AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Friday, December 11, 2009

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"The House Carpenter" — Clarence Ashley (1930)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Fatal Flower Garden" — Nelstone's Hawaiians (1930)

Click on the title to link to a presentation by the artist or of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

Remembering the Old Songs:

The Fatal Flower Garden

by Lyle Lofgren

(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, December 1997)

Now that we're having our yearly lesson about Peace On Earth And Good Will To Men, here's a little test: do you believe that the events described in this song ever happened? If you do, you have lots of company. After all, stories like these are why we warn our children not to get into cars with strangers or to accept invitations to visit fatal flower gardens. British versions of this ballad give lots of specifics, allowing scholars (see Child #155) to find the event in written records. The Annals Of Waverly for the year 1255 give the whole story: Hugh, of Lincoln, age nine, is enticed into a Jew's garden, after which he's tortured and crucified to mock Christians (a particularly stupid act in a Christian country like England). They try to hide the body (which makes no sense if it's a mocking act), but it can't be discarded. When buried or thrown in the river, it miraculously reappears. It's thrown in a well, but it floats, and, when brought up, a blind woman touches it and regains her sight. After some torture, the Jews confess, resulting in their execution, along with that of dozens of other (mostly wealthy) Jews throughout England.

Not satisfied with such specifics, Child follows the story back to at least 419 C.E. in Syria, and he cites examples from all the European countries. The stories are usually specific as to the boy's name and age, giving location and date. A similar story set in Spain was the inspiration for Ferdinand and Isabella's creation of the Spanish Inquisition. Given the history of this past sad century, you would not be surprised to find that the story has wide currency in Germany, Poland, and Russia.

The best way to learn this song is to buy a copy of Smithsonian-Folkways reissue of the monumental Folkways Anthology Of American Folk Music. Besides eighty-three other fabulous pieces, you'll get this version performed by a southern Alabama duet called Nelstone's Hawaiians. The tune seems to ask for modern (for the 1920s) techniques, like the smooth singing harmony and slide Hawaiian (Dobro) guitar (tuned DGBGBD) used on the recording. I like to add the lush chords of an autoharp, but ordinary guitars work fine, also.

When our children were pre-teens, we'd sing them songs on long drives to alleviate boredom. They repeatedly requested this one. I'm not sure why - maybe it was the ritual nature of the boy's instructions at the end, or maybe it was the finger rings. We were careful to point out that it was fiction, and they have not grown up to be Gypsyphobics. Still, this is a difficult song, because we find it so easy to believe that, as Sartre put it, "Evil is the other." Instilling fear of evil therefore involves fear of the outsider. But fear is as corrosive as hate, and although we warn our children about strangers, family members commit almost all child murders. How do you warn about that?

Complete Lyrics:
It rained, it poured, it rained so hard,
It rained so hard all day,
That all the boys in our school
Came out to toss and play.

They tossed a ball again so high,
Then again, so low;
They tossed it into a flower garden
Where no-one was allowed to go.

Up stepped a gypsy lady,
All dressed in yellow and green;
"Come in, come in, my pretty little boy,
And get your ball again."

"I can't come in, I shan't come in
Without my playmates all;
I'll go to my father and tell him about it,
That'll cause tears to fall."

She first showed him an apple seed,
Then again gold rings,
Then she showed him a diamond,
That enticed him in.

She took him by his lily-white hand,
She led him through the hall;
She put him in an upper room,
Where no-one could hear him call.

"Oh, take these finger rings off my finger,
Smoke them with your breath;
If any of my friends should call for me,
Tell them that I'm at rest."

"Bury the bible at my head,
A testament at my feet;
If my dear mother should call for me,
Tell her that I'm asleep."

"Bury the bible at my feet,
A testament at my head;
If my dear father should call for me,
Tell him that I am dead."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bibliography
This is one of the most popular of the old ballads. There are fully 21 texts in the Child collection, where it is piece #155. Bronson reports the amazing total of 66 tunes. It has been reported throughout England, in parts of Scotland, in Ireland, in the Canadian Maritimes, and in all parts of the U.S. east of the Mississippi (though rarely if ever west of it). American versions are reported by, among others, Randolph (#25), Eddy (#20), Flanders/Olney, (pp. 30-32, Little Harry Huston), McNeil (pp. 147-149, Sonny Hugh), and Sharp (assorted versions).

We might add that the account in the Annals of Waverly is almost universally held to be unhistorical. This tale probably does not arise from actual events, but from fear of outsiders. For example, in many versions the child-stealer is a Gypsy -- but there is not one verified instance of child-stealing by Gypsies.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man" — The Carter Family (1930)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Charles Guiteau" — Kelly Harrell (1927)

Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

Remembering the Old Songs:

Charles Guiteau

by Bob Waltz
(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, July 1997)

Writing this column reminds me a lot of the story of the mule that starved to death between two bales of hay. Or, in this case, over a thousand bales of hay. Because that's how many traditional Appalachian songs are known to us.

The riches of Appalachian music are so vast that there's no rational way to pick and choose subjects for this column. So I use irrational ways. In this case, combining my song from two months ago with Lyle's from last month, and then fouling up.

Two months ago I did a song inspired by Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Last month, Lyle did a song about the death of a Civil War soldier. So this month, I thought I'd do a song from Lunsford about the death of a Civil War soldier (even if it happened fifteen years after the war). Only problem is, I can't figure out how to play the song ("Mister Garfield") on guitar. It's a banjo song, and on banjo it will stay.

So I turned to the "other" Garfield song, "Charles Guiteau" (which turns out also to have been sung by Lunsford).

James A. Garfield was the third consecutive Union general to become President after the Civil War. Elected in 1880, he had been in office for less than four months when he was shot on July 2, 1881. After nearly three months of agony, he died on September 19, 1881.

The murderer was Charles Guiteau, who believed he had been promised a patronage job in the Garfield administration. When the job failed to materialize, Guiteau shot Garfield. He was executed on June 30, 1882.

