Click On Title For Link To Associated Press story on Obama's Afghan War Budget.
The Democratic Party-controlled United States has passed the Obama Administration's Afghan/Iraq supplementary war budget. I repost my comments from May 15, 2009 after the United States House of Representatives originally passed the budget. I stand by those comments.
*******************
This Is Not Your Father’s War- But It May Be Your Children’s- Obama’s Afghan War- Vote No With Both Hands On The War Budget!
President withholds torture photos as national security measure. President revives military tribunals. Congress gets ready to pass President’s supplementary Afghan/Iraq war budgets. Correct me if I am wrong but is this May 15, 2008 or May 15, 2009. These are headlines formerly associated with the Cheney/Bush Administration. For those who are ready to shed a few dogmatic illusions the contours of the Age of Obama are starting to come into focus. And it isn’t pretty. The streets are not for dreaming now. Read on.
Commentary
Sometime soon, perhaps as this commentary is being written on Friday May 15, 2007, the Democrat Party-controlled Congress will have passed the latest supplemental war budget appropriations asked for by the Obama Administration (actually more that they asked for, nice right?). I have already noted previously in a commentary earlier this year, as this issue surfaced, that such supplementary war budgets were a hallmark of the …Bush Administration. But we will let that little issue pass because the “big deal” here is how little opposition (and press coverage) there has been now that the “good guys” are in charge. The epitome of such servile non-opposition (Ouch! Sorry for this awkward expression.) is exemplified by the lack on efforts to oppose this war budget by the so-called “anti-war’ Progressive Democratic Caucus. The “highlight” of Democratic opposition centers on a bill by left-liberal Massachusetts Democratic Congressman James McGovern to “require” the Pentagon to come up with an “exit” strategy for Afghanistan by the end of this year. So much for the vaunted parliamentary opposition. Hence the title of the headline of this commentary.
Such innocuous and, frankly, baffling legislation does not even come close to rising to the occasions in the past where the likes of Congressman McGovern at least voted against the war budget. If Congressman McGovern represents the most extreme left expression within the Democratic Party on war issues, and I believe that he does, one hardly needs a crystal ball to realize that the already almost eight year American presence in Afghanistan has just gotten a lot longer. Add to that the recent decisions to have “Shoot first, and let god sort the rest out” General McChrystal replace the old-line armchair General McKiernan and you now know why at the very beginning of this Obama Administration I stated that he has staked his place in history on the outcome of that war. For those who despair that their children will be fighting in Afghanistan I do have a simple solution. Fight around this slogan- Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (and Iraq). Do it for the kids.
********
House Passes War Funds As 51 Democrats Dissent
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 15, 2009
The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it.
Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against his predecessor: escalating a war without a clear exit strategy.
The bill passed 368 to 60, with 200 Democrats and all but nine Republicans supporting it.
Democratic opponents did not attack Obama by name, but some likened his increase of 21,000 troops and billions of dollars to win the war in Afghanistan to President George W. Bush's efforts in Iraq.
"When George Bush was president, I was on this floor saying we need an exit strategy," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). "The same applies with Afghanistan. I'm tired of wars with no deadlines, no exits and no ends."
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who also voted against the bill, said that "this bill simply amplifies and extends failed policies."
The vote came the same day that another part of Obama's security agenda -- closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- drew criticism from his party. The Democratic-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill that includes $50 million to close the prison, as Obama promised during the campaign.
But the measure bans Obama from using the money to bring any of the 241 detainees to the United States, a move that administration officials have suggested might be necessary to get other countries to accept prisoners. The measure also requires the administration present Congress with a detailed plan on closing the prison before the money can be used.
Senate Democratic leaders criticized Obama for not having presented such a plan, as Republicans continue to highlight the issue and accuse the administration of putting Americans at risk with its proposal to bring potential terrorists to the United States.
Obama defended his strategy for Afghanistan in a meeting late last month with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of more than 70 liberal members, many of whom opposed the funding bill. But most House Democrats indicated they want to give Obama's strategy a chance to succeed.
"The questions that were not being asked are now being asked," said Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), who voted for the supplemental funding.
House Democratic leaders refused to back an effort by McGovern and other antiwar legislators that would require Obama to provide Congress a detailed exit strategy for Afghanistan by the end of the year.
Some Democratic senators, particularly Russell Feingold (Wis.), have also criticized Obama's proposal, but the funding is expected to be approved there, possibly as soon as next week. Republicans have said they might oppose increased funding for the International Monetary Fund, a request that has been inserted in the Senate version.
Some liberal activist groups, such as MoveOn.org, which sharply criticized Bush's efforts to increase troops in Iraq two years ago, have said little about Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan.
The failed effort to amend the House bill illustrated the ineffectiveness of some of the House's most liberal members. While the caucus of conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs has effectively blocked some of Obama's proposals, such as a ban on assault weapons, liberal Democrats have struggled with two of their biggest priorities: establishing a commission to investigate allegations of violations by the Bush administration; and greater reductions of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
McGovern said he remains concerned about Obama's policy in Afghanistan but is not sure exactly what he and others could do.
"I like Barack Obama; I thank God he's president; I think he will be a great president," McGovern said. "But sometimes great presidents make mistakes."
Friday, May 22, 2009
Lenin On The Three Sources Of Marxism
Markin comment:
As almost always these historical articles and polemics are purposefully helpful to clarify the issues in the struggle against world imperialism, particularly the “monster” here in America.
Workers Vanguard No. 937
22 May 2009
“The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism”
By V.I. Lenin
(From the Archives of Marxism)
V.I. Lenin’s “The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism,” which we reprint below, was first published in March 1913 in the Bolshevik journal Prosveshcheniye to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, who, along with Friedrich Engels, founded scientific socialism. The following translation is taken from Volume 19 of the Collected Works of Lenin (Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1963).
Throughout the civilised world the teachings of Marx evoke the utmost hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science (both official and liberal), which regards Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect.” And no other attitude is to be expected, for there can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle. In one way or another, all official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery. To expect science to be impartial in a wage-slave society is as foolishly naïve as to expect impartiality from manufacturers on the question of whether workers’ wages ought not to be increased by decreasing the profits of capital.
But this is not all. The history of philosophy and the history of social science show with perfect clarity that there is nothing resembling “sectarianism” in Marxism, in the sense of its being a hidebound, petrified doctrine, a doctrine which arose away from the high road of the development of world civilisation. On the contrary, the genius of Marx consists precisely in his having furnished answers to questions already raised by the foremost minds of mankind. His doctrine emerged as the direct and immediate continuation of the teachings of the greatest representatives of philosophy, political economy and socialism.
The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true. It is comprehensive and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world outlook irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction, or defence of bourgeois oppression. It is the legitimate successor to the best that man produced in the nineteenth century, as represented by German philosophy, English political economy and French socialism.
It is these three sources of Marxism, which are also its component parts, that we shall outline in brief.
I
The philosophy of Marxism is materialism. Throughout the modern history of Europe, and especially at the end of the eighteenth century in France, where a resolute struggle was conducted against every kind of medieval rubbish, against serfdom in institutions and ideas, materialism has proved to be the only philosophy that is consistent, true to all the teachings of natural science and hostile to superstition, cant and so forth. The enemies of democracy have, therefore, always exerted all their efforts to “refute,” undermine and defame materialism, and have advocated various forms of philosophical idealism, which always, in one way or another, amounts to the defence or support of religion.
Marx and Engels defended philosophical materialism in the most determined manner and repeatedly explained how profoundly erroneous is every deviation from this basis. Their views are most clearly and fully expounded in the works of Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and Anti-Dühring, which, like the Communist Manifesto, are handbooks for every class-conscious worker.
But Marx did not stop at eighteenth-century materialism: he developed philosophy to a higher level. He enriched it with the achievements of German classical philosophy, especially of Hegel’s system, which in its turn had led to the materialism of Feuerbach. The main achievement was dialectics, i.e., the doctrine of development in its fullest, deepest and most comprehensive form, the doctrine of the relativity of the human knowledge that provides us with a reflection of eternally developing matter. The latest discoveries of natural science—radium, electrons, the transmutation of elements—have been a remarkable confirmation of Marx’s dialectical materialism despite the teachings of the bourgeois philosophers with their “new” reversions to old and decadent idealism.
Marx deepened and developed philosophical materialism to the full, and extended the cognition of nature to include the cognition of human society. His historical materialism was a great achievement in scientific thinking. The chaos and arbitrariness that had previously reigned in views on history and politics were replaced by a strikingly integral and harmonious scientific theory, which shows how, in consequence of the growth of productive forces, out of one system of social life another and higher system develops—how capitalism, for instance, grows out of feudalism.
Just as man’s knowledge reflects nature (i.e., developing matter), which exists independently of him, so man’s social knowledge (i.e., his various views and doctrines—philosophical, religious, political and so forth) reflects the economic system of society. Political institutions are a superstructure on the economic foundation. We see, for example, that the various political forms of the modern European states serve to strengthen the domination of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat.
Marx’s philosophy is a consummate philosophical materialism which has provided mankind, and especially the working class, with powerful instruments of knowledge.
II
Having recognised that the economic system is the foundation on which the political superstructure is erected, Marx devoted his greatest attention to the study of this economic system. Marx’s principal work, Capital, is devoted to a study of the economic system of modern, i.e., capitalist, society.
Classical political economy, before Marx, evolved in England, the most developed of the capitalist countries. Adam Smith and David Ricardo, by their investigations of the economic system, laid the foundations of the labour theory of value. Marx continued their work; he provided a proof of the theory and developed it consistently. He showed that the value of every commodity is determined by the quantity of socially necessary labour time spent on its production.
Where the bourgeois economists saw a relation between things (the exchange of one commodity for another) Marx revealed a relation between people. The exchange of commodities expresses the connection between individual producers through the market. Money signifies that the connection is becoming closer and closer, inseparably uniting the entire economic life of the individual producers into one whole. Capital signifies a further development of this connection: man’s labour-power becomes a commodity. The wage-worker sells his labour-power to the owner of land, factories and instruments of labour. The worker spends one part of the day covering the cost of maintaining himself and his family (wages), while the other part of the day he works without remuneration, creating for the capitalist surplus-value, the source of profit, the source of the wealth of the capitalist class.
The doctrine of surplus-value is the corner-stone of Marx’s economic theory.
Capital, created by the labour of the worker, crushes the worker, ruining small proprietors and creating an army of unemployed. In industry, the victory of large-scale production is immediately apparent, but the same phenomenon is also to be observed in agriculture, where the superiority of large-scale capitalist agriculture is enhanced, the use of machinery increases and the peasant economy, trapped by money-capital, declines and falls into ruin under the burden of its backward technique. The decline of small-scale production assumes different forms in agriculture, but the decline itself is an indisputable fact.
By destroying small-scale production, capital leads to an increase in productivity of labour and to the creation of a monopoly position for the associations of big capitalists. Production itself becomes more and more social—hundreds of thousands and millions of workers become bound together in a regular economic organism—but the product of this collective labour is appropriated by a handful of capitalists. Anarchy of production, crises, the furious chase after markets and the insecurity of existence of the mass of the population are intensified.
By increasing the dependence of the workers on capital, the capitalist system creates the great power of united labour.
Marx traced the development of capitalism from embryonic commodity economy, from simple exchange, to its highest forms, to large-scale production.
And the experience of all capitalist countries, old and new, year by year demonstrates clearly the truth of this Marxian doctrine to increasing numbers of workers.
Capitalism has triumphed all over the world, but this triumph is only the prelude to the triumph of labour over capital.
III
When feudalism was overthrown and “free” capitalist society appeared in the world, it at once became apparent that this freedom meant a new system of oppression and exploitation of the working people. Various socialist doctrines immediately emerged as a reflection of and protest against this oppression. Early socialism, however, was utopian socialism. It criticised capitalist society, it condemned and damned it, it dreamed of its destruction, it had visions of a better order and endeavoured to convince the rich of the immorality of exploitation.
But utopian socialism could not indicate the real solution. It could not explain the real nature of wage-slavery under capitalism, it could not reveal the laws of capitalist development, or show what social force is capable of becoming the creator of a new society.
Meanwhile, the stormy revolutions which everywhere in Europe, and especially in France, accompanied the fall of feudalism, of serfdom, more and more clearly revealed the struggle of classes as the basis and the driving force of all development.
Not a single victory of political freedom over the feudal class was won except against desperate resistance. Not a single capitalist country evolved on a more or less free and democratic basis except by a life-and-death struggle between the various classes of capitalist society.
The genius of Marx lies in his having been the first to deduce from this the lesson world history teaches and to apply that lesson consistently. The deduction he made is the doctrine of the class struggle.
People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, however barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes. And there is only one way of smashing the resistance of those classes, and that is to find, in the very society which surrounds us, the forces which can—and, owing to their social position, must—constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organise those forces for the struggle.
Marx’s philosophical materialism alone has shown the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in which all oppressed classes have hitherto languished. Marx’s economic theory alone has explained the true position of the proletariat in the general system of capitalism.
Independent organisations of the proletariat are multiplying all over the world, from America to Japan and from Sweden to South Africa. The proletariat is becoming enlightened and educated by waging its class struggle; it is ridding itself of the prejudices of bourgeois society; it is rallying its ranks ever more closely and is learning to gauge the measure of its successes; it is steeling its forces and is growing irresistibly.
As almost always these historical articles and polemics are purposefully helpful to clarify the issues in the struggle against world imperialism, particularly the “monster” here in America.
Workers Vanguard No. 937
22 May 2009
“The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism”
By V.I. Lenin
(From the Archives of Marxism)
V.I. Lenin’s “The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism,” which we reprint below, was first published in March 1913 in the Bolshevik journal Prosveshcheniye to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, who, along with Friedrich Engels, founded scientific socialism. The following translation is taken from Volume 19 of the Collected Works of Lenin (Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1963).
Throughout the civilised world the teachings of Marx evoke the utmost hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science (both official and liberal), which regards Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect.” And no other attitude is to be expected, for there can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle. In one way or another, all official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery. To expect science to be impartial in a wage-slave society is as foolishly naïve as to expect impartiality from manufacturers on the question of whether workers’ wages ought not to be increased by decreasing the profits of capital.
But this is not all. The history of philosophy and the history of social science show with perfect clarity that there is nothing resembling “sectarianism” in Marxism, in the sense of its being a hidebound, petrified doctrine, a doctrine which arose away from the high road of the development of world civilisation. On the contrary, the genius of Marx consists precisely in his having furnished answers to questions already raised by the foremost minds of mankind. His doctrine emerged as the direct and immediate continuation of the teachings of the greatest representatives of philosophy, political economy and socialism.
The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true. It is comprehensive and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world outlook irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction, or defence of bourgeois oppression. It is the legitimate successor to the best that man produced in the nineteenth century, as represented by German philosophy, English political economy and French socialism.
It is these three sources of Marxism, which are also its component parts, that we shall outline in brief.
I
The philosophy of Marxism is materialism. Throughout the modern history of Europe, and especially at the end of the eighteenth century in France, where a resolute struggle was conducted against every kind of medieval rubbish, against serfdom in institutions and ideas, materialism has proved to be the only philosophy that is consistent, true to all the teachings of natural science and hostile to superstition, cant and so forth. The enemies of democracy have, therefore, always exerted all their efforts to “refute,” undermine and defame materialism, and have advocated various forms of philosophical idealism, which always, in one way or another, amounts to the defence or support of religion.
Marx and Engels defended philosophical materialism in the most determined manner and repeatedly explained how profoundly erroneous is every deviation from this basis. Their views are most clearly and fully expounded in the works of Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and Anti-Dühring, which, like the Communist Manifesto, are handbooks for every class-conscious worker.
But Marx did not stop at eighteenth-century materialism: he developed philosophy to a higher level. He enriched it with the achievements of German classical philosophy, especially of Hegel’s system, which in its turn had led to the materialism of Feuerbach. The main achievement was dialectics, i.e., the doctrine of development in its fullest, deepest and most comprehensive form, the doctrine of the relativity of the human knowledge that provides us with a reflection of eternally developing matter. The latest discoveries of natural science—radium, electrons, the transmutation of elements—have been a remarkable confirmation of Marx’s dialectical materialism despite the teachings of the bourgeois philosophers with their “new” reversions to old and decadent idealism.
Marx deepened and developed philosophical materialism to the full, and extended the cognition of nature to include the cognition of human society. His historical materialism was a great achievement in scientific thinking. The chaos and arbitrariness that had previously reigned in views on history and politics were replaced by a strikingly integral and harmonious scientific theory, which shows how, in consequence of the growth of productive forces, out of one system of social life another and higher system develops—how capitalism, for instance, grows out of feudalism.
Just as man’s knowledge reflects nature (i.e., developing matter), which exists independently of him, so man’s social knowledge (i.e., his various views and doctrines—philosophical, religious, political and so forth) reflects the economic system of society. Political institutions are a superstructure on the economic foundation. We see, for example, that the various political forms of the modern European states serve to strengthen the domination of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat.
Marx’s philosophy is a consummate philosophical materialism which has provided mankind, and especially the working class, with powerful instruments of knowledge.
II
Having recognised that the economic system is the foundation on which the political superstructure is erected, Marx devoted his greatest attention to the study of this economic system. Marx’s principal work, Capital, is devoted to a study of the economic system of modern, i.e., capitalist, society.
Classical political economy, before Marx, evolved in England, the most developed of the capitalist countries. Adam Smith and David Ricardo, by their investigations of the economic system, laid the foundations of the labour theory of value. Marx continued their work; he provided a proof of the theory and developed it consistently. He showed that the value of every commodity is determined by the quantity of socially necessary labour time spent on its production.
Where the bourgeois economists saw a relation between things (the exchange of one commodity for another) Marx revealed a relation between people. The exchange of commodities expresses the connection between individual producers through the market. Money signifies that the connection is becoming closer and closer, inseparably uniting the entire economic life of the individual producers into one whole. Capital signifies a further development of this connection: man’s labour-power becomes a commodity. The wage-worker sells his labour-power to the owner of land, factories and instruments of labour. The worker spends one part of the day covering the cost of maintaining himself and his family (wages), while the other part of the day he works without remuneration, creating for the capitalist surplus-value, the source of profit, the source of the wealth of the capitalist class.
The doctrine of surplus-value is the corner-stone of Marx’s economic theory.
Capital, created by the labour of the worker, crushes the worker, ruining small proprietors and creating an army of unemployed. In industry, the victory of large-scale production is immediately apparent, but the same phenomenon is also to be observed in agriculture, where the superiority of large-scale capitalist agriculture is enhanced, the use of machinery increases and the peasant economy, trapped by money-capital, declines and falls into ruin under the burden of its backward technique. The decline of small-scale production assumes different forms in agriculture, but the decline itself is an indisputable fact.
By destroying small-scale production, capital leads to an increase in productivity of labour and to the creation of a monopoly position for the associations of big capitalists. Production itself becomes more and more social—hundreds of thousands and millions of workers become bound together in a regular economic organism—but the product of this collective labour is appropriated by a handful of capitalists. Anarchy of production, crises, the furious chase after markets and the insecurity of existence of the mass of the population are intensified.
By increasing the dependence of the workers on capital, the capitalist system creates the great power of united labour.
Marx traced the development of capitalism from embryonic commodity economy, from simple exchange, to its highest forms, to large-scale production.
And the experience of all capitalist countries, old and new, year by year demonstrates clearly the truth of this Marxian doctrine to increasing numbers of workers.
Capitalism has triumphed all over the world, but this triumph is only the prelude to the triumph of labour over capital.
III
When feudalism was overthrown and “free” capitalist society appeared in the world, it at once became apparent that this freedom meant a new system of oppression and exploitation of the working people. Various socialist doctrines immediately emerged as a reflection of and protest against this oppression. Early socialism, however, was utopian socialism. It criticised capitalist society, it condemned and damned it, it dreamed of its destruction, it had visions of a better order and endeavoured to convince the rich of the immorality of exploitation.
But utopian socialism could not indicate the real solution. It could not explain the real nature of wage-slavery under capitalism, it could not reveal the laws of capitalist development, or show what social force is capable of becoming the creator of a new society.
Meanwhile, the stormy revolutions which everywhere in Europe, and especially in France, accompanied the fall of feudalism, of serfdom, more and more clearly revealed the struggle of classes as the basis and the driving force of all development.
