Some End of Semester Notes

Last Class. Very nice to see all of you tonight--the projects and discussion were good (Grace's story included!) and I hope you 'll go on thinking about the things I said about Joseph Spence, Andros Island and the song, Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer...  Also, I'm glad we had a chanced to be together informally, with some refreshments...

Evaluations. It's super important that you fill out and turn in a class evaluation sheet. I gave one to each of you present. You'll need to complete the sheet and return it to the Architecture Department Office, 232 Wurster (Berkeley CA 94720) marked Course Evaluation, Visual Studies 185X, Instructor Anthony Dubovsky.  I'm sorry I only got to this at the very end of the evening--meant to do so earlier. Remember, they are reviewed very carefully by the University--a both as to the value of the class and the value of my teaching--and your comments are IMPORTANT!  (Lauren and Fabiha, if you see me in office hours next week, I can get you one to fill out). 

Individual Meetings. If you'd like to see me for a post-class talk, I'll be in my office (482 Wurster) next Thursday from 6-8pm. You're welcome to stop by during that time. Let me know by email if you plan to do so, and I'll put your name on a sign up, starting at 6pm...

Notebooks. As discussed, you do need to complete your class online notebooks. They've been a meaningful part of the semester. Also add a final post about the class itself--your own reflections on the semester--where you started, what you encountered along the way, and where this Songs & Places thing has taken to you--content-wise and creatively... I'll look forward to reading what you have to say...

Due no later than Sunday, December 10. Earlier if possible. Please email me when your notebook is complete so that I'll know when to look.

Again, thanks to all of you for a wonderful semester!!!

Week 14: CITY BLUES

Junior Wells performing at Theresa's Lounge (Marc PoKempener photo)

Key CHICAGO BLUES people include Muddy Waters (who arrived in Chicago in the 1940s), Howlin' Wolf, and John Lee Hooker (Hooker is associated with Detroit, but like Muddy Waters, was born in the South). And Willie Dixon, Little Walter, Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Johnny Shines... Otis Spann, Junior Wells plus many many more... It's important that you understand the dynamic between the two regions--the Mississippi Delta (Country Blues in general) and Chicago (Urban Blues in general)--and why the music sounds the way it does.

A rainy night outside Theresa's, MPK photo (late 1960s)

The important theme to concentrate on is this Mississippi-Chicago axis. (See Robert Palmer's book, Deep Blues.) Many of the "city" players had their start in the south (Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, for eample.) They took their downhome music north. Sometimes it worked the other way around. Johnny Shines, the Chicago blues artist  (who as a young man was influenced by and had traveled and played with Robert Johnson) is included here on a track called Too Wet To Plow--recorded later in his life, but at the same time a beautiful return to his southern roots.

Here's where it all started: 

Muddy Waters: Feel Like Goin' Home (Aristocrat, 1946)

Muddy Waters, Chicago,  late1940s

Reading.  Last week's reading continued to apply. And again, for a very different view of music made by Black Americans, see Albert Murray's Stomping the Blues (which treats a much wider musical panorama, with attendant ideas as to how we should understand "the blues..."). Alternatively, make use of the week to do some online research into the bios of Chicago blues people--Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and the rest.

Download (same as last week):  https://berkeley.box.com/s/gwamo1pfjmeelmauzkm
Last week's download includes songs for both weeks 11 and 12. Here are the tracks especially for this week:

CHICAGO
Long Distance Call    Muddy Waters   (1913-1983)
Rollin' & Tumblin', Part Part 1   Muddy Waters
Honey Bee    Muddy Waters
Blues With A Feeling   Little Walter   (1930-1968)
Too Wet To Plow   Johnny Shines   (1915-1992)
I'm The Wolf    Howlin' Wolf   (1910-1976)
The Red Rooster (With False Start And Dialogue) Howlin' Wolf & English Rock musicians Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts)

Theresa's Lounge, Lost & Found, MPK photo

You can also refer back these selections mentioned in last week's post:

