10 (oops, tied- these disputes die hard).
After college my devotion continued although not for the "Fighting Irish" (except as they, occasionally, entered the national championship mix). I have spent many a misbegotten hour putting parlays together based on that Top 10 (in the old, old days), Top 20 (more recently) and Top 25 (now). There are infinite combinations that one can place bets on. My favorite (after picking the national champion straight up in pre-season which I have not been particularly successful at) is the top four combinations based on the Coaches and AP Polls. Also top eight and the top 25 (that last is more of an interesting bet than anything else and I got creamed last year with my ill-conceived selections). Enough said.
In post- World War II America, the time of this writer’s youth, television and its seemingly infinite possibilities settled on mass sport entertainment as one of its pillars, a wise decision from a revenue producing perspective, if not from a cultural one. Needless to say sports like football that had previously had small, stadium-bound audiences for the most part soaked up the American television airwaves. That all by way of introducing this writer’s life-long fascination with the trials and tribulations of college football and the quest of the 'mythical' national college football championship that has provided fodder for endless arguments over the fairness of the system to produce a real champion in face-to-face combat.
Who knows when a kid first becomes conscious of sports and the difference between them. Maybe in some elementary school physical education class. Maybe in front of the television on some misbegotten Saturday or Sunday afternoon watching a half understood game that is beyond the realm of recollection today. Maybe it was some late night viewing of "The Knute Rockne Story" with Pat O’Brian as Knute and the late, unlamented Ronald Reagan as the heroic George Gipp. One thing is clear it was not from a shared experience with my father. This hard-pressed, harried man was too busy trying to make ends meet (and failing) to have the luxury of watching some esoteric game like football. So we will have to leave the genesis of my football mania as undetermined. Not unlike a lot of life’s habits.
Another source that we can eliminate was an ability to master the game or to perform it at any level short of the ridiculous. There may have been earlier tag football experiences but the first clear recollection of my lack of athletic prowess in an organized team situation was in the seventh grade in those days in my part of the country the first year of junior high school (now, generally, called middle school). There were actually very few sports opportunities at that grade level and football was it in the fall. I thus dutifully and, if I am not mistaken in the fog of history here, somewhat passionately went out for the team. Not knowing much about any of the positions I tried out for center. I think the assumption there was that since I handled the ball that was the key position.
The only problem with my theory was that I was probably even then something like forty or fifty pounds too light for that position. But I remained intrepid and stuck it out as about the fourth-string center that season. Oh yes, in the spirit of good fellowship, sportsmanship or whatever the coach let me go and strut my stuff that season-for one play. The opposing defensive player lifted me about ten feet off the ground with his straight-armed tackle. Needless to say I went abjectly went back the bench full of feelings and foreboding that this was not my sport. Of course in the whirl of today’s sports frenzy I would not have been allowed on the team, even in middle school. Perhaps we can trace the demise of a sense of good sportsmanship and fair play not from the fields of Eton, as in the old days, but in the football fields of America’s middle schools. In any case that was my last team sport experience, my sense of social solidarity and collective work came from other sources.
Let’s go back to that "Knute Rockne" movie for a moment. Although it is probably not the source for my love of college football it does play into the why of my love of college football rather than professional football. I have written elsewhere that as a youth I was somewhat agnostic about my Irish heritage (on my mother’s side) due to the overwhelming problems of existence that confronted our poor bedraggled nuclear family. However, and take this for what it is worth, I very early on attached myself to Notre Dame as a team that I followed. Why? It could have been as small a reason that their team nickname was “The Fighting Irish”. Whatever the reason from middle school to this day, during football season, I scan the newspaper scoreboard to see how the lads have done. In my youth, until 1964 (and for about 20 years now as well) they were not a very good team, certainly not the stuff of the Rockne/Gipp legend. But that is how allegiances get formed.
Like many another red-blooded American high school student in the early 1960’s (or now, for that matter, but you can speak for yourselves), aside for a passion for politics, I was as devoted as anyone to my high school football team. I believe that I went to virtually every game, home or away. That was a sign, among others, of being cool. It also cleared the path a little for my odd-ball political positions. Like being very strongly for the civil rights struggle in the South in a high school that was purposefully all white (even though black neighborhoods, although not in the town itself, were only a few miles away). Or being one of the few people in the town square on Saturday morning with a placard calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament. If that protest had been on Saturday afternoon during football season what would I have done? I will leave that to the imagination of the reader.
By a quirk of fate the publicly-funded college that I attended did not have its own football team. Thus, that Notre Dame allegiance got full play. Of course, although I had not been aware of it earlier this allegiance was not some personal aberration but a significant factor in the popularity of that team. There was, and perhaps there still is, a term for it called “subway” fans meaning that urban Irish types were devoted to the team from South Bend. There were certain bars in the Boston area that one did not go into on Saturday afternoon unless one was a Notre Dame fan, passionate or lukewarm. A highlight was the famous Michigan State/ Notre Dame game that the Irish won 10-10 (oops, tied- these disputes die hard).
After college my devotion continued although not for the "Fighting Irish" (except as they, occasionally, entered the national championship mix). I have spent many a misbegotten hour putting parlays together based on that Top 10 (in the old, old days), Top 20 (more recently) and Top 25 (now). There are infinite combinations that one can place bets on. My favorite (after picking the national champion straight up in pre-season which I have not been particularly successful at) is the top four combinations based on the Coaches and AP Polls. Also top eight and the top 25 (that last is more of an interesting bet than anything else and I got creamed last year with my ill-conceived selections). Enough said.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Doin' His Midnight Creep- The Howlin' Wolf Story
DVD REVIEW
Doin' His Midnight Creep- The Howlin' Wolf Story
The Howlin’ Wolf Story, Howlin’ Wolf and various artists and commentators, Productions, 2004
I have reviewed several of Howlin’ Wolf’s CDs in this space previously and had expected that this documentary about the life, the times and the influence of this incredible blues performer would merely be an appetizer for further reviews of his music. Not so. This well-done, lovingly put together and extremely informative documentary is a worthy viewing for the novice and old Wolf aficionados like me. Thus, rather than placing this commentary as a tail to some other Wolf entry it is worthy of separate entry here.
In this presentation filled, as always in this kind of work, with the inevitable “talking heads” we go from Wolf‘s roots down in the Mississippi Delta, cotton country and nothing else, in the 1920’s and 1930’s through to the first stop up the Mississippi at Memphis on to the Mecca Chicago in the post- World War II period and finally to international renown in the blues revival started by the likes of The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton the mid-1960s. In short we are treated to a view of the trajectory of Wolf’s life; unlike let us say Son House with whom Wolf worked with in the old days who stuck with the country roots, from country blues of the back road jukes to the electricity of the urban ghetto that made those old blues jump for, at first, migratory urban blacks and then young whites like this reviewer. Along the way many of the musicians that worked with Wolf like Hubert Sumerlin, a blues guitarist legend in his own right, and Sam Lay as well as Wolf’s daughters, the Chess Record producer Marshall Chess and others give some amusing stories and anecdotes on the life of the great bluesman. And seemingly as always when blues or rock and roll are mentioned little segments with the ubiquitous Sam Phillips of the well-known Sun Recording studio in Memphis.
I do not generally comment on (or for that matter look at) the special features sections of DVD. Not doing so here would be a mistake. There is some nice home movie footage, some interesting Wolf stories by his companions and rivals, a nice segment on the rivalry between Wolf and Muddy Waters to be “King of The Chicago Blues” and a recording of a radio broadcast of Wolf doing "Little Red Rooster". Damn, I flipped out the first time I heard that song when it was covered by The Rolling Stones in the early 1960’s. I also flipped out when I first heard a Wolf recording of it. I don’t know what I would have done had I heard it on my radio then. Probably started hitchhiking for Chicago.
All of this information is nice but I am sure the reader is just as interested to know about the music. Oh yes there is some great footage of classic Wolf efforts. Of course for this reviewer number one is always Wolf’s "Little Red Rooster". Christ, he is practically eating the harmonica by the end of the song. "Lovin’ Spoonful", "Moaning at Midnight" and a host of other songs get their usual professional Wolf treatment. That is a point to be underscored, he was a professional in his approach to the music, its presentation and the way that he could influence a genre that he practically build (along with his competitor Muddy Waters) from scratch. If you need an hour of the Wolf doin’ his Midnight Creep then you really have to see this documentary. Kudos to the filmmakers on this one.
Doin' His Midnight Creep- The Howlin' Wolf Story
The Howlin’ Wolf Story, Howlin’ Wolf and various artists and commentators, Productions, 2004
I have reviewed several of Howlin’ Wolf’s CDs in this space previously and had expected that this documentary about the life, the times and the influence of this incredible blues performer would merely be an appetizer for further reviews of his music. Not so. This well-done, lovingly put together and extremely informative documentary is a worthy viewing for the novice and old Wolf aficionados like me. Thus, rather than placing this commentary as a tail to some other Wolf entry it is worthy of separate entry here.
In this presentation filled, as always in this kind of work, with the inevitable “talking heads” we go from Wolf‘s roots down in the Mississippi Delta, cotton country and nothing else, in the 1920’s and 1930’s through to the first stop up the Mississippi at Memphis on to the Mecca Chicago in the post- World War II period and finally to international renown in the blues revival started by the likes of The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton the mid-1960s. In short we are treated to a view of the trajectory of Wolf’s life; unlike let us say Son House with whom Wolf worked with in the old days who stuck with the country roots, from country blues of the back road jukes to the electricity of the urban ghetto that made those old blues jump for, at first, migratory urban blacks and then young whites like this reviewer. Along the way many of the musicians that worked with Wolf like Hubert Sumerlin, a blues guitarist legend in his own right, and Sam Lay as well as Wolf’s daughters, the Chess Record producer Marshall Chess and others give some amusing stories and anecdotes on the life of the great bluesman. And seemingly as always when blues or rock and roll are mentioned little segments with the ubiquitous Sam Phillips of the well-known Sun Recording studio in Memphis.
I do not generally comment on (or for that matter look at) the special features sections of DVD. Not doing so here would be a mistake. There is some nice home movie footage, some interesting Wolf stories by his companions and rivals, a nice segment on the rivalry between Wolf and Muddy Waters to be “King of The Chicago Blues” and a recording of a radio broadcast of Wolf doing "Little Red Rooster". Damn, I flipped out the first time I heard that song when it was covered by The Rolling Stones in the early 1960’s. I also flipped out when I first heard a Wolf recording of it. I don’t know what I would have done had I heard it on my radio then. Probably started hitchhiking for Chicago.
All of this information is nice but I am sure the reader is just as interested to know about the music. Oh yes there is some great footage of classic Wolf efforts. Of course for this reviewer number one is always Wolf’s "Little Red Rooster". Christ, he is practically eating the harmonica by the end of the song. "Lovin’ Spoonful", "Moaning at Midnight" and a host of other songs get their usual professional Wolf treatment. That is a point to be underscored, he was a professional in his approach to the music, its presentation and the way that he could influence a genre that he practically build (along with his competitor Muddy Waters) from scratch. If you need an hour of the Wolf doin’ his Midnight Creep then you really have to see this documentary. Kudos to the filmmakers on this one.
Monday, December 15, 2008
*Folk Music 101- There Are Many Rooms In That Mansion
CD REVIEWS
Troubadours Of The Folk Era, Volumes One, Two And Three, Rhino Records, 1992
The generic parts of this review, relating to the 1960's folk revival, have been used in other reviews of musicians from this period.
My musical tastes were formed, as were those of many of the Generation of 1968, by `Rock and Roll' music exemplified by the Rolling Stones and Beatles and by the blues revival, both Delta and Chicago style. However, those forms as much as they gave pleasure were only marginally political at best. In short, these were entertainers performing material that spoke to us at some other level. In the most general sense that is all one should expect of a performer. Thus, for the most part that music need not be reviewed here. Those who thought that a new musical sensibility laid the foundations for a cultural or political revolution have long ago been proven wrong.
That said, in the early 1960's there nevertheless was another form of musical sensibility that was directly tied to radical political expression- the folk revival. This entailed a search for roots and relevancy in musical expression. While not all forms of folk music lent themselves to radical politics it is hard to see the 1960's cultural rebellion without giving a nod to such figures as Dave Van Ronk, the early Bob Dylan, Utah Phillips, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others. Whatever entertainment value these performers provided they also spoke to and prodded our political development. They did have a message and an agenda and we responded as such. That these musicians' respective agendas proved inadequate and/or short-lived does not negate their influence on the times.