It is ironic that Garfield, who was an obscure president, had two smashing songs written about his murder. One, the aforementioned song/recitation "Mister Garfield," was specific to the tragedy. "Charles Guiteau," however, is a "touch-up"; the unknown author simply took the earlier ballad "James A. Rogers" (executed in New York in 1858) and "zipped in" the details of the Garfield case. This is no surprise; the same tune carried at least two other murder/confession ballads, "John T. Williams" and "Ewing Brooks."

The song is item E11 in the Laws ballad collection, and Laws lists sixteen versions with references to more. The song has been found in almost every region east of the Mississippi, and several to the west.

The earliest recording seems to be that of Kelly Harrell, made in 1927. I've transcribed that version here, but use the version in my head for the tablature. I'm not sure if the minor variations in the words are just me folk processing the song, or if I've heard another version somewhere.

As you can probably tell, the verse and the chorus use the same tune. Harrell (who recorded the piece with Alfred Steagall on guitar, R. D. Hundley on banjo, and Posey Rorer on fiddle) does not sing the chorus until after the second verse, but many versions sing it after every verse, or even to open the song. These versions are also, perhaps, a bit more coherent. But this one generally suits me.

Complete Lyrics:

Come all you tender Christians
Wherever you may be
And likewise pay attention
To these few lines from me.
I was down at the depot
To make my getaway
And Providence being against me,
It proved to be too late.

I tried to play off insane
But found it would not do;
The people all against me,
It proved to make no show.
Judge Cox he passed the sentence,
The clerk he wrote it down,
On the thirtieth day of June
To die I was condemned.

Chorus:
My name is Charles Guiteau,
My name I'll never deny,
To leave my aged parents
To sorrow and to die.
But little did I think
While in my youthful bloom
I'd be carried to the scaffold
To meet my fatal doom.

My sister came in prison
To bid her last farewell.
She threw her arms around me;
She wept most bitterly.
She said, "My loving brother,
Today you must die
For the murder of James A. Garfield
Upon the scaffold high."

And now I mount the scaffold
To bid you all adieu,
The hangman now is waiting,
It's a quarter after two.
The black cap is o'er my face,
No longer can I see,
But when I'm dead and buried,
Dear Lord, remember me.

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Bandit Cole Younger" — Edward L. Crain (1930)

Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

Remembering The Old Songs:

BANDIT COLE YOUNGER [Laws E3]

by Lyle Lofgren
(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, September 2007)

The Kansas-Missouri border, the subject of a number of free state vs. slave state compromises that postponed the US Civil War, was a trouble spot even before the war: Kansas was nominally a free state, while Missouri allowed slavery. When Union troops invaded Missouri in 1861, they had to contend with both Confederate troops and a number of guerilla bands, including one formed by William Quantrill. Two of the members of his band were Jesse James's older brother, Frank, and Cole Younger, the son of a slaveholding family. In addition to ambushing Union troops, Quantrill's Raiders terrorized civilians, such as the 1863 massacre of 200 unarmed men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.

In his 1865 second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln visualized an American future "with malice toward none, with charity for all." It didn't turn out that way. As losers (1865), the South endured a number of humiliations and indignities from the North, and some of the rebels wouldn't quit: after Quantrill was killed, his Raiders continued to harass border states under two other leaders (both also killed) until Frank and Jesse, along with the Younger Brothers (Cole, Jim and Bob), modified their tactics to form the James-Younger gang in 1866. It was successful because it concentrated on two rich entities that common folk perceived as Northern enemies: railroads and banks. They gained a Robin Hood reputation by robbing numerous banks; they didn't rob a train until 1873.

In September, 1876, 8 members of the gang took a train to St. Paul, Minnesota, rented horses, and set out to rob the Northfield bank. They chose it because two retired Union generals, Butler and Ames, owned stock in the bank. The robbery was a fiasco: they killed the cashier, but got no money. Citizens opened fire and killed two of the robbers outside the bank. A large posse trailed the rest, catching the Youngers at Madelia, Minnesota. The James brothers escaped and headed back to Missouri.

The Youngers pled guilty in order to avoid hanging, and were sentenced to life at the state penitentiary at Stillwater. Bob died of TB in 1889 (Jesse had been killed in 1882), while Cole and Jim were paroled in 1901. Jim killed himself a year later, but Cole partnered with Frank James in 1903 to tour as the Cole Younger & Frank James Wild West Company, demonstrating their raids and giving lectures on how crime doesn't pay. Frank died in 1915, and Cole, aged 72, died a year later.

This song is obviously not Cole's composition (although he was a model prisoner), and was probably a poem written for a northern newspaper before 1882, as it says Jesse was still alive. John Lomax collected a version for his 1910 Cowboy Songs. This somewhat different rendition was recorded by Texas cowboy singer Edward L. Crain in 1931, and re-released on the Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music. Dock Boggs recorded a fragmentary version using the Roving Gambler tune (Dock Boggs, The Folkways Years; Smithsonian-Folkways SFW40108), so when in 1965 he performed at St. Olaf College in Northfield, he was visibly excited when he learned you could still see the bullet holes in the wall of the old bank building. We went there after the concert and took a picture of him in front of it as a tribute to tradition and those interested enough to keep it alive.

[CLICK HERE FOR SHEET MUSIC (pdf file)]

Complete Lyrics:
I am a noted highwayman, Cole Younger is my name;
'Tis deeds and desperation that brought my name to shame.

Robbing of the Northfield bank is a thing I'll never deny,
But which I will be sorry of until the day I die.

We started for old Texas, that grand old Lone Star State;
'Twas there on Nebraska prairies the James Boys we did meet.

With knives, gun, and revolvers, we all sit down to play
A game of good old poker to pass the time away.

Across Nebraska prairies a Denver train we spy.
I says to Bob, "We'll rob her as she goes rolling by."

