Bonny Eloise Stephen Griffith 2021-05-15 | Before we get to the song, I’ve been working three years on various aspects of what my family calls “The Sandburg Project.” I need a break to recharge my batteries, get back in shape (the pandemic hasn’t been kind), and do some work around the house. I will be back!Sandburg writes: "Bonny Eloise in Amsterdam, New York, in 1947 I was told that if I would wait a day or two they would take me to a town nearby where I could meet a man whose grandfather knew Bonny EIoise. Having other engagements, I had to defer the research.About all we know now of Eloise is that she was bonny and blue-eyed. I have heard that Louis C. Jones of the New York Historical Society has instituted a research and we may yet to know more about Eloise's romance, if such there was, with C. W. Elliott who wrote the lyric. He loved a river much and a certain girl much more. In covered-wagon days it was a widely beloved song."1858 (date of composition, according to Gale Huntington from The Gam: More Songs Whalemen Sang)
Lily of the West Stephen Griffith 2021-05-12 | Sandburg writes: "We can't resist quoting from a letter of Mary 0. Eddy in Perrsyvil!e, OMo. "My sister and I are reasonably well and happy living in our old home here. The old people who sang for me years ago are gone, and their songs are no longer sung. I can still visualize old Henry Maurer who sang The Lily of the West with much gusto. He always stood up to sing, and always buttoned his coat for the effort. I stood by him and sang with him!"This definitely serves to make us feel the song is a good one and worth our singing. To the gracious Miss Eddy we will offer the ancient Irish toast, "May the road to hell grow green waitin' for you."There are many versions to this song tracing back to Ireland. Sandburg’s version is the one I grew up knowing (although I don’t remember where I first heard it). Of course, on face value it’s a frontier song from Kentucky where some seductive, wily temptress angered her boyfriend to the point of killing a man who flirted with her. Well, that’s how I read it when I was young. Of course, now I see in Sandburg’s version there is some necessary reading between the lines, as well as a sense of ambiguity (which I believed Sandburg loved.) Flora was certainly a lady of the evening, sweet talking any potential client, and the singer of the song felt so jealous he resorted to murder. Sandburg leaves the singer’s fate to our imagination.
Telephone Book Stephen Griffith 2021-05-07 | Sandburg writes: "When "Folk-Say" was published by the University of Oklahoma it included poems by Waring Cuney, a Black poet, [a part of the Harlem Renaissance] whose lines have simplicity that often goes with folk songs. Albert Hague has given a tune and an arrangement to two of the modern Cuney lyrics. Why shouldn't there be a song about the telephone book? Deftly the Cuney lines bring out that there can be moments when all the names in the phone book from A to Z are no use to you except a single precious one."William Waring Cuney (May 6, 1906 – June 30, 1976) was a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He is best known for his poem "No Images," which has been widely anthologized. Although his work was largely forgotten in the United States by the 1950s, it was translated into German and Dutch and developed a following in Europe. He published only two volumes of poetry in his lifetime: Puzzles, a limited edition published in the Netherlands in 1960, and Storefront Church, published in London in 1973. He died in New York City on June 30, 1976.
Poor Wayfaring Stranger Stephen Griffith 2021-04-23 | Sandburg writes: "One service performed by George Pullen Jackson's book "Spiritual Folksongs of Early America" was the bringing to light and making available many songs reposing in old and scarce religious songbooks of a hundred years ago and still earlier. We have here one of the earliest versions of the "Poor Wayfaring Stranger." "A later version of THE WAYFARING STRANGER puts the heavy accent on misery in the present world rather than another happier realm in an afterworld."Theres two versions are combined in this recording.
Aunt Clara Stephen Griffith 2021-04-17 | Sandburg writes: "We give here a chorus of the “aunt Clara “song. At the WWII European Theater Operation Air Force headquarters of Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz, it was sung by flyers who carried it from one continent to another some of them thinking up new verses while watching the altimeter. The Pacific theater had verses the European headquarters never heard of. Many more stanzas than here presented are in the custody of Carrie Plummer Boyd, who heard her General Spaatz and the other brave flying men sing them."You can make out from any two or three verses that Aunt Clara was a dubious character. With a few more verses, you are certain she was what is termed as a “bad woman“ who like money, jewels, snazzy clothes and motorcars, elegance galore, and to acquire these luxuries, she didn’t care what kind of a reputation she made."She was a creation of good flying man who in their off hours kidded themselves and her and home folks about her. Some flyers prefer Frankie who killed her Johnny because he was a man and went astray from her.