Not a single victory of political freedom over the feudal class was won except against desperate resistance. Not a single capitalist country evolved on a more or less free and democratic basis except by a life-and-death struggle between the various classes of capitalist society.
The genius of Marx lies in his having been the first to deduce from this the lesson world history teaches and to apply that lesson consistently. The deduction he made is the doctrine of the class struggle.
People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises. Champions of reforms and improvements will always be fooled by the defenders of the old order until they realise that every old institution, however barbarous and rotten it may appear to be, is kept going by the forces of certain ruling classes. And there is only one way of smashing the resistance of those classes, and that is to find, in the very society which surrounds us, the forces which can—and, owing to their social position, must—constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organise those forces for the struggle.
Marx’s philosophical materialism alone has shown the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in which all oppressed classes have hitherto languished. Marx’s economic theory alone has explained the true position of the proletariat in the general system of capitalism.
Independent organisations of the proletariat are multiplying all over the world, from America to Japan and from Sweden to South Africa. The proletariat is becoming enlightened and educated by waging its class struggle; it is ridding itself of the prejudices of bourgeois society; it is rallying its ranks ever more closely and is learning to gauge the measure of its successes; it is steeling its forces and is growing irresistibly.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
*When Clio Goes Tone Deaf...
Click On Title To Link To Clio Wikipedia Webpage.
Commentary
On any given day I like, no, I love to write political commentary, write a review about some lesson to be derived from an aspect of our leftist political history or make a point on some cultural remnant left by our forebears. However, every once in a while, and this period is one of them, Clio goes tone deaf on me and leaves me high and dry when I try to write something that makes sense to me, if not to the reader. Damn, the music of history that is seemingly always ringing in my ears has abandoned me. The old muse is indeed fickle.
No one, including this writer, expects that everything that comes to mind is unalloyed gold. I note that many of the political writers that I regard highly had, on occasion, the same problem. For example, Leon Trotsky’s “History Of The Russian Revolution” not only contains a million insightful comments and lessons but has an almost musical flow as one turns each page. Clio was smiling, no question. Other of Trotsky’s writings, especially concerning the internal struggles with his co-thinkers to create a new revolutionary cadre after the political demise of the Communist International in the 1930’s, seem forced by comparison.
Or take “Doctor Gonzo”, Hunter S. Thompson, in his various writings on the demise of one Richard Nixon, at one time President of The United States and common criminal, for “Rolling Stone” in the early 1970’s. Again, one could hear the notes almost fly off the page. By the time he got to Bill Clinton old Clio had gone on vacation and Hunter was praying for Ralph Steadman to create enough weirdly insightful political art to cover up the scarcity of the script. Not a pretty place to be, for sure. I, however, share that same trough today.
Frankly, what I need to do is get off the heavy political/cultural treadmill and just rip through some half-baked screed. The following is just such an effort. There is a little historical method to the madness though, even in this. Recently I have been reading about the various reform movements that swept through America in the age of Andrew Jackson in the early 19th century. I have written about some of them in this space on previous occasions like the critically important stirrings of the anti-slavery movement, the religious fervor that “burnt out” the East and headed west during the Second Great Awakening, the temperance movement and the struggle for woman’s suffrage.
In that same vane, but generally overlooked, and rightfully so, were various health fads that blossomed at the time, including the one ‘discussed’ here, around the virtues of a graham flour diet. Hell, we have been bombarded with every other possible health fad why not resurrect an old standby. Moreover, it gives me a topic for today-thanks for the life line Doctor Graham.
Do Not Go Gently…
… with Jim F., Class of 1964, in mind.
Okay, I am, once again, on my high horse today. I have heard enough, in fact more than enough, whining from fellow classmates that I have been in contact with as we get ready for our 45th high school reunion (ouch!) and others of my contemporaries from the “Generation of’68” about the aches and pains of becoming ‘a certain age’. If I hear one more story about a knee replacement or other transformative surgery I will go screaming to that good night. The same goes for descriptions of the CVS-worthy litany of the contents of an average medicine cabinet. Come on, after a life time of booze, dope and wild times what did you expect? For those of us who have not lived right, lo these many years, the chickens have come home to roost. But I have a cure. Make that THE cure.
No I am not, at this late date, selling the virtues of the Bible, the Torah, the Koran or any of a thousand and one religious cures we are daily bombarded with. You knew, or at least I hope you knew, I wasn’t going to go that route. That question, in any case, is each individual’s prerogative and I have no need to interfere there. Nor am I going to go on and on about the wonders of liposuction, botox, chin lifts, buttocks tuckers, stomach flatteners and the like. Damn, have we come to that? And I certainly do not want to inflame the air with talk of existentialism or some other secular philosophies that tell you to accept your fate with your head down. You knew that, as well. No, I am here to give the glad tidings, unadorned. Simply put- two words-Graham crackers. No, do not reach for the reading glasses, your eyes do not deceive you- graham crackers is what I said.
Hear me out on this. I am no “snake oil” salesman, nor do I have stock in Nabisco (moreover their products are not ‘true’ graham). So, please do not start jabbering to me about how faddish that diet was- in about 1830. I know that it has been around a while. And please do not start carping about how wasn’t this healthful substance a ‘magic elixir’, or some such, that Ralph Waldo Emerson and his transcendentalist protégés praised to high heaven back in Brook Farm days. Well, I frankly admit, as with any such movement, some of those guys went over the top, especially that wacky Bronson Alcott. Irresponsible zealots are always with us. Please, please do not throw out the baby with the bath water.
Doctor Graham simply insisted that what our dietary intake consisted of was important and that a generous amount of graham flour in the system was good for us. Moreover, in order to avoid some of the mistakes of the earlier movement, in the age of the Internet we can now Google to find an almost infinite variety of uses and helpful recipes. Admit it, right now your head is swirling thinking about how nice it would be to have a few crackers and a nice cold glass of milk (fat-free or 1%, of course). Admit also; you loved those graham crumb-crusted pies your grandmother used to make. Case closed.
If people have been mistaking you for your father’s brother or mother’s sister lately then this is your salvation. So scurry down to your local Whole Foods or other natural food store and begin to fight your way back to health. Let me finish with this testimonial. I used to regularly be compared in appearance to George Bush, Sr. Now I am being asked whether Brad Pitts is my twin brother. Or is it Robert Redford? …..Oh well, that too is part of the aging process.
Commentary
On any given day I like, no, I love to write political commentary, write a review about some lesson to be derived from an aspect of our leftist political history or make a point on some cultural remnant left by our forebears. However, every once in a while, and this period is one of them, Clio goes tone deaf on me and leaves me high and dry when I try to write something that makes sense to me, if not to the reader. Damn, the music of history that is seemingly always ringing in my ears has abandoned me. The old muse is indeed fickle.
No one, including this writer, expects that everything that comes to mind is unalloyed gold. I note that many of the political writers that I regard highly had, on occasion, the same problem. For example, Leon Trotsky’s “History Of The Russian Revolution” not only contains a million insightful comments and lessons but has an almost musical flow as one turns each page. Clio was smiling, no question. Other of Trotsky’s writings, especially concerning the internal struggles with his co-thinkers to create a new revolutionary cadre after the political demise of the Communist International in the 1930’s, seem forced by comparison.
Or take “Doctor Gonzo”, Hunter S. Thompson, in his various writings on the demise of one Richard Nixon, at one time President of The United States and common criminal, for “Rolling Stone” in the early 1970’s. Again, one could hear the notes almost fly off the page. By the time he got to Bill Clinton old Clio had gone on vacation and Hunter was praying for Ralph Steadman to create enough weirdly insightful political art to cover up the scarcity of the script. Not a pretty place to be, for sure. I, however, share that same trough today.
Frankly, what I need to do is get off the heavy political/cultural treadmill and just rip through some half-baked screed. The following is just such an effort. There is a little historical method to the madness though, even in this. Recently I have been reading about the various reform movements that swept through America in the age of Andrew Jackson in the early 19th century. I have written about some of them in this space on previous occasions like the critically important stirrings of the anti-slavery movement, the religious fervor that “burnt out” the East and headed west during the Second Great Awakening, the temperance movement and the struggle for woman’s suffrage.
In that same vane, but generally overlooked, and rightfully so, were various health fads that blossomed at the time, including the one ‘discussed’ here, around the virtues of a graham flour diet. Hell, we have been bombarded with every other possible health fad why not resurrect an old standby. Moreover, it gives me a topic for today-thanks for the life line Doctor Graham.
Do Not Go Gently…
… with Jim F., Class of 1964, in mind.
Okay, I am, once again, on my high horse today. I have heard enough, in fact more than enough, whining from fellow classmates that I have been in contact with as we get ready for our 45th high school reunion (ouch!) and others of my contemporaries from the “Generation of’68” about the aches and pains of becoming ‘a certain age’. If I hear one more story about a knee replacement or other transformative surgery I will go screaming to that good night. The same goes for descriptions of the CVS-worthy litany of the contents of an average medicine cabinet. Come on, after a life time of booze, dope and wild times what did you expect? For those of us who have not lived right, lo these many years, the chickens have come home to roost. But I have a cure. Make that THE cure.
No I am not, at this late date, selling the virtues of the Bible, the Torah, the Koran or any of a thousand and one religious cures we are daily bombarded with. You knew, or at least I hope you knew, I wasn’t going to go that route. That question, in any case, is each individual’s prerogative and I have no need to interfere there. Nor am I going to go on and on about the wonders of liposuction, botox, chin lifts, buttocks tuckers, stomach flatteners and the like. Damn, have we come to that? And I certainly do not want to inflame the air with talk of existentialism or some other secular philosophies that tell you to accept your fate with your head down. You knew that, as well. No, I am here to give the glad tidings, unadorned. Simply put- two words-Graham crackers. No, do not reach for the reading glasses, your eyes do not deceive you- graham crackers is what I said.
Hear me out on this. I am no “snake oil” salesman, nor do I have stock in Nabisco (moreover their products are not ‘true’ graham). So, please do not start jabbering to me about how faddish that diet was- in about 1830. I know that it has been around a while. And please do not start carping about how wasn’t this healthful substance a ‘magic elixir’, or some such, that Ralph Waldo Emerson and his transcendentalist protégés praised to high heaven back in Brook Farm days. Well, I frankly admit, as with any such movement, some of those guys went over the top, especially that wacky Bronson Alcott. Irresponsible zealots are always with us. Please, please do not throw out the baby with the bath water.
Doctor Graham simply insisted that what our dietary intake consisted of was important and that a generous amount of graham flour in the system was good for us. Moreover, in order to avoid some of the mistakes of the earlier movement, in the age of the Internet we can now Google to find an almost infinite variety of uses and helpful recipes. Admit it, right now your head is swirling thinking about how nice it would be to have a few crackers and a nice cold glass of milk (fat-free or 1%, of course). Admit also; you loved those graham crumb-crusted pies your grandmother used to make. Case closed.
If people have been mistaking you for your father’s brother or mother’s sister lately then this is your salvation. So scurry down to your local Whole Foods or other natural food store and begin to fight your way back to health. Let me finish with this testimonial. I used to regularly be compared in appearance to George Bush, Sr. Now I am being asked whether Brad Pitts is my twin brother. Or is it Robert Redford? …..Oh well, that too is part of the aging process.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
*Austin City Inner Limits- The Blues Addiction (Thankfully) Of Clifford Antone And The “Antone’s” Experience
Click on title to link to YouTube film clip of Eddie Taylor and Sunnyland Slim, two of the blues artists featured on this DVD review. This, my friends, is blues history down at the base.
DVD Review
Antone’s: Home Of The Blues, Clifford Antone and a huge cast of legendary male and female blues players, old and new, Etc. Film Productions, 2006
Get this DVD. Hold on a minute. Doesn’t this reviewer usually wait until he gives 101reasons why the reader should (or should not) spend time, money and energy on a reviewed item? Get this DVD. Why? This writer has strewn this space with more examples of historically important moments, events or personalities in music and other arts, general human culture and politics than one can shake a stick at. What drives this work is an attempt to give notice to the sometimes unknown (or not well-known) sources and support system for the kind of things that interest him. The blues interests him. And if one views this little gem of a DVD about the efforts of the late Clifford Antone, who for over thirty years was the pivotal figure in the Austin, Texas blues (and other genre) scene, then one will understand what I am trying to get at in these reviews.
Look, these days the popularity of the blues is at one of its lower points. Others forms of entertainment, including the rise and continued dominance of the variants of the hip-hop tradition among the young, the passing or retirement of the post-World War II legendary electric blues players that formed the transmission belt from the early rural blues tradition and dwindling number of us who still value this quintessential form of American music has taken it toll. As this DVD rather graphically, lovingly and with a bit of humor points out the role of “keeper of the flame” is, as they say, a hard dollar.
Yet beginning in 1975 (another low blues point) Clifford Antone and his friends did exactly that. This documentary is filled with the exploits, great and small, that went into that task, including the usual “talking head” commentary that one expects (and here wants) in this kind of documentary). Now “Antone’s” in Austin, Texas does for the blues tradition what the promoters of mountain music in Ashville, North Carolina or the owners of Club Passim (now non-profit) and Caffe Lena’s did for folk music in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Saratoga, New York have done to ‘keep the flame alive’ in these important musical traditions. But even more than that Clifford Antone and friends, seemingly, connected with every important living blues tradition of the last half of the 20th century. There are probably few places in America where the Muddy Waters/Howlin’ Wolf tradition (in the person of legendary guitarist Hubert Sumelin) could meet Stevie Ray and Jimmy Vaughn, Doug Sahm, the Thunderbirds and a host of other Texas talent- and it worked. Get this DVD. Oops, I said that already, didn’t I.
Illinois Blues - Sunnyland Slim lyrics
Boys, I'm walkin' an thinkin'
Woo-ooo!
But I ain't doin' myself no good
Woo-ooo!
I'm walkin' an thinkin'
Woo!
But I ain't doin' myself no good
Yoo-hoo-hoo!
The one I love
Woo-ooo!
Done left the neighborhood
Well, I hate to hear
Woo!
That Illinois Central, blow
Woo!
I hate to hear
Woo!
That Illinois Central, blow
Woo-hoo!
It fly on just like
Woo!
It won't be back no mo-oh-ore'
'Well, alright let me hear ya, Mr. Davis'
'Play it for me one time'
'You know what I'm talkin' about'
'Lord, have mercy, man have it'
'Lord, have mercy!'
'That low part, Mr. Ransom
You know what I'm talkin' about'
'Play it, man'
'Ah, mercy, mercy, mercy!'
'That makes me get homesick
sho' enough, now'
I wanna tell you people
Woo-ooo!
What the Illinois Central will do
Woo-hoo!
I wanna tell you people
Woo!
What the Illinois Central will do
Woo-hoo!
It'll steal your woman
Woo-hoo!
And blow back after you
I have tried to give up
Woo!
But it's a hard old thing to do
(I'll show you!)
Woo-hoo!
I have tried to give the girl up
Woo!
But it's a hard old thing to do
Woo!
So, I just keep on drinkin', John Davis
Woo!
Because I just can't believe it's through.
DVD Review
Antone’s: Home Of The Blues, Clifford Antone and a huge cast of legendary male and female blues players, old and new, Etc. Film Productions, 2006
Get this DVD. Hold on a minute. Doesn’t this reviewer usually wait until he gives 101reasons why the reader should (or should not) spend time, money and energy on a reviewed item? Get this DVD. Why? This writer has strewn this space with more examples of historically important moments, events or personalities in music and other arts, general human culture and politics than one can shake a stick at. What drives this work is an attempt to give notice to the sometimes unknown (or not well-known) sources and support system for the kind of things that interest him. The blues interests him. And if one views this little gem of a DVD about the efforts of the late Clifford Antone, who for over thirty years was the pivotal figure in the Austin, Texas blues (and other genre) scene, then one will understand what I am trying to get at in these reviews.
Look, these days the popularity of the blues is at one of its lower points. Others forms of entertainment, including the rise and continued dominance of the variants of the hip-hop tradition among the young, the passing or retirement of the post-World War II legendary electric blues players that formed the transmission belt from the early rural blues tradition and dwindling number of us who still value this quintessential form of American music has taken it toll. As this DVD rather graphically, lovingly and with a bit of humor points out the role of “keeper of the flame” is, as they say, a hard dollar.
Yet beginning in 1975 (another low blues point) Clifford Antone and his friends did exactly that. This documentary is filled with the exploits, great and small, that went into that task, including the usual “talking head” commentary that one expects (and here wants) in this kind of documentary). Now “Antone’s” in Austin, Texas does for the blues tradition what the promoters of mountain music in Ashville, North Carolina or the owners of Club Passim (now non-profit) and Caffe Lena’s did for folk music in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Saratoga, New York have done to ‘keep the flame alive’ in these important musical traditions. But even more than that Clifford Antone and friends, seemingly, connected with every important living blues tradition of the last half of the 20th century. There are probably few places in America where the Muddy Waters/Howlin’ Wolf tradition (in the person of legendary guitarist Hubert Sumelin) could meet Stevie Ray and Jimmy Vaughn, Doug Sahm, the Thunderbirds and a host of other Texas talent- and it worked. Get this DVD. Oops, I said that already, didn’t I.
Illinois Blues - Sunnyland Slim lyrics
Boys, I'm walkin' an thinkin'
Woo-ooo!
But I ain't doin' myself no good
Woo-ooo!
I'm walkin' an thinkin'
Woo!
But I ain't doin' myself no good
Yoo-hoo-hoo!
The one I love
Woo-ooo!
Done left the neighborhood
Well, I hate to hear
Woo!
That Illinois Central, blow
Woo!
I hate to hear
Woo!
That Illinois Central, blow
Woo-hoo!
It fly on just like
Woo!
It won't be back no mo-oh-ore'
'Well, alright let me hear ya, Mr. Davis'
'Play it for me one time'
'You know what I'm talkin' about'
'Lord, have mercy, man have it'
'Lord, have mercy!'
'That low part, Mr. Ransom
You know what I'm talkin' about'
'Play it, man'
'Ah, mercy, mercy, mercy!'
'That makes me get homesick
sho' enough, now'
I wanna tell you people
Woo-ooo!
What the Illinois Central will do
Woo-hoo!
I wanna tell you people
Woo!
What the Illinois Central will do
Woo-hoo!
It'll steal your woman
Woo-hoo!
And blow back after you
I have tried to give up
Woo!
But it's a hard old thing to do
(I'll show you!)
Woo-hoo!
I have tried to give the girl up
Woo!
But it's a hard old thing to do
Woo!
So, I just keep on drinkin', John Davis
Woo!
Because I just can't believe it's through.
*Bottom Rail On Top?- Playwright August Wilson's "Seven Guitars"
Click On Title To Link To August Wilson Home page.
Play Review
Seven Guitars (1948), August Wilson, Theater Communications Group, New York, 2007
Okay, blame it on the recently departed Studs Terkel and his damn interview books. I had just been reading his "The Spectator", a compilation of some of his interviews of various authors, actors and other celebrities from his long-running Chicago radio program when I came across an interview that he had with the playwright under review here, August Wilson. Of course, that interview dealt with things near and dear to their hearts on the cultural front and mine as well. Our mutual love of the blues, our concerns about the history and fate of black people and the other oppressed of capitalist society and our need to express ourselves politically in the best way we can. For Studs it was the incessant interviews, for me it is incessant political activity and for the late August Wilson it was his incessant devotion to his century cycle of ten plays that covered a range of black experiences over the 20th century.
Strangely, although I was familiar with the name of the playwright August Wilson and was aware that he had produced a number of plays that were performed at a college-sponsored repertory theater here in Boston I had not seen or read his plays prior to reading the Terkel interview. Naturally when I read there that one of the plays being discussed was entitled "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" about the legendary female blues singer from the 1920's I ran out to get a copy of the play. That play has been reviewed elsewhere in this space but as is my habit when I read an author who "speaks" to me I grab everything I can by him or her to see where they are going with the work. This is doubly true in the case of Brother Wilson as his work is purposefully structured as an integrated cycle, and as an intensive dramatic look at the black historical experience of the 20th century that has driven a lot of my own above-mentioned political activism.
