Happy Birthday To You-
By Lester Lannon
I am devoted to a local
folk station WUMB which is run out of the campus of U/Mass-Boston over near
Boston Harbor. At one time this station was an independent one based in
Cambridge but went under when their significant demographic base deserted or
just passed on once the remnant of the folk minute really did sink below the
horizon.
So much for radio folk
history except to say that the DJs on many of the programs go out of their ways
to commemorate or celebrate the birthdays of many folk, rock, blues and related
genre artists. So many and so often that I have had a hard time keeping up with
noting those occurrences in this space which after all is dedicated to such
happening along the historical continuum.
To “solve” this problem
I have decided to send birthday to that grouping of musicians on an arbitrary
basis as I come across their names in other contents or as someone here has
written about them and we have them in the archives. This may not be the best
way to acknowledge them, but it does do so in a respectful manner.
Click on title to link to the late folk singer/historian Dave Van Ronk performing in his patented nitty-gritty manner the classic old Kentucky Mountain BALLAD “Green, Green Rock Road” that I first heard Dave do over forty years ago and started a lifetime interest. Dave insisted, right up until the end on both his last CD (…and the tin can bended, and the story ended) and DVD concert ("Dave Van Ronk At The Bottom Line In 2001”) that he was informed by jazz and considered himself a jazz vocalist. You be the judge, folk or jazz. This ain’t no opera singer though, right?
Green, Green Rocky Road
When I go to Baltimore
Got no carpet on my floor
Come along and follow me
We’ll go down in history
Chorus :Green green rocky road
Promenade in green
Tell me who d’ you love
Tell me who d’ you loveS
ee that crow up in the sky
He don’t crow nor can he fly
He can’t walk nor can he run
He’s black paint slattered on the sun
Chorus :Green green rocky road
Promenade in green
Tell me who d’ you love
Tell me who d’ you love
Little Miss Jane runnin’ to the ball
Don’t you stumble don’t you fall
Don’t you sing and don’t you shout
When I sing come runnin’ out
Chorus :Green green rocky road
Promenade in green
Tell me who d’ you love
Tell me who d’ you love
Hooka tooka soda cracker
Does your mama chew tobacco
If your mama chew tobacco
Hooka tooka soda cracker
Chorus :Green green rocky road
Promenade in green
Tell me who d’ you love
Tell me who d’ you love
When I go to Baltimore
Got no carpet on my floor
Please get up and follow me
We’ll go down in history
Chorus :Green green rocky road
Promenade in green
Tell me who d’ you love
Tell me who d’ you love
"Come all ye fair and tender ladies"
Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court young mn
They're like a bright star on a cloudy morning
They will first appear and then they're gone
They'll tell to you some loving story
To make you think that they love you true
Straightway they'll go and court some other
Oh that's the love that they have for you
Do you remember our days of courting
When your head lay upon my breast
You could make me believe with the falling of your arm
That the sun rose in the West
I wish I were some little sparrow
And I had wings and I could fly
I would fly away to my false true lover
And while he'll talk I would sit and cry
But I am not some little sparrow
I have no wings nor can I fly
So I'll sit down here in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my troubles by
I wish I had known before I courted
That love had been so hard to gain
I'd of locked my heart in a box of golden
And fastened it down with a silver chain
Young men never cast your eye on beauty
For beauty is a thing that will decay
For the prettiest flowers that grow in the garden
How soon they'll wither, will wither and fade away
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