My leftist political consciousness, painfully fought for in my troubled youth, coincided with an expansion of my musical tastes under the influence of the great blues and folk revivals of the 1960's. Unfortunately my exposure to the blues greats was mainly on records as many of them had been forgotten, retired or were dead. Not so with the folk revival which was created mainly by those who were close contemporaries. Alas, they too are now mainly forgotten, retired or dead. It therefore is with special pleasure that I review this two volume compilation of songs by the best musicians of the early folk period.
Many of the folksingers of the 1960's attempted to use their music to become troubadours for social change. The most famous example, the early Bob Dylan, can be fairly described as the voice of his generation at that time. However, he fairly quickly moved on to other concepts of himself and his music. The artists here, for the most part, stayed within the broad parameters of the term folk. There are, indeed, many rooms in that mansion as this compilation will demonstrate to the attentive listener. Some of the artists listed here, like Pete Seeger, I have reviewed previously elsewhere in this space. Others, like Eric Von Schmidt, I will do individual reviews of in the future. As a general observation the producers of this CD went out of their way, way out of their way to get the best renditions available of the songs by the individual artists represented and to provide the best range of what folk meant to those who wrote the songs, sang them and listened in. For those too young to have heard it then you have been given a reprieve- use it.
Highlights of Volume One are Joan Baez on "Silver Dagger"; Eric Andersen on "Violets of Dawn", the late Odetta on "John Henry"; Jesse Colin Young on "Four In The Morning": Donovan on "Catch The Wind" and an incredible rendition by the late Eric Von Schmidt of his "Wasn't That A Mighty Storm" (about a flood in Galveston, Texas in the early part of the 20th century).
Highlights on Volume Two are Tom Rush on "The Circle Game"; Judy Collins on " Who Knows Where The Time Goes"; Tom Paxton on "Ramblin' Boy"; and, Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band (that's with Geoff Muldaur and Maria Muldaur along with Jim, by the way) on a very well done version of the old blues classic "Don't You Leave Me Here".
Highlights on Volume Three, which is a little less worthwhile than the first two volumes and, frankly, reflects inclusions of some 'space fillers', are Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene"; Woody Guthrie's "Hard, Ain't It Hard" and Sonny Terry's "Rider".
*****
500 Miles by Hedy West
If you miss the train Im on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord Im one, lord Im two, lord Im three, lord Im four,
Lord Im 500 miles from my home.
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles
Lord Im five hundred miles from my home.
Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way, this a-way, this a-way,
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way.
If you miss the train Im on you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Once I Was- Tim Buckley
Once I was a soldier
And I fought on foreign sands for you
Once I was a hunter
And I brought home fresh meat for you
Once I was a lover
And I searched behind your eyes for you
And soon therell be another
To tell you I was just a lie
And sometimes I wonder
Just for a while
Will you remember me
And though you have forgotten
All of our rubbish dreams
I find myself searching
Through the ashes of our ruins
For the days when we smiled
And the hours that ran wild
With the magic of our eyes
And the silence of our words
And sometimes I wonder
Just for a while
Will you remember me
Ramblin' Boy
Words and Music by Tom Paxton
He was a man and a friend always
He stuck with me in the hard old days.
He never cared if I had no dough
We rambled 'round in the rain and snow.
[Chorus]
And here's to you my ramblin' boy
May all your ramblin' bring you joy
And here's to you my ramblin' boy
May all your ramblin' bring you joy.
In Tulsa town we chanced to stray
We thought we'd try to work one day
The boss said he had room for one
Says my old pal, "We'd rather bum!"
[Chorus]
Late one night in a jungle* camp
The weather it was cold and damp
He got the chills and he got 'em bad
They took the only friend I had.
[Chorus]
He left me here, to ramble on
My ramblin' pal, is dead and gone
If when we die, we go somewhere
I'll bet you a dollar, he's ramblin' there.
[Chorus]
The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell
Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when youre older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we con only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it wont be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur
Coming true
Therell be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie
Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Chorus (2x)
©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (
BMI)
TOMORROW IS SUCH A LONG TIME lyrics
(Bob Dylan)
If today was not an endless highway
If tonight was not a crooked trail
If tomorrow wasn't such a long time
then lonesome would mean nothing to you at all
Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again
I can't see my reflection in the mirror
I can't speak the sounds that show no pain
I can't hear the echoes of my footsteps
and can't remember the sound of my own name
Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again
There's beauty in the silver singin' river
There's beauty in the sunlight in the sky
But none of these, and nothing else
can steal the beauty
that I remember in my true love's eyes
Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again
JOHN HENRY, STEEL DRIVING MAN
1. John Henry was a railroad man,
He worked from six 'till five,
"Raise 'em up bullies and let 'em drop down,
I'll beat you to the bottom or die."
2. John Henry said to his captain:
"You are nothing but a common man,
Before that steam drill shall beat me down,
I'll die with my hammer in my hand."
3. John Henry said to the Shakers:
"You must listen to my call,
Before that steam drill shall beat me down,
I'll jar these mountains till they fall."
4. John Henry's captain said to him:
"I believe these mountains are caving in."
John Henry said to his captain: "Oh, Lord!"
"That's my hammer you hear in the wind."
5. John Henry he said to his captain:
"Your money is getting mighty slim,
When I hammer through this old mountain,
Oh Captain will you walk in?"
6. John Henry's captain came to him
With fifty dollars in his hand,
He laid his hand on his shoulder and said:
"This belongs to a steel driving man."
7. John Henry was hammering on the right side,
The big steam drill on the left,
Before that steam drill could beat him down,
He hammered his fool self to death.
8. They carried John Henry to the mountains,
From his shoulder his hammer would ring,
She caught on fire by a little blue blaze
I believe these old mountains are caving in.
9. John Henry was lying on his death bed,
He turned over on his side,
And these were the last words John Henry said
"Bring me a cool drink of water before I die."
10. John Henry had a little woman,
Her name was Pollie Ann,
He hugged and kissed her just before he died,
Saying, "Pollie, do the very best you can."
11. John Henry's woman heard he was dead,
She could not rest on her bed,
She got up at midnight, caught that No. 4 train,
"I am going where John Henry fell dead."
12. They carried John Henry to that new burying ground
His wife all dressed in blue,
She laid her hand on John Henry's cold face,
"John Henry I've been true to you."
Reno Nevada
It's a long long way down to Reno Nevada
It's a long long way to your home
And the change in your pocket it's beginning to crumble
And you reap just about what you sow
You can walk down the street
Pass your face in a window
You can go on foolin' around
You can work night and day take a chance on promotion
You can fall through a hole in the ground
Well there ain't no game like the game that you're playing
When you've got a little something to lose
And there ain't no time like the time that you're wasting
And you waste just about what you choose
There's a man at the table and you know he's been able
To return all the odds that you lay
And you can't feed your hunger
And you ain't getting younger
And your tongue it's got nothing to say
It's a long long way down to Reno Nevada
It's a long long way to your home
And the ground underneath you it's beginning to crumble
And the sky up above you has grown
There's a time to be grievin' and a time to be screamin'
And a time just to scroll on the wall
And you ain't got the double
And it ain't worth the trouble
You're feeling you're going nowhere at all
COCAINE BLUES
Cocaine, cocaine,
'Round my heart and runnin' 'round my brain,
Cocaine, aw, you ol' cocaine.
I woke up this mornin', Lord, I had a hunger pain.
And all I want for breakfast is my good cocaine,
Cocaine, aw you ol' cocaine.
Jump out of bed, Mama, run downtown;
Take along the money and look all around.
Find the man, the man that sells cocaine.
Come here, Mama, come here quick;
That ol' coke's got me and I'm feelin' sick.
Cocaine, aw you ol' cocaine.
Get out of here, Mama, I thought you understood;
You got no connections then you're no damn good.
Cocaine.
Well, coke's for horses, Lord, it ain't for men.
They say it kills you, but they don't say when.
C'mon, Mama, let's rent us a boat.
We'll sail down that Gibraltar moat;
Shed a tear every time we pass Tangiers.
Cocaine, cocaine,
'Round my heart and runnin' 'round my brain,
Cocaine, aw, you ol' cocaine.
Donovan » Catch The Wind Lyrics
In the chilly hours and minutes,
Of uncertainty, I want to be,
In the warm hold of your loving mind.
To feel you all around me,
And to take your hand, along the sand,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.
When sundown pales the sky,
I wanna hide a while, behind your smile,
And everywhere I'd look, your eyes I'd find.
For me to love you now,
Would be the sweetest thing, 'twould make me sing,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.
When rain has hung the leaves with tears,
I want you near, to kill my fears
To help me to leave all my blues behind.
For standin' in your heart,
Is where I want to be, and I long to be,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.
Troubadours Of The Folk Era, Volumes One, Two And Three, Rhino Records, 1992
The generic parts of this review, relating to the 1960's folk revival, have been used in other reviews of musicians from this period.
My musical tastes were formed, as were those of many of the Generation of 1968, by `Rock and Roll' music exemplified by the Rolling Stones and Beatles and by the blues revival, both Delta and Chicago style. However, those forms as much as they gave pleasure were only marginally political at best. In short, these were entertainers performing material that spoke to us at some other level. In the most general sense that is all one should expect of a performer. Thus, for the most part that music need not be reviewed here. Those who thought that a new musical sensibility laid the foundations for a cultural or political revolution have long ago been proven wrong.
That said, in the early 1960's there nevertheless was another form of musical sensibility that was directly tied to radical political expression- the folk revival. This entailed a search for roots and relevancy in musical expression. While not all forms of folk music lent themselves to radical politics it is hard to see the 1960's cultural rebellion without giving a nod to such figures as Dave Van Ronk, the early Bob Dylan, Utah Phillips, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others. Whatever entertainment value these performers provided they also spoke to and prodded our political development. They did have a message and an agenda and we responded as such. That these musicians' respective agendas proved inadequate and/or short-lived does not negate their influence on the times.
My leftist political consciousness, painfully fought for in my troubled youth, coincided with an expansion of my musical tastes under the influence of the great blues and folk revivals of the 1960's. Unfortunately my exposure to the blues greats was mainly on records as many of them had been forgotten, retired or were dead. Not so with the folk revival which was created mainly by those who were close contemporaries. Alas, they too are now mainly forgotten, retired or dead. It therefore is with special pleasure that I review this two volume compilation of songs by the best musicians of the early folk period.
Many of the folksingers of the 1960's attempted to use their music to become troubadours for social change. The most famous example, the early Bob Dylan, can be fairly described as the voice of his generation at that time. However, he fairly quickly moved on to other concepts of himself and his music. The artists here, for the most part, stayed within the broad parameters of the term folk. There are, indeed, many rooms in that mansion as this compilation will demonstrate to the attentive listener. Some of the artists listed here, like Pete Seeger, I have reviewed previously elsewhere in this space. Others, like Eric Von Schmidt, I will do individual reviews of in the future. As a general observation the producers of this CD went out of their way, way out of their way to get the best renditions available of the songs by the individual artists represented and to provide the best range of what folk meant to those who wrote the songs, sang them and listened in. For those too young to have heard it then you have been given a reprieve- use it.
Highlights of Volume One are Joan Baez on "Silver Dagger"; Eric Andersen on "Violets of Dawn", the late Odetta on "John Henry"; Jesse Colin Young on "Four In The Morning": Donovan on "Catch The Wind" and an incredible rendition by the late Eric Von Schmidt of his "Wasn't That A Mighty Storm" (about a flood in Galveston, Texas in the early part of the 20th century).
Highlights on Volume Two are Tom Rush on "The Circle Game"; Judy Collins on " Who Knows Where The Time Goes"; Tom Paxton on "Ramblin' Boy"; and, Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band (that's with Geoff Muldaur and Maria Muldaur along with Jim, by the way) on a very well done version of the old blues classic "Don't You Leave Me Here".
Highlights on Volume Three, which is a little less worthwhile than the first two volumes and, frankly, reflects inclusions of some 'space fillers', are Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene"; Woody Guthrie's "Hard, Ain't It Hard" and Sonny Terry's "Rider".
*****
500 Miles by Hedy West
If you miss the train Im on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord Im one, lord Im two, lord Im three, lord Im four,
Lord Im 500 miles from my home.
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles
Lord Im five hundred miles from my home.
Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way, this a-way, this a-way,
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way.