The action of this play takes place in a black neighborhood in Pittsburgh (Wilson's home town) in 1948. This, moreover, is the fifth and thus the middle play in the century cycle. Both these facts are important in understanding the tensions of the play. One of Terkel's oral histories is entitled "The Good War", about the trials and tribulations of those on all sides of the conflict in World War II and from all strata in the American experience of that war. Implicit in Terkel's use of quotation marks around the words in his title is that, on reflection and with time the expectations from that war might not be all they were made out to be. That, at least, jibes with my own sense of the dilemma that confronted those who fought the war. I believe that Wilson also is reflecting on that understanding in this work since some promises were made to black people then that "their boats would also rise" after their key role in industry on the home front and in the ranks of the (segregated) army.
The story line, as seems to be axiomatic with Wilson, is fairly straight forward if the issues presented and the dialogue spoken that convey those issues are much more complex. Army veteran Floyd has some musical talent and heads out to try his luck in the Mecca (for migrating southern blacks)- Chicago and has just had a hit. However, through the well-known vagaries of American racial life, as filtered through common black experience, he hasn't been able to cash in on his success. So, to avoid being the classic `one hit' Johnnie who clutter the cultural landscape of America, Floyd sets out to re-conquer Chicago on his terms- if he can just get that guitar out of hock, get that band together, get that woman (Vera) to believe in him and his ability to succeed and if he can avoid the "cutthroats" (literally) out to cut him down to size all will be well. Floyd fails, and that failure is a metaphor for the black condition in the 1940's. Maybe things will turn out better later but "the dream" is still on hold here. This, my friends, is powerful, powerful stuff beyond what I can describe to you here in this short summary.
Wilson's conceptual framework, as I have mentioned previously in a review of his "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", is impeccable. Placing the scene in 1940's Pittsburgh permits him to give a bird's eye view of that great migration of blacks out of the south in the post-World War I period at a time when they are shaking off those roots (as exemplified by the nice contrast in the play between the old time thinking Miss Tilley's with her ill-fated rooster and Louise and Vera ). Floyd, Red Carter and Canewell, among others (including Ruby, recently arrived from the South) are now "assimilated". Moreover, Wilson is able to succinctly draw in the questions of white racism (powerfully so in the story of Floyd's agent, Mr. T. H. Hall), black self-help , black hatred of whites (Hedley's tirades), black self-hatred, black illusion (that the `lifting' of the white boats was going to end, for blacks, the seemingly permanent Great Depression), black pride (through the link with past black historical figures and with the then current hero, Joe Louis), the influence of the black church (good or bad), black folk wisdom (as portrayed by Canewell, who is more grounded in his memories of his southern roots than the others) and, in the end, the rage behind black on black violence (Hedley) resulting from a world that not was not made by the characters in this play but took no notice of their long suppressed rage that turned in on itself.
And all the time while one is reading the play one is struck by the music of the dialogue, it's always the blues. I posed a question in the review of "Ma Rainey" asking, plaintively, "what are the blues?". That is, apparently, to be my theme in reviewing the body of Brother Wilson's work. I will let the last line of that review stand here. "So if anyone asks you what the blues are you now know what to say- read and see Mr. Wilson's play(s)".
Play Review
Seven Guitars (1948), August Wilson, Theater Communications Group, New York, 2007
Okay, blame it on the recently departed Studs Terkel and his damn interview books. I had just been reading his "The Spectator", a compilation of some of his interviews of various authors, actors and other celebrities from his long-running Chicago radio program when I came across an interview that he had with the playwright under review here, August Wilson. Of course, that interview dealt with things near and dear to their hearts on the cultural front and mine as well. Our mutual love of the blues, our concerns about the history and fate of black people and the other oppressed of capitalist society and our need to express ourselves politically in the best way we can. For Studs it was the incessant interviews, for me it is incessant political activity and for the late August Wilson it was his incessant devotion to his century cycle of ten plays that covered a range of black experiences over the 20th century.
Strangely, although I was familiar with the name of the playwright August Wilson and was aware that he had produced a number of plays that were performed at a college-sponsored repertory theater here in Boston I had not seen or read his plays prior to reading the Terkel interview. Naturally when I read there that one of the plays being discussed was entitled "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" about the legendary female blues singer from the 1920's I ran out to get a copy of the play. That play has been reviewed elsewhere in this space but as is my habit when I read an author who "speaks" to me I grab everything I can by him or her to see where they are going with the work. This is doubly true in the case of Brother Wilson as his work is purposefully structured as an integrated cycle, and as an intensive dramatic look at the black historical experience of the 20th century that has driven a lot of my own above-mentioned political activism.
The action of this play takes place in a black neighborhood in Pittsburgh (Wilson's home town) in 1948. This, moreover, is the fifth and thus the middle play in the century cycle. Both these facts are important in understanding the tensions of the play. One of Terkel's oral histories is entitled "The Good War", about the trials and tribulations of those on all sides of the conflict in World War II and from all strata in the American experience of that war. Implicit in Terkel's use of quotation marks around the words in his title is that, on reflection and with time the expectations from that war might not be all they were made out to be. That, at least, jibes with my own sense of the dilemma that confronted those who fought the war. I believe that Wilson also is reflecting on that understanding in this work since some promises were made to black people then that "their boats would also rise" after their key role in industry on the home front and in the ranks of the (segregated) army.
The story line, as seems to be axiomatic with Wilson, is fairly straight forward if the issues presented and the dialogue spoken that convey those issues are much more complex. Army veteran Floyd has some musical talent and heads out to try his luck in the Mecca (for migrating southern blacks)- Chicago and has just had a hit. However, through the well-known vagaries of American racial life, as filtered through common black experience, he hasn't been able to cash in on his success. So, to avoid being the classic `one hit' Johnnie who clutter the cultural landscape of America, Floyd sets out to re-conquer Chicago on his terms- if he can just get that guitar out of hock, get that band together, get that woman (Vera) to believe in him and his ability to succeed and if he can avoid the "cutthroats" (literally) out to cut him down to size all will be well. Floyd fails, and that failure is a metaphor for the black condition in the 1940's. Maybe things will turn out better later but "the dream" is still on hold here. This, my friends, is powerful, powerful stuff beyond what I can describe to you here in this short summary.
Wilson's conceptual framework, as I have mentioned previously in a review of his "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", is impeccable. Placing the scene in 1940's Pittsburgh permits him to give a bird's eye view of that great migration of blacks out of the south in the post-World War I period at a time when they are shaking off those roots (as exemplified by the nice contrast in the play between the old time thinking Miss Tilley's with her ill-fated rooster and Louise and Vera ). Floyd, Red Carter and Canewell, among others (including Ruby, recently arrived from the South) are now "assimilated". Moreover, Wilson is able to succinctly draw in the questions of white racism (powerfully so in the story of Floyd's agent, Mr. T. H. Hall), black self-help , black hatred of whites (Hedley's tirades), black self-hatred, black illusion (that the `lifting' of the white boats was going to end, for blacks, the seemingly permanent Great Depression), black pride (through the link with past black historical figures and with the then current hero, Joe Louis), the influence of the black church (good or bad), black folk wisdom (as portrayed by Canewell, who is more grounded in his memories of his southern roots than the others) and, in the end, the rage behind black on black violence (Hedley) resulting from a world that not was not made by the characters in this play but took no notice of their long suppressed rage that turned in on itself.
And all the time while one is reading the play one is struck by the music of the dialogue, it's always the blues. I posed a question in the review of "Ma Rainey" asking, plaintively, "what are the blues?". That is, apparently, to be my theme in reviewing the body of Brother Wilson's work. I will let the last line of that review stand here. "So if anyone asks you what the blues are you now know what to say- read and see Mr. Wilson's play(s)".
Monday, May 18, 2009
*Free Troy Davis- Down With The Death Penalty!
Guest Commentary
This news item is passed on from the Partisan Defense Committee. I add my voice to this chorus. Free Troy Davis! Down With the Death Penalty!
Death Penalty Appeal Denied
Free Troy Davis!
On April 16, a federal appeals court in Atlanta turned down a petition for habeas corpus by Troy Davis, who was framed up and convicted in 1991 for the killing of a cop. Davis, who was just two hours away from execution last September, is again facing legal lynching.
In refusing to even consider the overwhelming evidence of Davis’s innocence, the federal court relied on Bill Clinton’s 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which virtually eliminated the right of habeas corpus appeal for those sentenced to death in state courts. This law has also been the pretext for the federal courts’ refusal to hear evidence of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s innocence. Davis has until May 16 to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the same racist court that refused to consider his case last October. In the 1993 case of Leonel Herrera, the Supreme Court declared that execution of an innocent man did not violate the Constitution. The following May 2 protest letter was sent by the Partisan Defense Committee—a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization associated with the Spartacist League—to Georgia governor George Ervin Perdue.
We are again writing to protest the threatened execution of Troy Anthony Davis. On April 16, in a two to one decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals grotesquely denied Davis’s appeal despite the massive evidence that he is innocent. His legal lynching is now stayed for 30 days, pending an appeal to the pro-death penalty U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Davis’s conviction was based on the testimony of “eyewitnesses” who were intimidated by policemen to falsely implicate him in the death of a white off-duty police officer. Seven of the nine prosecution witnesses have since recanted, several citing police misconduct. Evidence has shown that one of those still maintaining his original testimony is himself a suspect in the killing. The dissenting judge in the recent federal court decision said that the execution of Davis, “in the face of a significant amount of the proffered evidence that may establish his actual innocence,” was “unconscionable.”
Thousands of protests worldwide, including from Amnesty International and the Vatican, have railed against the execution of Troy Davis. The death penalty is cruel and barbaric. In the United States it is the racist legacy of centuries of slavery: it is the lynch rope made legal. We once again demand this racist atrocity be stopped and that Troy Davis be freed.
This news item is passed on from the Partisan Defense Committee. I add my voice to this chorus. Free Troy Davis! Down With the Death Penalty!
Death Penalty Appeal Denied
Free Troy Davis!
On April 16, a federal appeals court in Atlanta turned down a petition for habeas corpus by Troy Davis, who was framed up and convicted in 1991 for the killing of a cop. Davis, who was just two hours away from execution last September, is again facing legal lynching.
In refusing to even consider the overwhelming evidence of Davis’s innocence, the federal court relied on Bill Clinton’s 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which virtually eliminated the right of habeas corpus appeal for those sentenced to death in state courts. This law has also been the pretext for the federal courts’ refusal to hear evidence of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s innocence. Davis has until May 16 to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the same racist court that refused to consider his case last October. In the 1993 case of Leonel Herrera, the Supreme Court declared that execution of an innocent man did not violate the Constitution. The following May 2 protest letter was sent by the Partisan Defense Committee—a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization associated with the Spartacist League—to Georgia governor George Ervin Perdue.
We are again writing to protest the threatened execution of Troy Anthony Davis. On April 16, in a two to one decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals grotesquely denied Davis’s appeal despite the massive evidence that he is innocent. His legal lynching is now stayed for 30 days, pending an appeal to the pro-death penalty U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Davis’s conviction was based on the testimony of “eyewitnesses” who were intimidated by policemen to falsely implicate him in the death of a white off-duty police officer. Seven of the nine prosecution witnesses have since recanted, several citing police misconduct. Evidence has shown that one of those still maintaining his original testimony is himself a suspect in the killing. The dissenting judge in the recent federal court decision said that the execution of Davis, “in the face of a significant amount of the proffered evidence that may establish his actual innocence,” was “unconscionable.”
Thousands of protests worldwide, including from Amnesty International and the Vatican, have railed against the execution of Troy Davis. The death penalty is cruel and barbaric. In the United States it is the racist legacy of centuries of slavery: it is the lynch rope made legal. We once again demand this racist atrocity be stopped and that Troy Davis be freed.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
*Better Days Are Coming?-"Never Should Have Been No Too Early"-Playwright August Wilson's "Fences"
Click On Title to Link To August Wilson Home page.
Play/Book Review
Fences, August Wilson, New American Library, New York, 1986
The first couple of paragraphs of this review have been used as introduction to other August Wilson Century Cycle plays as well.
Okay, blame it on the recently departed Studs Terkel and his damn interview books. I had just been reading his "The Spectator", a compilation of some of his interviews of various authors, actors and other celebrities from his long-running Chicago radio program when I came across an interview that he had with the playwright under review here, August Wilson. Of course, that interview dealt with things near and dear to their hearts on the cultural front and mine as well. Our mutual love of the blues, our concerns about the history and fate of black people and the other oppressed of capitalist society and our need to express ourselves politically in the best way we can. For Studs it was the incessant interviews, for me it is incessant political activity and for the late August Wilson it was his incessant devotion to his century cycle of ten plays that covered a range of black experiences over the 20th century.
Strangely, although I was familiar with the name of the playwright August Wilson and was aware that he had produced a number of plays that were performed at a college-sponsored repertory theater here in Boston I had not seen or read his plays prior to reading the Terkel interview. Naturally when I read there that one of the plays being discussed was entitled "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" about the legendary female blues singer from the 1920's I ran out to get a copy of the play. That play has been reviewed elsewhere in this space but as is my habit when I read an author who "speaks" to me I grab everything I can by him or her to see where they are going with the work. This is doubly true in the case of Brother Wilson as his work is purposefully structured as an integrated cycle, and as an intensive dramatic look at the black historical experience of the 20th century that has driven a lot of my own above-mentioned political activism.
The action of this play takes place in the mid-1950's in a black neighborhood in Pittsburgh (Wilson's home town) as do most of the plays in the cycle. This is the sixth play in the cycle and the first to reflect that notion that some profound changes were in the offing for black people, not all of them good and not all for the better. Both these facts are important in understanding the tensions of the play. Although Wilson's plays are almost exclusively centered in black life as it is lived in the neighborhood the various trials and tribulations of blacks elsewhere are woven into his story line. The white world, for the most part, except as represented by amorphous outside forces that have the access and control of the resources that blacks need to survive and break out of racial isolation are on the sidelines here. And that is as it should be in these plays on the black experience. Moreover, this truly reflects how it has been (and how it still is, notwithstanding the Obamaid) in that outer world.
I labelled this entry with the headline "Better Days Are Coming?" purposefully including the question mark. Surely, some progress toward the goal of racial equality, if not nearly enough, has been made over the last half century since the time period of this play. That is not the question. The real question is posed by the main character, Troy Maxton, who in his time was something of an exceptional baseball player, but who "came too early" to have it change the fortunes of his life. His reply: "ain't nothing should have ever been too early". Wilson hits the nail on the head here. After that remark nothing else really needs to be said.
Wilson's conceptual framework, as I have mentioned previously in a review of his "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", is impeccable. Placing the scene in 1950's Pittsburgh permits him to give a bird's eye view of that great migration of blacks out of the South in the post-World War II period at a time when they are shaking off those old subservient southern roots. Wilson is also able to succinctly draw in the questions of white racism (obliquely here), black self-help (as in building that damn fence) , black hatred of whites, black self-hatred, black illusion (that the `lifting' of the white boats was going to end, for blacks, the seemingly permanent Great Depression), black pride (through the link with past black historical figures and with the then current hero, Jackie Robinson, although Troy has some cutting remarks on the status of that figure), the influence of the black church (good or bad), black folk wisdom (as portrayed by Jim Bono, who is more grounded in his memories of his southern roots than the others) and, in the end, the rage just below the surface of black existence (as portrayed here by Troy's mentally ill brother Gabriel, a character who epitomizes one of the tragic aspects of black male existence) resulting from a world that not was not made by the characters in this play but took no notice of their long suppressed rage that turned in on itself.
Unlike some of the earlier play, however, there is a little ray of hope in the character of Troy's son (by his wife Rose) Cory whose struggle for his own identity with his father and the world is a sub-theme here. As always, if you get a chance go see this play but, please, at least read it. Read the whole cycle.
Play/Book Review
Fences, August Wilson, New American Library, New York, 1986
The first couple of paragraphs of this review have been used as introduction to other August Wilson Century Cycle plays as well.
Okay, blame it on the recently departed Studs Terkel and his damn interview books. I had just been reading his "The Spectator", a compilation of some of his interviews of various authors, actors and other celebrities from his long-running Chicago radio program when I came across an interview that he had with the playwright under review here, August Wilson. Of course, that interview dealt with things near and dear to their hearts on the cultural front and mine as well. Our mutual love of the blues, our concerns about the history and fate of black people and the other oppressed of capitalist society and our need to express ourselves politically in the best way we can. For Studs it was the incessant interviews, for me it is incessant political activity and for the late August Wilson it was his incessant devotion to his century cycle of ten plays that covered a range of black experiences over the 20th century.
Strangely, although I was familiar with the name of the playwright August Wilson and was aware that he had produced a number of plays that were performed at a college-sponsored repertory theater here in Boston I had not seen or read his plays prior to reading the Terkel interview. Naturally when I read there that one of the plays being discussed was entitled "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" about the legendary female blues singer from the 1920's I ran out to get a copy of the play. That play has been reviewed elsewhere in this space but as is my habit when I read an author who "speaks" to me I grab everything I can by him or her to see where they are going with the work. This is doubly true in the case of Brother Wilson as his work is purposefully structured as an integrated cycle, and as an intensive dramatic look at the black historical experience of the 20th century that has driven a lot of my own above-mentioned political activism.
The action of this play takes place in the mid-1950's in a black neighborhood in Pittsburgh (Wilson's home town) as do most of the plays in the cycle. This is the sixth play in the cycle and the first to reflect that notion that some profound changes were in the offing for black people, not all of them good and not all for the better. Both these facts are important in understanding the tensions of the play. Although Wilson's plays are almost exclusively centered in black life as it is lived in the neighborhood the various trials and tribulations of blacks elsewhere are woven into his story line. The white world, for the most part, except as represented by amorphous outside forces that have the access and control of the resources that blacks need to survive and break out of racial isolation are on the sidelines here. And that is as it should be in these plays on the black experience. Moreover, this truly reflects how it has been (and how it still is, notwithstanding the Obamaid) in that outer world.
I labelled this entry with the headline "Better Days Are Coming?" purposefully including the question mark. Surely, some progress toward the goal of racial equality, if not nearly enough, has been made over the last half century since the time period of this play. That is not the question. The real question is posed by the main character, Troy Maxton, who in his time was something of an exceptional baseball player, but who "came too early" to have it change the fortunes of his life. His reply: "ain't nothing should have ever been too early". Wilson hits the nail on the head here. After that remark nothing else really needs to be said.
Wilson's conceptual framework, as I have mentioned previously in a review of his "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", is impeccable. Placing the scene in 1950's Pittsburgh permits him to give a bird's eye view of that great migration of blacks out of the South in the post-World War II period at a time when they are shaking off those old subservient southern roots. Wilson is also able to succinctly draw in the questions of white racism (obliquely here), black self-help (as in building that damn fence) , black hatred of whites, black self-hatred, black illusion (that the `lifting' of the white boats was going to end, for blacks, the seemingly permanent Great Depression), black pride (through the link with past black historical figures and with the then current hero, Jackie Robinson, although Troy has some cutting remarks on the status of that figure), the influence of the black church (good or bad), black folk wisdom (as portrayed by Jim Bono, who is more grounded in his memories of his southern roots than the others) and, in the end, the rage just below the surface of black existence (as portrayed here by Troy's mentally ill brother Gabriel, a character who epitomizes one of the tragic aspects of black male existence) resulting from a world that not was not made by the characters in this play but took no notice of their long suppressed rage that turned in on itself.
Unlike some of the earlier play, however, there is a little ray of hope in the character of Troy's son (by his wife Rose) Cory whose struggle for his own identity with his father and the world is a sub-theme here. As always, if you get a chance go see this play but, please, at least read it. Read the whole cycle.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
*This Is Not Your Father’s War- But It May Be Your Children’s- Obama’s Afghan War
Click On Title For Link To Associated Press Story On Obama's Afghan War Budget.
This Is Not Your Father’s War- But It May Be Your Children’s- Obama’s Afghan War- Vote No With Both Hands On The War Budget!
President withholds torture photos as national security measure. President revives military tribunals. Congress gets ready to pass President’s supplementary Afghan/Iraq war budgets. Correct me if I am wrong but is this May 15, 2008 or May 15, 2009. These are headlines formerly associated with the Cheney/Bush Administration. For those who are ready to shed a few dogmatic illusions the contours of the Age of Obama are starting to come into focus. And it isn’t pretty. The streets are not for dreaming now. Read on.