O P A Ditty Stephen Griffith 2021-03-22 | On August 28, 1941, President Roosevelt's Executive Order 8875 created the Office of Price Administration (OPA). The OPA's main responsibility was to place a ceiling on prices of most goods, and to limit consumptionby rationing. After the outbreak of WWII it was deemed necessary to control inflation and stabilize prices. The OPA also had the power to ration scarce goods such as tires, automobiles, shoes, sugar, gasoline, and rent, among other things.The OPA set up a system of rationing where households received ration books with coupons to be used for buying scarce goods.The first goods rationed were tires (no driver was to own more than five tires). The last item controlled was meat ending on November 23, 1945.Sandburg writes: "When the Office of Price Administration first began operations under its chief, Leon Henderson, some of the boys thought a song was needed. Whether the following ditty was the product of an individual or a group is not known to the present writer. The lines are satirical and they carry historic implication."
O Fare Thee Well Stephen Griffith 2021-03-18 | NOTES: "He's Gone Away" from Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American Songbag.Sandburg begins his first chapter DRAMAS AND PORTRAITS with the song "He's Gone Away." In studying the roots of Sandburg's selection, several songs show up as closely related.According to The Traditional Ballad Index, William A. Larkins notebook of lyrics is the earliest date of this song in their collective index."This song (which includes the variation represented in Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag), is officially a catch-all. Other song titles in this category are The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, and Turtle Dove."The Traditional Ballad Index "When William A. Larkin started his "book of all songs" in April, I866, he may not have realized that he was making a valuable contribution to folklore. Like Chaucer's young squire, he was twenty years of age at the time, and did considerable singing "when called upon by his friends." Evidently he wrote these [45] old album songs down to sing at such times. His statement, "These are selected from the best songs he knows, which he believes to be the best selected songs in this country" seems to indicate that his judgment did not err too far, inasmuch as folk song scholarship [later] confirmed . . . ." (The Old Album of William A. Larkin by Ruth Ann Musick, Journal of American Folklore Volume 60, No. 237, July-September 1947).I took Larkin's lyrics and put it to a tune collected by Cecil Sharpe and Maude Karpeles in his English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians. There are tentacles going back to the British Isles, but this will be elaborated upon at a later date.
Little Turtle Dove Stephen Griffith 2021-03-17 | NOTES: "He's Gone Away" from Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American Songbag.Sandburg begins his first chapter DRAMAS AND PORTRAITS with the song "He's Gone Away." In studying the roots of Sandburg's selection, several songs show up as closely related.According to The Traditional Ballad Index, "This song (which includes the variation represented in Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag), is officially a catch-all. Other song titles in this category are The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, and Turtle Dove."Little Turtle Dove, listed in this category was collected by Bascom Lamar Lunsford [who lived just a stones throw from my home] in his 1929 "30 and 1 Folk Songs from the Southern Mountains."Others collected this song as well, including famed British song-catcher Cecil Sharp who collected nine variants in the Appalachian Mountains from 1916-1918.Perhaps because of Biblical references (especially verse 2:12 from the Song of Songs: "The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.")... its mournful voice, and the fact that it forms strong pair bonds, European turtle doves have become emblems of devoted love.There are tentacles going back to the British Isles, but this will be elaborated upon at a later date.
Red Rosy Bush Stephen Griffith 2021-03-16 | NOTES: "He's Gone Away" from Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American Songbag.Sandburg begins his first chapter DRAMAS AND PORTRAITS with the song "He's Gone Away." In studying the roots of Sandburg's selection, several songs show up as closely related.According to The Traditional Ballad Index, "This song (which includes the variation represented in Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag), is officially a catch-all. Other song titles in this category are Fare You Well, My Own True Love, The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, and Turtle Dove."TBI continues: "The problem is, what to do with all the lost love pieces *with* some hint of a plot plus the floating element "Who will shoe your pretty little foot." After some hesitation, we decided on a four-part primary division (with some exceptions):* "The Lass of Roch Royal" for the ballad of that title* "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" for fragments too short to classify at all* "Mary Anne" for the versions specifically about that girl* This, for everything else.There probably are recensional variants within this song family; it's just too big and too complex. But the particular items are such a mess that we finally gave up trying to sort them."Red Rosy Bush, listed in this category, along with He's Gone Away, was collected by Anne and Frank Warner in their Traditional American Folk Songs (1984).There are tentacles going back to the British Isles, but this will be elaborated upon at a later date.