If you miss the train Im on you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Once I Was- Tim Buckley
Once I was a soldier
And I fought on foreign sands for you
Once I was a hunter
And I brought home fresh meat for you
Once I was a lover
And I searched behind your eyes for you
And soon therell be another
To tell you I was just a lie
And sometimes I wonder
Just for a while
Will you remember me
And though you have forgotten
All of our rubbish dreams
I find myself searching
Through the ashes of our ruins
For the days when we smiled
And the hours that ran wild
With the magic of our eyes
And the silence of our words
And sometimes I wonder
Just for a while
Will you remember me
Ramblin' Boy
Words and Music by Tom Paxton
He was a man and a friend always
He stuck with me in the hard old days.
He never cared if I had no dough
We rambled 'round in the rain and snow.
[Chorus]
And here's to you my ramblin' boy
May all your ramblin' bring you joy
And here's to you my ramblin' boy
May all your ramblin' bring you joy.
In Tulsa town we chanced to stray
We thought we'd try to work one day
The boss said he had room for one
Says my old pal, "We'd rather bum!"
[Chorus]
Late one night in a jungle* camp
The weather it was cold and damp
He got the chills and he got 'em bad
They took the only friend I had.
[Chorus]
He left me here, to ramble on
My ramblin' pal, is dead and gone
If when we die, we go somewhere
I'll bet you a dollar, he's ramblin' there.
[Chorus]
The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell
Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when youre older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we con only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it wont be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur
Coming true
Therell be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie
Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Chorus (2x)
©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (
BMI)
TOMORROW IS SUCH A LONG TIME lyrics
(Bob Dylan)
If today was not an endless highway
If tonight was not a crooked trail
If tomorrow wasn't such a long time
then lonesome would mean nothing to you at all
Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again
I can't see my reflection in the mirror
I can't speak the sounds that show no pain
I can't hear the echoes of my footsteps
and can't remember the sound of my own name
Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again
There's beauty in the silver singin' river
There's beauty in the sunlight in the sky
But none of these, and nothing else
can steal the beauty
that I remember in my true love's eyes
Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again
JOHN HENRY, STEEL DRIVING MAN
1. John Henry was a railroad man,
He worked from six 'till five,
"Raise 'em up bullies and let 'em drop down,
I'll beat you to the bottom or die."
2. John Henry said to his captain:
"You are nothing but a common man,
Before that steam drill shall beat me down,
I'll die with my hammer in my hand."
3. John Henry said to the Shakers:
"You must listen to my call,
Before that steam drill shall beat me down,
I'll jar these mountains till they fall."
4. John Henry's captain said to him:
"I believe these mountains are caving in."
John Henry said to his captain: "Oh, Lord!"
"That's my hammer you hear in the wind."
5. John Henry he said to his captain:
"Your money is getting mighty slim,
When I hammer through this old mountain,
Oh Captain will you walk in?"
6. John Henry's captain came to him
With fifty dollars in his hand,
He laid his hand on his shoulder and said:
"This belongs to a steel driving man."
7. John Henry was hammering on the right side,
The big steam drill on the left,
Before that steam drill could beat him down,
He hammered his fool self to death.
8. They carried John Henry to the mountains,
From his shoulder his hammer would ring,
She caught on fire by a little blue blaze
I believe these old mountains are caving in.
9. John Henry was lying on his death bed,
He turned over on his side,
And these were the last words John Henry said
"Bring me a cool drink of water before I die."
10. John Henry had a little woman,
Her name was Pollie Ann,
He hugged and kissed her just before he died,
Saying, "Pollie, do the very best you can."
11. John Henry's woman heard he was dead,
She could not rest on her bed,
She got up at midnight, caught that No. 4 train,
"I am going where John Henry fell dead."
12. They carried John Henry to that new burying ground
His wife all dressed in blue,
She laid her hand on John Henry's cold face,
"John Henry I've been true to you."
Reno Nevada
It's a long long way down to Reno Nevada
It's a long long way to your home
And the change in your pocket it's beginning to crumble
And you reap just about what you sow
You can walk down the street
Pass your face in a window
You can go on foolin' around
You can work night and day take a chance on promotion
You can fall through a hole in the ground
Well there ain't no game like the game that you're playing
When you've got a little something to lose
And there ain't no time like the time that you're wasting
And you waste just about what you choose
There's a man at the table and you know he's been able
To return all the odds that you lay
And you can't feed your hunger
And you ain't getting younger
And your tongue it's got nothing to say
It's a long long way down to Reno Nevada
It's a long long way to your home
And the ground underneath you it's beginning to crumble
And the sky up above you has grown
There's a time to be grievin' and a time to be screamin'
And a time just to scroll on the wall
And you ain't got the double
And it ain't worth the trouble
You're feeling you're going nowhere at all
COCAINE BLUES
Cocaine, cocaine,
'Round my heart and runnin' 'round my brain,
Cocaine, aw, you ol' cocaine.
I woke up this mornin', Lord, I had a hunger pain.
And all I want for breakfast is my good cocaine,
Cocaine, aw you ol' cocaine.
Jump out of bed, Mama, run downtown;
Take along the money and look all around.
Find the man, the man that sells cocaine.
Come here, Mama, come here quick;
That ol' coke's got me and I'm feelin' sick.
Cocaine, aw you ol' cocaine.
Get out of here, Mama, I thought you understood;
You got no connections then you're no damn good.
Cocaine.
Well, coke's for horses, Lord, it ain't for men.
They say it kills you, but they don't say when.
C'mon, Mama, let's rent us a boat.
We'll sail down that Gibraltar moat;
Shed a tear every time we pass Tangiers.
Cocaine, cocaine,
'Round my heart and runnin' 'round my brain,
Cocaine, aw, you ol' cocaine.
Donovan » Catch The Wind Lyrics
In the chilly hours and minutes,
Of uncertainty, I want to be,
In the warm hold of your loving mind.
To feel you all around me,
And to take your hand, along the sand,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.
When sundown pales the sky,
I wanna hide a while, behind your smile,
And everywhere I'd look, your eyes I'd find.
For me to love you now,
Would be the sweetest thing, 'twould make me sing,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.
When rain has hung the leaves with tears,
I want you near, to kill my fears
To help me to leave all my blues behind.
For standin' in your heart,
Is where I want to be, and I long to be,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
*Hello In There- The Music Of John Prine
Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of John Prine performing his classic, "Angel From Montgomery".
CD/DVD REVIEWS
Great Days: The John Prine Anthology, John Prine, Rhino Records, 1993
Over the last several months I have done more musically-oriented reviews that I had expected to on this site in order to flesh out the role of some of the 1960's cultural icons on the times. One of the themes that have kept cropping up is that for some folk/blues-oriented musical artists like Bob Dylan my attachment was immediate, long time and on-going. For other artists like John Prine it has been more of a recently acquired taste. In fact, my first acquaintance with the work of John Prine, at least that I was aware of, was several years ago when I was requested to get a couple of his CDs for a friend for Christmas. Upon listening to those albums, including this compilation, we both agreed that the best bet was to return them and get something else. Go figure.
I had, obviously, heard Bonnie Raitt do Prine's “Angel From Montgomery” long ago but I never associated his name with that song. Then a couple of years ago I happened to listen to his “Hello In There” and “Sam Stone”. Anyone whose has been affected by the Vietnam War experience in any way will gasp after hearing this very personal take of the destructiveness of that war for many of those who fought it, found hard drugs and found the black hole as a result. If you want to hear a real anti-war song rather than something wistful like “Where have All The Flowers Gone?” and the like then listen to this one. Yes, this guy Prine had something to say that I wanted to (and on some songs, needed to) hear.
This compilation represents a very wide selection of his best work, arguably the best representation of that work in one location that you could get. Mr. Prine is a good guitar player, a very, very good wordsmith who has produced some poetic turns of phrases here that will have you thinking for a while. Moreover on, for example, “Dear Abby” he can show his “silly”, nonsensical side. He also frankly, has the wry sense of humor (in the classical Greek sense of that word) of a man who has been pushed around by life, has pushed back; has taken his beatings, dusted himself off and gotten back up again. You know, just the kind of guy that I, and I am sure other guys and gals of a certain age, very definitely can relate to, and in some cases like that above-mentioned “Hello In There” need to relate to. If you have just one John Prine album to get this is the one. Then start saving your dough to get the others.
In addition to the songs mentioned above listen to his cover of “Killing The Blues” and Steve Goodman’s “Souvenirs”. Also Unwed Fathers”, “The Late John Garfield Blues” and “Sweet Revenge”.
The Missing Years, John Prine, Oh Boy Records, 2002
This is a later compilation after his, hopefully, successful bout with cancer. Believe me the above remarks mentioned in the review of 'Great Days" still apply. So what is good here? Listen to "The Sins Of Memphisto", "Picture Show" Train" and "Jesus The Missing Years". Then you will know what I mean by that remark about his wordsmanship mentioned above in the review of “Great Days”.
John Prine At Sessions At West 54th, John Prine with Iris Dement and various artists, OnBoy Records, 2001
Over the last several months I have done more musically-oriented reviews that I had expected. One of the themes that keep cropping up is that for some folk/blues-oriented musical artists like Bob Dylan my attachment was immediate, long time and on-going. For other artists like John Prine it has been more of a recently acquired taste. I had, obviously, heard Bonnie Raitt do his "Angel From Montgomery" but I never associated his name with that song. Then a couple of years ago I happened to listen to his "Hello In There" and "Sam Stone". Yes, this guy has something to say that I wanted to (on some songs, needed to) hear.
This concert represents a small selection of some of his work, although with the exception of "Sam Stone", "Lake Marie" and "Hello in There" not much in the way of classics, at least that I am familiar with. This concert would thus only rate as a pretty fair performance except that on a few songs like "When Two World Collide" he is accompanied by Iris Dement (a powerful singer in her own right who I have reviewed elsewhere in this space. She is also the wife of singer songwriter Greg Brown who is also reviewed elsewhere here). Iris is also a recent acquisition. I would travel very far to hear that voice of hers (and have done so). Incidentally, I have seen both these performers in person over the past couple of years- they still have it. Still this is not the DVD that YOU need to understand either talent, but you may want it.
CD/DVD REVIEWS
Great Days: The John Prine Anthology, John Prine, Rhino Records, 1993
Over the last several months I have done more musically-oriented reviews that I had expected to on this site in order to flesh out the role of some of the 1960's cultural icons on the times. One of the themes that have kept cropping up is that for some folk/blues-oriented musical artists like Bob Dylan my attachment was immediate, long time and on-going. For other artists like John Prine it has been more of a recently acquired taste. In fact, my first acquaintance with the work of John Prine, at least that I was aware of, was several years ago when I was requested to get a couple of his CDs for a friend for Christmas. Upon listening to those albums, including this compilation, we both agreed that the best bet was to return them and get something else. Go figure.
I had, obviously, heard Bonnie Raitt do Prine's “Angel From Montgomery” long ago but I never associated his name with that song. Then a couple of years ago I happened to listen to his “Hello In There” and “Sam Stone”. Anyone whose has been affected by the Vietnam War experience in any way will gasp after hearing this very personal take of the destructiveness of that war for many of those who fought it, found hard drugs and found the black hole as a result. If you want to hear a real anti-war song rather than something wistful like “Where have All The Flowers Gone?” and the like then listen to this one. Yes, this guy Prine had something to say that I wanted to (and on some songs, needed to) hear.
This compilation represents a very wide selection of his best work, arguably the best representation of that work in one location that you could get. Mr. Prine is a good guitar player, a very, very good wordsmith who has produced some poetic turns of phrases here that will have you thinking for a while. Moreover on, for example, “Dear Abby” he can show his “silly”, nonsensical side. He also frankly, has the wry sense of humor (in the classical Greek sense of that word) of a man who has been pushed around by life, has pushed back; has taken his beatings, dusted himself off and gotten back up again. You know, just the kind of guy that I, and I am sure other guys and gals of a certain age, very definitely can relate to, and in some cases like that above-mentioned “Hello In There” need to relate to. If you have just one John Prine album to get this is the one. Then start saving your dough to get the others.
In addition to the songs mentioned above listen to his cover of “Killing The Blues” and Steve Goodman’s “Souvenirs”. Also Unwed Fathers”, “The Late John Garfield Blues” and “Sweet Revenge”.
The Missing Years, John Prine, Oh Boy Records, 2002
This is a later compilation after his, hopefully, successful bout with cancer. Believe me the above remarks mentioned in the review of 'Great Days" still apply. So what is good here? Listen to "The Sins Of Memphisto", "Picture Show" Train" and "Jesus The Missing Years". Then you will know what I mean by that remark about his wordsmanship mentioned above in the review of “Great Days”.