Commentary
Sometime soon, perhaps as this commentary is being written on Friday May 15, 2007, the Democrat Party-controlled Congress will have passed the latest supplemental war budget appropriations asked for by the Obama Administration (actually more that they asked for, nice right?). I have already noted previously in a commentary earlier this year, as this issue surfaced, that such supplementary war budgets were a hallmark of the …Bush Administration. But we will let that little issue pass because the “big deal” here is how little opposition (and press coverage) there has been now that the “good guys” are in charge. The epitome of such servile non-opposition (Ouch! Sorry for this awkward expression.) is exemplified by the lack on efforts to oppose this war budget by the so-called “anti-war’ Progressive Democratic Caucus. The “highlight” of Democratic opposition centers on a bill by left-liberal Massachusetts Democratic Congressman James McGovern to “require” the Pentagon to come up with an “exit” strategy for Afghanistan by the end of this year. So much for the vaunted parliamentary opposition. Hence the title of the headline of this commentary.
Such innocuous and, frankly, baffling legislation does not even come close to rising to the occasions in the past where the likes of Congressman McGovern at least voted against the war budget. If Congressman McGovern represents the most extreme left expression within the Democratic Party on war issues, and I believe that he does, one hardly needs a crystal ball to realize that the already almost eight year American presence in Afghanistan has just gotten a lot longer. Add to that the recent decisions to have “Shoot first, and let god sort the rest out” General McChrystal replace the old-line armchair General McKiernan and you now know why at the very beginning of this Obama Administration I stated that he has staked his place in history on the outcome of that war. For those who despair that their children will be fighting in Afghanistan I do have a simple solution. Fight around this slogan- Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (and Iraq). Do it for the kids.
********
House Passes War Funds As 51 Democrats Dissent
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 15, 2009
The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it.
Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against his predecessor: escalating a war without a clear exit strategy.
The bill passed 368 to 60, with 200 Democrats and all but nine Republicans supporting it.
Democratic opponents did not attack Obama by name, but some likened his increase of 21,000 troops and billions of dollars to win the war in Afghanistan to President George W. Bush's efforts in Iraq.
"When George Bush was president, I was on this floor saying we need an exit strategy," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). "The same applies with Afghanistan. I'm tired of wars with no deadlines, no exits and no ends."
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who also voted against the bill, said that "this bill simply amplifies and extends failed policies."
The vote came the same day that another part of Obama's security agenda -- closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- drew criticism from his party. The Democratic-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill that includes $50 million to close the prison, as Obama promised during the campaign.
But the measure bans Obama from using the money to bring any of the 241 detainees to the United States, a move that administration officials have suggested might be necessary to get other countries to accept prisoners. The measure also requires the administration present Congress with a detailed plan on closing the prison before the money can be used.
Senate Democratic leaders criticized Obama for not having presented such a plan, as Republicans continue to highlight the issue and accuse the administration of putting Americans at risk with its proposal to bring potential terrorists to the United States.
Obama defended his strategy for Afghanistan in a meeting late last month with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of more than 70 liberal members, many of whom opposed the funding bill. But most House Democrats indicated they want to give Obama's strategy a chance to succeed.
"The questions that were not being asked are now being asked," said Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), who voted for the supplemental funding.
House Democratic leaders refused to back an effort by McGovern and other antiwar legislators that would require Obama to provide Congress a detailed exit strategy for Afghanistan by the end of the year.
Some Democratic senators, particularly Russell Feingold (Wis.), have also criticized Obama's proposal, but the funding is expected to be approved there, possibly as soon as next week. Republicans have said they might oppose increased funding for the International Monetary Fund, a request that has been inserted in the Senate version.
Some liberal activist groups, such as MoveOn.org, which sharply criticized Bush's efforts to increase troops in Iraq two years ago, have said little about Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan.
The failed effort to amend the House bill illustrated the ineffectiveness of some of the House's most liberal members. While the caucus of conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs has effectively blocked some of Obama's proposals, such as a ban on assault weapons, liberal Democrats have struggled with two of their biggest priorities: establishing a commission to investigate allegations of violations by the Bush administration; and greater reductions of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
McGovern said he remains concerned about Obama's policy in Afghanistan but is not sure exactly what he and others could do.
"I like Barack Obama; I thank God he's president; I think he will be a great president," McGovern said. "But sometimes great presidents make mistakes."
This Is Not Your Father’s War- But It May Be Your Children’s- Obama’s Afghan War- Vote No With Both Hands On The War Budget!
President withholds torture photos as national security measure. President revives military tribunals. Congress gets ready to pass President’s supplementary Afghan/Iraq war budgets. Correct me if I am wrong but is this May 15, 2008 or May 15, 2009. These are headlines formerly associated with the Cheney/Bush Administration. For those who are ready to shed a few dogmatic illusions the contours of the Age of Obama are starting to come into focus. And it isn’t pretty. The streets are not for dreaming now. Read on.
Commentary
Sometime soon, perhaps as this commentary is being written on Friday May 15, 2007, the Democrat Party-controlled Congress will have passed the latest supplemental war budget appropriations asked for by the Obama Administration (actually more that they asked for, nice right?). I have already noted previously in a commentary earlier this year, as this issue surfaced, that such supplementary war budgets were a hallmark of the …Bush Administration. But we will let that little issue pass because the “big deal” here is how little opposition (and press coverage) there has been now that the “good guys” are in charge. The epitome of such servile non-opposition (Ouch! Sorry for this awkward expression.) is exemplified by the lack on efforts to oppose this war budget by the so-called “anti-war’ Progressive Democratic Caucus. The “highlight” of Democratic opposition centers on a bill by left-liberal Massachusetts Democratic Congressman James McGovern to “require” the Pentagon to come up with an “exit” strategy for Afghanistan by the end of this year. So much for the vaunted parliamentary opposition. Hence the title of the headline of this commentary.
Such innocuous and, frankly, baffling legislation does not even come close to rising to the occasions in the past where the likes of Congressman McGovern at least voted against the war budget. If Congressman McGovern represents the most extreme left expression within the Democratic Party on war issues, and I believe that he does, one hardly needs a crystal ball to realize that the already almost eight year American presence in Afghanistan has just gotten a lot longer. Add to that the recent decisions to have “Shoot first, and let god sort the rest out” General McChrystal replace the old-line armchair General McKiernan and you now know why at the very beginning of this Obama Administration I stated that he has staked his place in history on the outcome of that war. For those who despair that their children will be fighting in Afghanistan I do have a simple solution. Fight around this slogan- Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops From Afghanistan (and Iraq). Do it for the kids.
********
House Passes War Funds As 51 Democrats Dissent
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 15, 2009
The House passed a bill yesterday that would provide more than $96 billion in funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 Democrats opposed it.
Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against his predecessor: escalating a war without a clear exit strategy.
The bill passed 368 to 60, with 200 Democrats and all but nine Republicans supporting it.
Democratic opponents did not attack Obama by name, but some likened his increase of 21,000 troops and billions of dollars to win the war in Afghanistan to President George W. Bush's efforts in Iraq.
"When George Bush was president, I was on this floor saying we need an exit strategy," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). "The same applies with Afghanistan. I'm tired of wars with no deadlines, no exits and no ends."
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who also voted against the bill, said that "this bill simply amplifies and extends failed policies."
The vote came the same day that another part of Obama's security agenda -- closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- drew criticism from his party. The Democratic-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill that includes $50 million to close the prison, as Obama promised during the campaign.
But the measure bans Obama from using the money to bring any of the 241 detainees to the United States, a move that administration officials have suggested might be necessary to get other countries to accept prisoners. The measure also requires the administration present Congress with a detailed plan on closing the prison before the money can be used.
Senate Democratic leaders criticized Obama for not having presented such a plan, as Republicans continue to highlight the issue and accuse the administration of putting Americans at risk with its proposal to bring potential terrorists to the United States.
Obama defended his strategy for Afghanistan in a meeting late last month with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of more than 70 liberal members, many of whom opposed the funding bill. But most House Democrats indicated they want to give Obama's strategy a chance to succeed.
"The questions that were not being asked are now being asked," said Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), who voted for the supplemental funding.
House Democratic leaders refused to back an effort by McGovern and other antiwar legislators that would require Obama to provide Congress a detailed exit strategy for Afghanistan by the end of the year.
Some Democratic senators, particularly Russell Feingold (Wis.), have also criticized Obama's proposal, but the funding is expected to be approved there, possibly as soon as next week. Republicans have said they might oppose increased funding for the International Monetary Fund, a request that has been inserted in the Senate version.
Some liberal activist groups, such as MoveOn.org, which sharply criticized Bush's efforts to increase troops in Iraq two years ago, have said little about Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan.
The failed effort to amend the House bill illustrated the ineffectiveness of some of the House's most liberal members. While the caucus of conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs has effectively blocked some of Obama's proposals, such as a ban on assault weapons, liberal Democrats have struggled with two of their biggest priorities: establishing a commission to investigate allegations of violations by the Bush administration; and greater reductions of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
McGovern said he remains concerned about Obama's policy in Afghanistan but is not sure exactly what he and others could do.
"I like Barack Obama; I thank God he's president; I think he will be a great president," McGovern said. "But sometimes great presidents make mistakes."
Thursday, May 14, 2009
*Those Oklahoma Hills Back Home- The Cowboy Songs Of Woody Guthrie
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Woody Guthrie Doing "So Long Its Been Good To Know You".
CD REVIEW
Buffalo Skinners: The Asch Recordings, Volume 4, Woody Guthrie, Smithsonian/Folkways, 1999
As I have mentioned on early reviews concerning the music of folklorist Woody Guthrie if any of the older generation, the “Generation of ‘68” needs an introduction to Woody Guthrie then I ask what planet have you been on. Woody’s “This Land Is Your Land” is practically a national anthem (and in some quarters is treated as just that). Not as well known, but which now should be rectified with the production of this fourth volume of Woody’s work from his most prolific Asch Recording period of the 1940’s, is his rather large compilation of Western cowboy-oriented material. This, as the title of this entry notes, reflects those Oklahoma hills back home from whence he came.
Woody as a folklorist, as well as a singer and songwriter, was not interested in the cowboy as created by the movies, especially the one-dimensional one created in the hey day of the cowboy movie in the 1930’s, but the real one. The one who spend many a lonely night out on the trail herding cattle to market; who went hungry and dusty for long periods; and, who was nicked up, kicked up and busted up by man and animal alike. And the one who liked his entertainments short and sweet, a little simple music, a lot of simple liquor and plenty of women on those raucous Saturday nights off the range. Not much room in those tales, either for 1930’s Hollywood or Woody’s for that matter, for the ones portrayed in literature by Larry McMurtry or Cormac McCarthy or on film by “Brokeback Mountain” or those not recognized until much later like those of the black cowboys of the Oklahoma range, but those are stories for another day.
This compilation covers a wide variety of songs that pay honor, justifiably or not, to the norms of the cowboy profession. “Ranger’s Command” and “Buffalo Skinners” give a sense of the hard life on the trail and the pitfalls of ignorant cowboys being taken in by primitive agrarian or industrial capitalists or their agents-and, as in the case, of “Buffalo Skinners” the quick and sure retribution when the rank and file cowboy got his dander up. Songs of the trail and its travails get a workout here, as well, in “Little Dogies” and “Chisholm Trail”. The loneliness of the life and the vagaries of love in such a transient profession are reflected in “Cowboy Waltz” and “Red River Valley”. The theme of ’rough and ready’ justice is revealed in songs like “Slipknot” and “Billy The Kid”. Overall these twenty- six tracks, several of which also have Woody's long time traveling friend Cisco Houston accompanying him(a man whose career and place in the folk pantheon deserves more attention separately), bring to life the ‘real’ cowboy experience as it was known in Woody’s time.
As always with a Smithsonian/Folkways production the CD includes a booklet of copious liner notes that detail, for the folk historian or the novice alike, the history of each song and its genesis. I am always surprised by the insightful detail provided and as much as I know about this milieu always find something new in them. Moreover, the information here provided inevitably details the rather mundane genesis of some very famous songs like “Pretty Boy Floyd”.
Note: I want to address separately the subject of one of Woody’s most famous songs, and perhaps one of the first of his songs that I remember hearing back in the days, the above-mentioned “Pretty Boy Floyd”. I have reviewed Larry McMurtry’s novel of the same title elsewhere in this space. That novel details the actual ‘exploits of this notorious murderer at the tail end of the Old West period (and maybe, really, the post-Old West period). Woody’s version reflects a 1930’s romantic notion of this primordial outlaw as a modern day Robin Hood. Thus, even a realist like Woody, who could write with compassion and wit about the real sufferings of his beloved Okies and others, got caught up in the myths of the Old West that have sustained generations of Americans, including this reviewer, eagerly looking for a heroic past. For all its false premises though, Woody’s “Pretty Boy” has a line that still has a kernel of folk wisdom that is what drew me to the song in the first place-“some men will rob you with a six gun, and some with a fountain pen”. Sounds prophetic, right?
Pretty Boy Floyd
If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.
It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.
There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.
Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.
Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.
But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.
Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.
It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:
Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.
Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
CD REVIEW
Buffalo Skinners: The Asch Recordings, Volume 4, Woody Guthrie, Smithsonian/Folkways, 1999
As I have mentioned on early reviews concerning the music of folklorist Woody Guthrie if any of the older generation, the “Generation of ‘68” needs an introduction to Woody Guthrie then I ask what planet have you been on. Woody’s “This Land Is Your Land” is practically a national anthem (and in some quarters is treated as just that). Not as well known, but which now should be rectified with the production of this fourth volume of Woody’s work from his most prolific Asch Recording period of the 1940’s, is his rather large compilation of Western cowboy-oriented material. This, as the title of this entry notes, reflects those Oklahoma hills back home from whence he came.
Woody as a folklorist, as well as a singer and songwriter, was not interested in the cowboy as created by the movies, especially the one-dimensional one created in the hey day of the cowboy movie in the 1930’s, but the real one. The one who spend many a lonely night out on the trail herding cattle to market; who went hungry and dusty for long periods; and, who was nicked up, kicked up and busted up by man and animal alike. And the one who liked his entertainments short and sweet, a little simple music, a lot of simple liquor and plenty of women on those raucous Saturday nights off the range. Not much room in those tales, either for 1930’s Hollywood or Woody’s for that matter, for the ones portrayed in literature by Larry McMurtry or Cormac McCarthy or on film by “Brokeback Mountain” or those not recognized until much later like those of the black cowboys of the Oklahoma range, but those are stories for another day.
This compilation covers a wide variety of songs that pay honor, justifiably or not, to the norms of the cowboy profession. “Ranger’s Command” and “Buffalo Skinners” give a sense of the hard life on the trail and the pitfalls of ignorant cowboys being taken in by primitive agrarian or industrial capitalists or their agents-and, as in the case, of “Buffalo Skinners” the quick and sure retribution when the rank and file cowboy got his dander up. Songs of the trail and its travails get a workout here, as well, in “Little Dogies” and “Chisholm Trail”. The loneliness of the life and the vagaries of love in such a transient profession are reflected in “Cowboy Waltz” and “Red River Valley”. The theme of ’rough and ready’ justice is revealed in songs like “Slipknot” and “Billy The Kid”. Overall these twenty- six tracks, several of which also have Woody's long time traveling friend Cisco Houston accompanying him(a man whose career and place in the folk pantheon deserves more attention separately), bring to life the ‘real’ cowboy experience as it was known in Woody’s time.
As always with a Smithsonian/Folkways production the CD includes a booklet of copious liner notes that detail, for the folk historian or the novice alike, the history of each song and its genesis. I am always surprised by the insightful detail provided and as much as I know about this milieu always find something new in them. Moreover, the information here provided inevitably details the rather mundane genesis of some very famous songs like “Pretty Boy Floyd”.
Note: I want to address separately the subject of one of Woody’s most famous songs, and perhaps one of the first of his songs that I remember hearing back in the days, the above-mentioned “Pretty Boy Floyd”. I have reviewed Larry McMurtry’s novel of the same title elsewhere in this space. That novel details the actual ‘exploits of this notorious murderer at the tail end of the Old West period (and maybe, really, the post-Old West period). Woody’s version reflects a 1930’s romantic notion of this primordial outlaw as a modern day Robin Hood. Thus, even a realist like Woody, who could write with compassion and wit about the real sufferings of his beloved Okies and others, got caught up in the myths of the Old West that have sustained generations of Americans, including this reviewer, eagerly looking for a heroic past. For all its false premises though, Woody’s “Pretty Boy” has a line that still has a kernel of folk wisdom that is what drew me to the song in the first place-“some men will rob you with a six gun, and some with a fountain pen”. Sounds prophetic, right?
Pretty Boy Floyd
If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.
It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.
There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.
Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.
Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.
But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.
Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.
It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:
Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.
Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
*An Encore, The "Jelly Roll Baker" Is In The House- The Blues Of Lonnie Johnson
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Lonnie Johnson Doing "Blackbird Blues".
CD REVIEWS
Ballads and Blues, Lonnie Johnson and Elmer Snowden, Vanguard Records, 1960
Okay, Okay those of you who have been keeping tabs know that I have spend much of the last year, when not doing political commentary or book or movie reviews, reviewing many of the old time blues artists that were the passion of my youth (and still are). So this writer, who thought he had heard virtually all the key blues men and women of the old days, got his comeuppance recently when the name of Lonnie Johnson and his version of the classic double-entendre "Jelly Roll Baker" came up. To name drop just a little, the occasion was a local reunion of Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin of the old Jim Kweskin Jug Band from the 1960’s (that also included Geoff’s ex-wife and great performer in her own right, Maria Muldaur). They did a stirring rendition of the song and attributed it to the performer under review here. After scratching my head I ran out to get some more of Brother Lonnie’s work and I am here to tell you- get this CD because if you have any interest at all in the blues you will not be disappointed.
Why this particular album to start out with? Well, it features Lonnie Johnson and long time friend Elmer Snowden together for the first time although early on (back in the 1920’s) they had worked together on some blues and jazz albums. That is, perhaps, why this work is interesting as an example of that closeness between the jazz and blues idioms before those musical forms parted ways sometime in the late 1940’s. As others have mentioned Johnson, the father of single-note six-string soloing, is in a strangely haunting voice on this selection of blues, ballads, and jazz, crooning the double-entendre "Jelly Roll Baker" and the heartache-laden "Back Water Blues". I cannot add much to that description except you cannot go wrong by giving Haunted House, the first cut, a listen. That sets the mood. Finally, let me say WOW!
"Why Should I Grieve After You're Gone (1927)"
After you're gone, I'm left all alone.
Just feeling blue, all depending on you.
Not even the telephone, it don't ring anymore.
Not even the sun that shines, don't shine in my door anymore.
Since youâ've been gone away, many a million miles away.
I will give you a million smiles a day, to keep your blues away.
As the sun go down, and the wrong news, no play.
As the time goes lower and lower and lower, there's only you.
While I'm feeling blue, just feeling blue.
I would be happy today, but it all depends on you.
As the sun go down, and sinks behind the trees.
And just before it falls, I will answer to your calls.
When you're a million, million miles away, I will give you a million smiles a day.
That's because I love you, and wants to keep your blues away.
"Big Leg Woman"
Yes, I've got me a big legged woman, that solid rocks my soul
Yes, I've got me a big legged woman, that solid rocks my soul
And every time she turns the lights down low, Jack that's when I give up all my gold
She's so fine, she's so mellow, the rest I can't explain
Yes, she's so fine, she's so mellow, rest I can't explain
Way my baby stacked up, it's enough to drive the average cat insane
Yes, she's got great big legs, so pleasin' on the eye
Yes, she's got those great big legs, so pleasin' on the eye
And the preacher walked by, turned around and looked, Jack and hollered "My, my, my!"
She's got those big brown eyes, yes and she's somethin' really fine
Yes, she's got those big brown eyes, Jack she's somethin' really fine
And the best part about it, Jack she's mine, all mine!