Our God, Our Help Stephen Griffith 2021-03-12 | This ends the first chapter "Our God, Our Hope" in Carl Sandburg's 1950 New American Songbag. Sandburg was feeling patriotic because World War II not only came to its conclusion, Sandburg had hopes it was time for peace to be ushered in. . . and the "family of man" recognized.Sandburg writes: "Often the saying goes in these days, "There is a search for God now as never before." Among the varied religions of mankind there are different names and interpretations of a Supreme Being, an absolute and universal Higher Intelligence having a hand: m. the affairs of men and nations. Around this Mystic Power, Isaac Watts wrote his psalm of faith in God as related to The Peoples who are now more vast and restless over the earth than in any previous age. Watts is a towering figure among hymn writers. He couldn't have known that of his hundreds of hymns this one would wear better and longer than any other. For more than three hundred years the English-speaking people and their changing rulers and servants have kept this hymn. Among trials and triumphs—and trials again—they go on singing it. "You might say it is an antique that never goes out of use. On VE day and the war's ending in Europe in 1945, in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England, "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" was sung with depths of fervor by a congregation overflowing that famous structure which had been a target of Nazi bombers. Among the singers there that day was the late Joseph Fort Newton, pastor of the Church of St. Luke and Epiphany in Philadelphia. Next to Dr. Newton stood another singer, the playwright and paradoxist, George Bernard Shaw.· The last lines of the time-honored hymn had rolled out sonorous and resounding from the throats of men and women who had heard and seen the appalling "buzz bombs." "In a moment of quiet, when the singing ended, George Bernard Shaw turned to the Reverend Dr. Newton of Philadelphia and said, "Do you know, I think I would rather have written that little thing than all my plays?" Thus Dr. Newton gave the incident to his longtime valued friend Abby Sutherland, head of Ogontz School. G. B. S. of course, did go in for much foolery in his time. Yet he had his solemn moments and this may have been one."
I Dont Want to Be Buried in the Storm Stephen Griffith 2021-03-10 | Sandburg writes: "R. Emmett Kennedy tells of "a cool, moonlight night in early autumn," when he sat on the front veranda of an old plantation house and he could hear mocking birds in soft song amid cedar trees. Then on the breeze came a snatch of plaintive melody, "the sound of sorrow and the burden of mourning." He knew that in quarters across the field a night watch had begun over a dead black man. "You are moved by the archaic solemnity of the occasion and feel impelled to become an intimate witness." "He stood by a window where the song came clear to him. Stanzas he had missed were given to him later by Rebecca Hutton. R. Emmett Kennedy was a rather marvelously sensitive listener, writing of what came to his ears, "How long you stood by the window listening outside in the moonlight, pondering over the drama of mysterious departure, you will never recall; for under the spell of enchantment such as this, reason becomes nebulous and remembrance gives way to dreams of bewilderment."
Where Shall I Be? Stephen Griffith 2021-03-08 | Sandburg writes: "When the first anxieties and fears about the A-Bomb came, Jonathan Daniels of Raleigh, North Carolina, gave his view that this new weapon could hold little or no terror for the millions of people who believe, and whose minds picture, a coming Day of Judgment. There are people fully prepared for Doomsday and its destroying flame. Many songs have been written which give the feeling of those who foresee a Last Hour on this earth for mankind. Some envision that hour as arriving at a shattering blast from a trumpet or horn blown by the Angel Gabriel. "We remember how in Marc Connelly's play "Green Pastures" Gabriel kept toying with that end-of-the-world horn. "Remember?" writes Tom Stokes. "Remember how Gabriel just couldn't resist sneaking that horn up toward his mouth and how the Lord would thunder sternly: 'Gabe!'? And how Gabriel would sheepishly drop the doom-sounder back to his side? The Lord must be nervous today. Gabriel's still hanging around but he's swapped his horn for a bright and shiny atom bomb and his finger itches for the trigger." Tom is writing about a natural event. This spiritual deals with the supernatural. It sings the belief that the innumerable dead of past ages are to be awakened and called to judgment. Those fully prepared for such a vast supernatural event can look at an atom bomb blast as a minor affair, comparable to Joshua's feat of dropping a ram's horn blast on Jericho and the walls tumbling as in Hiroshima, August the Sixth, 1945 Anno Domini. Those who have moved from the big cities to country places, for safety, have asked themselves, "Where shall I be?"
Death, Aint You Got No Shame Stephen Griffith 2021-03-06 | Sandburg writes: "For more than a century ago we have this little piece of songcraft. It is a brief outcry given slight melody rather than a song. We are reminded of the more gentle reproach in the title of John Gunther’s book, “Death, Be Not Proud.”"We hain't all got the same cross—oh, no! Thar's no two jes like no more than our eyes or noses The same pattern wouldn't fit us all, but thar's nary real child of God but has his cross made a purpose fer him and no other. And let him love it as God's kiss, not endurin’ it a-whinin’, and grudgin’ an’ draggin’ it ‘long in the dust. Let him bear it proudly as a soldier carries his gun, and tenderly, as the lover holds the rosebud given bay his sweetheart. "The Lord will say, 'Whar's your cross stranger?' And when you show him the battered old thing he'll answer, 'All right,' and turn to an angel and say, “Angel, give this brother or sister a crown.” And, brethren, the heavier, the crookeder, the uglier the cross, just so much brighter’ll be the crown. Perhaps ’twas a thorny cross, tearin’ your flesh, and spotted with blood. Well, every blood drop will turn to a costly jewel in your splendid crown, and will shine like the sun when you dance in silver slippers above. So you see you must endure it to the end. You can’t get shed of it for a steep hill or a deep river. You’d a heap better never touched it if you don endure clear to the end." (from "REMEMBRANCE ROCK," Carl Sandburg (p. 869)
Owa Tanna Siam Stephen Griffith 2021-03-05 | Sandburg writes: "Singing [this] to make the syllables fit into the tune of America is more fun than crossword puzzles or writing sonnets about sin or triolets about violets."Owa Tanna SiamOwa Tanna SiamOwa Tanna SiamOwa Tanna SiamOwa Tanna SiamOwa Tanna SiamOwa Tanna Siam
There Are No Lice On Us Stephen Griffith 2021-03-04 | Sandburg writes: "Singing [this] to make the syllables fit into the tune of America is more fun than crossword puzzles or writing sonnets about sin or triolets about violets."There are no lice on us,There are no lice on us—No lice on us.There may be one or twoGreat big fat lice on you,There are no lice on us—No lice on us.