We saddled up our horses, northwestward we did go
To the godforsaken country called Minnie-soh-tee-oh.

I had my eye on the Northfield bank when brother Bob did say,
"Cole, if you under-to-take the job, you'll always curse the day."

We stationed out our pickets, up to the bank did go,
'Twas there upon the counter, boys, we struck our fatal blow.

Saying, "Hand us out your money, sir, and make no long delay.
We are the noted Younger boys, and spend no time in play."

The cashier, being as true as steel, refused our noted band.
'Twas Jesse James that pulled the trigger that killed this noble man.

We run for life, for death was near, four hundred on our trail.
We soon was overtaken and landed safe in jail.

'Twas there in the Stillwater jail we lay, a-wearing our lives away.
Two James boys left to tell the tale of the sad and fateful day.

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"My Name Is John Johanna" — Kelly Harrell (1927)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Ommie Wise" — G. B. Grayson (1929)

Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA

My exploration of Harry Smith’s Anthology “Ommie Wise” by G.B. Grayson

Grayson & Whitter’s World

“Ommie Wise” is a solo performance by Gillian Banmon Grayson (1888-1930), a blind fiddler from East Tennessee who sang this murder ballad along with his fiddle and gaves us one of the most haunting song on the Anthology. This is the only track that Grayson recorded alone during his recording career as a duet with Henry Whitter, a guitar player who was one of the first “hillbilly” to record. Together, they recorded many songs that would became “standards” of folk and bluegrass: Handsome Molly, Train 45 (Ruben), Little Maggie, Tom Dooley, Lee Highway, etc…

-On this page, you’ll read the full biography of Grayson & Whitter -I’ve selected 20 sides of the duo, with all their famous songs.

TRACK LIST:

1.Nobody’s darling

2.I’ll never be yours (Banks of the Ohio)

3.Handsome Molly

4.Train 45

5.He’s coming to us dead

6.Rose Conley

7.Sally Gooden

8.My mind is to marry

9.Cluck old hen

10.Old Jimmy Sutton

11.Joking Henry

12.The nine-pound hammer

13.Short life of trouble

14.I’ve always been a rambler

15.Where are you going Alice?

16.Little Maggie

17.On the banks of old Tennessee

18.Tom Dooley

19.Going down the Lee highway

20.I saw a man at the close of day

The Ommie Wise Variations
This american murder ballad was based on true events that happened two centuries ago in North Carolina. A certain Jonathan Lewis was arrested for the murder of Naomi Wise but was acquitted soon after. But everybody was conviced that he did murder her and a folk ballad carried the memory of the event until today. There’s of course a lot of variants from one performer to another in the text of the ballad, from the names of the protagonists to the little details that makes the story.

-Go and read this article, which gives also the lyrics of the song

-There’s also a wikipedia page on the subject

-I’ve compiled 20 performances of the song, some old, some new, as usual. Sometimes the melody is sung in a minor mode, sometimes in a major mode, many sang it unaccompanied and many used the 5-string banjo … “Tragic romance” is a bluegrass variant that takes the story and melody of “Omie Wise” and made a new song out of it.

Hope you enjoy…

TRACK LIST:

1.Ommie Wise, G.B. Grayson, from the Anthology Of American Folk Music

2.Naomi Wise, Clarence “Tom” Ashley, from “Greenback Dollar 1929-1933″

3.Little Norma, Mrs Ben Daugherty, from “Ozark Folksongs”

4.Little Omie, Harrison Burnett, from the Max Hunter Folksong Collection

5.Omie Wise, Paul Clayton, from “Folk Ballads of the English-Speaking World”

6.Little Omie Wise (Live), Doc Watson, from “The Essential Doc Watson”

7.Omie Wise, Doug and Jack Wallin, from “Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains”

8.Omie Wise, Pentangle, from “A Maid That’s Deep In Love”

9.Little Lonie, Almeda Riddle, from Ozark Folksongs

10.Omie Wise, Tim Eriksen, from “Every Sound Below”

11.Tragic Romance, Kilby Snow with Hazel Dickens & Mike Seeger , from “Masters of Old-Time Country Autoharp”

12.Tragic Romance, The Lilly Brothers, from “Early Recordings”

13.Omie Wise, Mason Brown, from “When Humans Walked the Earth”

14.Naomia Wise, Bill Baker, from the Max Hunter Folksong Collection

15.Omie Wise, Okkervile River, from “Julie Doiron & Okerville River”

16.Little Omie Wise, Dock Boggs, from “His Folkways Years 1963-1968 “

17.Little Omie Wise, Addie Graham, from the Digital Library of Appalachia

18.Omie Wise, Roscoe Holcomb, from “The High Lonesome Sound”

19.Omie Wise, Dolly Greer, from “The Doc Watson Family Tradition”

20.Omie Wise, Mountain Home, from “Mountain Home”

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Peg and Awl" — The Carolina Tar Heels (1929)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"A Lazy Farmer Boy" — Buster Carter and Preston Young (1930)

Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA

My exploration of Harry Smith’s Anthology

“The Lazy Farmer Boy” by Carter & Young

Carter & Young’s World

Buster Carter and Preston Young were part of an ensemble of old-time musicians that came from the North Carolina region, the most famous being Charley Poole, who recorded at the end of the 1920’s and beginning of the 1930’s. All this musicians had a distinctive “string band” sound that revival groups like the New Lost City Ramblers tried to emulate. Today, Carter & Young are mostly remembered for being the first group to record the bluegrass classic “I’ll roll in my sweet baby’s arms” and their version of “The young man who wouldn’t hoe corn” who was included in the Anthology.

-On this page, you’ll read a biography of Preston Young

-In addition to the sides by Carter and Young, i’ve included sides by another group “The Carolina Buddies” in which they played on some tracks. Posey Rorer, the great fiddler who played with Charley Poole is playing also on most of the tracks.