"Cat You Been Messin' Around"
Now look here woman, you done lost your mind,
this is not my child, you bring me a better line
'Cause there's something wrong, woman don't start that lies there's something wrong
I never had such mix-ups in my family, since I was born
First it's loop-footin', and its head is long
And it's been half nuts ever since you brought it back home
So there's something wrong, I mean there's something wrong
Oh, take it back where you got it, woman 'cause depression is on
Now his eyes is blue, and his hair's brown
You know darn well you've been messin' around
So take that lie off of me, I mean take that lie off of me
Woman you had a twelve-month vacation, so don't put that lie on me
Now his head is nappy, and his feets is long, his eyes is crossed, and his sight is gone
You know there's something wrong, yes, woman there's something wrong
I never had nothing like that in my family, woman since I was born
Now I said it wasn't my child and you argued me down,
now my eyes ain't blue and my hair ain't brown
Woman you've been messin' around, yes,woman you've been messin' around
So woman get out of my face, or I take my fist and knock you down
"Low Down St. Louis Blues"
I love my St. Louis women, but their ways I really can't stand
I love my St. Louis women, but their ways I really can't stand
They always bettin' some woman, how she can take her man
My woman dips snuff
, and she drinks a good old homemade corn
My woman dips her snuff, and she drinks a good old homemade corn
She get as drunk as she can be, then she fight for the whole night long
And I got another gal, live down on Deep Morgan Street
And I got another gal, she lives down on Deep Morgan Street
If she don't kill a man every day, all I can do is to keep 'r off of me
She drinks her homemade corn whiskey, blackjack and a razor's her friend
She drinks her homemade corn whiskey, a blackjack and a razor's her friend
And she loves to kill a man, just like the devil loves sin
Boys I got another gal, she lives down on Walnut Street
Boys I got another gal, she lives down on Walnut Street
My other gal is so bad, the cops is scared to walk the beat
She can make a blackjack talk and a razor fairly moan
She can make a blackjack talk and a razor fairly moan
From the way that gal kill up men, the graveyard ain't got much more room
"Dont Drive Me From Your Door"
Just look how it's rainin', my feet's on the ground
Just look how it's rainin', and my poor feet's on the ground
For the woman I've made happy, well she's after every man in town
Friends please open your door, and don't drive me away
Please open your door, and don't drive me away
The rent man has put me outdoors, and I've got no place to stay
Let me stay here tonight, it's ice all on the ground
Let me stay here tonight, it's ice all over the ground
Cause I'm motherless and I'm fatherless, and please don't turn me down
When I had plenty money, I had friends all over town
When I had plenty of money, I had friends all over town
But just as soon as I got outdoors, none of my friends could be found
After mother and father's gone, a dollar's your right-hand friend
After mother and father's gone, dollar's your right-hand friend
Then after your last dollar's gone, you're like a road that has no end
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, lord where will I go
I'm beggin' you my friend, don't drive me from your door
I cannot sleep on the ground, there's nothing but ice and snow
Jelly Roll Baker
She said, 'Mr. Jellyroll Baker
Let me be your slave
When Gabriel blows his trumpet
Then I'll rise from my grave
For some-a your jellyro-oll
Yes, I love a good jellyroll'
It is good for the sick
Yes, and it's good for the old'
I was sentenced for murder
In the 1st degree
*The judge's wife called up and says
'Let that man go free'
He's a jellyroll baker
He's got the best jellyroll in town
He's the only man can bake jellyroll
With his damper down
Once in a hospital
Shot all full-a holes
The nurse left the man dyin'
An says he's got to get her jellyroll
His good old jell-e-e-y
She says, 'I love my good jellyroll'
She says, 'I ruther let him lose his life
Than to miss my good jellyroll'
Lady asked me who learnt me
How to bake good jellyroll?
I says, 'It's nobody, Miss
'It's just a gift from my soul'
To bake good jellyro-oll
Mmm-mmm, that good ol' jellyroll
She says, 'I love your jellyroll
It do's me good deep down in my soul
She says, 'Can I put in a order
For two weeks ahead?
I'd ruther have your jelly-roll
Than my home-cooked bread'
I love your jell-e-e-y
I love your good jellyroll
It's just like Maxwell House Coffee
It's good, deep down in my soul.
CD REVIEWS
Ballads and Blues, Lonnie Johnson and Elmer Snowden, Vanguard Records, 1960
Okay, Okay those of you who have been keeping tabs know that I have spend much of the last year, when not doing political commentary or book or movie reviews, reviewing many of the old time blues artists that were the passion of my youth (and still are). So this writer, who thought he had heard virtually all the key blues men and women of the old days, got his comeuppance recently when the name of Lonnie Johnson and his version of the classic double-entendre "Jelly Roll Baker" came up. To name drop just a little, the occasion was a local reunion of Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin of the old Jim Kweskin Jug Band from the 1960’s (that also included Geoff’s ex-wife and great performer in her own right, Maria Muldaur). They did a stirring rendition of the song and attributed it to the performer under review here. After scratching my head I ran out to get some more of Brother Lonnie’s work and I am here to tell you- get this CD because if you have any interest at all in the blues you will not be disappointed.
Why this particular album to start out with? Well, it features Lonnie Johnson and long time friend Elmer Snowden together for the first time although early on (back in the 1920’s) they had worked together on some blues and jazz albums. That is, perhaps, why this work is interesting as an example of that closeness between the jazz and blues idioms before those musical forms parted ways sometime in the late 1940’s. As others have mentioned Johnson, the father of single-note six-string soloing, is in a strangely haunting voice on this selection of blues, ballads, and jazz, crooning the double-entendre "Jelly Roll Baker" and the heartache-laden "Back Water Blues". I cannot add much to that description except you cannot go wrong by giving Haunted House, the first cut, a listen. That sets the mood. Finally, let me say WOW!
"Why Should I Grieve After You're Gone (1927)"
After you're gone, I'm left all alone.
Just feeling blue, all depending on you.
Not even the telephone, it don't ring anymore.
Not even the sun that shines, don't shine in my door anymore.
Since youâ've been gone away, many a million miles away.
I will give you a million smiles a day, to keep your blues away.
As the sun go down, and the wrong news, no play.
As the time goes lower and lower and lower, there's only you.
While I'm feeling blue, just feeling blue.
I would be happy today, but it all depends on you.
As the sun go down, and sinks behind the trees.
And just before it falls, I will answer to your calls.
When you're a million, million miles away, I will give you a million smiles a day.
That's because I love you, and wants to keep your blues away.
"Big Leg Woman"
Yes, I've got me a big legged woman, that solid rocks my soul
Yes, I've got me a big legged woman, that solid rocks my soul
And every time she turns the lights down low, Jack that's when I give up all my gold
She's so fine, she's so mellow, the rest I can't explain
Yes, she's so fine, she's so mellow, rest I can't explain
Way my baby stacked up, it's enough to drive the average cat insane
Yes, she's got great big legs, so pleasin' on the eye
Yes, she's got those great big legs, so pleasin' on the eye
And the preacher walked by, turned around and looked, Jack and hollered "My, my, my!"
She's got those big brown eyes, yes and she's somethin' really fine
Yes, she's got those big brown eyes, Jack she's somethin' really fine
And the best part about it, Jack she's mine, all mine!
"Cat You Been Messin' Around"
Now look here woman, you done lost your mind,
this is not my child, you bring me a better line
'Cause there's something wrong, woman don't start that lies there's something wrong
I never had such mix-ups in my family, since I was born
First it's loop-footin', and its head is long
And it's been half nuts ever since you brought it back home
So there's something wrong, I mean there's something wrong
Oh, take it back where you got it, woman 'cause depression is on
Now his eyes is blue, and his hair's brown
You know darn well you've been messin' around
So take that lie off of me, I mean take that lie off of me
Woman you had a twelve-month vacation, so don't put that lie on me
Now his head is nappy, and his feets is long, his eyes is crossed, and his sight is gone
You know there's something wrong, yes, woman there's something wrong
I never had nothing like that in my family, woman since I was born
Now I said it wasn't my child and you argued me down,
now my eyes ain't blue and my hair ain't brown
Woman you've been messin' around, yes,woman you've been messin' around
So woman get out of my face, or I take my fist and knock you down
"Low Down St. Louis Blues"
I love my St. Louis women, but their ways I really can't stand
I love my St. Louis women, but their ways I really can't stand
They always bettin' some woman, how she can take her man
My woman dips snuff
, and she drinks a good old homemade corn
My woman dips her snuff, and she drinks a good old homemade corn
She get as drunk as she can be, then she fight for the whole night long
And I got another gal, live down on Deep Morgan Street
And I got another gal, she lives down on Deep Morgan Street
If she don't kill a man every day, all I can do is to keep 'r off of me
She drinks her homemade corn whiskey, blackjack and a razor's her friend
She drinks her homemade corn whiskey, a blackjack and a razor's her friend
And she loves to kill a man, just like the devil loves sin
Boys I got another gal, she lives down on Walnut Street
Boys I got another gal, she lives down on Walnut Street
My other gal is so bad, the cops is scared to walk the beat
She can make a blackjack talk and a razor fairly moan
She can make a blackjack talk and a razor fairly moan
From the way that gal kill up men, the graveyard ain't got much more room
"Dont Drive Me From Your Door"
Just look how it's rainin', my feet's on the ground
Just look how it's rainin', and my poor feet's on the ground
For the woman I've made happy, well she's after every man in town
Friends please open your door, and don't drive me away
Please open your door, and don't drive me away
The rent man has put me outdoors, and I've got no place to stay
Let me stay here tonight, it's ice all on the ground
Let me stay here tonight, it's ice all over the ground
Cause I'm motherless and I'm fatherless, and please don't turn me down
When I had plenty money, I had friends all over town
When I had plenty of money, I had friends all over town
But just as soon as I got outdoors, none of my friends could be found
After mother and father's gone, a dollar's your right-hand friend
After mother and father's gone, dollar's your right-hand friend
Then after your last dollar's gone, you're like a road that has no end
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, lord where will I go
I'm beggin' you my friend, don't drive me from your door
I cannot sleep on the ground, there's nothing but ice and snow
Jelly Roll Baker
She said, 'Mr. Jellyroll Baker
Let me be your slave
When Gabriel blows his trumpet
Then I'll rise from my grave
For some-a your jellyro-oll
Yes, I love a good jellyroll'
It is good for the sick
Yes, and it's good for the old'
I was sentenced for murder
In the 1st degree
*The judge's wife called up and says
'Let that man go free'
He's a jellyroll baker
He's got the best jellyroll in town
He's the only man can bake jellyroll
With his damper down
Once in a hospital
Shot all full-a holes
The nurse left the man dyin'
An says he's got to get her jellyroll
His good old jell-e-e-y
She says, 'I love my good jellyroll'
She says, 'I ruther let him lose his life
Than to miss my good jellyroll'
Lady asked me who learnt me
How to bake good jellyroll?
I says, 'It's nobody, Miss
'It's just a gift from my soul'
To bake good jellyro-oll
Mmm-mmm, that good ol' jellyroll
She says, 'I love your jellyroll
It do's me good deep down in my soul
She says, 'Can I put in a order
For two weeks ahead?
I'd ruther have your jelly-roll
Than my home-cooked bread'
I love your jell-e-e-y
I love your good jellyroll
It's just like Maxwell House Coffee
It's good, deep down in my soul.
*The "Jelly Roll Baker" Is In The House- The Blues Of Lonnie Johnson
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Lonnie Johnson Doing "Got The Blues For Murder Only".
CD REVIEW
Steppin’ The Blues, Lonnie Johnson, Columbia Records, 1990.
Parts of the following have been used in a review of Lonnie Johnson Blues and Ballads CD (hereafter B&B).
Okay, Okay those of you who have been keeping tabs know that I have spend much of the last year, when not doing political commentary or book or movie reviews, reviewing many of the old time blues artists that were the passion of my youth (and still are). So this writer, who thought he had heard virtually all the key blues men and women of the old days, got his comeuppance a while back when the name of Lonnie Johnson and his version of the classic double-entendre song “Jelly Roll Baker” came up. To name drop just a little, the occasion was a local reunion of Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin of the old Jim Kweskin Jug Band from the 1960’s (that also included Geoff’s ex-wife and great performer in her own right, Maria Muldaur). They did a stirring rendition of the song and attributed it to the performer under review here. After scratching my head I ran out to get some more of Brother Lonnie’s work and as noted above I have fulsomely praised his B&B CD in this space.
Although this CD has merit musically and certainly has historical worth as a comparison of young Lonnie Johnson in the 1920’s to the later B&B Lonnie this is one time when aging seems to have created a better body of work. A comparison of “I’m Nuts About That Gal” (really an early version of his classic “Jelly Roll Baker”) and the “Jelly Roll Baker” of the B&B make my point succinctly. That said, the noted Johnson guitar work is highlighted on “Guitar Blues”, the novelty sassy song in two parts “Toothache Blues” and “Deep Blue Sea Blues”. That is why you want this album.
CD REVIEW
Steppin’ The Blues, Lonnie Johnson, Columbia Records, 1990.
Parts of the following have been used in a review of Lonnie Johnson Blues and Ballads CD (hereafter B&B).
Okay, Okay those of you who have been keeping tabs know that I have spend much of the last year, when not doing political commentary or book or movie reviews, reviewing many of the old time blues artists that were the passion of my youth (and still are). So this writer, who thought he had heard virtually all the key blues men and women of the old days, got his comeuppance a while back when the name of Lonnie Johnson and his version of the classic double-entendre song “Jelly Roll Baker” came up. To name drop just a little, the occasion was a local reunion of Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin of the old Jim Kweskin Jug Band from the 1960’s (that also included Geoff’s ex-wife and great performer in her own right, Maria Muldaur). They did a stirring rendition of the song and attributed it to the performer under review here. After scratching my head I ran out to get some more of Brother Lonnie’s work and as noted above I have fulsomely praised his B&B CD in this space.
Although this CD has merit musically and certainly has historical worth as a comparison of young Lonnie Johnson in the 1920’s to the later B&B Lonnie this is one time when aging seems to have created a better body of work. A comparison of “I’m Nuts About That Gal” (really an early version of his classic “Jelly Roll Baker”) and the “Jelly Roll Baker” of the B&B make my point succinctly. That said, the noted Johnson guitar work is highlighted on “Guitar Blues”, the novelty sassy song in two parts “Toothache Blues” and “Deep Blue Sea Blues”. That is why you want this album.
Friday, May 08, 2009
*The Zen Of Golf And The Struggle For Socialism
Click On Title To Link To United States Golf Association web site. That is the golf part. The Zen and Socialism part you are on your own.
Commentary
Has old Markin finally gone off the deep end? Golf, Zen and socialism under the same headline. What gives? What gives is this. It is spring time in New England when a man’s thoughts (or at least this man’s thoughts) turn to the need to get to the great outdoor. To commune with nature. To smell the roses. In short, to get to the local public golf course and tempt fate and incur the ire of the golf gods. For those of a certain age though this thought may seem to place me in the category of “counter-revolutionary” Trotskyites that I have, more than once in my life, been accused of being. Why?
Back in the days, in the late 1960’s, “when to be young was very heaven” those of us who considered ourselves either politically or culturally radical would probably have heartily endorsed the slogan “burn down the country clubs”. And we would not have been too far off then, or now. The late Wobblie folk singer/songwriter Utah Phillips has spun more than one on-target line about the usual denizens of such haunts. Golf and its earliest manifestations in a conservative country club ethos were the stuff of bourgeois life, leisure and status and begged to be made fun of. The novelist John O’Hara made a literary career in the mid-20th century writing of the foibles and follies of the mainly conservative and status conscious American country club set, most notably in “Appointment In Samarra” That book is still a good read to get the feel of being trapped in that world. More recently and vividly the Ponzi artist supreme, Bernard Madoff, worked his financial ‘magic’ among a more contemporary section of that set down in Palm Beach, Florida.
All the above points are very true. As far as they go in our hatred of the ethos of the country club set. There is another aspect, however, that ‘corrects’ our youthful misunderstanding of the aims of socialism, our capacity to fight for it and our staying power in that struggle. I do not know if it was the old, somewhat dour, picture of what a Bolshevik existence was to be like that colored our perceptions, handed down by the old time Stalinists (except, of course, the conduct of the privileged bureaucrats). Or if it was the pressure to seem to be “at one” with the workers by scorning various bourgeois lifestyle traditions but somewhere along the line the sense of the need for more opportunities for rest and relaxation rather than less got thrown by the wayside. To the contrary the idea of socialism, at least any socialism worth fighting for and asking others to fight for as well, is to increase socially useful productive capacity, redistribute goods more equitably and thus allow for greater free time for creative activities. Or just hit golf balls, if one so desires.
Although, admittedly, we are far away from that socialist goal today those who fight under the banner of socialism need to keep some balance in their lives in order to stay with the struggle. Thus, a certified revolutionary leader like Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx’ life long co-thinker, liked to fox hunt while in his British exile. While I fully support Oscar Wilde’s comment about the ‘virtues’ of that endeavor that was Engels’ “thing”. The Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, after Vladimir Lenin the best and most well-known Bolshevik, liked to hunt, fish and later in life collect cacti. None of those hobbies are particularly associated with strictly proletarian social interests. In short, other than some patently illegal or outrageous activity, one’s personal forms of relaxation are no one’s concern. That, moreover, is probably the secret to the staying power of these great revolutionaries mentioned above. They were in it for the long haul and balanced their personal lives accordingly.
But why golf rather than, let us say, bowling or stamp collecting? Well, go back to that first paragraph about communing with nature. Most golf courses located near urban centers offer interesting natural sites like woods, ponds and sand that one can become very familiar with if one’s golf ball goes astray. Moreover, nobody should object to getting a little walking in and to get out in the sunshine and away from the damn computer for a bit. But here is the Zen part. For this average golfer there is nothing like hitting a golf shot from about 150 yards away and having it land on the green (the target area for the shot for those who do not know the game). That is what now passes for “very heaven”. And then make the putt (put it in the hole). Nirvana.
Commentary
Has old Markin finally gone off the deep end? Golf, Zen and socialism under the same headline. What gives? What gives is this. It is spring time in New England when a man’s thoughts (or at least this man’s thoughts) turn to the need to get to the great outdoor. To commune with nature. To smell the roses. In short, to get to the local public golf course and tempt fate and incur the ire of the golf gods. For those of a certain age though this thought may seem to place me in the category of “counter-revolutionary” Trotskyites that I have, more than once in my life, been accused of being. Why?
Back in the days, in the late 1960’s, “when to be young was very heaven” those of us who considered ourselves either politically or culturally radical would probably have heartily endorsed the slogan “burn down the country clubs”. And we would not have been too far off then, or now. The late Wobblie folk singer/songwriter Utah Phillips has spun more than one on-target line about the usual denizens of such haunts. Golf and its earliest manifestations in a conservative country club ethos were the stuff of bourgeois life, leisure and status and begged to be made fun of. The novelist John O’Hara made a literary career in the mid-20th century writing of the foibles and follies of the mainly conservative and status conscious American country club set, most notably in “Appointment In Samarra” That book is still a good read to get the feel of being trapped in that world. More recently and vividly the Ponzi artist supreme, Bernard Madoff, worked his financial ‘magic’ among a more contemporary section of that set down in Palm Beach, Florida.
All the above points are very true. As far as they go in our hatred of the ethos of the country club set. There is another aspect, however, that ‘corrects’ our youthful misunderstanding of the aims of socialism, our capacity to fight for it and our staying power in that struggle. I do not know if it was the old, somewhat dour, picture of what a Bolshevik existence was to be like that colored our perceptions, handed down by the old time Stalinists (except, of course, the conduct of the privileged bureaucrats). Or if it was the pressure to seem to be “at one” with the workers by scorning various bourgeois lifestyle traditions but somewhere along the line the sense of the need for more opportunities for rest and relaxation rather than less got thrown by the wayside. To the contrary the idea of socialism, at least any socialism worth fighting for and asking others to fight for as well, is to increase socially useful productive capacity, redistribute goods more equitably and thus allow for greater free time for creative activities. Or just hit golf balls, if one so desires.
Although, admittedly, we are far away from that socialist goal today those who fight under the banner of socialism need to keep some balance in their lives in order to stay with the struggle. Thus, a certified revolutionary leader like Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx’ life long co-thinker, liked to fox hunt while in his British exile. While I fully support Oscar Wilde’s comment about the ‘virtues’ of that endeavor that was Engels’ “thing”. The Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, after Vladimir Lenin the best and most well-known Bolshevik, liked to hunt, fish and later in life collect cacti. None of those hobbies are particularly associated with strictly proletarian social interests. In short, other than some patently illegal or outrageous activity, one’s personal forms of relaxation are no one’s concern. That, moreover, is probably the secret to the staying power of these great revolutionaries mentioned above. They were in it for the long haul and balanced their personal lives accordingly.