God Bless Our Native Land Stephen Griffith 2021-03-01 | In this mini-tune survey, it seems Sandburg is drawn ti this version of "America." I can see why, God Bless Our Native Land is more inclusive, jettisoning the "land of the pilgrim's pride." And also the opposite of "nationalistic."-Sandburg writes: “Neglect and unkindly neglect has been accorded verses written for the tune of "America" or "My Country ‘Tis of Thee." A text of three verses, was published in "The Bugle Call," "a collection of the most celebrated war songs, published by the John Church Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1886." “Curiously enough, the third verse of this song published in 1886 is, with very slight variation, the same as the new verse now embodied in the British national anthem. The name of the author was not given, but what he wrote will be accepted by some Americans as a better poem than the one printed in all the textbooks and songbooks.”
America My Country Tis of Thee Stephen Griffith 2021-02-27 | The tune and lyrics prominently known today in the United States. Recorded on the land of the ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East) S’atsoyaha (Yuchi). Lest we forget.Sandburg writes: "A twenty-four-year-old student at Andover Theological Seminary was asked by Lowell Mason, a hymn writer, to translate or compose verses for a songbook to be used In schools. Among tunes placed in his hands was one of special appeal to him. Sixty-three years later he wrote of this one tune, "Being pleased with its simple and easy movement, I glanced at the German words, and seeing that they were patriotic, instantly felt the impulse to write a patriotic hymn of my own to the same tune. Seizing a scrap of waste paper, I put upon it, within half an hour, the verses substantially as they stand today." "These verses by the Baptist clergyman, Samuel Francis Smith verses were published in 1882 and were first sung at a children's festival in Boston on July 4, 1882."
God Save America (Revolutionary War) Stephen Griffith 2021-02-26 | Continuing Carl Sandburg's mini-tour of this tune, after the original God Save the King in 1745. Harold W. Thompson in Body, Boots and Britches: Folktales, Ballads and Speech from County New York writes:"Evidently the soldiers of Washington loved God Save the King too well to give up its tune. The Orderly Books have the following American ditty to that melody, invented long before a Harvard man penned America."The American Revolution Institute’s collection of more than fifty manuscript orderly books is one of the largest institutional holdings of orderly books in the United States. The majority of the orderly books are of American origin—for either Continental Army or local militia units..It was ordered and directed that not only every Regiment, but every Company, keep an Orderly Book, "to which frequent recourse is to be had, it being expected that all standing orders be rigidly obeyed.” With this order Washington formalized the practice. . . .The orderly books reveal in vivid, often gritty detail the realities and hardships of camp life, with frequent injunctions about cleanliness, profanity, theft, treatment of civilians in the community and proper behavior in camp.Historical figures honored in the lyrics include George Washington, Richard Mongomery (whose death on the Plains of Abraham is mentioned. and King Louis XVI of France.
God Save the Queen (Current Version) Stephen Griffith 2021-02-11 | There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years, but these are rarely used. The words used today are those sung in 1745, substituting 'Queen' for 'King' where appropriate. On official occasions, only the first verse is usually sung. Sometimes two verses are sung, and on rare occasions, three. The original second verse that is strikingly nationalistic is rarely sung. Instead, a third verse added in 1946 replaces it.The words of the National Anthem are as follows:God save our gracious Queen!Long live our noble Queen!God save the Queen!Send her victorious,Happy and glorious,Long to reign over us,God save the Queen.Thy choicest gifts in storeOn her be pleased to pour,Long may she reign.May she defend our laws,And ever give us cause,To sing with heart and voice,God save the Queen.Additional Verse added in 1946But be God's mercies knownFrom shore to shore.Lord, make the nation seeThat men should brothers be,And form one familyThe wide world o'er.The anthem has also never been officially declared as the national anthem of the country, the royal anthem (as this technically is) is used as the national anthem as a matter of tradition, but this is also due to the unique constitutional situation in the United Kingdom, as the nation doesn’t have a formal constitution. The words used are those sung in 1745, substituting ‘Queen’ for ‘King’ (and female pronouns with male ones) where appropriate.