TRACK LIST:

Buster Carter & Preston Young (with Posey Rorer)

1.It’s Hard To Love And Can’t Be Loved

2.Swinging Down The Lane (I’d Rather Be Rosy Nell)

3.It Won’t Hurt No More

4.A Lazy Farmer Boy

5.What Sugar Head Licker Will Do

6.Bill Morgan And His Gal

7.I’ll Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms

8.She’s A Darn Good Gal

The Carolina Buddies

9.In A Cottage By The Sea

10.Murder Of The Lawson Family

11.Story that the crow told me

12.My sweetheart is a sly miss

13.Work Don’t Bother Me

14.Otto Wood The Bandit

15.He Went In Like A Lion(But Came Out Like A Lamb)

16.My Evolution Gril

17.Mistreated Blues

18.Broken Hearted Lover

The Lazy Farmer Boy Variations
The song, mostly known as “The young man who wouldn’t hoe corn”,makes fun of the misfortunes of a young farmer too lazy to take care of his fields and who stay single because no girl wants to marry him.

The tune of the song is a particulary beautiful one and like many other mountain songs is in a modal mode, neither major or minor, like “Shady Grove” for example.

-The music and the lyrics of the song are on this two pages: Page one and page two

-I’ve included on my “choiced” variations two songs that took the melody and changed the words (“The strange death of John Doe” by The Almanac Singers and “Man on the street” by Bob Dylan) and a “jazz” version by Nat Adderley. And, no, i didn’t include the “famous” version by Alison Kraus and Union Station, simply because i don’t like it!

TRACK LIST:

1.Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn, Pete Seeger, from ”American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 2″

2.A Young Man That Wouldn’t Hoe Corn / I Wonder When I Shall Be married, Ritchie Family, from ”The Ritchie Family of Kentucky”

3.The Young Man Who Couldn´t Hoe Corn, Burl Ives, from ”The Golden Vanity”

4.Lazy Farmer Boy,Greg Hooven String Band, from ”The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology”

5.The Lazy Young Man, J.A. Latham, from Ozark Folksongs

6.Counting Rhyme / The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn, Jim Douglas, from ”Peddler’s Pack: A Collection of Early Colonial Songs”

7.Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn, Nat Adderley, from ”The Music Of Quincy Jones”

8.The Lazy Farmer, Tom Paley, from ”Old Tom Moore”

9.The Young Man That Wouldn’t Hoe Corn, John Renbourn, from ”So Early In the Spring”

10.The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn, Spider John Koerner, from ”Raised By Humans”

11.The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn,Richard Greene, from “Duets”

12.The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn, Vern Smelser, from ”Fine Times At Our House”

13.The Strange Death Of John Doe, Almanac Singers feat Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger, from ”Which Side Are You On? The Best Of The Almanac Singers”

14.Man On The Street, Bob Dylan, from ”The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991″

15.A Lazy Farmer Boy, Robin Holcomb, from “The Big Time”

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Willie Moore" — Burnett and Rutherford (1927)

Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

Remembering the Old Songs:

WILLIE MOORE

by Lyle Lofgren
(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, November 2000)

I've been singing this song for about as long as I've been interested in Appalachian music. I learned it from a Burnett & Rutherford recording (1927) reprinted in Harry Smith's LP Anthology of American Folk Music, itself fortunately reprinted as a boxed CD set in 1997 by Smithsonian Folkways.1 Dick Burnett (1887-1977)2 lived in Monticello, Kentucky, played the banjo and sang. He was blinded by a robber's gunshot in 1907, and (like many blind people in the south) was forced to become an itinerant professional musician. According to the notes of the reissue, he composed Man of Constant Sorrow in 1913, which, by itself should be enough to get him into the Country Music Hall of Fame.3 In 1914, he hooked up with a fellow Monticello native, Leonard Rutherford (then a teenager), who played fiddle. They made numerous recordings for Columbia in the 1920s, including this one. The words were from a printed broadside (called a "ballot" in the mountains), and the music is the fine part (the high part) of an old ballad tune that was floating around Kentucky. For both parts of the tune, check out Jean Ritchie's version of Lady Margaret, which, as I recall, was once published on a Riverside LP. I seem to have lost track of my copy, and I have no idea if it's been reissued on a CD. If I live long enough, maybe I'll write out my recollection of her version of Lady Margaret, and then you'll know both halves of the tune.

Is the story true? Certainly it is, in an emotional sense, the way that Romeo and Juliet is true. In this version, though, only Juliet feels strongly enough about the matter to commit suicide. Maybe that makes the song more realistic.

The penultimate verse given here (in parenthesis) is not in the Burnett & Rutherford version, but was collected by Vance Randolph in Arkansas. I often sing it as part of this song because it helps tie the story together. The last verse would not be out of place in a printed "ballot," but it's unusual that a traditional singer would retain it. I always sing it. Use your own judgement.

Complete lyrics:
Willie Moore was a king, his age twenty-one,
He courted a damsel fair;
O, her eyes was as bright as the diamonds every night,
And wavy black was her hair.

He courted her both night and day,
'Til to marry they did agree;
But when he came to get her parents consent,
They said it could never be.

She threw herself in Willie Moore's arms,
As oftime had done before;
But little did he think when they parted that night,
Sweet Anna he would see no more.

It was about the tenth of May,
The time I remember well;
That very same night, her body disappeared
In a way no tongue could tell.

Sweet Annie was loved both far and near,
Had friends most all around;
And in a little brook before the cottage door,
The body of sweet Anna was found.

She was taken by her weeping friends,
And carried to her parent's room,
And there she was dressed in a gown of snowy white,
And laid her in a lonely tomb.

Her parents now are left all alone,
One mourns while the other one weeps;
And in a grassy mound before the cottage door,
The body of sweet Anna still sleeps.

[Willie Moore never spoke that anyone heard,
And at length from his friends did part,
And the last heard from him, he'd gone to Montreal,
Where he died of a broken heart.]