But why golf rather than, let us say, bowling or stamp collecting? Well, go back to that first paragraph about communing with nature. Most golf courses located near urban centers offer interesting natural sites like woods, ponds and sand that one can become very familiar with if one’s golf ball goes astray. Moreover, nobody should object to getting a little walking in and to get out in the sunshine and away from the damn computer for a bit. But here is the Zen part. For this average golfer there is nothing like hitting a golf shot from about 150 yards away and having it land on the green (the target area for the shot for those who do not know the game). That is what now passes for “very heaven”. And then make the putt (put it in the hole). Nirvana.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
*From The Archives Of "Women And Revolution"-Down with the Reactionary Anti-Porn Crusade!
Click on the headline to link to a Website featuring the paintings, nude and non-nude of the great artist, Titian. Close your eyes if you are offended by the nudes. Okay.
Markin comment:
The following is an article from the Spring 1985 issue of "Women and Revolution" that may have some historical interest for old "new leftists", perhaps, and well as for younger militants interested in various cultural and social questions that intersect the class struggle. Or for those just interested in a Marxist position on a series of social questions that are thrust upon us by the vagaries of bourgeois society. I will be posting more such articles from the back issues of "Women and Revolution" during Women's History Month and periodically throughout the year.
**********
Down with the Reactionary Anti-Porn Crusade!
Granddaughters of Carry Nation in Bed with Jerry Falwell
Reprinted from Young Spartacus No. 123, December 1984/January 1985
MADISON— Formerly a hotbed of campus protest, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's "radical" reputation has given way in large part to smug, "me generation" liberalism. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), scabs on the anti-Vietnam War movement, carry a lot of weight in city and county government. With prudery that suits Madison's Protestant environs, "alternative" lifestylism has been institutionalized. You will live a wholesome life. Some manifestations are just plain silly: Madison was declared a "nuclear-free zone" and sandwiches come with beansprouts whether you order them or not. Some are absolutely infuriating: liquor stores close, at 9:00 p.m. and you can't buy cigarettes anywhere on the huge UW campus.
The latest target for moral uplift of the community is pornography—Penthouse and Playboy have been pulled from the Student Union newsstand on the dubious grounds of "low circulation." DSAer Kathleen Nichols, a Dane County supervisor, is proposing legislation modeled on Andrea Dworkin's Minneapolis ordinance to make pornography a civil rights violation. Material in which "people" are "reduced to body parts," "presented in postures of sexual submission" or "presented as whores by nature" would be outlawed (Badger-Herald, 8 November 1984)! Under this law, you can't consent to buy, sell, photograph or pose for pornographic pictures. As the Badger-Herald commented, "Groups normally in solidarity, such as pseudo-feminists and homosexuals, are at odds. Groups normally in opposition, such as pseudo-feminists and the local fundamentalist ministers, support the ordinance." Talk about obscene!
We print below a slightly edited version of the Spartacus Youth League statement submitted to the Madison Isthmus and UW Daily Cardinal. It appeared in a shortened version in the Isthmus (16 November 1984) while the Cardinal has refused to publish it.
Contrary to prevailing liberal opinion, Madison is part of Reagan's USA, albeit with a twist. Witness the New Right's drive to "clean up America." It's going strong in Madison. There's legislation to ban dirty pictures. On 19 October 1984, demonstrators picketed at a State Street porno store; someone stenciled "Burn Me Down" on the wall—and they mean it. Rampaging fundamentalists? Nope. This particular anti-sex crusade is led by Madison's "alternative" to the Army of God— the "radical" feminists.
Finding Robin Morgan in bed with Jerry Falwell may surprise some who thought feminism had something to do with women's liberation. After all, the '60s feminists posed as right-on revolutionaries. They rejected "male-defined" sex roles, denounced "family values" as scams to keep women isolated, dependent, condemned to domestic servitude. They worried about racism and poor people. But the feminists never opposed the oppressive capitalist system itself: their "program" consists of escapist lifestylism, "consciousness raising," "women's" vegetarian co-ops. That's why the feminist "movement" didn't move. It remained confined to rarefied microcosms like Madison, lily-white and middle-class.
What's left of the "movement" no longer even worries about real human oppression. While the feminists are busy trying to stamp out fishnet stockings and high heels, genuine assaults on women's rights go unanswered. Legalized abortion is seriously threatened; abortion clinics get firebombed, their patients harassed, but you don't hear a peep from the feminists. Then there's the case of Patricia Ridge—a single, black, working mother. Last year her five-year-old son was shot pointblank in her bedroom in a Los Angeles-area housing project by a white cop. The cop got off, but a grand jury tried to charge her with everything from child neglect to Murder Two. The Marxist Spartacist League came to her defense. But the organized feminists did nothing. For them, "women's oppression" equals nude photos: they're blind to real class and race oppression facing working-class and black women.
This "Take Back the Night" crusade is a slice of middle America at its worst—about as progressive as forbidding sex education. It dovetails with the current incitement of every backward, sexist, racist, jingoistic prejudice of American society in preparation for war against the USSR. The Democrats and Republicans have been humming "Onward Christian Soldiers" since Cold War II began under born-again Jimmy Carter; with Reagan the crusade has reached new lows. They both want a "prepared" society with social relations straight out of "Leave It To Beaver." No "extramarital" sex, no porn, no abortion, no gays.
The feminists even share Cold War/Moral Majority terminology (e.g., "Porn is the new terrorism"). And there's a certain ideological congruence. The feminists basically buy the Moral Majority's "me Tarzan, you Jane" view of human sexuality: women are gentle nurturers, children are "innocent" and asexual, while men are sexual aggressors. That's what "Pornography is the theory, rape is the practice" boils down to: men are barely controlled rapists—all it takes is a little leg to set 'em off. In that case, why stop with censoring Penthouse? According to Annie Laurie Gaylor, editor of the Feminist Connection, Rubens and Titian can go too: they painted women ravished by swans! (Perhaps when Gaylor leaves the Connection, she can get a job at the Elvehjem Museum chiseling the genitals off classical statues.)
Then there's the touchy question of First Amendment rights. With the exception of the rabid crackpot Andrea Dworkin, most feminists try to squeak past it by making a snooty differentiation between pornography and "erotica." It works like this. "Erotica" is printed on expensive paper with "tasteful" hand-drawn illustrations; "pornography" goes for $2.50, with tacky overexposed photos. As the saying goes, "perversion" is what you aren't into.
As Marxists, the Spartacist League and Spartacus Youth League oppose all attempts at puritanical censorship, whether launched by outright reactionaries or feminist ayatollahs. You can't legislate sexuality. We defend the right of consenting individuals in any combination of age, race, sex, in any number, to engage in the sexual activity of their choice—or look at the photos of their choice—without state intervention.
Pornography is not violence: it's fantasy. Rape is a form of violent criminal assault. Among other things, we advocate the repeal of gun control laws: women should have the right to carry arms and use them in self-defense. To argue that "porn is rape" or, like Robin Morgan, that any sex not initiated by a woman is rape, is—aside from being pretty damned presumptuous— to trivialize and confuse the issue. Capitalist society— its forced poverty, rigid family structure, hypocritical straitjacket morality—breeds the poisonous frustrations that explode in violence. The liberation of women requires getting rid of the repressive constraints imposed on women by the nuclear family, thus creating the possibility of new relationships based on social equality—free from compulsion and stultifying "moral" restrictions. In short, women's liberation requires socialist revolution.
While the feminist anti-porn crusaders rely on candlelight vigils, their Reaganite allies have access to systematic state repression and vigilante terror. And Reagan has launched a full-scale attack on democratic rights. Political opposition becomes "terrorism." Cop/ media hysteria about child abuse at daycare centers carries the message that the only safe place for kids is locked up at home with a non-working mom. If your sexual preference doesn't suit Jerry Falwell, you could be locked up for life.
That's no idle threat. The campaign for "decency" has been viciously anti-gay from the start. Vanessa Williams lost her crown not least because those photos were of lesbian sex. Boston-area photographer George Jacobs got 20 years for the "crime" of having consensual sex with his 14-year-old roommate. Jacobs was tested to determine if he was a "sexually dangerous person" and could have been put away in a mental hospital permanently. The cops and press went wild over NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), an organization for the defense of civil rights of "men and boys involved in consensual sexual and other relationships with each other." NAMBLA members were beaten, framed and sent to psychiatric institutions. And that's nothing compared with the Justice Department's plan to research "behavior modification, chemical treatments, physiological stud¬ies of those suspected of psychosexual dysfunction—as evidenced by...their divorces or homosexuality" (Village Voice, 7 August 1984)!
The reactionary nature of anti-porn legislation masquerading as protection of "civil rights" is spelled out in a new law pending in Suffolk County, New York. The bill is identical to Dworkin's Minneapolis anti-porn law, minus feminist verbiage. It's sponsored by groups like the National Federation for Decency (an actual organization!) explicitly to "wipe out sodomy" and, according-to one supporter, "pornography [that] could cause social decay leading to a possible communist takeover"!
It's not like the feminists can't smell this anti-gay stench; far from it. Kathleen Nichols, lesbian activist member of the "Democratic" Socialists of America, is the Dane County supervisor behind the Madison censorship. This bigot told OUT! magazine that if the ordinance closes adult bookstores where gay men meet, all the better to stop AIDS because "that kind of anonymous sexual congress has resulted in 5500 cases of AIDS" (OUT!, September 1984). For this anti-democratic liberal, male gay sex is a health hazard. This is vile anti-gay bigotry. Do lesbians active in the anti-porn movement believe that once they outlaw everyone else's sexual practices, their own will be protected? They're on mighty thin ice. Check out Khomeini's Iran: no porn there—and they stone homosexuals to death.
Pornography reflects, and only reflects, some human behavior. In this violent, irrational society, those reflections sometimes aren't pretty: but you can't change society by changing its images on a screen. "Positive images" won't materially advance the cause of women's equality any more than those movies with Sidney Poitier as the black neurosurgeon changed the harsh reality of racist oppression. Socialist revolution alone can create the economic basis to replace the nuclear family and liberate women. We don't pretend to know what human relations in socialist society will be like. But we assume that, liberated from the artificial constraints currently imposed on human expression, sexuality under socialism will be more free, more open, more tolerant, more rich and more diverse. May the day come soon.
Carla Norris
for the Spartacus Youth League
Markin comment:
The following is an article from the Spring 1985 issue of "Women and Revolution" that may have some historical interest for old "new leftists", perhaps, and well as for younger militants interested in various cultural and social questions that intersect the class struggle. Or for those just interested in a Marxist position on a series of social questions that are thrust upon us by the vagaries of bourgeois society. I will be posting more such articles from the back issues of "Women and Revolution" during Women's History Month and periodically throughout the year.
**********
Down with the Reactionary Anti-Porn Crusade!
Granddaughters of Carry Nation in Bed with Jerry Falwell
Reprinted from Young Spartacus No. 123, December 1984/January 1985
MADISON— Formerly a hotbed of campus protest, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's "radical" reputation has given way in large part to smug, "me generation" liberalism. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), scabs on the anti-Vietnam War movement, carry a lot of weight in city and county government. With prudery that suits Madison's Protestant environs, "alternative" lifestylism has been institutionalized. You will live a wholesome life. Some manifestations are just plain silly: Madison was declared a "nuclear-free zone" and sandwiches come with beansprouts whether you order them or not. Some are absolutely infuriating: liquor stores close, at 9:00 p.m. and you can't buy cigarettes anywhere on the huge UW campus.
The latest target for moral uplift of the community is pornography—Penthouse and Playboy have been pulled from the Student Union newsstand on the dubious grounds of "low circulation." DSAer Kathleen Nichols, a Dane County supervisor, is proposing legislation modeled on Andrea Dworkin's Minneapolis ordinance to make pornography a civil rights violation. Material in which "people" are "reduced to body parts," "presented in postures of sexual submission" or "presented as whores by nature" would be outlawed (Badger-Herald, 8 November 1984)! Under this law, you can't consent to buy, sell, photograph or pose for pornographic pictures. As the Badger-Herald commented, "Groups normally in solidarity, such as pseudo-feminists and homosexuals, are at odds. Groups normally in opposition, such as pseudo-feminists and the local fundamentalist ministers, support the ordinance." Talk about obscene!
We print below a slightly edited version of the Spartacus Youth League statement submitted to the Madison Isthmus and UW Daily Cardinal. It appeared in a shortened version in the Isthmus (16 November 1984) while the Cardinal has refused to publish it.
Contrary to prevailing liberal opinion, Madison is part of Reagan's USA, albeit with a twist. Witness the New Right's drive to "clean up America." It's going strong in Madison. There's legislation to ban dirty pictures. On 19 October 1984, demonstrators picketed at a State Street porno store; someone stenciled "Burn Me Down" on the wall—and they mean it. Rampaging fundamentalists? Nope. This particular anti-sex crusade is led by Madison's "alternative" to the Army of God— the "radical" feminists.
Finding Robin Morgan in bed with Jerry Falwell may surprise some who thought feminism had something to do with women's liberation. After all, the '60s feminists posed as right-on revolutionaries. They rejected "male-defined" sex roles, denounced "family values" as scams to keep women isolated, dependent, condemned to domestic servitude. They worried about racism and poor people. But the feminists never opposed the oppressive capitalist system itself: their "program" consists of escapist lifestylism, "consciousness raising," "women's" vegetarian co-ops. That's why the feminist "movement" didn't move. It remained confined to rarefied microcosms like Madison, lily-white and middle-class.
What's left of the "movement" no longer even worries about real human oppression. While the feminists are busy trying to stamp out fishnet stockings and high heels, genuine assaults on women's rights go unanswered. Legalized abortion is seriously threatened; abortion clinics get firebombed, their patients harassed, but you don't hear a peep from the feminists. Then there's the case of Patricia Ridge—a single, black, working mother. Last year her five-year-old son was shot pointblank in her bedroom in a Los Angeles-area housing project by a white cop. The cop got off, but a grand jury tried to charge her with everything from child neglect to Murder Two. The Marxist Spartacist League came to her defense. But the organized feminists did nothing. For them, "women's oppression" equals nude photos: they're blind to real class and race oppression facing working-class and black women.
This "Take Back the Night" crusade is a slice of middle America at its worst—about as progressive as forbidding sex education. It dovetails with the current incitement of every backward, sexist, racist, jingoistic prejudice of American society in preparation for war against the USSR. The Democrats and Republicans have been humming "Onward Christian Soldiers" since Cold War II began under born-again Jimmy Carter; with Reagan the crusade has reached new lows. They both want a "prepared" society with social relations straight out of "Leave It To Beaver." No "extramarital" sex, no porn, no abortion, no gays.
The feminists even share Cold War/Moral Majority terminology (e.g., "Porn is the new terrorism"). And there's a certain ideological congruence. The feminists basically buy the Moral Majority's "me Tarzan, you Jane" view of human sexuality: women are gentle nurturers, children are "innocent" and asexual, while men are sexual aggressors. That's what "Pornography is the theory, rape is the practice" boils down to: men are barely controlled rapists—all it takes is a little leg to set 'em off. In that case, why stop with censoring Penthouse? According to Annie Laurie Gaylor, editor of the Feminist Connection, Rubens and Titian can go too: they painted women ravished by swans! (Perhaps when Gaylor leaves the Connection, she can get a job at the Elvehjem Museum chiseling the genitals off classical statues.)
Then there's the touchy question of First Amendment rights. With the exception of the rabid crackpot Andrea Dworkin, most feminists try to squeak past it by making a snooty differentiation between pornography and "erotica." It works like this. "Erotica" is printed on expensive paper with "tasteful" hand-drawn illustrations; "pornography" goes for $2.50, with tacky overexposed photos. As the saying goes, "perversion" is what you aren't into.
As Marxists, the Spartacist League and Spartacus Youth League oppose all attempts at puritanical censorship, whether launched by outright reactionaries or feminist ayatollahs. You can't legislate sexuality. We defend the right of consenting individuals in any combination of age, race, sex, in any number, to engage in the sexual activity of their choice—or look at the photos of their choice—without state intervention.
Pornography is not violence: it's fantasy. Rape is a form of violent criminal assault. Among other things, we advocate the repeal of gun control laws: women should have the right to carry arms and use them in self-defense. To argue that "porn is rape" or, like Robin Morgan, that any sex not initiated by a woman is rape, is—aside from being pretty damned presumptuous— to trivialize and confuse the issue. Capitalist society— its forced poverty, rigid family structure, hypocritical straitjacket morality—breeds the poisonous frustrations that explode in violence. The liberation of women requires getting rid of the repressive constraints imposed on women by the nuclear family, thus creating the possibility of new relationships based on social equality—free from compulsion and stultifying "moral" restrictions. In short, women's liberation requires socialist revolution.
While the feminist anti-porn crusaders rely on candlelight vigils, their Reaganite allies have access to systematic state repression and vigilante terror. And Reagan has launched a full-scale attack on democratic rights. Political opposition becomes "terrorism." Cop/ media hysteria about child abuse at daycare centers carries the message that the only safe place for kids is locked up at home with a non-working mom. If your sexual preference doesn't suit Jerry Falwell, you could be locked up for life.
That's no idle threat. The campaign for "decency" has been viciously anti-gay from the start. Vanessa Williams lost her crown not least because those photos were of lesbian sex. Boston-area photographer George Jacobs got 20 years for the "crime" of having consensual sex with his 14-year-old roommate. Jacobs was tested to determine if he was a "sexually dangerous person" and could have been put away in a mental hospital permanently. The cops and press went wild over NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), an organization for the defense of civil rights of "men and boys involved in consensual sexual and other relationships with each other." NAMBLA members were beaten, framed and sent to psychiatric institutions. And that's nothing compared with the Justice Department's plan to research "behavior modification, chemical treatments, physiological stud¬ies of those suspected of psychosexual dysfunction—as evidenced by...their divorces or homosexuality" (Village Voice, 7 August 1984)!
The reactionary nature of anti-porn legislation masquerading as protection of "civil rights" is spelled out in a new law pending in Suffolk County, New York. The bill is identical to Dworkin's Minneapolis anti-porn law, minus feminist verbiage. It's sponsored by groups like the National Federation for Decency (an actual organization!) explicitly to "wipe out sodomy" and, according-to one supporter, "pornography [that] could cause social decay leading to a possible communist takeover"!
It's not like the feminists can't smell this anti-gay stench; far from it. Kathleen Nichols, lesbian activist member of the "Democratic" Socialists of America, is the Dane County supervisor behind the Madison censorship. This bigot told OUT! magazine that if the ordinance closes adult bookstores where gay men meet, all the better to stop AIDS because "that kind of anonymous sexual congress has resulted in 5500 cases of AIDS" (OUT!, September 1984). For this anti-democratic liberal, male gay sex is a health hazard. This is vile anti-gay bigotry. Do lesbians active in the anti-porn movement believe that once they outlaw everyone else's sexual practices, their own will be protected? They're on mighty thin ice. Check out Khomeini's Iran: no porn there—and they stone homosexuals to death.
Pornography reflects, and only reflects, some human behavior. In this violent, irrational society, those reflections sometimes aren't pretty: but you can't change society by changing its images on a screen. "Positive images" won't materially advance the cause of women's equality any more than those movies with Sidney Poitier as the black neurosurgeon changed the harsh reality of racist oppression. Socialist revolution alone can create the economic basis to replace the nuclear family and liberate women. We don't pretend to know what human relations in socialist society will be like. But we assume that, liberated from the artificial constraints currently imposed on human expression, sexuality under socialism will be more free, more open, more tolerant, more rich and more diverse. May the day come soon.
Carla Norris
for the Spartacus Youth League
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
*The First Family Of Mountain Music-The Carter Family-"Country Legends"
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of The Carter Family Doing "My Clinch Mountain Home".
CD Review
RCA Country Legends: The Carter Family, The Carter Family, RCA, 2004
So what is good here? Obviously the classic track "My Clinch Mountain Home” (which has many variations). The much covered “Wabash Cannonball” (again, with many variations). “Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow” (a variation) and "Hello Central, Give Me Heaven” also stick out. The others give a good feel for what this music is all about for the beginner. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one sitting.