John Prine At Sessions At West 54th, John Prine with Iris Dement and various artists, OnBoy Records, 2001
Over the last several months I have done more musically-oriented reviews that I had expected. One of the themes that keep cropping up is that for some folk/blues-oriented musical artists like Bob Dylan my attachment was immediate, long time and on-going. For other artists like John Prine it has been more of a recently acquired taste. I had, obviously, heard Bonnie Raitt do his "Angel From Montgomery" but I never associated his name with that song. Then a couple of years ago I happened to listen to his "Hello In There" and "Sam Stone". Yes, this guy has something to say that I wanted to (on some songs, needed to) hear.
This concert represents a small selection of some of his work, although with the exception of "Sam Stone", "Lake Marie" and "Hello in There" not much in the way of classics, at least that I am familiar with. This concert would thus only rate as a pretty fair performance except that on a few songs like "When Two World Collide" he is accompanied by Iris Dement (a powerful singer in her own right who I have reviewed elsewhere in this space. She is also the wife of singer songwriter Greg Brown who is also reviewed elsewhere here). Iris is also a recent acquisition. I would travel very far to hear that voice of hers (and have done so). Incidentally, I have seen both these performers in person over the past couple of years- they still have it. Still this is not the DVD that YOU need to understand either talent, but you may want it.
Friday, December 12, 2008
*An Appreciation of R & B's Ike Turner
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Ike Turner And His Kings of Rhythm In A 1959 Rock Out.
CD REVIEW
The Sun Sessions By Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythms, Ike Turner, Sun Records, 1959
Needless to say the late Ike Turner’s reputation as a performer has suffered from the revelations about his sexual abuse of the currently still performing Tina Turner (and still wowing audiences with her raucous soulful energies). Tina's revelations in her biography and through the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It" have all but erased any popular knowledge of Ike's seminal role in the R&B aspect of the creation of Rock 'n' Roll in the early 1950's. While one needs to pay due respect to political correctness in this matter and all one's sympathies are with Tina it is nevertheless necessary to pay homage to Ike's pivotal role in that development, warts and all.
One needs to start from Ike's work on 1951's "Rocket 88" (often considered the first rock 'n' roll record although readers of this space know that my preferred candidate is Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll"), to his piano backings for Little Milton and Junior Parker and his twangy, pre-funk heavy guitar playing throughout the 50s (for Loma, among others). Turner was there, contributing ideas and stretching existing sounds into the new cosmos (and new white teenage music market). However, we all know it always has to get back to that Sun studio in Memphis (and the pervasive Sam Phillips). Right? But where is that classic "Rocket 88" here? Although it is readily available elsewhere it should be in this compilation. I went crazy recently when I heard it for the first time in a long time. That was a time when men and women played hard-driving R&B for keeps.
As others have pointed out and I am beholding to here for the remaining comments as a recording artist Turner hopped around quite a bit, recording for (or having his recordings leased to) a variety of labels throughout the 50s, including RPM, Modern, Chess and Sun. His nomadic wanderings make a label-centric compilation such as this more like a snapshot than a coherent view of his pre-Ike & Tina work. Even the liner notes (from Bill Dahl) have a difficult time providing context for these tracks without alluding to coincidental tracks (on other labels) that aren't here.
Of the actual Sun-cut tracks, there are many stand-outs, including several that weren't released at the time of their waxing. Billy "The Kid" Emerson vocalizes on several of the disc's highlights, including his Sun debut, the tremelo-and-blues "No Teasing Around." Here he mixes R & B crooning (of the sort peaking with Specialty artists like Percy Mayfield and Joe Liggins) with a bit of the rockabilly swagger that would soon flourish. His follow-up, "The Woodchuck," features a lyric that riffs on the childhood rhyme, and is powered by a generous helping of Turner's stinging guitar.
After leaving Memphis and cutting sides for Federal in '56 and '57, Turner self-produced recordings in St. Louis in 1958 and sold them to Sun. New lead vocalist Tommy Hodge had great style, and the Louis Jourdan-like jump-blues of "I'm Gonna Forget About You Baby (Matchbox)" is very catchy. Carlson Oliver's rocking sax solo is a real standout, and Turner's whammy bar gets a full workout on "How Long Will It Last."
Note: Many of the songs by the various artists featured here have been placed on other Sun-related compilations, especially the work of Billy Emerson. However, it is nice to have Ike's early Sun work in one place except that mandatory "Rocket 88".
CD REVIEW
The Sun Sessions By Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythms, Ike Turner, Sun Records, 1959
Needless to say the late Ike Turner’s reputation as a performer has suffered from the revelations about his sexual abuse of the currently still performing Tina Turner (and still wowing audiences with her raucous soulful energies). Tina's revelations in her biography and through the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It" have all but erased any popular knowledge of Ike's seminal role in the R&B aspect of the creation of Rock 'n' Roll in the early 1950's. While one needs to pay due respect to political correctness in this matter and all one's sympathies are with Tina it is nevertheless necessary to pay homage to Ike's pivotal role in that development, warts and all.
One needs to start from Ike's work on 1951's "Rocket 88" (often considered the first rock 'n' roll record although readers of this space know that my preferred candidate is Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll"), to his piano backings for Little Milton and Junior Parker and his twangy, pre-funk heavy guitar playing throughout the 50s (for Loma, among others). Turner was there, contributing ideas and stretching existing sounds into the new cosmos (and new white teenage music market). However, we all know it always has to get back to that Sun studio in Memphis (and the pervasive Sam Phillips). Right? But where is that classic "Rocket 88" here? Although it is readily available elsewhere it should be in this compilation. I went crazy recently when I heard it for the first time in a long time. That was a time when men and women played hard-driving R&B for keeps.
As others have pointed out and I am beholding to here for the remaining comments as a recording artist Turner hopped around quite a bit, recording for (or having his recordings leased to) a variety of labels throughout the 50s, including RPM, Modern, Chess and Sun. His nomadic wanderings make a label-centric compilation such as this more like a snapshot than a coherent view of his pre-Ike & Tina work. Even the liner notes (from Bill Dahl) have a difficult time providing context for these tracks without alluding to coincidental tracks (on other labels) that aren't here.
Of the actual Sun-cut tracks, there are many stand-outs, including several that weren't released at the time of their waxing. Billy "The Kid" Emerson vocalizes on several of the disc's highlights, including his Sun debut, the tremelo-and-blues "No Teasing Around." Here he mixes R & B crooning (of the sort peaking with Specialty artists like Percy Mayfield and Joe Liggins) with a bit of the rockabilly swagger that would soon flourish. His follow-up, "The Woodchuck," features a lyric that riffs on the childhood rhyme, and is powered by a generous helping of Turner's stinging guitar.
After leaving Memphis and cutting sides for Federal in '56 and '57, Turner self-produced recordings in St. Louis in 1958 and sold them to Sun. New lead vocalist Tommy Hodge had great style, and the Louis Jourdan-like jump-blues of "I'm Gonna Forget About You Baby (Matchbox)" is very catchy. Carlson Oliver's rocking sax solo is a real standout, and Turner's whammy bar gets a full workout on "How Long Will It Last."
Note: Many of the songs by the various artists featured here have been placed on other Sun-related compilations, especially the work of Billy Emerson. However, it is nice to have Ike's early Sun work in one place except that mandatory "Rocket 88".
Thursday, December 11, 2008
FDR And The New Deal- The Last Gasp The Last Time
DVD REVIEW
FDR: American Experience, four part series, PBS, 1994
The economic news of the past several months has created a virtual cottage industry of commentators whose comparative references to the Great Depression of the 1930’s has made it almost a commonplace. Also common are comparisons of the tasks that confronted the subject of this documentary, the 32nd President of The United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt (hereafter FDR), and those that confront the 2008 election victor the President-elect Barack Obama, who seemingly has that same kind of broad mandate as FDR did to make major economic moves. Thus, as is my habit, I went scurrying to find a suitable documentary that would refresh my memory about the decisive role that FDR played back then as the last gasp “savior” of the American capitalist economic system.
An added impetus to do that search was the recent passing of the legendary oral historian, Studs Terkel, whose bread and butter was to capture the memories of the generation that was most influenced by FDR’s policies and whose oral histories have been the subject of many reviews of late by this writer. A biographic refresher on FDR thus seemed to be written in the stars. I found, for a quick overview of this subject, the perfect place to start is this American Experience four- part production on the life, loves, trials, tribulations and influence of this seminal American bourgeois politician.
That said, if one is looking for an in-depth analysis of the role that FDR played in saving the capitalist system in America in the 1930’s, or the concurrent rise of the imperial presidency under his guidance, or the increased role of the federal government through its various executive agencies or the role of his “brain trust” (Rexford Tugwell, Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickles, etc.) in formulating policy then one should, and eventually must, look elsewhere. However, if one wants to capture visually the sense of the times and FDR’s (and of his wife Eleanor’s, who is worthy of separate series in her own right) influence on them then this is the right address.
As is almost universally the case with American Experience productions one gets a technically very competent piece of work that moreover gets a boost here from the always welcome grave narrative skills of David McCullough, who as a historian in his own right has a grasp of the sense of such things. Of course, as always with PBS you get more than the necessary share of “talking heads” commentators who give their take on the meaning of each signpost in the long FDR trail to the presidency and beyond. Of note here is the commentary of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin whose recent book on the Lincoln presidency “Team Of Rivals” has received much notice in the lead-up to the Obamiad.
And what are those signposts of FDR’s life that might have given an inkling that he was up to the task of the times? Other than the question of class (in his case upper class, old New York money) FDR’s appetite to be president is not an unfamiliar one, if somewhat unusual from someone of that New York set at the turn of the 20th century. Except for this little twist in FDR’s case- when one’s relative, if a distant one, was an idolized Teddy Roosevelt who was President as he entered into manhood. That, at least as presented in this film, is a key source of FDR’s presidential “fire in the belly” drive.
The unfolding of the saga of FDR’s “fire in the belly” ambitions takes up the first two parts of the series. Here we find out the early family history, the various schoolboy pursuits, the private schools, the obligatory Ivy League education (Harvard), the courtship of the sublime distant cousin (and Teddy favorite) Eleanor, his first stab at elective office in New York, his apprenticeship in Washington as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Wilson presidency, his little extramarital love affairs, his selection as Vice Presidential candidate in 1920, the seemingly political career-ending bout with polio and the fight against its physical restrictions, the successful efforts to hide this from the public, thereafter the successful return to politics as Governor of New York and, finally, the nomination and election as the 32nd President of The United States. Plenty of material for thought here.
But that is only prelude. FDR faced a capitalist system that had like today 'lost', although for different specific reasons, its moorings and was in need of deep repair (or overthrow). It is not unfair, I do not believe, to say as I have said in the headline of this entry that FDR’s effort was the last gasp effort of capitalism to survive (although his fellow capitalists and their intellectual, political and media hangers-on shortsightedly called him a “traitor to his class”). The most glaring contrast in the whole documentary is that between an overwhelmed President Hoover’s abject defeatism and FDR’s strident confidence (a like comparison could be made, at least of the defeated presidential part, with the current Bush).
Although we now know that the ultimate way out of that Great Depression was World War II in 1933 FDR applied, piecemeal and as triage, a whole series of economic programs to jump start the system, most famously the National Recovery Act (NRA, later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court). FDR’s first two terms were basically a fight to find ways, virtually any ways to keep the economy moving and get people back to work. He was running out of time and the public’s patience when the rumblings of WWII came on to the horizon in Europe.
The hard-bitten fight by FDR to get America into the European War against a public opinion that was essentially isolationist, mainly as a result of the WWI experience, takes up the last part of the series. The various efforts to surreptitiously aid England are highlighted here, including the various visits by and with British war time leader Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the fight to get America militarily mobilized including imposition of a military draft, the various conferences of the Big Three (the Soviet Union being the third) to carve up the post-war world and FDR’s final illness round out the story. In our house when I was a kid the mere mention of the name FDR was said, by one and all, with some reverence for his efforts to pull America out of the Great Depression and for guiding it to victory in war. For a long time this writer has not had that youthful reverence but if you want to see why my parents and why I as a youth whispered that name with reverence watch here.