This song was composed in the flowery West
By a man you may never have seen;
O, I'll tell you his name, but it is not in full,
His initials are J.R.D.4

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Impertinent editorial footnotes (added by Bob Waltz):
1 Also available on Document Records DOCD-8025, The Complete Works of Burnett & Rutherford. As this record contains their wonderful hit recording of Lost John, I highly recommend it.

2 Charles K. Wolfe gives Burnett's dates as 1883-c. 1975.

3 But just to show you how much such a claim means, Emry Arthur also claimed to have written the song. And there are several versions from tradition.

4 Other authorities give the initials as "J. R. G." It's almost impossible to tell the final letter from the recording.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Old Shoes And Leggins" — Uncle Eck Dunford (1929)

Click on the title to link to a presentation of the song listed in the headline.

The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.

Remembering The Old Songs:

OLD SHOES AND LEGGINGS

by Lyle Lofgren

(Originally published: Inside Bluegrass, July 2007)

There are a number of obvious reasons why an old man who has accumulated worldly power would want to possess a beautiful young lady. Literature is full of such stories, often involving forced marriages and tragic endings. But when the old man has no money, tragedy turns to farce, and it's a rich vein to mine. Songs on the subject have been around a very long time. An example from Scotland is An Old Man Come a-Courtin' Me which has an adult theme, and in fact sounds like a pub song. Robert Burns's What Can a Young Lassie Do With An Old Man strikes me as a publishable re-writing of that older song. Even Tin Pan Alley got into the act, with Get Away, Old Man, Get Away, composed and popularized in 1926 by Frank Crumit. It made its way into tradition when J.E. Mainer recorded a hillbilly version.

This month's song perhaps originated in Scotland. It first appeared in print in the early 1700s, and has remained popular in British oral tradition under such titles as An Old Man Came O'er The Lea or With His Grey Beard Newly Shaven. American versions tend to emphasize foot and leg wear. If you want to see classic leggings, look at a photo of WWI soldiers. The long cloth strips wrapped around their lower legs protected pants from mud and burrs. The old man in the song has overshoes and leggings because he has to walk through the mud and brush, being too poor to ride. His clothes and shoes are protected. The only problem is that he doesn't bother to take them off when he's in the house.

Alan Lomax once pointed out that a traditional song has to have something that appeals to young people, or it will die out after only one generation. In typical Lomax fashion, he extended this axiom into a hypothesis that all folk songs are children's songs. I won't go that far, but it does seem that the staying power of this song has to do with some juvenile aspects: it ridicules old men, people of one's parents' generation; and the repetitive format and rhyme scheme are like some other children's songs.

I think of this one as being sung by teenaged girls. To hear it that way, you need to find an obscure field recording, My Mother Told Me, (Gant Family, Austin TX, 1936; Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song 645B4). You can listen to the version given here on Smithsonian-Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music. (Eck Dunford of Galax, VA; recorded 1928; originally released as Victor V40060). The record label said Old Shoes and Leggins, but Eck clearly sings "overshoes." The song structure encourages invention, even of the unconscious type. For example, I've sung a "I hung up his coat and it smelled like a goat" verse for many years, and I was surprised when I listened to the song and found it isn't on the record.

The old man acts the fool, particularly in his inappropriate use of work implements. Give him a hoe and he Jumps Jim Crow. "Jim Crow" nowadays refers to 20th century segregation laws, but the original came from Daddy Rice (1808-1860), the stage name of a popular Broadway blackface minstrel. He performed a ridiculous dance called "Jump Jim Crow." Instead of cutting wood with a saw, the old man uses it as a musical instrument, playing Rye Straw. That's a well-known fiddle tune (sometimes called Joke on the Puppy), but its only verse is scatological and not suitable for polite company. Neither is the old man.

Complete Lyrics:
A man that was old came a-courting one day,
And the girls wouldn't have him.
He come down the lane on his walking cane
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

My mother she told me to give him a chair,
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him a chair and he looked mighty queer,
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

My mother she told me to hang up his hat,
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I hung up his hat and he kicked at the cat
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

My mother she told me to give him some meat
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him some meat, and oh how he did eat
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

My mother she told me to give him the hoe
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him the hoe and he jumped Jim Crow
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

My mother she told me to give him the saw
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I give him the saw and he played "Rye Straw,"
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

My mother she told me to put him to bed
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I put him to bed and he stood on his head
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

My mother she told me to send him away
For the girls wouldn't have him.
I sent him away and he left Christmas Day
With his overshoes on and his leggings.

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" — "Chubby" Parker (1928)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"The Waggoner's Lad" — Buell Kazee (1928)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Old Lady and the Devil" — Bill & Belle Reed (1928)

*In Folklorist Harry Smith’s House-"Drunkard's Special" — Coley Jones (1929)

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

***Sagas Of The Irish-American Diaspora- Albany-Style- William Kennedy's Ode To The Fixer Man- "Roscoe"

Click on the title to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for the doings of Albany-cycle author William Kennedy.

Book Review

Roscoe, William Kennedy, Viking Press, New York, 2002

Recently, in reviewing an early William Kennedy Albany-cycle novel, “Ironweed” I mentioned that he was my kind of writer. I will let what I stated there stand on that score here. Here is what I said:

“William Kennedy is, at least in his Albany stories, my kind of writer. He writes about the trials and tribulations of the Irish diaspora as it penetrated the rough and tumble of American urban WASP-run society, for good or evil. I know these people, my people, their follies and foibles like the back of my hand. Check. Kennedy writes, as here with the main characters Fran Phelan and Helen Archer two down at the heels sorts, about that pervasive hold that Catholicism has even on its most debased sons and daughters, saint and sinner alike. I know those characteristics all too well. Check. He writes about that place in class society where the working class meets the lumpen-proletariat-the thieves, grifters, drifters and con men- the human dust. I know that place well, much better than I would ever let on. Check. He writes about the sorrows and dangers of the effects alcohol on working class families. I know that place too. Check. And so on. Oh, by the way, did I mention that he also, at some point, was an editor of some sort associated with the late Hunter S. Thompson down in Puerto Rico. I know that mad man’s work well. He remains something of a muse for me. Check.”