"Hello Central, Give Me Heaven"
Hello central give me heaven
For I know my mother's there
And you'll find her with the angels
Over on the golden stair
She'll be glad it's me a speaking
Wont you call her for me please
For I surely want to tell her
That we're sad without her here
Hello central give me heaven
For I know my mother's there
You will find her with the angels
Over on the golden stair
Poppa dear is said and lonely
Sobbed the tearful little child
Since momma's gone to heaven
Poppa dear you do not smile
I will speak to her and tell her
That we want her to come home
You just listen while I call her
Call her through the telephone
I will answer just to please her
Yes dear heart I'll soon come home
Kiss me momma it's your darling
Kiss me through the telephone
CD Review
RCA Country Legends: The Carter Family, The Carter Family, RCA, 2004
So what is good here? Obviously the classic track "My Clinch Mountain Home” (which has many variations). The much covered “Wabash Cannonball” (again, with many variations). “Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow” (a variation) and "Hello Central, Give Me Heaven” also stick out. The others give a good feel for what this music is all about for the beginner. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one sitting.
"Hello Central, Give Me Heaven"
Hello central give me heaven
For I know my mother's there
And you'll find her with the angels
Over on the golden stair
She'll be glad it's me a speaking
Wont you call her for me please
For I surely want to tell her
That we're sad without her here
Hello central give me heaven
For I know my mother's there
You will find her with the angels
Over on the golden stair
Poppa dear is said and lonely
Sobbed the tearful little child
Since momma's gone to heaven
Poppa dear you do not smile
I will speak to her and tell her
That we want her to come home
You just listen while I call her
Call her through the telephone
I will answer just to please her
Yes dear heart I'll soon come home
Kiss me momma it's your darling
Kiss me through the telephone
*The First Family Of Mountain Music-The Carter Family- "The Country Music Hall Of Fame"
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of The Carter Family Doing "Weeping Willow".
The Country Music Hall Of Fame: The Carter Family, MCA, 1991
So what is good here? Obviously the classic track "In The Shadow Of Clinch Mountain” (which has many variations). The much covered song, particularly associated with Emmy Lou Harris in the modern era, “Hello Stranger”. “Answer To Weeping Willow” (a variation) and "You Are My Flower” also stick out. The others give a good feel for what this music is all about for the beginner. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one time.
“Hello Stranger”
Hello stranger
Put your loving hand in mine
You are a stranger
And you're a friend of mine
Get up, rounder
Let a working girl lay down
You are a rounder
And you're all out and down
Every time
I ride the four and six street cars
I can see my baby
Peeping through the bars
He bowed his head
And he waved both hands at me
He's prison bound
And longing to be free
I'll see you
When your troubles are like mine
Yes. I'll see you
When you haven't got a dime
The Country Music Hall Of Fame: The Carter Family, MCA, 1991
So what is good here? Obviously the classic track "In The Shadow Of Clinch Mountain” (which has many variations). The much covered song, particularly associated with Emmy Lou Harris in the modern era, “Hello Stranger”. “Answer To Weeping Willow” (a variation) and "You Are My Flower” also stick out. The others give a good feel for what this music is all about for the beginner. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one time.
“Hello Stranger”
Hello stranger
Put your loving hand in mine
You are a stranger
And you're a friend of mine
Get up, rounder
Let a working girl lay down
You are a rounder
And you're all out and down
Every time
I ride the four and six street cars
I can see my baby
Peeping through the bars
He bowed his head
And he waved both hands at me
He's prison bound
And longing to be free
I'll see you
When your troubles are like mine
Yes. I'll see you
When you haven't got a dime
*The First Family Of Mountain Music-The Carter Family-"Anchored In Love"
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of The Carter Family Doing "Anchored In Love".
CD Review
Anchored In Love: Their Complete Victor Recordings 1927-28, The Carter Family, Rounder Records, 1993
So what is good here? Obviously the classic title track "Anchored in Love". The much covered Depression classic “Keep On The Sunny Side",” Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow" and "River Of Jordan" also stick out. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one time. Moreover, the technical quality, for the times, of the Victor label shows here.
"Anchored In Love"
I've found a sweet haven of sunshine at last,
and Jesus abiding above,
His dear arms around me are lovingly cast
and sweetly He tells His love
The tempest is o'er
(The danger, the tempest forever is o'er)
I'm safe evermore
(I'm anchored in hope and have faith evermore)
What gladness what rapture is mine
The danger is past
(The water's receding, the danger is past)
I'm anchored at last
(I'm feeling so happy I'm anchored at last)
I'm anchored in love divine
He saw me endangered and lovingly came
To pilot my storm-beaten soul
Sweet peace He has spoken and bless His dear name
The billows no longer roll
His love shall control me through life and in death
Completely I'll trust to the end
I'll praise Him each hour of my last fleeting breath
Shall sing of my soul's Best Friend
CD Review
Anchored In Love: Their Complete Victor Recordings 1927-28, The Carter Family, Rounder Records, 1993
So what is good here? Obviously the classic title track "Anchored in Love". The much covered Depression classic “Keep On The Sunny Side",” Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow" and "River Of Jordan" also stick out. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one time. Moreover, the technical quality, for the times, of the Victor label shows here.
"Anchored In Love"
I've found a sweet haven of sunshine at last,
and Jesus abiding above,
His dear arms around me are lovingly cast
and sweetly He tells His love
The tempest is o'er
(The danger, the tempest forever is o'er)
I'm safe evermore
(I'm anchored in hope and have faith evermore)
What gladness what rapture is mine
The danger is past
(The water's receding, the danger is past)
I'm anchored at last
(I'm feeling so happy I'm anchored at last)
I'm anchored in love divine
He saw me endangered and lovingly came
To pilot my storm-beaten soul
Sweet peace He has spoken and bless His dear name
The billows no longer roll
His love shall control me through life and in death
Completely I'll trust to the end
I'll praise Him each hour of my last fleeting breath
Shall sing of my soul's Best Friend
*The First Family Of Mountain Music-The Carter Family-"Gold Watch And Chain"
Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of The Carter Family Doing "Keep On The Sunny Side".
CD REVIEWS
Gold Watch and Chain: Their Complete Victor Recordings 1933-34, The Carter Family,Rounder Records, 1998
The body of this review has been used elsewhere in this space to comment on other The Carter Family CDs.
This information is from a review Of a PBS documentary and serves my purpose here by bringing out the main points that are central to the place of The Carter Family in American musical history. The last paragraph will detail the outstanding tracks on this CD.
“I have reviewed the various CDs put out by the Carter Family, that is work of the original grouping of A.P., Sara and Maybelle from the 1920’s , elsewhere in this space. Many of the thoughts expressed there apply here, as well. The recent, now somewhat eclipsed, interest in the mountain music of the 1920’s and 30’s highlighted in such films as “The Song Catcher” and George Clooney’s “Brother, Where Art Thou”, of necessity, had to create a renewed interest in the Carter Family. Why? Not taking the influence of that family’s musical shaping of mountain music is like neglecting the influence of Bob Dylan on the folk music revival of the 1960’s. I suppose it can be done but a big hole is left in the landscape.
What this PBS production has done, and done well, is put the music of the Carters in perspective as it relates to their time, their religious sentiments and their roots in the seemingly simple mountain lifestyle. Is there any simpler harmony than the virtually universally known Carter song (or better, variation) “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”? Nevertheless, these gentle mountain folk were as driven to success, especially A.P, as any urbanite of the time. Moreover, they seem, and here again A.P. is the example, to have had as many interpersonal problems (in short, marital difficulties) as us city folk.
I have mentioned elsewhere, and it bears repeating here, that the fundamentalist religious sentiment expressed throughout their work does not have that same razor-edged feel that we find with today’s evangelicals. This is a very personal kind of religious expression that drives many of the songs. These evangelical people took their beating during the Scopes Trial era and turned inward. Fair enough. That they also produced some very simple and interesting music to while away their time is a product of that withdrawal. Listen.”
So what is good here? Obviously the classic title track "Gold Watch and Chain" that I first heard covered by Alice Stuart over forty years ago. The pathos of desperate, seemingly unrequited, love still comes through after all that time. The much covered "See That My Grave Is Kept Green” (clean, in other versions that I have heard), "Cowboy Jack" and "Faded Flowers" also stick out. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one time. Moreover, the relatively technical quality, for the times, of the Victor label shows here.
AMBER TRESSES
Far away in sunny mountains
Where the merry sunbeams play
There I wander through the clover
Singing to a village maid
She was dearer than the dearest
Ever loving kind and true
And she wore beneath her bonnet
Amber tresses tied with blue
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Fate decreed that we be parted
Ere the leaves of autumn fell
When two hearts are separated
That had loved each other well
She was all I had to cherish
Ever loving kind and true
Now I see in every vision
Amber tresses tied with blue
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
She was dearer than the dearest
Ever loving kind and true
And she wore beneath her bonnet
Amber tresses tied with blue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANCHORED IN LOVE
I found a sweet haven of sunshine at last
In Jesus abiding above
His dear arms around me are lovingly cast
And sweetly he tells his love
The tem----------pest is o'er
(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)
I'm safe----------evermore
(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)
What gladness, what rapture is mine
(What gladness, what rapture is mine)
The dan--------------ger is past
(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)
I'm an-----------chored at last
(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)
I'm anchored in love divine
(I'm anchored in love divine)
He saw me endangered and lovingly came
To pilot my stormy doomed soul
Sweet peace he has spoken and bless his sweet name
The billows no longer roll
The tem----------pest is o'er
(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)
I'm safe----------evermore
(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)
What gladness, what rapture is mine
(What gladness, what rapture is mine)
The dan--------------ger is past
(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)
I'm an-----------chored at last
(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)
I'm anchored in love divine
(I'm anchored in love divine)
His love shall enfold me through life and in death
Completely I'll trust to the end
I'll praise him each hour and my last fleeting breath
Shall sing of my soul's best friend
[CHORUS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANGEL BAND
My latest sun is sinking fast
My race is nearly run
My strongest trials now are past
My triumph is begun
O come, angel band
Come and around me stand
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
O bear my longing heart to him
Who bled and died for me
Where blood now cleanses from all sin
And gives me victory
O come, angel band
Come and around me stand
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I've almost gained my heavenly home
My spirit loudly sings
The Holy one before me comes
I hear the noise of wings
O come, angel band
Come and around me stand
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWER TO WEEPING WILLOW
My love is dead and buried yonder
Beneath the weeping willow tree
What wrecks my life and makes me wonder
Is because he died for me
Then lay me down in death beside her
For she's all this life to me
That I may join and e'er caress her
In a land beyond the sea
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Yes, she died before I told her
That I loved her true and kind
And that I did not mean to fool her
But she'd left me to repine
Then lay me down in death beside her
For she's all this life to me
That I may join and e'er caress her
In a land beyond the sea
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
God, shall I ever get forgiveness
For the deeds that I have done
And meet up yonder her sweet charming
For I know she bids me come
Then lay me down in death beside her
For she's all this life to me
That I may join and e'er caress her
In a land beyond the sea
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT
Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me, I say
Are you sorry we drifted apart
Does your memory cling to that bright summer day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart
Like a rose on the vine I am clinging to you
As I did when we drifted apart
I am wishing you back to that little shack
Where I kissed you and called you sweetheart
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Does the chair in your parlor seem empty and bare
Do you miss me and wish I was there
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again
Tell me, darling, are you lonesome tonight
Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me, I say
Are you sorry we drifted apart
Does your memory cling to that bright summer day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I have counted the days, I have counted the nights
I've counted the months and the years
I have counted on you since we've drifted apart
Tell me, darling, are you lonesome tonight
Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me, I say
Are you sorry we drifted apart
Does your memory cling to that bright summer day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARE YOU TIRED OF ME, MY DARLING
Are you tired of me, my darling
Did you mean those words you said
That has made me yours forever
Since the day that we were wed
Tell me, could you live life over
Would you make it otherwise
Are you tired of me, my darling
Answer only with your eyes
Do you ever rue the springtime
Since we first each other met
Since we spoke in warm affection
Words my heart can ne'er forget
Tell me, could you live life over
Would you make it otherwise
Are you tired of me, my darling
Answer only with your eyes
Do you think the bloom departed
From these cheeks you once thought fair
Do you think I've grown cold-hearted
With the passing of the years
Tell me, could you live life over
Would you make it otherwise
Are you tired of me, my darling
Answer only with your eyes
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEAUTIFUL HOME
There's a beautiful home far over the sea
There are mansions of bliss for you and for me
Oh the beautiful home so wonderously fair
That savior for me has gone to prepare.
[CHORUS:]
There's a beautiful hom (beautiful home)
Far over the sea (far over the sea)
There's a beautiful home (for you and for me)
Its glittering towers (glittering towers)
The sun outshine (the sun outshine)
That beautiful home (that beautiful home)
Someday shall be mine.
In that beautiful home a crown I shall wear
With the glorified throng their glories to share
But the joys of that home can never be known
Till the Savior we see upon his white throne.
[repeat chorus]
Back to top
BEAUTIFUL BROWN EYES
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
I'll never love blue eyes again
Willie, my darling, I love you
Love you with all of my heart
We could have been married
But liquor has kept us apart
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
I'll never love blue eyes again
Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEAUTIFUL ISLE O'ER THE SEA
I will not be your sweetheart
I'll tell you the reason why
My mama always told me
To pass a drunkard by
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Some say there's pleasure in courting
What pleasure is it to me
For the boy I love so dearly
Has turned his back on me
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Now, young man, I will tell you
If you want my heart, my hand
You'd better quit your drinking
And be a sober man
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Go prove yourself, be faithful
Go prove yourself, be true
And sometime in the future
Perhaps I'll marry you
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
BLACK JACK DAVID
Black Jack David came riding through the woods
And he sang so loud and gaily
Made the hills around him ring
And he charmed the heart of a lady. (2x)
"How old are you my pretty little miss
How old are you my honey?"
She answered him with a silly little smile
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday". (2x)
"Come go with me my pretty little miss
Come go with me my honey
I'll take you across the deep blue sea
Where you never shall want for money." (2x)
She pulled off her high-heeled shoes
They were made of Spanish leather
She put on those low-heeled shoes
And they both rode off together. (2x)
"Last night I lay on a warm feather bed
Beside my husband and baby
Tonight I lay on the cold, cold ground
By the side of Black Jack David." (2x)
BONNIE BLUE EYES
Goodbye, my little Bonnie blue eyes
Goodbye, my little Bonnie blue eyes
You've told me more lies than the stars in the skies
Goodbye, my little Bonnie blue eyes
Oh, Bonnie, you've done me wrong
Oh, Bonnie, you've done me wrong
You've done me wrong and now I'm gone
Oh, Bonnie, you've done me wrong
I saw my little Bonnie last night
She looked so dear to me
She's the only girl I ever loved
She's now gone back on me
I stayed in the country too long
I stayed in the country too long
The only wrong that I have done
I stayed in the country too long
Come and go with me to the train
Come and go with me to the train
Come and go with me and see me get on
Goodbye, my little Bonnie, I'm gone
BRING BACK MY BLUE-EYED BOY TO ME
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
'Tis true the rainbow has no end
It's hard to find a faithful friend
And when you find one just and true
Change not the old one for the new
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
Must I go bound and him go free
Must I love a boy that don't love me
Or must I act the childish part
And love that boy that broke my heart
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Last night my lover promised me
To take me across the deep blue sea
And now he's gone and left me alone
An orphan girl without a home
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
Oh, dig my grave both wide and deep
Place marble at my head and feet
And on my breast a snow white dove
To show to the world I died for love
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
BRING BACK MY BOY
Out in the cold world and far away form home
Somebody's boy is wandering alone
No one to guide him and keep his footsteps right
Somebody's boy is homeless tonight.
[CHORUS:] Bring back my boy, my wandering boy
Far, far away, wherever he may be
Tell him his mother with faded cheeks and hair
At their old home is waiting him there.
Out in the hallway there stands a vacant chair
Yonder's the shoes my darling used to wear
Empty the cradle, the one that's loved so well
Oh how I miss him there's no toung can tell.
[CHORUS]
Oh could I see him and fold him to my breast
Gladly I'd close my eyes anmd be at rest
There is no other that's left to give me joy
Bring back my boy, my wandering boy.
[CHORUS]
THE THE BROKEN HEARTED LOVER
Would you let her part us, darling
Could you truly turn away
Would it make your heart ache, darling
Not to see me night or day
I've been dreaming of you, darling
Dreaming of your eyes so blue
Take me back, for love I'm dying
For I love none else but you
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Many a day with you I've rambled
Down by the shades of the deep blue sea
There you told me that you loved me
That you loved none else but me
I am dreaming of you, darling
Dreaming of your eyes so blue
Take me back, for love I'm dying
For I love none else but you
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I will give you back your letters
And your picture I love so well
How it makes my heart ache, darling
Oh, 'tis hard to say farewell
I been dreaming of you, darling
Dreaming of your eyes so blue
Take me back, for love I'm dying
For I love none else but you
BURY ME BENEATH THE WILLOW
My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow
For the only one I love
When will I see him, no, no, never
Till I meet him in heaven above
Then bury me beneath the willow
Beneath the weeping willow tree
Where he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
He told me that he dearly loved me
How could I believe him untrue
Until an angel softly whispered
He has proven untrue to you
Then bury me beneath the willow
Beneath the weeping willow tree
Where he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Tomorrow was their wedding day
But, alas, oh, where can he be
He's gone, he's gone to wed another
And he no longer cares for me
Then bury me beneath the willow
Beneath the weeping willow tree
Where he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
BURY ME UNDER THE WEEPING WILLOW (II)
My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow
For the only one I love
When shall I see him, oh, no, never
Till I meet him in heaven above
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
They told me that he did not love me
I could not believe it was true
Until an angel softly whispered
He has proven untrue to you
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Tomorrow was our wedding day
But, Lord, oh, where is he
He's gone to seek him another bride
And he cares no more for me
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Oh, bury me under the violets blue
To prove my love to him
Tell him that I would die to save him
For his love I never could win
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
BY THE TOUCH OF HER HAND
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
There are days so dark that I seek in vain
For the face of my own true love
But the darkness hides, she is there to guide
By the light of the moon above
Oh the lonesome pine, oh the lonsome pine
Where I met that sweetheart of mine
With her hand in mine, and our hearts entwined
As we stroll through the lonesome pine
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Bright stars above, two sweethearts in love
As we sing to the cooing doves
She has brought me back to that mountain shack
By the touch of her hand in love
Oh the lonesome pine, oh the lonsome pine
Where I met that sweetheart of mine
With her hand in mine, and our hearts entwined
As we stroll through the lonesome pine
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
CAN THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN
I was standing by my window
On one cold and cloudy day
And I saw the hearse come rolling
For to carry my mother away
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
Oh, I told the undertaker
Undertaker, please drive slow
For this body you are hauling
How I hate to see her go
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
Lord, I followed close beside her
Tried to hold up and be brave
But I could not hide my sorrow
When they laid her in the grave
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
Went back home Lord, My home was lonely
Since my mother she had gone
All my brothers, sisters crying
What a home so sad and lone
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
CAN'T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE
This world is not my home, I'm just passing through
My treasures and my hopes are all beyond the blue
Where many many friends and kindred have gone on before
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Over in Glory land, there is no dying there
The saints are shouting victory and singing everywhere
I hear the voice of them that I have heard before
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh, lord, you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home, oh, lord, what would I do
Angels beckon me to heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Heaven's expecting me, that's one thing I know
I fixed it up with Jesus a long time ago
He will take me through though I am weak and poor
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh, I have a loving mother over in Glory land
I don't expect to stop until I shake her hand
She's gone on before, just waiting at heaven's door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh, lord, you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home, oh, lord, what would I do
Angels beckon me to heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
CHURCH IN THE WILDWOOD
There's a church in the valley in the wildwood
No lovelier place in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
How sweet on a clear sabbath morning
To listen to the clear ringing bells
Its gongs so sweetly are calling
Oh, come to the church in the dell
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
There, close by the side of the loved one
'Neath the tree where the wildflowers bloom
She sleeps, sweet love sleeps 'neath the willow
Disturb not her rest in the tomb
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
CLIMBING ZION'S HILL
Oh, the heaven bells are ringing and I'm a-going home
I'm a-going home, yes, I'm a-going home
Oh, the heaven bells are ringing and I'm a-going home
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
If you don't, my mother, you'll be too late
You'll be too late, you'll be too late
If you don't, my mother, you'll be too late
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
If you don't, my father, you'll be too late
You'll be too late, you'll be too late
If you don't, my father, you'll be too late
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
COAL MINER'S BLUES
Some blues are just blues
Mine are the miner's blues
Some blues are just blues
Mine are the miner's blues
My troubles are coming
By threes and by twos
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Blues and more blues
It's a coal black blues
Blues and more blues
It's a coal black blues
Got coal in my hair
Got coal in my shoes
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
These blues are soul blue
They are the coal black blues
These blues are soul blue
They are the coal black blues
For my place will cave in
And my life I will lose
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
You say they are blues
These old miner's blues
You say they are blues
These old miner's blues
Now I must have sharpened
These picks that I use
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I'm out with these blues
Dirty coal black blues
I'm out with these blues
Dirty coal black blues
We'll lay off tomorrow
With the coal miner's blues
COME BACK TO ME
Come back to me in my dreaming
Come back to me once more
Come with the love light gleaming
As in the days of yore
And tell me that you still love me
And that your heart is still true
When the spring roses are blooming
Then I'll come back to you
Somewhere a heart is breaking
Calling me back to you
Memories of loved ones awaiting
Each happy home and you
Absence makes my heart fonder
Is it the same with you
Are you still happy, I wonder
Or do you feel lonesome, too
When the sun is sinking
In the golden west
And the birds and flowers
They have gone to rest
Come tell me that you still love me
And that your heart is still true
When the roses are blooming
Then I'll come back to you
THE CURTAINS OF NIGHT
When the curtains of night are pinned back with a star
And the beautiful moon climbs the sky
And the dewdrops of heaven are kissing the rose
It is then that my memory flies
As upon the wings of some beautiful dove
In haste with the message it bears
To bring a kiss of affection and say
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
Go wherever you will, over land, over sea
I will share all your sorrows and cares
And at night when I kneel by my bedside to pray
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
I have loved you too fondly to ever forget
The words you have spoken to me
With a kiss of affection still warm on my lips
When you told me how true you would be
Go wherever you will, over land, over sea
I will share all your sorrows and cares
And at night when I kneel by my bedside to pray
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
As the heavenly angels are guarding the good
As God has ordained them to do
In answer to prayers I have offered for you
I know there is one watching you
Go wherever you will, over land, over sea
I will share all your sorrows and cares
And at night when I kneel by my bedside to pray
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
And may its bright spirit go with you through life
To guide you up heaven's bright stairs
To meet with the one who has loved you so true
And remembered to love in her prayers
CD REVIEWS
Gold Watch and Chain: Their Complete Victor Recordings 1933-34, The Carter Family,Rounder Records, 1998
The body of this review has been used elsewhere in this space to comment on other The Carter Family CDs.