How Long, How Long Blues  Leroy Carr (1905-1935)  (Nashville, originally)
Jet Black Snake    Roosevelt Sykes   (1906-1983)
Hoodoo Lady    Memphis Minnie   (1897-1983)
Black Snake Blues    Victoria Spivey   (1906-1976)

and these two more recent tracks:

J.T. Blues   Big Joe Turner   (1911-1985)  (Kansas City "blues shouter")
Sad Street    Bobby "Blue" Bland   (b. 1930)  (Memphis, originally)

Chicago, MPK photo

There are myriad blues styles and blues players. Concentrate on Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf--then move on to some of the other tracks (Roosevelt Sykes, Victoria Spivey).

Also included, back-to-back, Joe Turner, originally a "blues shouter" from Kansas City, in a late-great performance (J.T. Blues)--and (also wonderful)  Bobby "Blue" Bland singing Sad Streets...

Big Joe Turner (Kansas City)

Plus one track from The Wild Tchoupitoulas (pure New Orleans), one from Sleepy LaBeef (of rockabilly fame), and one from the immensely curious (and powerful) Bahamian player, Joseph Spence. But Joseph Spence's music would be another story in itself...

There's also a good back-and-forth between traditional black blues musician Howlin' Wolf and a group of young English blues players. (Howlin' Wolf is basically teaching them how to play Little Red Rooster.)  I included this as a track on your download under Little Red Rooster.

Howlin' Wolf at Silvio's, Chicago (Hubert Sumlin on lead guitar, next to drummer)

Another cut on your download, Too Wet To Plow, by Johnny Shines--a beautiful song by a southern blues musician--Johnny Shines--who moved to Chicago to make his career, but later in life again recorded some of the Mississippi Blues songs he knew from his youth. Johnny Shines as a young man traveled with Robert Johnson--and learned his style. You'll hear it in the way he plays the song, recorded decades later.

Johnny Shines, Too Wet to Plow

Hey, there are many many good traditional blues players. The download gives you a mini cross section. But here I kept the list here simple so that you could concentrate on the Mississippi Delta / Chicago (rural blue/city blues) dynamic. Which is also an acoustic instrument/electric instrument dynamic.

Muddy Waters, 1960s

Some related YouTubes with video:

MUDDY WATERS -hoochie coochie man (1960) - YouTube 
Howlin' Wolf - How Many More Years - YouTube ("What Is the Blues") CLASSIC
Howlin' Wolf on Shindig Broadcast Date May 20, 1965 - YouTube - Rolling Stones intro
Robert Lockwood, Jr. - Sweet Home Chicago - YouTube
Willie Dixon "Weak brain and a narrow mind" - YouTube
Lightnin' Hopkins - lonesome road - YouTube
John Lee Hooker with Muddy s band (High) - YouTube
Granada Television - I Hear The Blues - Victoria Spivey -TB Blues.wmv - YouTube 

Victoria Spivey

And then, of course, there's where Bob Dylan took it all:
Bob Dylan - Worried Blues - YouTube

Week 13: COUNTRY BLUES

Son House

 

Schedule note for Fall 2017: For the last two week's of the semester we'll concentrate on the Blues.
Week 13 (leading into Thanksgiving) will be Country Blues: The Mississippi Delta. That's the post right below. For the week after Thanksgiving (leading into our final class meeting on November 30) we'll look at Chicago Blues--and how the music changed as people moved up the river from rural Mississippi to the cities in the north--Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis. That's in the post for week 14. You can do a separate project for each (country blues and city blues)--or one super project combining the two. I'll leave it open--but I do want you to know the material for both weeks!
_____