That said, this little novel from a time that somewhat overlaps "Ironweed", the period between World War I and the the end of World War II, the heyday for retail print and radio-driven politics, and of the vote by bought vote, in the American cities, especially in the Northeast and especially among the rough and ready, up and coming Irish who took over administration of the lower levels of the bourgeois state from its traditional guardians, the WASPs, in this period. Needless to say, any Irish kid, even today, can read this thing without a decoder and without blinking an eye as to what is going on at the street level of politics.

The plot itself is fairly familiar now- a loose configuration of up and coming Irish and others, glued together by fix-it man (essential to all politics, including revolutionary politics) Roscoe, who solves the underlying mystery caused by the apparent suicide of the token WASP in the crowd (a Fitzgibbon, as in previous writings, of course). That put a dent in the key link in the chain that ran the political machine in Albany at that time. Add in the usually obligatory thwarted, distorted love interest for the now rotund, but still sexually active, Roscoe, (here she is half-Jewish, although that is not mandatory with Kennedy as he seems to favor the elusive WASP princesses for the love interest to set the snare for the up and coming Irish)), the usual low-rent shenanigans of bourgeois politics, democratic or republican, a long look at the seamy side of the gambling-driven chicken fights (a description of which you will get more than you ever needed to know) and you have another nice Kennedy piece. As good as "Ironweed"? No, that is the standard by which to judge a Kennedy work and still the number one contender from this reviewer's vantage point.

*Free Lynne Stewart, Mohamed Yousry and Ahmed Abdel Sattar!- A Guest Commentary

Click on the title to link to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee Web site.

Workers Vanguard No. 948
4 December 2009

Court Imprisons Leftist Attorney

Free Lynne Stewart, Mohamed Yousry and Ahmed Abdel Sattar!

NEW YORK CITY—In a blow against the rights of the entire population, leftist attorney Lynne Stewart was hauled off to prison on November 19 on bogus charges of conspiracy to provide “material support” to terrorism and to “defraud” the U.S. government. An outspoken courtroom advocate for black activists and the poor, the 70-year-old Stewart was convicted in 2005 along with translator Mohamed Yousry and paralegal Ahmed Abdel Sattar on charges stemming from her ardent legal defense of Islamic fundamentalist Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for an alleged plot to blow up NYC landmarks in the early 1990s. Reporting to prison two days after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals turned down the appeal of her conviction, Stewart told her supporters that the government was warning lawyers: “Don’t advocate for your clients in a vigorous, strong way or you will end up” like her, “disbarred and in jail.”

The victimization of Stewart, Yousry and Abdel Sattar has been a key cog in the government’s drive to eviscerate civil liberties in the domestic “war on terror.” From beginning to end, the Feds’ case was a fabrication. The government admitted that not a single act of violence resulted from the alleged “terror conspiracy.” Unable to get Stewart for breaking any law, the government invoked the spectre of “conspiracy” and nailed her for violating Special Administrative Measures that drastically restrict a prisoner’s right to communicate with the outside world. Stewart was “guilty” of conveying Abdel Rahman’s thoughts about a cease-fire between his Islamic Group and the Egyptian government to a Reuters journalist. The government declared this was tantamount to a terrorist “jailbreak.”

In a November 21 protest letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Partisan Defense Committee—a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization associated with the Spartacist League—stated that Stewart, Yousry and Abdel Sattar “should not have spent a single day in jail! Their frame-up prosecution gives the government a green light to prosecute lawyers for the alleged crimes of their clients, ripping the Sixth Amendment right to counsel to shreds.” Pointing out that the jailing came in the immediate aftermath of the Justice Department’s announcement of plans for a show-trial prosecution of Guantánamo detainees, to be held within a mile of the World Trade Center site, the letter stressed that “the message is clear: any determined defense of those the government deems an enemy can mean a prison sentence for ‘material support’ to terrorism.”

The Second Circuit’s 125-page decision against Stewart, Yousry and Abdel Sattar made no bones about its effect on restricting the right to legal counsel, declaring that it was now “less likely that other incarcerated persons will have the same level of access to counsel that [Stewart’s] client was given.” The court ordered not only that bail be revoked immediately but that a new hearing be held by the trial judge, John G. Koeltl, to increase the sentences of all three defendants. In 2006, Federal prosecutors who had demanded a 30-year sentence reacted in outrage when Koeltl, citing Stewart’s efforts on behalf of “the poor, the disadvantaged and the unpopular,” set her sentence at 28 months. Yousry got 20 months while Abdel Sattar, a former postal worker, was given 24 years.

The higher court, which includes two Clinton appointees, outrageously denounced Koeltl for failing to consider whether Stewart committed perjury at trial by maintaining that she believed she did nothing illegal. Describing her sentence as “breathtakingly low,” one of the appellate judges all but explicitly called for Stewart, who suffers from breast cancer, to be locked away for life. The New York Post (17 November) cheered, “Finally: Jihadist-Enabling Lawyer Lynne Stewart Ordered to Jail,” while the New York Daily News (19 November) headlined: “Terror Moll Gets Hers.”

Stewart, Yousry and Abdel Sattar were convicted after a seven-month trial fraught with prosecutorial misconduct. Prosecutors pandered to public fear in the post-September 11 climate, even introducing videotapes of Osama bin Laden as evidence! The evidence against Yousry, a doctoral candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at New York University and an opponent of Islamic fundamentalism, consisted of notebooks of his discussions with Sheik Abdel Rahman for use in his dissertation. Yousry now faces possibly two decades in prison for doing his job as an interpreter. Ahmed Abdel Sattar is an Islamic fundamentalist whose only “crime” was to rack up large phone bills talking to other fundamentalists. At bottom, they were convicted of being Arab in post-September 11 America.