God Save Our King 1745 Stephen Griffith 2021-02-10 | Sandburg starts off his New American Songbag with a mini history of a tune we all know. Notice the second verse of this early version—extremely nationalistic.The tune for God Save the Queen is said to go back to the early 1600s. The earliest lyric dedicated to the Sovereign of Great Britain followed when Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in 1745. The music and lyric was published titled: "A Song for Two Voices. As sung at Both Playhouses," as an homage to King George II (not Mad King George III who did not gain the throne until 1760).Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, says it was taken up at that time by companies at Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and hence became popular with the public.This early version has an extremely nationalistic verse which was included for two centuries and later changed in 1946.:O Lord, our God arise,Scatter our enemiesAnd make them fall.Confound their politics,Frustrate their knavish tricks;On Thee our hopes we fix;God save us all.Prior to its adoption in Georgian times, the English used "The Roast Beef of Old England" as their anthem."When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food,It ennobled our hearts and strengthened our blood."(Julian: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907)
Carl Sandburgs New American Songbag Stephen Griffith 2021-02-02 | I just wanted to say a couple of words. I thank you for following along in the sing-through of Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag--over 300 songs. But the pandemic is still going on so I'm going to continue. Next I'm going to sing through Carl Sandburg's 1950 NEW AMERICAN SONGBAG. About 40% of the NEW AMERICAN SONGBAG are reprints from the 1927 Songbag, and I will not rerecord them. But that still leaves a number of great songs Sandburg collected.I hope to continue recording as long as I am able (knock on wood) and would like to sing-through SWEET MUSIC a songbook from Sandburg's daughter, Helga, collecting songs the family sang together in the evenings. In the future I'd also like to explore other songs collected by Sandburg found among his papers at the Rare Book and Manuscripts library located at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Then possibly proceed to the Lomax songbooks.Again, thank you for following along. Also, a shout out to Avery Gregurich and The Quarterly Journal of Roots Music: NO DEPRESSION for the article on Sandburg and this sing through in the Spring 2021 issue.
Ezekiel, You and Me Stephen Griffith 2021-01-22 | Day 309 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesThis is the last song in Carl Sandburg's 1927 THE AMERICAN SANDBURG, which collects 321 songs.This is Sandburg's arrangement of lines and airs from five black spirituals that have for many years given musical enjoyment and spiritual sustenance (the first verse is "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," the second is from "Keep A-Inchin' Along," the third is "Standing in the Need of Prayer," the fourth is "Chilly Water", the last probably derived from "Sowing on the Mountain")This is based on Ezekiel's vision in Ezekiel 1.
I Got a Letter from Jesus Stephen Griffith 2021-01-20 | Day 308 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American Songbag.Sandburg writes: "This may be heard on Lang Syne Plantation, Fort Motte, South Carolina. It is sometimes sung by sinners or worldly negroes to persuade church members that they too shall receive salvation at the Throne of Grace."
You Got to Cross It for Yourself Stephen Griffith 2021-01-19 | Day 307 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "This spiritual from the blacks of Texas, is a contemplation, a prayer, and an outcry."This later became well-known through Roy Acuff and others as "Lonesome Valley."
A Hundred Years Ago Stephen Griffith 2021-01-18 | Day 306 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American Songbag.The Traditional Ballad Index categorizes this song as a sea shanty, states it is curiously listed as a religious song in Sandburg. It is a call and response song as I "tried" to show in the recording.Sandburg writes: "The high and prolonged declaration of a heart wanting to be home, having been away so long) yet it has a sea health. Wilbert Snow, the Maine poet who sailed before the mast when young and husky, knew this as a windlass song. . . . Air and accompaniment run without strict regard to rhythm. ... as a meditation. . . . and of varied pulses."
Standing on the Walls of Zion Stephen Griffith 2021-01-17 | Day 305 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American Songbag.Sandburg writes: "The barber shop harmonizers of midwest towns used to make up their own melodies and then mix in the words. In Galesburg [Sandburg's birthplace], boys from the Q. railroad shops, from Colton’s foundry and the Purington brickyards, would meet in front of Brown’s hotel or the Union hotel, practice with their voices as they strolled off Main Street, and then make the rounds of the ice-cream “sociables” held by various churches on a summer evening.Some boys would find the girls they were looking for. Others stayed with the bunch and sang. One of the favorite pieces, about the time of the Chicago anarchist case [The Haymarket Square Incident, May 4, 1886], was this white man’s spiritual."
In My Fathers House Stephen Griffith 2021-01-16 | Day 304 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American Songbag. I believe everyone needs to say or yell "house" in the first two occurrences of each verse. I'd also add, I'm not sure a church exists with no liars.Sandburg writes: "This spiritual comes from blacks in Fort Worth, Texas, through the medium of Jake Zeitlin, a poet who used to send me each year a horned toad from the Great Staked Plains. The list of occupations named in these verses can be extended according to desire or whim."
Things I Used to Do Stephen Griffith 2021-01-15 | Day 303 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 The American SongbagSandburg writes: "Texas camp meetings have heard these testimonies of an old way of life abandoned and a new one adopted."