FDR: American Experience, four part series, PBS, 1994
The economic news of the past several months has created a virtual cottage industry of commentators whose comparative references to the Great Depression of the 1930’s has made it almost a commonplace. Also common are comparisons of the tasks that confronted the subject of this documentary, the 32nd President of The United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt (hereafter FDR), and those that confront the 2008 election victor the President-elect Barack Obama, who seemingly has that same kind of broad mandate as FDR did to make major economic moves. Thus, as is my habit, I went scurrying to find a suitable documentary that would refresh my memory about the decisive role that FDR played back then as the last gasp “savior” of the American capitalist economic system.
An added impetus to do that search was the recent passing of the legendary oral historian, Studs Terkel, whose bread and butter was to capture the memories of the generation that was most influenced by FDR’s policies and whose oral histories have been the subject of many reviews of late by this writer. A biographic refresher on FDR thus seemed to be written in the stars. I found, for a quick overview of this subject, the perfect place to start is this American Experience four- part production on the life, loves, trials, tribulations and influence of this seminal American bourgeois politician.
That said, if one is looking for an in-depth analysis of the role that FDR played in saving the capitalist system in America in the 1930’s, or the concurrent rise of the imperial presidency under his guidance, or the increased role of the federal government through its various executive agencies or the role of his “brain trust” (Rexford Tugwell, Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickles, etc.) in formulating policy then one should, and eventually must, look elsewhere. However, if one wants to capture visually the sense of the times and FDR’s (and of his wife Eleanor’s, who is worthy of separate series in her own right) influence on them then this is the right address.
As is almost universally the case with American Experience productions one gets a technically very competent piece of work that moreover gets a boost here from the always welcome grave narrative skills of David McCullough, who as a historian in his own right has a grasp of the sense of such things. Of course, as always with PBS you get more than the necessary share of “talking heads” commentators who give their take on the meaning of each signpost in the long FDR trail to the presidency and beyond. Of note here is the commentary of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin whose recent book on the Lincoln presidency “Team Of Rivals” has received much notice in the lead-up to the Obamiad.
And what are those signposts of FDR’s life that might have given an inkling that he was up to the task of the times? Other than the question of class (in his case upper class, old New York money) FDR’s appetite to be president is not an unfamiliar one, if somewhat unusual from someone of that New York set at the turn of the 20th century. Except for this little twist in FDR’s case- when one’s relative, if a distant one, was an idolized Teddy Roosevelt who was President as he entered into manhood. That, at least as presented in this film, is a key source of FDR’s presidential “fire in the belly” drive.
The unfolding of the saga of FDR’s “fire in the belly” ambitions takes up the first two parts of the series. Here we find out the early family history, the various schoolboy pursuits, the private schools, the obligatory Ivy League education (Harvard), the courtship of the sublime distant cousin (and Teddy favorite) Eleanor, his first stab at elective office in New York, his apprenticeship in Washington as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Wilson presidency, his little extramarital love affairs, his selection as Vice Presidential candidate in 1920, the seemingly political career-ending bout with polio and the fight against its physical restrictions, the successful efforts to hide this from the public, thereafter the successful return to politics as Governor of New York and, finally, the nomination and election as the 32nd President of The United States. Plenty of material for thought here.
But that is only prelude. FDR faced a capitalist system that had like today 'lost', although for different specific reasons, its moorings and was in need of deep repair (or overthrow). It is not unfair, I do not believe, to say as I have said in the headline of this entry that FDR’s effort was the last gasp effort of capitalism to survive (although his fellow capitalists and their intellectual, political and media hangers-on shortsightedly called him a “traitor to his class”). The most glaring contrast in the whole documentary is that between an overwhelmed President Hoover’s abject defeatism and FDR’s strident confidence (a like comparison could be made, at least of the defeated presidential part, with the current Bush).
Although we now know that the ultimate way out of that Great Depression was World War II in 1933 FDR applied, piecemeal and as triage, a whole series of economic programs to jump start the system, most famously the National Recovery Act (NRA, later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court). FDR’s first two terms were basically a fight to find ways, virtually any ways to keep the economy moving and get people back to work. He was running out of time and the public’s patience when the rumblings of WWII came on to the horizon in Europe.
The hard-bitten fight by FDR to get America into the European War against a public opinion that was essentially isolationist, mainly as a result of the WWI experience, takes up the last part of the series. The various efforts to surreptitiously aid England are highlighted here, including the various visits by and with British war time leader Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the fight to get America militarily mobilized including imposition of a military draft, the various conferences of the Big Three (the Soviet Union being the third) to carve up the post-war world and FDR’s final illness round out the story. In our house when I was a kid the mere mention of the name FDR was said, by one and all, with some reverence for his efforts to pull America out of the Great Depression and for guiding it to victory in war. For a long time this writer has not had that youthful reverence but if you want to see why my parents and why I as a youth whispered that name with reverence watch here.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
“I Said, Who Do You Love”- An Encore-The Raucous Music Of George Thorogood And The Destroyers
Click on the title to link to "YouTube"'s film clip of George Thorogood and The Destroyers performing their version of "Madison Blues".
CD Review
Live, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Capitol, 1990
A couple of years ago when Bo Diddley died I mentioned in a review of his work that many latter musicians, particularly white musicians were influenced by his songs, and covered them like crazy. That is the case with George Thorogood, with or without his Destroyers. Although he is probably best known for his bad boy anthem, “Bad To The Bone” Thorogood cut his teeth on doing covers of Bo, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and the other greats of the blues and early rock and roll. That is how we should measure his work, as an exponent of a certain kind or of rock and R&B.
This album delivers extended versions of his master works including: the afore-mentioned “Bad To The Bone,” the classic Bo Diddley tune “Who Do You Love,” “Madison Blues,” and the classic Hooker song “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer”. This album is close to the best versions technically and will give an idea of what old George and boys could do on a hot night. Yes, indeed.
Blues Lyrics - George Thorogood
Madison Blues
All rights to lyrics included on these pages belong to the artists and authors of the works.
All lyrics, photographs, soundclips and other material on this website may only be used for private study, scholarship or research.
by
Elmore James
recording of 1977
from
George Thorogood & The Destroyers (Rounder CD-3013)
&
Live (EMI E 2-46329)
Ah you babes talk about your Madison shoes
We got a thing we call the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues baby
Rock away your blues
I know a gal her name is Lindsey Lou
She told me she loved me but I know it ain't true
Put on your Madison shoes
Put on your Madison blue shoes
I got the Madison blues
Now put on your Madison blue shoes
Ah you cats talking about your Madison shoes
We do the thing we call the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues baby
Rock away your blues
Ah you babes talk about your Madison shoes
We got a thing we call the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues baby
Rock away your blues
CD Review
Live, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Capitol, 1990
A couple of years ago when Bo Diddley died I mentioned in a review of his work that many latter musicians, particularly white musicians were influenced by his songs, and covered them like crazy. That is the case with George Thorogood, with or without his Destroyers. Although he is probably best known for his bad boy anthem, “Bad To The Bone” Thorogood cut his teeth on doing covers of Bo, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and the other greats of the blues and early rock and roll. That is how we should measure his work, as an exponent of a certain kind or of rock and R&B.
This album delivers extended versions of his master works including: the afore-mentioned “Bad To The Bone,” the classic Bo Diddley tune “Who Do You Love,” “Madison Blues,” and the classic Hooker song “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer”. This album is close to the best versions technically and will give an idea of what old George and boys could do on a hot night. Yes, indeed.
Blues Lyrics - George Thorogood
Madison Blues
All rights to lyrics included on these pages belong to the artists and authors of the works.
All lyrics, photographs, soundclips and other material on this website may only be used for private study, scholarship or research.
by
Elmore James
recording of 1977
from
George Thorogood & The Destroyers (Rounder CD-3013)
&
Live (EMI E 2-46329)
Ah you babes talk about your Madison shoes
We got a thing we call the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues baby
Rock away your blues
I know a gal her name is Lindsey Lou
She told me she loved me but I know it ain't true
Put on your Madison shoes
Put on your Madison blue shoes
I got the Madison blues
Now put on your Madison blue shoes
Ah you cats talking about your Madison shoes
We do the thing we call the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues baby
Rock away your blues
Ah you babes talk about your Madison shoes
We got a thing we call the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues
We do the Madison blues baby
Rock away your blues
A Larry McMurtry Potpourri
Leaving Las Vegas
The Desert Rose, Larry McMurtry, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1983
The last time, I believe, that it I mentioned Las Vegas in this space was regarding a review of the late Hunter Thompson’s classic “gonzo” piece "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" that used that city as the backdrop for his drug-addled adventures spoofing the rubes. The last time that I mentioned the author of the book under review, Larry McMurtry, was just recently praising his Texas trilogy that was based on his classic 1950’s coming of age tale "The Last Picture Show". In a sense McMurtry tackles the scenes that the drug-rattled Thompson failed to get- a view of those who actually live and work in Vegas 24/7/365. That story has a certain pathos that McMurtry is able to milk. Maybe not in the definitive way that he can milk small-town Texas for a story but he milks it nevertheless.
Hollywood and Las Vegas have stood culturally in America as meccas for generations of young girls from places like Oklahoma and guys from Kansas as places to achieve fame, if only for that proverbial 'fifteen minutes'. That is one of the strands that McMurtry weaved into his tale of the loves, dreams, losses and forfeitures of Las Vegas showgirl extra-ordinaire Harmony and her ill-fated marriage to that Kansas boy, Ross.
This is also a story of generations as the product of the marriage, Pepper, although only a teenager seems destined to avoid most of the mistakes that “mom” made by having more talent - for picking right guys, rejecting bad guys and being a dancing prodigy rather than a mere showgirl. The problem, however, is that for Pepper to rise Harmony must fall. The two cannot share center stage in the casinos or in life. Moreover, in a youth-crazed culture epitomized to the nth degree in Vegas aging “mom” cannot fight the fates, even if she had the capacity to do so. That is the drama that centrally drives this little piece.
Along the way we get to look at the lives and loves of the people who hold Las Vegas together (if not themselves). We get to view lifelong Vegas denizens, the inevitable gay wardrobe guy, assorted talented or talentless showgirls and their trials and tribulations, sundry backstage types who share the dreams of the spotlight. Is this a McMurtry work that you must read? No, I already told you that "Last Picture Show" trilogy is a must read. But if you have a few hours, and want to read about what Thompson missed on his sojourn, then read this little novel.
Portrait Of A Writer As A Young Man
All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers. Larry McMurtry, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1972.
As is usually the case when I get excited about an author’s work I tend to delve into all the work in order to see which way he or she is heading. That is the case here with Larry McMurtry. I have just finished reading his "The Last Picture Show" trilogy ("The Last Picture Show"; "Texasville"; and, "Duane’s Depressed") about coming of age in small town Texas, having one’s mid-life crisis there and, in the end, struggling against the strains of mortality there as well. The cumulative effect of this work was a five-star review. Here we step back to early McMurtry and while the promise is certainly there as well as his quirky look at modern life this is the work of a rising star writer not of a master writer.
Why? Well, for one thing the subject matter. All fictional writing in the final analysis may be autobiographical, consciously or unconsciously, but here the trials and tribulations of a young Texas writer who heads to California to find himself after the budding prominence of the publication of his first book and a movie offer is, well, just a little too precious. Moreover, the inevitable romantic problems of twenty-something males (and, by now in the 2000s, females) has been done to death. Nothing really jumps out here other than some cogent observations about the foibles of human nature as strained through the California mill. My advice to Danny, the protagonist writer here is –Go east, young man, go east back to Texas. That’s where your pot of gold is. Do you need to read this book? If you have time. Do you need to read "The Last Picture Show" trilogy. Damn right. That’s the different in a nutshell.
The Desert Rose, Larry McMurtry, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1983
The last time, I believe, that it I mentioned Las Vegas in this space was regarding a review of the late Hunter Thompson’s classic “gonzo” piece "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" that used that city as the backdrop for his drug-addled adventures spoofing the rubes. The last time that I mentioned the author of the book under review, Larry McMurtry, was just recently praising his Texas trilogy that was based on his classic 1950’s coming of age tale "The Last Picture Show". In a sense McMurtry tackles the scenes that the drug-rattled Thompson failed to get- a view of those who actually live and work in Vegas 24/7/365. That story has a certain pathos that McMurtry is able to milk. Maybe not in the definitive way that he can milk small-town Texas for a story but he milks it nevertheless.
Hollywood and Las Vegas have stood culturally in America as meccas for generations of young girls from places like Oklahoma and guys from Kansas as places to achieve fame, if only for that proverbial 'fifteen minutes'. That is one of the strands that McMurtry weaved into his tale of the loves, dreams, losses and forfeitures of Las Vegas showgirl extra-ordinaire Harmony and her ill-fated marriage to that Kansas boy, Ross.