COUNTRY BLUES: The Mississippi Delta

Reading: Leroy Jones: Blues People Negro Music in America. Reader pps. 117-146. Reread this again to see how your understanding has changed. It's an important book. New reading: Blues from the Delta. William Ferris, Reader pps. 147-164. Two other books also apply, both in UC  Library: Mary Beth Hamilton, In Search of the Blues  (2008), and the classic, Robert Palmer, Deep Blues (1982). Also--John Swed covers Alan Lomax's blues fieldwork extensively at  various points in his biography. (See Son House references in his index, especially p. 192-3. In the iDocs link, this material starts on iDocs p. 142 and runs through 146, with references to Son House, early Muddy Waters in Clarksdale, Mississippi and Blues as part of the American folk panorama. http://www.idoc.co/read/45760/alan-lomax-john-szwed/1 ) One of Lomax's later books is The Land Where the Blues Began. For a very different view on this theme of Blues, read Albert Murray's Stomping the Blues (1972).

Songs (in your tan songset, and on the original S&P CD): 
Corrina, Corrina
Careless Love
Sweet Home  Chicago (great song--but it's not really a sing-along)

Download:  https://berkeley.box.com/s/gwamo1pfjmeelmauzkm

For the next two weeks we'll do the Blues. For Week 12, concentrate on Delta Blues--and Country Blues in general. For Week 13, concentrate on Chicago and the city blues tradition.

It's a very broad topic--but generally speaking...

You can think of the Blues in terms of it's rural origins, in the early 1900s--from the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere in the South--East Texas, for example. There's also the Piedmont blues from the Carolinas, and blues styles from places like Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis. Gradually the music was carried up the Mississippi River and by rail  to Chicago--where city blues took off. This shift followed emigration patterns--black southerners moving to northern cities for work beginning in the period of  WWI. Chicago blues came into its own during WWII and the post-war years. A very good book on this topic is Robert Palmer's Deep Blues. Note that the terms Country Blues, Delta Blues and Downhome Blues are used somewhat interchangeably.

Skip James

Key DELTA BLUES people include Charley Patton, Son House, Skip James, and slightly later, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters (in his very early years)--along with MANY others... Mississippi John Hurt is sometimes called a blues player (and he did record some key blues songs--his version of Stagger Lee is classic) but in many ways MJH represents an earlier Songster era. There's also the important early Texas blues player Blind Lemon Jefferson, whose recordings in the 1920s became widely popular. Other Texas players, from the next generation include Lighting Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb. And not to forget the early players Memphis Minnie... and singer Victoria Spivey. (Later came Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Mama Thornton...)

Note that the Delta Blues/Country Blues are very different from recordings by Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox and others--primarily women, whose songs were performed with jazz band accompaniment and in many ways represent an extension of the vaudeville tradition. (Think about why women blues singers were cast in this light.) Country Blues emphasizes the solo voice with a solo acoustic guitar. The two answer each other--and the power of the music comes from this. (Listen to Charley Patton, Son House,  Skip James, Robert Johnson...) The Delta style is unique in the way the guitar is linked to the voice...always expressive, always from within...

Robert Johnson (recently discovered photo)

When southern blacks began moving north--first to places like Memphis and St. Louis, then to Chicago and Detroit, what was in essence a rural (and acoustic) music took on the attributes of the city--amplifiers, for one. Muddy Waters is key here. (We'll concentrate on Chicago  next week.)

Here are the tracks on your download that correspond to the Country and Delta Blues:

DELTA BLUES
34 Blues     Charley Patton  (1887?-1934)
Lonesome Road Blues    Sam Collins (1887-1949)
Cross Road Blues    Robert Johnson  (1911-1938)
Come On In My Kitchen    Robert Johnson
Milkcow's Calf Blues    Robert Johnson
I'm So Glad   Skip James  (1902-1969)
Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues   Skip James
Parchman Farm Blues    Bukka White  (1909-1977)

And some related early recordings, also on your download (moving beyond Delta Blues):

How Long, How Long Blues  Leroy Carr (1905-1935)  (Nashville, originally, and a smoother stylist)
The World Is Going Wrong   Mississippi Sheiks  (recorded 1930's)
Jet Black Snake    Roosevelt Sykes   (1906-1983)
Hoodoo Lady    Memphis Minnie   (1897-1983)
Caught Me Wrong Again   Memphis Minnie
Black Snake Blues    Victoria Spivey   (1906-1976)

Memphis Minnie

Here are some key YouTube recordings for the Country Blues /Delta Blues tradition. Some include film/video (made in more recent years, obviously, mostly from the 1960s).