This information is from a review Of a PBS documentary and serves my purpose here by bringing out the main points that are central to the place of The Carter Family in American musical history. The last paragraph will detail the outstanding tracks on this CD.
“I have reviewed the various CDs put out by the Carter Family, that is work of the original grouping of A.P., Sara and Maybelle from the 1920’s , elsewhere in this space. Many of the thoughts expressed there apply here, as well. The recent, now somewhat eclipsed, interest in the mountain music of the 1920’s and 30’s highlighted in such films as “The Song Catcher” and George Clooney’s “Brother, Where Art Thou”, of necessity, had to create a renewed interest in the Carter Family. Why? Not taking the influence of that family’s musical shaping of mountain music is like neglecting the influence of Bob Dylan on the folk music revival of the 1960’s. I suppose it can be done but a big hole is left in the landscape.
What this PBS production has done, and done well, is put the music of the Carters in perspective as it relates to their time, their religious sentiments and their roots in the seemingly simple mountain lifestyle. Is there any simpler harmony than the virtually universally known Carter song (or better, variation) “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”? Nevertheless, these gentle mountain folk were as driven to success, especially A.P, as any urbanite of the time. Moreover, they seem, and here again A.P. is the example, to have had as many interpersonal problems (in short, marital difficulties) as us city folk.
I have mentioned elsewhere, and it bears repeating here, that the fundamentalist religious sentiment expressed throughout their work does not have that same razor-edged feel that we find with today’s evangelicals. This is a very personal kind of religious expression that drives many of the songs. These evangelical people took their beating during the Scopes Trial era and turned inward. Fair enough. That they also produced some very simple and interesting music to while away their time is a product of that withdrawal. Listen.”
So what is good here? Obviously the classic title track "Gold Watch and Chain" that I first heard covered by Alice Stuart over forty years ago. The pathos of desperate, seemingly unrequited, love still comes through after all that time. The much covered "See That My Grave Is Kept Green” (clean, in other versions that I have heard), "Cowboy Jack" and "Faded Flowers" also stick out. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one time. Moreover, the relatively technical quality, for the times, of the Victor label shows here.
AMBER TRESSES
Far away in sunny mountains
Where the merry sunbeams play
There I wander through the clover
Singing to a village maid
She was dearer than the dearest
Ever loving kind and true
And she wore beneath her bonnet
Amber tresses tied with blue
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Fate decreed that we be parted
Ere the leaves of autumn fell
When two hearts are separated
That had loved each other well
She was all I had to cherish
Ever loving kind and true
Now I see in every vision
Amber tresses tied with blue
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
She was dearer than the dearest
Ever loving kind and true
And she wore beneath her bonnet
Amber tresses tied with blue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANCHORED IN LOVE
I found a sweet haven of sunshine at last
In Jesus abiding above
His dear arms around me are lovingly cast
And sweetly he tells his love
The tem----------pest is o'er
(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)
I'm safe----------evermore
(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)
What gladness, what rapture is mine
(What gladness, what rapture is mine)
The dan--------------ger is past
(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)
I'm an-----------chored at last
(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)
I'm anchored in love divine
(I'm anchored in love divine)
He saw me endangered and lovingly came
To pilot my stormy doomed soul
Sweet peace he has spoken and bless his sweet name
The billows no longer roll
The tem----------pest is o'er
(The dangerous tempest forever is o'er)
I'm safe----------evermore
(My anchor is holding, I'm safe evermore)
What gladness, what rapture is mine
(What gladness, what rapture is mine)
The dan--------------ger is past
(The waters are peaceful, the danger is past)
I'm an-----------chored at last
(My spirit is happy, I'm anchored at last)
I'm anchored in love divine
(I'm anchored in love divine)
His love shall enfold me through life and in death
Completely I'll trust to the end
I'll praise him each hour and my last fleeting breath
Shall sing of my soul's best friend
[CHORUS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANGEL BAND
My latest sun is sinking fast
My race is nearly run
My strongest trials now are past
My triumph is begun
O come, angel band
Come and around me stand
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
O bear my longing heart to him
Who bled and died for me
Where blood now cleanses from all sin
And gives me victory
O come, angel band
Come and around me stand
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I've almost gained my heavenly home
My spirit loudly sings
The Holy one before me comes
I hear the noise of wings
O come, angel band
Come and around me stand
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
O bear me away on your snowy wings
To my immortal home
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWER TO WEEPING WILLOW
My love is dead and buried yonder
Beneath the weeping willow tree
What wrecks my life and makes me wonder
Is because he died for me
Then lay me down in death beside her
For she's all this life to me
That I may join and e'er caress her
In a land beyond the sea
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Yes, she died before I told her
That I loved her true and kind
And that I did not mean to fool her
But she'd left me to repine
Then lay me down in death beside her
For she's all this life to me
That I may join and e'er caress her
In a land beyond the sea
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
God, shall I ever get forgiveness
For the deeds that I have done
And meet up yonder her sweet charming
For I know she bids me come
Then lay me down in death beside her
For she's all this life to me
That I may join and e'er caress her
In a land beyond the sea
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT
Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me, I say
Are you sorry we drifted apart
Does your memory cling to that bright summer day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart
Like a rose on the vine I am clinging to you
As I did when we drifted apart
I am wishing you back to that little shack
Where I kissed you and called you sweetheart
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Does the chair in your parlor seem empty and bare
Do you miss me and wish I was there
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again
Tell me, darling, are you lonesome tonight
Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me, I say
Are you sorry we drifted apart
Does your memory cling to that bright summer day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I have counted the days, I have counted the nights
I've counted the months and the years
I have counted on you since we've drifted apart
Tell me, darling, are you lonesome tonight
Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me, I say
Are you sorry we drifted apart
Does your memory cling to that bright summer day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ARE YOU TIRED OF ME, MY DARLING
Are you tired of me, my darling
Did you mean those words you said
That has made me yours forever
Since the day that we were wed
Tell me, could you live life over
Would you make it otherwise
Are you tired of me, my darling
Answer only with your eyes
Do you ever rue the springtime
Since we first each other met
Since we spoke in warm affection
Words my heart can ne'er forget
Tell me, could you live life over
Would you make it otherwise
Are you tired of me, my darling
Answer only with your eyes
Do you think the bloom departed
From these cheeks you once thought fair
Do you think I've grown cold-hearted
With the passing of the years
Tell me, could you live life over
Would you make it otherwise
Are you tired of me, my darling
Answer only with your eyes
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEAUTIFUL HOME
There's a beautiful home far over the sea
There are mansions of bliss for you and for me
Oh the beautiful home so wonderously fair
That savior for me has gone to prepare.
[CHORUS:]
There's a beautiful hom (beautiful home)
Far over the sea (far over the sea)
There's a beautiful home (for you and for me)
Its glittering towers (glittering towers)
The sun outshine (the sun outshine)
That beautiful home (that beautiful home)
Someday shall be mine.
In that beautiful home a crown I shall wear
With the glorified throng their glories to share
But the joys of that home can never be known
Till the Savior we see upon his white throne.
[repeat chorus]
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BEAUTIFUL BROWN EYES
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
I'll never love blue eyes again
Willie, my darling, I love you
Love you with all of my heart
We could have been married
But liquor has kept us apart
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes
I'll never love blue eyes again
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEAUTIFUL ISLE O'ER THE SEA
I will not be your sweetheart
I'll tell you the reason why
My mama always told me
To pass a drunkard by
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Some say there's pleasure in courting
What pleasure is it to me
For the boy I love so dearly
Has turned his back on me
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Now, young man, I will tell you
If you want my heart, my hand
You'd better quit your drinking
And be a sober man
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Go prove yourself, be faithful
Go prove yourself, be true
And sometime in the future
Perhaps I'll marry you
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
Beautiful isle o'er the sea, o'er the sea
There's someone waiting for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
BLACK JACK DAVID
Black Jack David came riding through the woods
And he sang so loud and gaily
Made the hills around him ring
And he charmed the heart of a lady. (2x)
"How old are you my pretty little miss
How old are you my honey?"
She answered him with a silly little smile
"I'll be sixteen next Sunday". (2x)
"Come go with me my pretty little miss
Come go with me my honey
I'll take you across the deep blue sea
Where you never shall want for money." (2x)
She pulled off her high-heeled shoes
They were made of Spanish leather
She put on those low-heeled shoes
And they both rode off together. (2x)
"Last night I lay on a warm feather bed
Beside my husband and baby
Tonight I lay on the cold, cold ground
By the side of Black Jack David." (2x)
BONNIE BLUE EYES
Goodbye, my little Bonnie blue eyes
Goodbye, my little Bonnie blue eyes
You've told me more lies than the stars in the skies
Goodbye, my little Bonnie blue eyes
Oh, Bonnie, you've done me wrong
Oh, Bonnie, you've done me wrong
You've done me wrong and now I'm gone
Oh, Bonnie, you've done me wrong
I saw my little Bonnie last night
She looked so dear to me
She's the only girl I ever loved
She's now gone back on me
I stayed in the country too long
I stayed in the country too long
The only wrong that I have done
I stayed in the country too long
Come and go with me to the train
Come and go with me to the train
Come and go with me and see me get on
Goodbye, my little Bonnie, I'm gone
BRING BACK MY BLUE-EYED BOY TO ME
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
'Tis true the rainbow has no end
It's hard to find a faithful friend
And when you find one just and true
Change not the old one for the new
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
Must I go bound and him go free
Must I love a boy that don't love me
Or must I act the childish part
And love that boy that broke my heart
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Last night my lover promised me
To take me across the deep blue sea
And now he's gone and left me alone
An orphan girl without a home
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
Oh, dig my grave both wide and deep
Place marble at my head and feet
And on my breast a snow white dove
To show to the world I died for love
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
Bring back my blue-eyed boy to me
That I may ever happy be
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
BRING BACK MY BOY
Out in the cold world and far away form home
Somebody's boy is wandering alone
No one to guide him and keep his footsteps right
Somebody's boy is homeless tonight.
[CHORUS:] Bring back my boy, my wandering boy
Far, far away, wherever he may be
Tell him his mother with faded cheeks and hair
At their old home is waiting him there.
Out in the hallway there stands a vacant chair
Yonder's the shoes my darling used to wear
Empty the cradle, the one that's loved so well
Oh how I miss him there's no toung can tell.
[CHORUS]
Oh could I see him and fold him to my breast
Gladly I'd close my eyes anmd be at rest
There is no other that's left to give me joy
Bring back my boy, my wandering boy.
[CHORUS]
THE THE BROKEN HEARTED LOVER
Would you let her part us, darling
Could you truly turn away
Would it make your heart ache, darling
Not to see me night or day
I've been dreaming of you, darling
Dreaming of your eyes so blue
Take me back, for love I'm dying
For I love none else but you
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Many a day with you I've rambled
Down by the shades of the deep blue sea
There you told me that you loved me
That you loved none else but me
I am dreaming of you, darling
Dreaming of your eyes so blue
Take me back, for love I'm dying
For I love none else but you
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I will give you back your letters
And your picture I love so well
How it makes my heart ache, darling
Oh, 'tis hard to say farewell
I been dreaming of you, darling
Dreaming of your eyes so blue
Take me back, for love I'm dying
For I love none else but you
BURY ME BENEATH THE WILLOW
My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow
For the only one I love
When will I see him, no, no, never
Till I meet him in heaven above
Then bury me beneath the willow
Beneath the weeping willow tree
Where he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
He told me that he dearly loved me
How could I believe him untrue
Until an angel softly whispered
He has proven untrue to you
Then bury me beneath the willow
Beneath the weeping willow tree
Where he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Tomorrow was their wedding day
But, alas, oh, where can he be
He's gone, he's gone to wed another
And he no longer cares for me
Then bury me beneath the willow
Beneath the weeping willow tree
Where he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
BURY ME UNDER THE WEEPING WILLOW (II)
My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow
For the only one I love
When shall I see him, oh, no, never
Till I meet him in heaven above
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
They told me that he did not love me
I could not believe it was true
Until an angel softly whispered
He has proven untrue to you
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Tomorrow was our wedding day
But, Lord, oh, where is he
He's gone to seek him another bride
And he cares no more for me
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Oh, bury me under the violets blue
To prove my love to him
Tell him that I would die to save him
For his love I never could win
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow
Yes, under the weeping willow tree
So he may know where I am sleeping
And perhaps he will weep for me
BY THE TOUCH OF HER HAND
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
There are days so dark that I seek in vain
For the face of my own true love
But the darkness hides, she is there to guide
By the light of the moon above
Oh the lonesome pine, oh the lonsome pine
Where I met that sweetheart of mine
With her hand in mine, and our hearts entwined
As we stroll through the lonesome pine
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Bright stars above, two sweethearts in love
As we sing to the cooing doves
She has brought me back to that mountain shack
By the touch of her hand in love
Oh the lonesome pine, oh the lonsome pine
Where I met that sweetheart of mine
With her hand in mine, and our hearts entwined
As we stroll through the lonesome pine
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
CAN THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN
I was standing by my window
On one cold and cloudy day
And I saw the hearse come rolling
For to carry my mother away
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
Oh, I told the undertaker
Undertaker, please drive slow
For this body you are hauling
How I hate to see her go
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
Lord, I followed close beside her
Tried to hold up and be brave
But I could not hide my sorrow
When they laid her in the grave
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
Went back home Lord, My home was lonely
Since my mother she had gone
All my brothers, sisters crying
What a home so sad and lone
Can the circle be unbroken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky
CAN'T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE
This world is not my home, I'm just passing through
My treasures and my hopes are all beyond the blue
Where many many friends and kindred have gone on before
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Over in Glory land, there is no dying there
The saints are shouting victory and singing everywhere
I hear the voice of them that I have heard before
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh, lord, you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home, oh, lord, what would I do
Angels beckon me to heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Heaven's expecting me, that's one thing I know
I fixed it up with Jesus a long time ago
He will take me through though I am weak and poor
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh, I have a loving mother over in Glory land
I don't expect to stop until I shake her hand
She's gone on before, just waiting at heaven's door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh, lord, you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home, oh, lord, what would I do
Angels beckon me to heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
CHURCH IN THE WILDWOOD
There's a church in the valley in the wildwood
No lovelier place in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
How sweet on a clear sabbath morning
To listen to the clear ringing bells
Its gongs so sweetly are calling
Oh, come to the church in the dell
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
There, close by the side of the loved one
'Neath the tree where the wildflowers bloom
She sleeps, sweet love sleeps 'neath the willow
Disturb not her rest in the tomb
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
[bass] Oh, come, come, come, come
[all] Come to the church in the wildwood
Oh, come to the church in the dell
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the dell
CLIMBING ZION'S HILL
Oh, the heaven bells are ringing and I'm a-going home
I'm a-going home, yes, I'm a-going home
Oh, the heaven bells are ringing and I'm a-going home
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
If you don't, my mother, you'll be too late
You'll be too late, you'll be too late
If you don't, my mother, you'll be too late
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
If you don't, my father, you'll be too late
You'll be too late, you'll be too late
If you don't, my father, you'll be too late
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
COAL MINER'S BLUES
Some blues are just blues
Mine are the miner's blues
Some blues are just blues
Mine are the miner's blues
My troubles are coming
By threes and by twos
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Blues and more blues
It's a coal black blues
Blues and more blues
It's a coal black blues
Got coal in my hair
Got coal in my shoes
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
These blues are soul blue
They are the coal black blues
These blues are soul blue
They are the coal black blues
For my place will cave in
And my life I will lose
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
You say they are blues
These old miner's blues
You say they are blues
These old miner's blues
Now I must have sharpened
These picks that I use
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I'm out with these blues
Dirty coal black blues
I'm out with these blues
Dirty coal black blues
We'll lay off tomorrow
With the coal miner's blues
COME BACK TO ME
Come back to me in my dreaming
Come back to me once more
Come with the love light gleaming
As in the days of yore
And tell me that you still love me
And that your heart is still true
When the spring roses are blooming
Then I'll come back to you
Somewhere a heart is breaking
Calling me back to you
Memories of loved ones awaiting
Each happy home and you
Absence makes my heart fonder
Is it the same with you
Are you still happy, I wonder
Or do you feel lonesome, too
When the sun is sinking
In the golden west
And the birds and flowers
They have gone to rest
Come tell me that you still love me
And that your heart is still true
When the roses are blooming
Then I'll come back to you
THE CURTAINS OF NIGHT
When the curtains of night are pinned back with a star
And the beautiful moon climbs the sky
And the dewdrops of heaven are kissing the rose
It is then that my memory flies
As upon the wings of some beautiful dove
In haste with the message it bears
To bring a kiss of affection and say
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
Go wherever you will, over land, over sea
I will share all your sorrows and cares
And at night when I kneel by my bedside to pray
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
I have loved you too fondly to ever forget
The words you have spoken to me
With a kiss of affection still warm on my lips
When you told me how true you would be
Go wherever you will, over land, over sea
I will share all your sorrows and cares
And at night when I kneel by my bedside to pray
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
As the heavenly angels are guarding the good
As God has ordained them to do
In answer to prayers I have offered for you
I know there is one watching you
Go wherever you will, over land, over sea
I will share all your sorrows and cares
And at night when I kneel by my bedside to pray
I'll remember you, love, in my prayers
And may its bright spirit go with you through life
To guide you up heaven's bright stairs
To meet with the one who has loved you so true
And remembered to love in her prayers
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