This is also a story of generations as the product of the marriage, Pepper, although only a teenager seems destined to avoid most of the mistakes that “mom” made by having more talent - for picking right guys, rejecting bad guys and being a dancing prodigy rather than a mere showgirl. The problem, however, is that for Pepper to rise Harmony must fall. The two cannot share center stage in the casinos or in life. Moreover, in a youth-crazed culture epitomized to the nth degree in Vegas aging “mom” cannot fight the fates, even if she had the capacity to do so. That is the drama that centrally drives this little piece.
Along the way we get to look at the lives and loves of the people who hold Las Vegas together (if not themselves). We get to view lifelong Vegas denizens, the inevitable gay wardrobe guy, assorted talented or talentless showgirls and their trials and tribulations, sundry backstage types who share the dreams of the spotlight. Is this a McMurtry work that you must read? No, I already told you that "Last Picture Show" trilogy is a must read. But if you have a few hours, and want to read about what Thompson missed on his sojourn, then read this little novel.
Portrait Of A Writer As A Young Man
All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers. Larry McMurtry, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1972.
As is usually the case when I get excited about an author’s work I tend to delve into all the work in order to see which way he or she is heading. That is the case here with Larry McMurtry. I have just finished reading his "The Last Picture Show" trilogy ("The Last Picture Show"; "Texasville"; and, "Duane’s Depressed") about coming of age in small town Texas, having one’s mid-life crisis there and, in the end, struggling against the strains of mortality there as well. The cumulative effect of this work was a five-star review. Here we step back to early McMurtry and while the promise is certainly there as well as his quirky look at modern life this is the work of a rising star writer not of a master writer.
Why? Well, for one thing the subject matter. All fictional writing in the final analysis may be autobiographical, consciously or unconsciously, but here the trials and tribulations of a young Texas writer who heads to California to find himself after the budding prominence of the publication of his first book and a movie offer is, well, just a little too precious. Moreover, the inevitable romantic problems of twenty-something males (and, by now in the 2000s, females) has been done to death. Nothing really jumps out here other than some cogent observations about the foibles of human nature as strained through the California mill. My advice to Danny, the protagonist writer here is –Go east, young man, go east back to Texas. That’s where your pot of gold is. Do you need to read this book? If you have time. Do you need to read "The Last Picture Show" trilogy. Damn right. That’s the different in a nutshell.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
***Poet's Corner- Andrew Marvell's Ode To Oliver Cromwell
Here is Andrew Marvell's famous Ode To Oliver Cromwell. Marvell was a friend of, student of and subsequently succeeded John Milton as Secretary of Foreign Tongues under the Cromwellian Protectorate. I will divide this ode up better when I can find a book copy that does so. Markin.
The First Anniversary Of
the Government under O.C.
by Andrew Marvell
Like the vain Curlings of the Watry maze,
Which in smooth streams a sinking Weight does raise;
So Man, declining alwayes, disappears.
In the Weak Circles of increasing Years;
And his short Tumults of themselves Compose,
While flowing Time above his Head does close.
Cromwell alone with greater Vigour runs,
(Sun-like) the Stages of succeeding Suns:
And still the Day which he doth next restore,
Is the just Wonder of the Day before.
Cromwell alone doth with new Lustre spring,
And shines the Jewel of the yearly Ring.
'Tis he the force of scatter'd Time contracts,
And in one Year the Work of Ages acts:
While heavy Monarchs make a wide Return,
Longer, and more Malignant then Saturn:
And though they all Platonique years should raign,
In the same Posture would be found again.
Their earthly Projects under ground they lay,
More slow and brittle then the China clay:
Well may they strive to leave them to their Son,
For one Thing never was by one King don.
Yet some more active for a Frontier Town
Took in by Proxie, beggs a false Renown;
Another triumphs at the publick Cost,
And will have Wonn, if he no more have Lost;
They fight by Others, but in Person wrong,
And only are against their Subjects strong;
Their other Wars seem but a feign'd contest,
This Common Enemy is still opprest;
If Conquerors, on them they turn their might;
If Conquered, on them they wreak their Spight:
They neither build the Temple in their dayes,
Nor Matter for succeeding Founders raise;
Nor Sacred Prophecies consult within,
Much less themselves to perfect them begin,
No other care they bear of things above,
But with Astrologers divine, and Jove,
To know how long their Planet yet Reprives
From the deserved Fate their guilty lives:
Thus (Image-like) and useless time they tell,
And with vain Scepter strike the hourly Bell;
Nor more contribute to the state of Things,
Then wooden Heads unto the Viols strings,
While indefatigable Cromwell hyes,
And cuts his way still nearer to the Skyes,
Learning a Musique in the Region clear,
To tune this lower to that higher Sphere.
So when Amphion did the Lute command,
Which the God gave him, with his gentle hand,
The rougher Stones, unto his Measures hew'd,
Dans'd up in order from the Quarreys rude;
This took a Lower, that an Higher place,
As he the Treble alter'd, or the Base:
No Note he struck, but a new Story lay'd,
And the great Work ascended while he play'd.
The listning Structures he with Wonder ey'd,
And still new Stopps to various Time apply'd:
Now through the Strings a Martial rage he throws,
And joyng streight the Theban Tow'r arose;
Then as he strokes them with a Touch more sweet,
The flocking Marbles in a Palace meet;
But, for he most the graver Notes did try,
Therefore the Temples rear'd their Columns high:
Thus, ere he ceas'd, his sacred Lute creates
Th'harmonious City of the seven Gates.
Such was that wondrous Order and Consent,
When Cromwell tun'd the ruling Instrument;
While tedious Statesmen many years did hack,
Framing a Liberty that still went back;
Whose num'rous Gorge could swallow in an hour
That Island, which the Sea cannot devour:
Then our Amphion issues out and sings,
And once he struck, and twice, the pow'rful Strings.
The Commonwealth then first together came,
And each one enter'd in the willing Frame;
All other Matter yields, and may be rul'd;
But who the Minds of stubborn Men can build?
No Quarry bears a Stone so hardly wrought,
Nor with such labour from its Center brought;
None to be sunk in the Foundation bends,
Each in the House the highest Place contends,
And each the Hand that lays him will direct,
And some fall back upon the Architect;
Yet all compos'd by his attractive Song,
Into the Animated City throng.
The Common-wealth does through their Centers all
Draw the Circumf'rence of the publique Wall;
The crossest Spirits here do take their part,
Fast'ning the Contignation which they thwart;
And they, whose Nature leads them to divide,
Uphold, this one, and that the other Side;
But the most Equal still sustein the Height,
And they as Pillars keep the Work upright;
While the resistance of opposed Minds,
The Fabrick as with Arches stronger binds,
Which on the Basis of a Senate free,
Knit by the Roofs Protecting weight agree.
When for his Foot he thus a place had found,
He hurles e'r since the World about him round,
And in his sev'ral Aspects, like a Star,
Here shines in Peace, and thither shoots a War.
While by his Beams observing Princes steer,
And wisely court the Influence they fear,
O would they rather by his Pattern won.
Kiss the approaching, nor yet angry Son;
And in their numbred Footsteps humbly tread
The path where holy Oracles do lead;
How might they under such a Captain raise
The great Designs kept for the latter Dayes!
But mad with reason, so miscall'd, of State
They know them not, and what they know not, hate
Hence still they sing Hosanna to the Whore,
And her whom they should Massacre adore:
But Indians whom they should convert, subdue;
Nor teach, but traffique with, or burn the Jew.
Unhappy Princes, ignorantly bred,
By Malice some, by Errour more misled;
If gracious Heaven to my Life give length,
Leisure to Times, and to my Weakness Strength,
Then shall I once with graver Accents shake
Your Regal sloth, and your long Slumbers wake:
Like the shrill Huntsman that prevents the East,
Winding his Horn to Kings that chase the Beast.
Till then my Muse shall hollow far behind
Angelique Cromwell who outwings the wind;
And in dark Nights, and in cold Dayes alone
Pursues the Monster thorough every Throne:
Which shrinking to her Roman Den impure,
Gnashes her Goary teeth; nor there secure.
Hence oft I think, if in some happy Hour
High Grace should meet in one with highest Pow'r,
And then a seasonable People still
Should bend to his, as he to Heavens will,
What we might hope, what wonderful Effect
From such a wish'd Conjuncture might reflect.
Sure, the mysterious Work, where none withstand,
Would forthwith finish under such a Hand:
Fore-shortned Time its useless Course would stay,
And soon precipitate the latest Day.
But a thick Cloud about that Morning lyes,
And intercepts the Beams of Mortal eyes,
That 'tis the most which we deteremine can,
If these the Times, then this must be the Man.
And well he therefore does, and well has guest,
Who in his Age has always forward prest:
And knowing not where Heavens choice may light,
Girds yet his Sword, and ready stands to fight;
But Men alas, as if they nothing car'd,
Look on, all unconcern'd, or unprepar'd;
And Stars still fall, and still the Dragons Tail
Swinges the Volumes of its horrid Flail.
For the great Justice that did first suspend
The World by Sin, does by the same extend.
Hence that blest Day still counterpoysed wastes,
The ill delaying, what th'Elected hastes;
Hence landing Nature to new Seas it tost,
And good Designes still with their Authors lost.
And thou, great Cromwell, for whose happy birth
A Mold was chosen out of better Earth;
Whose Saint-like Mother we did lately see
Live out an Age, long as a Pedigree;
That she might seem, could we the Fall dispute,
T'have smelt the Blossome, and not eat the Fruit;
Though none does of more lasting Parents grow,
But never any did them Honor so;
Though thou thine Heart from Evil still unstain'd,
And always hast thy Tongue from fraud refrain'd,
Thou, who so oft through Storms of thundring Lead
Hast born securely thine undaunted Head,
Thy Brest through ponyarding Conspiracies,
Drawn from the Sheath of lying Prophecies;
Thee proof beyond all other Force or Skill,
Our Sins endanger, and shall one day kill.
How near they fail'd, and in thy sudden Fall
At once assay'd to overturn us all.
Our brutish fury strugling to be Free,
Hurry'd thy Horses while they hurry'd thee.
When thou hadst almost quit thy Mortal cares,
And soyl'd in Dust thy Crown of silver Hairs.
Let this one Sorrow interweave among
The other Glories of our yearly Song.
Like skilful Looms which through the costly threed
Of purling Ore, a shining wave do shed:
So shall the Tears we on past Grief employ,
Still as they trickle, glitter in our Joy.
So with more Modesty we may be True,
And speak as of the Dead the Praises due:
While impious Men deceiv'd with pleasure short,
On their own Hopes shall find the Fall retort.
But the poor Beasts wanting their noble Guide,
What could they move? shrunk guiltily aside.
First winged Fear transports them far away,
And leaden Sorrow then their flight did stay.
See how they each his towring Crest abate,
And the green Grass, and their known Mangers hate,
Nor through wide Nostrils snuffe the wanton air,
Nor their round Hoofs, or curled Mane'scompare;
With wandring Eyes, and restless Ears theystood,
And with shrill Neighings ask'd him of the Wood.
Thou Cromwell falling, not a stupid Tree,
Or Rock so savage, but it mourn'd for thee:
And all about was heard a Panique groan,
As if that Natures self were overthrown.
It seem'd the Earth did from the Center tear;
It seem'd the Sun was faln out of the Sphere:
Justice obstructed lay, and Reason fool'd;
Courage disheartned, and Religion cool'd.
A dismal Silence through the Palace went,
And then loud Shreeks the vaulted Marbles rent.
Such as the dying Chorus sings by turns,
And to deaf Seas, and ruthless Tempests mourns,
When now they sink, and now the plundring Streams
Break up each Deck, and rip the Oaken seams.
But thee triumphant hence the firy Carr,
And firy Steeds had born out of the Warr,
From the low World, and thankless Men above,
Unto the Kingdom blest of Peace and Love:
We only mourn'd our selves, in thine Ascent,
Whom thou hadst lest beneath with Mantle rent.
For all delight of Life thou then didst lose,
When to Command, thou didst thy self Depose;
Resigning up thy Privacy so dear,
To turn the headstrong Peoples Charioteer;
For to be Cromwell was a greater thing,
Then ought below, or yet above a King:
Therefore thou rather didst thy Self depress,
Yielding to Rule, because it made thee Less.