YouTube - Charley Patton - Spoonful Blues (Delta Blues 1929) (audio only)
'Some These Days I'll Be Gone' CHARLEY PATTON, 1929 Delta Blues Guitar Legend (audio) 

▶ Son House - Field Recordings 1941 & 1942 - YouTube (Delta Blues, audio only)
▶ Son House "Death Letter Blues" - YouTube  (video of Son House performing, 1960's)

Skip James -- "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James - YouTube  (video early 1960's)
YouTube - Skip James sings "Crow Jane"

Blind Lemon Jefferson, record advertisement

▶ Black Snake Moan - Blind Lemon Jefferson - YouTube (very early Texas Blues, audio)

▶ Lightin' Hopkins - YouTube  (Texas Blues, next generation--video, 1960's)
And another classic Lighting Hopkins recording -- Trouble in Mind (audio only):
Lightnin Hopkins ~ Trouble in mind - YouTube

▶ Mance Lipscomb - Jack of Spades - YouTube (Mance Lipscomb playing Texas blues, video. Originally a Blind Lemon Jefferson song.)
Mance Lipscomb 1. A Well Spent Life 2. Motherless Children (1971) - YouTube (from the Les Blank film, 1972, a beautiful video clip.) Compare Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin' Hopkins as personalities...

No Man Like Mance - A Well Spent Life - YouTube  with Chris Strachwitz talking about both Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin' Hopkins--and the importance of Les Blank's  film.

and finally, a very early Muddy Waters audio recording, from his Mississippi beginning's (this from Alan Lomax fieldwork):
McKinley Morganfield - Burr Clover Farm Blues - YouTube

The young Muddy Waters, in Mississippi

 Next week--we'll follow Muddy Waters north, to Chicago and City Blues...

Week 12: THE HARRY SMITH ANTHOLOGY

Revised cover from the 1960s (with photo by Ben Shahn from the 1930s)

 The Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music - 1952 / A Sampler 

 
Now that you have a sense of Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, I want you to use the time to get acquainted with Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, published by Folkways Records in 1952. These three volumes, issued as a set of lps, were the source for a good part of the American folk music revival of the later 1950s and early 1960s. Harry Smith (among many other things) was an avid record collector--and the Anthology draws on his archive. The material included--mostly recordings from the 1920s and 30s--were ones some people had found again as individual records, but it was Smith's Anthology that brought the full range of them into view. It became "the folkies' bible." Note also that the Anthology was the source for two of Mississippi John Hurt's early recordings: Frankie and Spike Driver Blues, which lead to his "rediscovery" in the 1960s. We explored some of this last week. The key song was Avalon Blues--not on the Anthology, but the Anthology led to its rediscovery as well.

The Smithsonian (which acquired the Folkways records archive) reissued the Anthology as a 6-CD boxed set in 1997, with a reprint of Harry Smith's original booklet (see out Reader, pps. 269-96) and collateral essays. The original songs are all included.

It's in three sections, as devised by Smith in the original:
Volume 1:  Ballads
Volume 2:  Social Music
Volume 3:  Songs

Note that the final song on the Anthology was Henry Thomas' Fishin' Blues. That's the version that so many people learned during the folk revival--incuding Taj Mahal, who made it a central part of his early repertory. Here's his 1968 recording (now of course a classic in its own right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQC2_NJj2iA
There's also an earlier version  by The Lovin'Spoonful (1965). Both of these recordings will give you as glimpse of how the Anthology influenced the soon-to-follow folk revival movement.