Ain Gon to Study War No Mo Stephen Griffith 2021-01-14 | Day 302 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesThe tune in Sandburg is a little different from a more common version.Sandburg writes: "Among spirituals used by blacks as work songs this is to be mentioned. “They sing it by the hour,” students at the University of Alabama told me, referring to “Ain’ Go’n’ to Study War No Mo’.”"As they go on, hour by hour, they bring in lines from many other spirituals. The tempo is vital, never actually monotonous, never ecstatic, yet steady in its onflow, sure of its pulses. It is a work song-spiritual. . . . [with] black economy of vocables in speech and song."ADDITIONAL INFO: Some scholars "believe that the song was inspired by the famous verse in Isaiah (2:4) and Micah (4:5), the former of which reads in the (American printings of) the King James Version,and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,and their spears into pruninghooks;nation shall not lift up sword against nation,neither shall they learn war any more.These verses have inspired many songs (too bad they haven't inspired more politicians!), although in this case I would consider the song an allusion, not an actual quote.Incidentally, although the King James translation is so influential that many more accurate translations are afraid to change it. . . . (from the Traditional Ballad Index)
Gods Goin Set This World on Fire B—Welcome Table Stephen Griffith 2021-01-14 | Day 301 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesEarliest date published/recorded: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Quartet)This B text in Sandburg's American Songbag is just two verses. Both are recorded here.But this song has morphed since 1927 into a strong black spiritual which was title WELCOME TABLE, sometimes sung as FREEDOM TABLE. I've tagged this onto this recording.I've also heard it sung at religious communion services.
Gods Goin Set This World on Fire—A Stephen Griffith 2021-01-12 | Day 300 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesA traditional black spiritual. My only comment is that is seems we are doing a pretty good job setting the world on fire by ourselves. Earliest date published/recorded: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Quartet)Sandburg writes: "The I. W. W. (Industrial Workers of the World) nailed the word “Solidarity” high and issued a call for “One Big Union.” It shouted, "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to win.” Those with red cards of membership were “wobblies.” They belonged in “jungles,” camps and hobo hangouts near railroads. They were outlaws, gypsies, vagrants. Several times they wrecked jails, tore the doors off hinges, twisted the bars, spoiled the plumbing, and defied all law and government."While in jail they often made the walls ring with a black spiritual given here. Their favorite verse was “God’s Goin’ to Set This World on Fire.” It suggests Fire wrecking the world as the I. W. W.’s wrecked jails . . ."The text below is from Arthur Billings Hunt of Brooklyn, New York, who heard it from a group of blacks in a Virginia farm house five years ago (1922)."ADDITIONAL NOTE: While the song seems to have originated in African-American tradition, it has spread to Anglo singers as well. (The Traditional Ballad Index)
Good Bye, Brother Stephen Griffith 2021-01-11 | Day 299 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SerieFirst Published: Slave Songs of the United States (1867), indexed as Good-bye, song #70. The only comment: "This is sung at the breaking up of a meeting, with a general shaking of hands, and the name of him or her pronounced, whose hand is shaken; of course there is seeming confusion."In the book, Somebody’s Calling My Name, Wyatt Walker presents the views of researchers Harold Courlander and Hildred Roach on the use of double entendre in slave songs. According to Walker, both researchers agree that the double meaning did not always signal a desire to escape from slavery, although that was often the case.Roach asserts that these songs showed an obsession with “freedom land” but the meaning of Jesus is a bit ambiguous. Jesus, in the slave song, could mean “The Christ” of Christianity; Ntoa, the supernatural spirits of the ancestors; or Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad.Depending upon the circumstances and the singer, Canaan could mean Heaven, a better life in the north or freedom.In the play, A Woman Called Truth, by Sandra Fenichel Asher, this song is sung to Isabelle Betts (who later renamed herself Sojourner Truth) after she was sold and separated from her family.