Though the prosecution was carried out under the Republican Bush administration, this mugging of constitutional rights has the fingerprints of the Democratic Clinton White House all over it. The Special Administrative Measures Stewart purportedly violated were enacted by the Clinton administration. For years, the Feds under Clinton secretly recorded the supposedly privileged attorney-client discussions between Stewart, her aides and Abdel Rahman. Stewart, Yousry and Abdel Sattar were indicted under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, one of several measures that have been escalated under the “war on terror” to attack fundamental rights.

After eight years of chanting “Anybody but Bush,” the liberals and reformist left hailed the election of Barack Obama and his promises of “change,” not least in regard to the “war on terror.” But as we have always stressed, the “war on terror” has the stamp of both parties of U.S. imperialism. Despite Obama’s campaign pledge to close Guantánamo and end torture, his administration has endorsed indefinite detention, a hallmark of police-state dictatorships and a centerpiece of Bush’s war on democratic rights. Many Guantánamo detainees will be transferred to detention centers in Bagram, Afghanistan, which has become synonymous with torture and all-around imperialist savagery, and elsewhere. And as the death toll of Afghans mounts ever higher in the U.S./NATO occupation of that country, the announced show trial of Guantánamo prisoners like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed demonstrates the Obama administration’s commitment to continuing the assault on democratic rights at home.

At the onset of the prosecution of Stewart, Yousry and Abdel Sattar, we pointed to the urgent need for leftists, trade unionists and defenders of democratic rights to defend them against a government intent on tearing up the rights of all of us. SL and PDC supporters have repeatedly turned out to express our support at court hearings and protests, and in recent years Stewart has been a regular invited speaker at the PDC’s Holiday Appeal benefits for class-war prisoners. Based on the principle of non-sectarian, class-struggle defense, we have also stressed that defense of Stewart is inseparable from that of Yousry and Abdel Sattar. Not so the reformist left, which disappeared any mention of Yousry and Abdel Sattar long ago. Recent articles protesting Stewart’s incarceration in Workers World, the International Socialist Organization’s Socialist Worker and the Revolutionary Communist Party’s Revolution don’t even mention their names.

Stewart and Yousry’s jailing reveals yet again the workings of the courts as an integral part of the repressive machinery of the “democratic” capitalist state, which masks the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with a veneer of equality before the law. But there can be no equality between the exploited and their exploiters, between the oppressed and their oppressors. We fight to win those outraged at the legal persecution of Stewart, Yousry and Abdel Sattar to a perspective of proletarian revolution to abolish the capitalist system, sweeping away the capitalist state and establishing a workers state, where those who labor rule. Then, and only then, will we see justice for all the victims of imperialist barbarism, at home and abroad.

* A Ohio 7 Update-Protest Gag Order Against Ray Luc Levasseur- A Guest Commentary

Click on the title to link to "Wikipedia"'s entry for the Ohio 7. As always with this source and its collective editorial policy, especially with controversial political groups like the Ohio 7, be careful checking the accuracy of the information provided at any given time.

Markin comment:

Below is further information about the continuing attempts to deny a member of the Ohio 7, who has done his time, the right to speak his mind in public. As always- Free The Last Of The Ohio 7, Jaan laaman and Tom Manning- The Must Not Die In Jail.

Workers Vanguard No. 948
4 December 2009

Protest Gag Order Against Ray Luc Levasseur

Last month, former Ohio 7 political prisoner Ray Luc Levasseur was vindictively barred from speaking at an event at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, about the notorious 1989 sedition frame-up trial in which he was a defendant. The university library’s invitation to Levasseur was met with a vile slander campaign by the cops and bourgeois press, which tarred Levasseur as “bloodthirsty” and a “terrorist,” while the state senate passed a resolution “roundly condemning” that this opponent of U.S. imperialist terror had been invited to speak.

Bowing to pressure from Massachusetts Democratic governor Deval Patrick and the state Fraternal Order of Police, the university administration canceled Levasseur’s invitation. In response, the Social Thought and Political Economy Program and several academic departments took over sponsorship of the event and reinvited Levasseur. UMass president Jack Wilson admitted he had “no way of preventing a speaking appearance, based on free speech and free assembly rights” (Boston Herald, 11 November). But Levasseur’s parole officer did, denying him permission to leave Maine. Arnie Larson, president of the Massachusetts Fraternal Order of Police, boasted, “We reached out to people in the Justice Department and educated them about our passion here…and they followed through on it” (Boston Globe, 12 November).

When former political prisoner and sedition trial co-defendant Pat Levasseur (Ray’s former wife) spoke in Ray Luc Levasseur’s place, she was met by an ominous display of police bonapartism. An army of over 200 cops from New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts protested the event on the campus with signs reading, “There Is No Such Thing as a Former Terrorist.” This was an echo of the government’s 1987 frame-up of two other Ohio 7 defendants for the killing of a New Jersey state trooper.

Pat and Ray Luc Levasseur were part of the Ohio 7, convicted for their roles in a radical group that took credit for bank “expropriations” and bombings against symbols of U.S. imperialism such as military and corporate offices. Before their arrests in the mid 1980s, the Ohio 7 were targets of massive manhunts and their children were kidnapped at gunpoint by the Feds and interrogated. Having already convicted and sentenced them to decades behind bars, in 1989 the Justice Department spent nearly $10 million to vindictively prosecute them again for the same alleged crimes, as part of an effort to rehabilitate discredited “thought crime” sedition laws. Pat and Ray Luc Levasseur as well as another member of the Ohio 7, Richard Williams, were dragged through a ten-month trial for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government. The defendants were acquitted, though this did not put an end to the government vendetta. Richard Williams died in prison in December 2005 due to medical neglect and abuse during his solitary confinement. Two other members of the Ohio 7, Tom Manning and Jaan Laaman, still languish behind bars. Free Manning and Laaman now!