For, neither didst thou from the first apply
Thy sober Spirit unto things too High,
But in thine own Fields exercisedst long,
An Healthful Mind within a Body strong;
Till at the Seventh time thou in the Skyes,
As a small Cloud, like a Mans hand didst rise;
Then did thick Mists and Winds the air deform,
And down at last thou pow'rdst the fertile Storm;
Which to the thirsty Land did plenty bring,
But though forewarn'd, o'r-took and wet the King.
What since he did, an higher Force him push'd
Still from behind, and it before him rush'd,
Though undiscern'd among the tumult blind,
Who think those high Decrees by Man design'd.
'Twas Heav'n would not that his Pow'r should cease,
But walk still middle betwixt War and Peace;
Choosing each Stone, and poysing every weight,
Trying the Measures of the Bredth and Height;
Here pulling down, and there erecting New,
Founding a firm State by Proportions true.
When Gideon so did from the War retreat,
Yet by Conquest of two Kings grown great,
He on the Peace extends a Warlike power,
And Is'rel silent saw him rase the Tow'r;
And how he Succoths Elders durst suppress,
With Thorns and Briars of the Wilderness.
No King might ever such a Force have done;
Yet would not he be Lord, nor yet his Son.
Thou with the same strength, and an Heart as plain,
Didst (like thine Olive) still refuse to Reign;
Though why should others all thy Labor spoil,
And Brambles be anointed with thine Oyl,
Whose climbing Flame, without a timely stop,
Had quickly Levell'd every Cedar's top.
Therefore first growing to thy self a Law,
Th'ambitious Shrubs thou in just time didst aw.
So have I seen at Sea, when whirling Winds,
Hurry the Bark, but more the Seamens minds,
Who with mistaken Course salute the Sand,
And threat'ning Rocks misapprehend for Land;
While balefull Tritons to the shipwrack guide,
And Corposants along the Tacklings slide.
The Passengers all wearyed out before,
Giddy, and wishing for the fatall Shore;
Some lusty Mate, who with more carefull Ey
Counted the Hours, and ev'ry Star did spy,
The Helm does from the artless Steersman strain,
And doubles back unto the safer Main.
What though a while they grumble discontent,
Saving himself he does their loss prevent.
'Tis not a Freedome, that where All command;
Nor Tyranniey, where One does them withstand:
But who of both the Bounders knows to lay
Him as their Father must the State obey.
Thou, and thine House, like Noahs Eight did rest,
Left by the Warrs Flood on the Mountains crest:
And the large Vale lay subject to thy Will,
Which thou but as an Husbandman wouldst Till:
And only didst for others plant the Vine
Of Liberty, not drunken with its Wine.
That sober Liberty which men may have,
That they enjoy, but more they vainly crave:
And such as to their Parents Tents do press,
May shew their own, not see his Nakedness.
Yet such a Chammish issue still does rage,
The Shame and Plague both of the Land and Age,
Who watch'd thy halting, and thy Fall deride,
Rejoycing when thy Foot had slipt aside;
That their new King might the fifth Scepter shake,
And make the World, by his Example, Quake:
Whose frantique Army should they want for Men
Might muster Heresies, so one were ten.
What thy Misfortune, they the Spirit call,
And their Religion only is to Fall.
Oh Mahomet! now couldst thou rise again,
Thy Falling sicknes should have made thee Reign,
While Feake and Simpson would in many a Tome,
Have writ the Comments of thy sacred Foame:
For soon thou mightst have past among their Rant
Wer't but for thine unmoved Tulipant;
As thou must needs have own'd them of thy band
For Prophecies fit to be Alcorand.
Accursed Locusts, whom your King does spit
Out of the Center of th' unbottom'd Pit;
Wand'rers, Adult'rers, Lyers, Munser's rest,
Sorcerers, Atheists, Jesuites, Possest;
You who the Scriptures and the Laws deface
With the same liberty as Points and Lace;
Oh Race most hypocritically strict!
Bent to reduce us to the ancient Pict;
Well may you act the Adam and the Eve;
Ay, and the Serpent too that did deceive.
But the great Captain, now the danger's ore,
Makes you for his sake Tremble one fit more;
And, to your spight, returning yet alive
Does with himself all that is good revive.
So when first Man did through the Morning new
See the bright Sun his shining Race pursue,
All day he follow'd with unwearied sight,
Pleas'd with that other World of moving Light;
But thought him when he miss'd his setting beams,
Sunk in the Hills, or plung'd below the Streams.
While dismal blacks hung round the Universe,
And Stars (like Tapers) burn'd upon his Herse:
And Owls and Ravens with their screeching noyse
Did make the Fun'rals sadder by their Joyes.
His weeping Eys the dolefull Vigils keep,
Not knowing yet the Night was made for sleep:
Still to the West, where he him lost, he turn'd,
And with such accents, as Despairing, mourn'd:
Why did mine Eyes once see so bright a Ray;
Or why Day last no longer than a Day?
When streight the Sun behind him he descry'd,
Smiling serenely from the further side.
So while our Star that gives us Light and Heat,
Seem'd now a long and gloomy Night to threat,
Up from the other World his Flame he darts,
And Princes, shining through their windows, starts;
Who their suspected Counsellors refuse,
And credulous Ambassadors accuse.
“Is this,” saith one, “the Nation that we read
Spent with both Wars, under a Captain dead?
Yet rig a Navy while we dress us late;
And ere we Dine, rase and rebuild our State.
What Oaken Forrests, and what golden Mines!
What Mints of Men, what Union of Designes!
Unless their Ships, do, as their Fowle proceed
Of shedding Leaves, that with their Ocean breed.
Theirs are not Ships, but rather Arks of War,
And beaked Promontories sail'd from farr;
Of floting Islands a new Hatched Nest;
A Fleet of Worlds, of other Worlds in quest;
An hideous shole of wood-Leviathans,
Arm'd with three Tire of brazen Hurricans;
That through the Center shoot their thundring side
And sink the Earth that does at Anchor ride.
What refuge to escape them can be found,
Whose watry Leaguers all the world surround?
Needs must we all their Tributaries be,
Whose Navies hold the Sluces of the Sea.
The Ocean is the Fountain of Command,
But that once took, we Captives are on Land:
And those that have the Waters for their share,
Can quickly leave us neither Earth nor Air.
Yet if through these our Fears could find a pass;
Through double Oak, & lin'd with treble Brass;
That one Man still, although but nam'd, alarms
More then all Men, all Navies, and all Arms.
Him, all the Day, Him, in late Nights I dread,
And still his Sword seems hanging o're my head.
The Nation had been ours, but his one Soul
Moves the great Bulk, and animates the whole.
He Secrecy with Number hath inchas'd,
Courage with Age, Maturity with Hast:
The Valiants Terror, Riddle of the Wise;
And still his Fauchion all our Knots unties.
Where did he learn those Arts that cost us dear?
Where below Earth, or where above the Sphere?
He seems a King by long Succession born,
And yet the same to be a King does scorn.
Abroad a King he seems, and something more,
At Home a Subject on the equal Floor.
O could I once him with our Title see,
So should I hope yet he might Dye as wee.
But let them write his Praise that love him best,
It grieves me sore to have thus much confest.”
Pardon, great Prince, if thus their Fear or Spight
More then our Love and Duty do thee Right.
I yield, nor further will the Prize contend;
So that we both alike may miss our End:
While thou thy venerable Head dost raise
As far above their Malice as my Praise.
And as the Angel of our Commonweal,
Troubling the Waters, yearly mak'st them Heal.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source:
Marvell, Andrew. The Complete Poems.
George deF. Lord, Ed.
London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1984. 93-104.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
to Andrew Marvell
Site copyright ©1996-2007 Anniina Jokinen. All Rights Reserved.
Created by Anniina Jokinen on July 25, 2000. Last updated on September 10, 2006.
The First Anniversary Of
the Government under O.C.
by Andrew Marvell
Like the vain Curlings of the Watry maze,
Which in smooth streams a sinking Weight does raise;
So Man, declining alwayes, disappears.
In the Weak Circles of increasing Years;
And his short Tumults of themselves Compose,
While flowing Time above his Head does close.
Cromwell alone with greater Vigour runs,
(Sun-like) the Stages of succeeding Suns:
And still the Day which he doth next restore,
Is the just Wonder of the Day before.
Cromwell alone doth with new Lustre spring,
And shines the Jewel of the yearly Ring.
'Tis he the force of scatter'd Time contracts,
And in one Year the Work of Ages acts:
While heavy Monarchs make a wide Return,
Longer, and more Malignant then Saturn:
And though they all Platonique years should raign,
In the same Posture would be found again.
Their earthly Projects under ground they lay,
More slow and brittle then the China clay:
Well may they strive to leave them to their Son,
For one Thing never was by one King don.
Yet some more active for a Frontier Town
Took in by Proxie, beggs a false Renown;
Another triumphs at the publick Cost,
And will have Wonn, if he no more have Lost;
They fight by Others, but in Person wrong,
And only are against their Subjects strong;
Their other Wars seem but a feign'd contest,
This Common Enemy is still opprest;
If Conquerors, on them they turn their might;
If Conquered, on them they wreak their Spight:
They neither build the Temple in their dayes,
Nor Matter for succeeding Founders raise;
Nor Sacred Prophecies consult within,
Much less themselves to perfect them begin,
No other care they bear of things above,
But with Astrologers divine, and Jove,
To know how long their Planet yet Reprives
From the deserved Fate their guilty lives:
Thus (Image-like) and useless time they tell,
And with vain Scepter strike the hourly Bell;
Nor more contribute to the state of Things,
Then wooden Heads unto the Viols strings,
While indefatigable Cromwell hyes,
And cuts his way still nearer to the Skyes,
Learning a Musique in the Region clear,
To tune this lower to that higher Sphere.
So when Amphion did the Lute command,
Which the God gave him, with his gentle hand,
The rougher Stones, unto his Measures hew'd,
Dans'd up in order from the Quarreys rude;
This took a Lower, that an Higher place,
As he the Treble alter'd, or the Base:
No Note he struck, but a new Story lay'd,
And the great Work ascended while he play'd.
The listning Structures he with Wonder ey'd,
And still new Stopps to various Time apply'd:
Now through the Strings a Martial rage he throws,
And joyng streight the Theban Tow'r arose;
Then as he strokes them with a Touch more sweet,
The flocking Marbles in a Palace meet;
But, for he most the graver Notes did try,
Therefore the Temples rear'd their Columns high:
Thus, ere he ceas'd, his sacred Lute creates
Th'harmonious City of the seven Gates.
Such was that wondrous Order and Consent,
When Cromwell tun'd the ruling Instrument;
While tedious Statesmen many years did hack,
Framing a Liberty that still went back;
Whose num'rous Gorge could swallow in an hour
That Island, which the Sea cannot devour:
Then our Amphion issues out and sings,
And once he struck, and twice, the pow'rful Strings.
The Commonwealth then first together came,
And each one enter'd in the willing Frame;
All other Matter yields, and may be rul'd;
But who the Minds of stubborn Men can build?
No Quarry bears a Stone so hardly wrought,
Nor with such labour from its Center brought;
None to be sunk in the Foundation bends,
Each in the House the highest Place contends,
And each the Hand that lays him will direct,
And some fall back upon the Architect;
Yet all compos'd by his attractive Song,
Into the Animated City throng.
The Common-wealth does through their Centers all
Draw the Circumf'rence of the publique Wall;
The crossest Spirits here do take their part,
Fast'ning the Contignation which they thwart;
And they, whose Nature leads them to divide,
Uphold, this one, and that the other Side;
But the most Equal still sustein the Height,
And they as Pillars keep the Work upright;
While the resistance of opposed Minds,
The Fabrick as with Arches stronger binds,
Which on the Basis of a Senate free,
Knit by the Roofs Protecting weight agree.
When for his Foot he thus a place had found,
He hurles e'r since the World about him round,
And in his sev'ral Aspects, like a Star,
Here shines in Peace, and thither shoots a War.
While by his Beams observing Princes steer,
And wisely court the Influence they fear,
O would they rather by his Pattern won.
Kiss the approaching, nor yet angry Son;
And in their numbred Footsteps humbly tread
The path where holy Oracles do lead;
How might they under such a Captain raise
The great Designs kept for the latter Dayes!
But mad with reason, so miscall'd, of State
They know them not, and what they know not, hate
Hence still they sing Hosanna to the Whore,
And her whom they should Massacre adore:
But Indians whom they should convert, subdue;
Nor teach, but traffique with, or burn the Jew.