Pharaohs Army Got Drownded (O, Mary Dont You Weep) Stephen Griffith 2021-01-10 | Day 298 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg only has the first and last verse. The remainder is how I first learned it and have sung countless times.First published/recorded in 1915 (recording, Fisk University Male Quartette)Also titled “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” the song "is one of the ethereal African American spirituals--a freedom song--born in the anonymity of slavery and drifted across time to bubble up as the need arose. The song might have been lost to the ages had it not been resurrected by the Fisk University Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee, who performed it on their post-bellum worldwide tours and were the first to record it as “O Mary Don’t You Weep, Don’t You Mourn” in New York City on October 23, 1915 (Columbia A1895).“Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” drew from both Old and New Testament stories with Pharaoh’s army perishing in the Red Sea as they pursued the Israelites fleeing bondage out of Egypt (Exodus 13:17-14:29), and sisters Mary and Martha of Bethany blaming Jesus for failing their brother Lazarus, pleading that Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, which he miraculously did (John 11: 28-35).The song is not coy or veiled in meaning: in the struggle for “right,” don’t be troubled by harm that comes to those who were inflictors or stood in the way. In 1958, as the Civil Rights Movement was heating up the Swan Silvertones (“Swan” was the name of the bakery that sponsored them) recorded their stunningly brilliant version of “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” (Vee Jay 879), that meaning hit home especially.The Silvertones were led by Claude Jeter with Paul Owens, John Myles, and William Connor (Louis Johnson, a regular in the line-up, may not have been present) delivered a tour de force performance recorded live in the studios of radio station WENW in Bessemer, Alabama. In his singular arrangement, Jeter deconstructed the traditional “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” and reassembled it as nothing less than a battle cry for freedom. [from the Library of Congress]
Mary Wore Three Lengths of Chain Stephen Griffith 2021-01-09 | Day 297 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "One of the sublime creations of the black in America. . . mystic, simple, poetic, elusive, tinted with shadings of the light that never was on land or sea. ADDITIONAL INFO: This is probably a religious adaption of "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane." (from The Traditional Ballad Index)
Way Over in the New Buryin Ground Stephen Griffith 2021-01-08 | Day 296 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "This black spiritual to be heard on the coast of Georgia is from a series of spirituals recorded on phonograph cylinders for the extensive collection of R. W. Gordon. The time of it goes a little as though one heard a distinct hammering of curious incessancy."
Two White Horses Stephen Griffith 2021-01-07 | Day 295 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published by Carl Sandburg in The American Songbag.Sandburg writes: "The white horses go in a sort of hoof-beat time; the “rassling” of Zek'l with sin is swift and dexterous, as also is his entrance into “heaven. ” It is one of the gayer and more accelerated spirituals, and was heard by Dr. Ernest Horn, head of the College of Education, University of Iowa, when a boy in Missouri. "ADDITIONAL NOTE: The story of Daniel in the lion's den is found in 6:6-24. There is no explicit reference to Ezekiel wrestling with sin (let alone rolling right into heaven) -- but certainly Ezekiel spent more time than any other prophet wrestling with wild, crazed visions. (The Traditional Ballad Index)
These Bones Gonna Rise Again Stephen Griffith 2021-01-06 | Day 294 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesI'm sharing my first take of this song with its stumbles because I just couldn't keep a straight face. The comic story of Adam and Eve with Eve gathering fruit in her apron...and the serpent giving Eve a "wunk" or wink. Too funny.Sandburg writes: "A retold story of the First Man, the First Woman, and the events of their Paradise Lost. It is comic, paradoxical, mystic, in the manner of some of the tumultuous imagery hurled forth from “God’s Trombones” as written by James Weldon Johnson. I have heard it in cities and on farms, in factories and pitching hay. For assistance in the text we are indebted to Lloyd Lewis, the Free Quaker."ADDITIONAL INFO: The details here generally come from what scholars call the "J" or "second" account of the creation, found in Genesis 2:4b-3:24. The mention of bones rising again comes from Ezekiel's vision in Ezek. 37:1-14. (from The Traditional Ballad Index)
Jesus, Wont You Come Bm By? Stephen Griffith 2021-01-05 | Day 293 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published in Slave Songs of the United States (1867) by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison.Sandburg writes: "One of the lasting creations from enslavement days."
When Poor Mary Came Wandering Home Stephen Griffith 2021-01-05 | Day 292 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "This too was heard from Senior at Indiana University on the evening told of in the note to “Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?” It is a fragment, a little make-over, from the mawkish popular song, “Mary of the Wild Moor.” The mother of Senior sang it often. A wisp of melody, it is, five brief lines as implicative as a Chinese poem."
I Dont Want to Be a Gambler Stephen Griffith 2021-01-03 | Day 291 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesA great little song, a favorite of mine. First published in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag"Oh, I don't want to be a gambler, An' I'll tell you the reason why, My Lord, sittin' in his Kingdom, Got his eyes on me, God got his eyes on me...."
Somebody Stephen Griffith 2021-01-02 | Day 290 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "A fugitive little lyric heard by Edwin Ford Piper from the singing of his pioneer mother in the 1880’s on a farm near Auburn, Nebraska. "At the University of Virginia, a lad from near Lynchburg, Virginia, said he had heard it from old people and it had been sung roundabout that neighborhood a long time."
I Met Her in the Garden Where the Praties Grow Stephen Griffith 2021-01-01 | Day 289 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesMy title for this is "Love Among the Potatoes".First published in Carl Sandburg's The American SongbagSandburg writes: "A quizzical, round-the-corner laughter at trouble that started where the potato blossoms grow. C. W. Loutzenhiser, the old railroad man of Chicago, who as a boy traveled with his father’s circus, said he often sang this with, an Irish girl, and the both of them used to wonder as the years went by, why they met only this one verse."But, before The American Songbag was published in 1927, Sandburg snuck in another verse he found into the Preface of the songbook.