From the standpoint of the working class, the actions of the Ohio 7 against U.S. imperialism and racist injustice are not crimes, and these courageous activists should not have served a day in prison. Although we do not share their political perspective, we have been outspoken in the defense of the Ohio 7, several of whom have been longtime recipients of the Partisan Defense Committee’s monthly stipend program for class-war prisoners. We noted in “RICO Witchhunt Targets Ohio 7” (WV No. 476, 28 April 1989), “with the seditious conspiracy case of the Ohio 7 this dangerous government is trying to move a big step closer to its police-state dreams of outlawing leftist political views.” Likewise, the censorship of Ray Luc Levasseur and the massive cop mobilization at UMass are intended as a threat to all who would speak out against the ravages of the racist American ruling class. An injury to one is an injury to all!

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Writer’s Corner- William Kennedy’s “Ironweed”- A Film Review

Click on title to link to "Wikipedia"'s entry for William Kennedy, author of "Ironweed".

Film Review

Ironweed, based on the book by William Kennedy, The Viking Press, New York, 1983, starring Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, with Tom Waits, 1987

The paragraphs below were used to review the book that this film is based on. Since the film very closely follows the story line of the book the comments there can, for the most part, stand here. I would only add that Jack Nicholson’s role as ex- baseball player, hard guy, and hobo alkie Fran is probably more understated that the book character (and more understated for him, given some of his more in-your-face roles). Meryl Streep, well, is Merlyn Streep, and plays the role of Helen, Fran’s street companion/lover, to a tee (although she might be a tad bit more beautiful that your average "bag lady"). The surprise treat is the secondary role played by raspy-voiced singer-songwriter Tom Waits as Fran’s sidekick, Rudy. On reflection though, for those, like me, who know Waits’ later musical work his role should not be surprised. Who else, lately, could fill that kind of ‘lost soul’ hobo role so naturally?

********

William Kennedy is, at least in his Albany stories, my kind of writer. He writes about the trials and tribulations of the Irish diaspora as it penetrated the rough and tumble of American urban WASP-run society, for good or evil. I know these people, my people, their follies and foibles like the back of my hand. Check. Kennedy writes, as here with the main characters Fran Phelan and Helen Archer two down at the heels sorts, about that pervasive hold that Catholicism has even on its most debased sons and daughters, saint and sinner alike. I know those characteristics all too well. Check. He writes about that place in class society where the working class meets the lumpen-proletariat-the thieves, grifters, drifters and con men- the human dust. I know that place well, much better than I would ever let on. Check. He writes about the sorrows and dangers of the effects alcohol on working class families. I know that place too. Check. And so on. Oh, by the way, did I mention that he also, at some point, was an editor of some sort associated with the late Hunter S. Thompson down in Puerto Rico. I know that mad man’s work well. He remains something of a muse for me. Check

The above, in a tangential way, gets you pretty much all you need to know about the why of reading this book (and other stories by Kennedy), except a little something about the plot line. Well, that is fairly simple. Old time baseball star Fran and his erstwhile companion, a gifted singer, Helen are drunks working their way through the edges between skid row and respectability. And, mainly, losing to the lure of the bottle and to the hard, hard struggle that it takes just to get through the day when your options are limited. Put that task together with trying to survive in the jungles, with its endless twisted characters, of the Great Depression (that other one in the 1930s) Albany, trying to figure out when life went wrong and trying to figure out why it all went wrong- while fighting a losing battle against society’s expectations- and one’s family’s. This will provide enough dramatic tension to keep you interested.

Oh did I mention that Kennedy writes with verve, with an uncanny understanding of his characters (although only Fran and Helen get the full treatment here)and with no holds barred, or punches pulled down there on cheap street. See, that is why Kennedy and Thompson connected in the literary world. They KNOW the under side of life. Read this thing, please.

*Writer's Corner- William Kennedy's "Ironweed"- A Book Review

Click on title to link to "Wikipedia"'s entry for the writer William Kennedy

Book Review

Ironweed, William Kennedy, The Viking Press, New York, 1983

William Kennedy is, at least in his Albany stories, my kind of writer. He writes about the trials and tribulations of the Irish diaspora as it penetrated the rough and tumble of American urban WASP-run society, for good or evil. I know these people, my people, their follies and foibles like the back of my hand. Check. Kennedy writes, as here with the main characters Fran Phelan and Helen Archer two down at the heels sorts, about that pervasive hold that Catholicism has even on its most debased sons and daughters, saint and sinner alike. I know those characteristics all too well. Check. He writes about that place in class society where the working class meets the lumpen-proletariat-the thieves, grifters, drifters and con men- the human dust. I know that place well, much better than I would ever let on. Check. He writes about the sorrows and dangers of the effects alcohol on working class families. I know that place too. Check. And so on. Oh, by the way, did I mention that he also, at some point, was an editor of some sort associated with the late Hunter S. Thompson down in Puerto Rico. I know that mad man’s work well. He remains something of a muse for me. Check.

The above, in a tangential way, gets you pretty much all you need to know about the why of reading this book (and other stories by Kennedy), except a little something about the plot line. Well, that is fairly simple. Old time baseball star Fran and his erstwhile companion, a gifted singer, Helen are drunks working their way through the edges between skid row and respectability. And, mainly, losing to the lure of the bottle and to the hard, hard struggle that it takes just to get through the day when your options are limited. Put that task together with trying to survive in the jungles, with its endless twisted characters, of the Great Depression (that other one in the 1930s) Albany, trying to figure out when life went wrong and trying to figure out why it all went wrong- while fighting a losing battle against society’s expectations- and one’s family’s. This will provide enough dramatic tension to keep you interested.

Oh did I mention that Kennedy writes with verve, with an uncanny understanding of his characters (although only Fran and Helen get the full treatment here)and with no holds barred, or punches pulled down there on cheap street. See, that is why Kennedy and Thompson connected in the literary world. They KNOW the underside of life. Read this thing, please.