Unhappy Princes, ignorantly bred,
By Malice some, by Errour more misled;
If gracious Heaven to my Life give length,
Leisure to Times, and to my Weakness Strength,
Then shall I once with graver Accents shake
Your Regal sloth, and your long Slumbers wake:
Like the shrill Huntsman that prevents the East,
Winding his Horn to Kings that chase the Beast.
Till then my Muse shall hollow far behind
Angelique Cromwell who outwings the wind;
And in dark Nights, and in cold Dayes alone
Pursues the Monster thorough every Throne:
Which shrinking to her Roman Den impure,
Gnashes her Goary teeth; nor there secure.
Hence oft I think, if in some happy Hour
High Grace should meet in one with highest Pow'r,
And then a seasonable People still
Should bend to his, as he to Heavens will,
What we might hope, what wonderful Effect
From such a wish'd Conjuncture might reflect.
Sure, the mysterious Work, where none withstand,
Would forthwith finish under such a Hand:
Fore-shortned Time its useless Course would stay,
And soon precipitate the latest Day.
But a thick Cloud about that Morning lyes,
And intercepts the Beams of Mortal eyes,
That 'tis the most which we deteremine can,
If these the Times, then this must be the Man.
And well he therefore does, and well has guest,
Who in his Age has always forward prest:
And knowing not where Heavens choice may light,
Girds yet his Sword, and ready stands to fight;
But Men alas, as if they nothing car'd,
Look on, all unconcern'd, or unprepar'd;
And Stars still fall, and still the Dragons Tail
Swinges the Volumes of its horrid Flail.
For the great Justice that did first suspend
The World by Sin, does by the same extend.
Hence that blest Day still counterpoysed wastes,
The ill delaying, what th'Elected hastes;
Hence landing Nature to new Seas it tost,
And good Designes still with their Authors lost.
And thou, great Cromwell, for whose happy birth
A Mold was chosen out of better Earth;
Whose Saint-like Mother we did lately see
Live out an Age, long as a Pedigree;
That she might seem, could we the Fall dispute,
T'have smelt the Blossome, and not eat the Fruit;
Though none does of more lasting Parents grow,
But never any did them Honor so;
Though thou thine Heart from Evil still unstain'd,
And always hast thy Tongue from fraud refrain'd,
Thou, who so oft through Storms of thundring Lead
Hast born securely thine undaunted Head,
Thy Brest through ponyarding Conspiracies,
Drawn from the Sheath of lying Prophecies;
Thee proof beyond all other Force or Skill,
Our Sins endanger, and shall one day kill.
How near they fail'd, and in thy sudden Fall
At once assay'd to overturn us all.
Our brutish fury strugling to be Free,
Hurry'd thy Horses while they hurry'd thee.
When thou hadst almost quit thy Mortal cares,
And soyl'd in Dust thy Crown of silver Hairs.
Let this one Sorrow interweave among
The other Glories of our yearly Song.
Like skilful Looms which through the costly threed
Of purling Ore, a shining wave do shed:
So shall the Tears we on past Grief employ,
Still as they trickle, glitter in our Joy.
So with more Modesty we may be True,
And speak as of the Dead the Praises due:
While impious Men deceiv'd with pleasure short,
On their own Hopes shall find the Fall retort.
But the poor Beasts wanting their noble Guide,
What could they move? shrunk guiltily aside.
First winged Fear transports them far away,
And leaden Sorrow then their flight did stay.
See how they each his towring Crest abate,
And the green Grass, and their known Mangers hate,
Nor through wide Nostrils snuffe the wanton air,
Nor their round Hoofs, or curled Mane'scompare;
With wandring Eyes, and restless Ears theystood,
And with shrill Neighings ask'd him of the Wood.
Thou Cromwell falling, not a stupid Tree,
Or Rock so savage, but it mourn'd for thee:
And all about was heard a Panique groan,
As if that Natures self were overthrown.
It seem'd the Earth did from the Center tear;
It seem'd the Sun was faln out of the Sphere:
Justice obstructed lay, and Reason fool'd;
Courage disheartned, and Religion cool'd.
A dismal Silence through the Palace went,
And then loud Shreeks the vaulted Marbles rent.
Such as the dying Chorus sings by turns,
And to deaf Seas, and ruthless Tempests mourns,
When now they sink, and now the plundring Streams
Break up each Deck, and rip the Oaken seams.
But thee triumphant hence the firy Carr,
And firy Steeds had born out of the Warr,
From the low World, and thankless Men above,
Unto the Kingdom blest of Peace and Love:
We only mourn'd our selves, in thine Ascent,
Whom thou hadst lest beneath with Mantle rent.
For all delight of Life thou then didst lose,
When to Command, thou didst thy self Depose;
Resigning up thy Privacy so dear,
To turn the headstrong Peoples Charioteer;
For to be Cromwell was a greater thing,
Then ought below, or yet above a King:
Therefore thou rather didst thy Self depress,
Yielding to Rule, because it made thee Less.
For, neither didst thou from the first apply
Thy sober Spirit unto things too High,
But in thine own Fields exercisedst long,
An Healthful Mind within a Body strong;
Till at the Seventh time thou in the Skyes,
As a small Cloud, like a Mans hand didst rise;
Then did thick Mists and Winds the air deform,
And down at last thou pow'rdst the fertile Storm;
Which to the thirsty Land did plenty bring,
But though forewarn'd, o'r-took and wet the King.
What since he did, an higher Force him push'd
Still from behind, and it before him rush'd,
Though undiscern'd among the tumult blind,
Who think those high Decrees by Man design'd.
'Twas Heav'n would not that his Pow'r should cease,
But walk still middle betwixt War and Peace;
Choosing each Stone, and poysing every weight,
Trying the Measures of the Bredth and Height;
Here pulling down, and there erecting New,
Founding a firm State by Proportions true.
When Gideon so did from the War retreat,
Yet by Conquest of two Kings grown great,
He on the Peace extends a Warlike power,
And Is'rel silent saw him rase the Tow'r;
And how he Succoths Elders durst suppress,
With Thorns and Briars of the Wilderness.
No King might ever such a Force have done;
Yet would not he be Lord, nor yet his Son.
Thou with the same strength, and an Heart as plain,
Didst (like thine Olive) still refuse to Reign;
Though why should others all thy Labor spoil,
And Brambles be anointed with thine Oyl,
Whose climbing Flame, without a timely stop,
Had quickly Levell'd every Cedar's top.
Therefore first growing to thy self a Law,
Th'ambitious Shrubs thou in just time didst aw.
So have I seen at Sea, when whirling Winds,
Hurry the Bark, but more the Seamens minds,
Who with mistaken Course salute the Sand,
And threat'ning Rocks misapprehend for Land;
While balefull Tritons to the shipwrack guide,
And Corposants along the Tacklings slide.
The Passengers all wearyed out before,
Giddy, and wishing for the fatall Shore;
Some lusty Mate, who with more carefull Ey
Counted the Hours, and ev'ry Star did spy,
The Helm does from the artless Steersman strain,
And doubles back unto the safer Main.
What though a while they grumble discontent,
Saving himself he does their loss prevent.
'Tis not a Freedome, that where All command;
Nor Tyranniey, where One does them withstand:
But who of both the Bounders knows to lay
Him as their Father must the State obey.
Thou, and thine House, like Noahs Eight did rest,
Left by the Warrs Flood on the Mountains crest:
And the large Vale lay subject to thy Will,
Which thou but as an Husbandman wouldst Till:
And only didst for others plant the Vine
Of Liberty, not drunken with its Wine.
That sober Liberty which men may have,
That they enjoy, but more they vainly crave:
And such as to their Parents Tents do press,
May shew their own, not see his Nakedness.
Yet such a Chammish issue still does rage,
The Shame and Plague both of the Land and Age,
Who watch'd thy halting, and thy Fall deride,
Rejoycing when thy Foot had slipt aside;
That their new King might the fifth Scepter shake,
And make the World, by his Example, Quake:
Whose frantique Army should they want for Men
Might muster Heresies, so one were ten.
What thy Misfortune, they the Spirit call,
And their Religion only is to Fall.
Oh Mahomet! now couldst thou rise again,
Thy Falling sicknes should have made thee Reign,
While Feake and Simpson would in many a Tome,
Have writ the Comments of thy sacred Foame:
For soon thou mightst have past among their Rant
Wer't but for thine unmoved Tulipant;
As thou must needs have own'd them of thy band
For Prophecies fit to be Alcorand.
Accursed Locusts, whom your King does spit
Out of the Center of th' unbottom'd Pit;
Wand'rers, Adult'rers, Lyers, Munser's rest,
Sorcerers, Atheists, Jesuites, Possest;
You who the Scriptures and the Laws deface
With the same liberty as Points and Lace;
Oh Race most hypocritically strict!
Bent to reduce us to the ancient Pict;
Well may you act the Adam and the Eve;
Ay, and the Serpent too that did deceive.
But the great Captain, now the danger's ore,
Makes you for his sake Tremble one fit more;
And, to your spight, returning yet alive
Does with himself all that is good revive.
So when first Man did through the Morning new
See the bright Sun his shining Race pursue,
All day he follow'd with unwearied sight,
Pleas'd with that other World of moving Light;
But thought him when he miss'd his setting beams,
Sunk in the Hills, or plung'd below the Streams.
While dismal blacks hung round the Universe,
And Stars (like Tapers) burn'd upon his Herse:
And Owls and Ravens with their screeching noyse
Did make the Fun'rals sadder by their Joyes.
His weeping Eys the dolefull Vigils keep,
Not knowing yet the Night was made for sleep:
Still to the West, where he him lost, he turn'd,
And with such accents, as Despairing, mourn'd:
Why did mine Eyes once see so bright a Ray;
Or why Day last no longer than a Day?
When streight the Sun behind him he descry'd,
Smiling serenely from the further side.
So while our Star that gives us Light and Heat,
Seem'd now a long and gloomy Night to threat,
Up from the other World his Flame he darts,
And Princes, shining through their windows, starts;
Who their suspected Counsellors refuse,
And credulous Ambassadors accuse.
“Is this,” saith one, “the Nation that we read
Spent with both Wars, under a Captain dead?
Yet rig a Navy while we dress us late;
And ere we Dine, rase and rebuild our State.
What Oaken Forrests, and what golden Mines!
What Mints of Men, what Union of Designes!
Unless their Ships, do, as their Fowle proceed
Of shedding Leaves, that with their Ocean breed.
Theirs are not Ships, but rather Arks of War,
And beaked Promontories sail'd from farr;
Of floting Islands a new Hatched Nest;
A Fleet of Worlds, of other Worlds in quest;
An hideous shole of wood-Leviathans,
Arm'd with three Tire of brazen Hurricans;
That through the Center shoot their thundring side
And sink the Earth that does at Anchor ride.
What refuge to escape them can be found,
Whose watry Leaguers all the world surround?
Needs must we all their Tributaries be,
Whose Navies hold the Sluces of the Sea.
The Ocean is the Fountain of Command,
But that once took, we Captives are on Land:
And those that have the Waters for their share,
Can quickly leave us neither Earth nor Air.
Yet if through these our Fears could find a pass;
Through double Oak, & lin'd with treble Brass;
That one Man still, although but nam'd, alarms
More then all Men, all Navies, and all Arms.
Him, all the Day, Him, in late Nights I dread,
And still his Sword seems hanging o're my head.
The Nation had been ours, but his one Soul
Moves the great Bulk, and animates the whole.
He Secrecy with Number hath inchas'd,
Courage with Age, Maturity with Hast:
The Valiants Terror, Riddle of the Wise;
And still his Fauchion all our Knots unties.
Where did he learn those Arts that cost us dear?
Where below Earth, or where above the Sphere?
He seems a King by long Succession born,
And yet the same to be a King does scorn.
Abroad a King he seems, and something more,
At Home a Subject on the equal Floor.
O could I once him with our Title see,
So should I hope yet he might Dye as wee.
But let them write his Praise that love him best,
It grieves me sore to have thus much confest.”
Pardon, great Prince, if thus their Fear or Spight
More then our Love and Duty do thee Right.
I yield, nor further will the Prize contend;
So that we both alike may miss our End:
While thou thy venerable Head dost raise
As far above their Malice as my Praise.
And as the Angel of our Commonweal,
Troubling the Waters, yearly mak'st them Heal.
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Source:
Marvell, Andrew. The Complete Poems.
George deF. Lord, Ed.
London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1984. 93-104.
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to Andrew Marvell
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