Colorado Trail Stephen Griffith 2020-12-31 | Day 288 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "A hoss wrangler brought a car of ponies to Duluth, Minnesota. The next day, after brave stunt riding, he was laid in a hospital bed with “ruptures on both sides.” He told the surgeon Dr. T. L. Chapman, in a soft, forgiving voice, “That was a terribly bad hoss—not only throwed me, but he trampled me.” "Out of past years this rider had, Dr. Chapman’s examination disclosed, “bones of both upper and lower legs broken, fractures of collar bone on both sides, numerous fractures of both arms and wrists, and many scars from lacerations and tramplings, the bones knit any way that God and Nature let them heal.” As his strength came back he sang across the hospital ward in a mellowed tenor voice. And they always called for more. One song was The Colorado Trail remembered by Dr. Chapman as here set down. "ADDITIONAL NOTE: Lee Hays ("If I Had a Hammer" and Weavers fame) added several verses to this beautiful little tune, and many singers have recorded them, or added others of their own.The only traditional lyrics, however, are those given above, taken from a horse wrangler who was hospitalized in Duluth, Minnesota and printed by Sandburg. (from the Traditional Ballad Index)
The Weaver Stephen Griffith 2020-12-31 | Day 287 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "A variant of Foggy Foggy Dew, or I Am A Bachelor, a song that stands against time and weather tells a short-spoken story and ends with no more to say." Sandburg has "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" earlier in his American Songbag, page 14. The tune is just a tad different, and the lyrics reflect the same content. It puzzles me as to why he has put it in here again, especially when there were so many songs he collected and did not print.Something for further study.
Charcoal Man Stephen Griffith 2020-12-30 | Day 286 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesFirst published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 American SongbagSandburg writes: "Once the comment was heard on this, “It is a delicate imprint on a field of silence.” . . , An old man selling charcoal used to proclaim himself to the residents of Springfield, Missouri, with this morning cry. ... I notated it, hazardously, from the singing of a faculty member of the state teachers’ college at Greeley, Colorado. She came from Missouri."
My Old Hammah Stephen Griffith 2020-12-28 | Day 285 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "The power and restraint of art and genius lurk in the lines and melody of this song from the black rock gangs of Georgia and Alabama. The air is to be freely rendered. It is strictly one with variations, glides, blue notes, as you choose at moments. It relates directly to an older piece known in the mountains as Swannanoa Town [or Swannanoa Tunnel]. In accompaniment Henry Francis Parks indicates, “The hammer stroke motive should quite predominate.”The connection between this song and "Swannanoa Tunnel" is very strong. I live near Swannanoa and the Swannanoa Tunnel, so in the future I will be recording and writing about the Swannanoa Tunnel history.
Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home Stephen Griffith 2020-12-28 | Day 284 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home SeriesSandburg writes: "This may be one of the many Po’ Boy songs, [see Po' Boy, day 15 in this series] carrying its own peculiar load of grief. Verse 2 sometimes goes— "I went down to the railroadWhere the big six-wheelers ran;I saw my woman sitting thereIn the arms of another man."And occasionally, for the sake of plot, these two verses are interspersed— "I stood on the street corner;It was shortly after dark;Along came a man with the woman I love,And I stabbed him through the heart. "“Well, it’s please, Mr. Judge, now please, Mr. Judge,It’s what are you goin’ to do with me?”He says, “ If I find you guilty, dear boy,I’m goin’ to send you to the penitentiary.”"From Alan Lomax's notes: "There are stanzas in this one from so many different hobo songs, sung in so many different ways, that one might call this the master hobo song. Actually I had some hand in mixing the verses together in American Ballads and Folk Songs (Macmillan, 1934), from which Pete Seeger's version comes."
Go to Sleepy Stephen Griffith 2020-12-27 | Day 282 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series"Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, Go to sleep you little baby. When you wake, you shall have All the pretty little horses." The horses are described. Another verse describes a baby (lamb) left in a meadow at the mercy of the birds.
Jungle Nonsense Lullaby Stephen Griffith 2020-12-27 | Day 283 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series"Ah yah, tair um bam, boo wah, Kee lay zee day, Nic o lay, mah lun dee. Nic o lay ah poot a way, Nic o lay ah wah mee-- Ah yah, tair um bam, boo wah, Kee lay zee day, Nic o lay, mah lun dee."Margaret Johnson of Augusta, Georgia, heard her mother sing this, year on year, as the mother had learned it from the singing, year on year, of a nanny who comforted children with it. The source of its language may be French, Creole, Cherokee, or mixed. [Or in the case of this recording, pure nonsense.] The syllables are easy for singing; so is the tune. [sorry! no captions for obvious reasons.]
Bym By Stephen Griffith 2020-12-25 | Day 281 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series"By'm by, by'm by, Stars shining, Number, number one, Number two, number three, Good Lord, by'm by, by'm by, Good Lord, by'm by."Sandburg writes: "The stealth and mystery of the coming out of the stars one by one on the night sky ... a fragment of a spiritual heard in Texas in the early 1880’s by Charley Thorpe of Santa Fe."