Some have argued that there's an over-all narrative to the material (see Robert Cantwell's book, When We Were Good, a ruminative history of the Folk Revival which (as I recall) includes a very good chapter on the Harry Smith Anthology.)

I'd have you access the entire Anthology online through the Music Library resources, but apparently because of licensing issues, the full set is not available in one go. So, instead, I've put together a Sampler, posted on box, with a number of the songs. It seems most of the others are available individually on YouTube. (Or, you could purchase the box set from the Smithsonial online, about $78).  So, listen to the Sampler, and spend some time with Harry Smith's booklet (it's the last section in our reader). His mini descriptions of the songs are worthwhile in themselves, and you'll pick up a lot of other details--record labels, bibliographic notes, collage fragments--all part of Smith's eccentric genius.)

Also, as a supplement, here's the Smithsonian's Anthology webpage, with samples from all 84 songs: https://folkways.si.edu/anthology-of-american-folk-music/african-american-music-blues-old-time/music/album/smithsonia.  No doubt you can find most of the songs in full version on YouTube .

Follow your own path through this material, see what you find interesting, intriguing--do some exploring.

DOWNLOAD on BOX:
https://berkeley.box.com/s/3k1phwj91zjk0ng4d5gb

Note that you have some of these songs in other downloads I've prepared for the class. The source for all of them was Harry Smith's Anthology. That's why they're included here again. I wanted to chose representative samples--which means some repeats. Be sure to download the .xml file for track information. For starts, listen to "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room," recorded by Rev. F.W.McGee.

Also, as a supplement, here's the Smithsonian's Anthology webpage, with samples from all 84 songs: https://folkways.si.edu/anthology-of-american-folk-music/african-american-music-blues-old-time/music/album/smithsonian

Harry Smith, David Gahr photo

READING. Harry Smith's own notes, which he referred to as "a scientific/aesthetic handbook," Reader p. 269ff. Use this last chapter in our Reader as your guide to listening--you'll get a sense of the original experience of the Anthology at the outset of the Folk Revival. Smith's notes are quirky and particular. What does that tell us today about the place of this music in the American consciousness? Then and now?

PROJECT: Start with "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room" or another of the Anthology songs that you want to work from. (You'll recognize how many of the songs fit into groupings we've seen earlier this semester--Omie Wise as an Appalachian Ballads, for example.
Or find an individual way to re-synthesize the Anthology for today--your own sense of this material--interpreted visually.

An opportunity to revisit some of the material we've covered in the course, and a chance to see it in it's original Folk Revival context--how the Anthology became an inspiration...
_____

A Note on the Cover: The original 1952 cover included an image of the  "Celestial Monochord," (below, right), from an etching by Theodore de Bry in a treatise by 16th century alchemist Robert Fludd. The choice of the image reflects Harry Smith's unique--and eclectic--metaphysical sensibility. The cover was revised in the 1960s, using a Depression-era photograph by Ben Shahn (below, bottom))--a better fit for the emerging Folk Revival listeners, and also a better commercial strategy. (The revised cover  was by Folkways Records' Irwin Silber, over Harry Smith's strenuous objections. Silber was the founder of SingOut!--a very popular small press publication for folk enthusiasts. He was also a noted political activist.) What does the revision tell us about the times? And how they were changing?

You have a reprint of Harry Smith's Anthology liner-notes,  what he called the "Scientific/Aesthetic Handbook." It's the the last chapter in our S&P Reader.)

Original 1952 cover

"The Celestial Monochord" from Robert Fludd

Revised cover from 1960s

Week 11: WOODY GUTHRIE

DOWNLOAD: Woody Guthrie on BOX: https://berkeley.box.com/s/ivaxn1cuzyz6y23xra0m

READING: We can pick up again with the READER--there's a chapter included from Woody Guthrie's autobiography--Bound for Glory (pps. 57-91, with a good introduction by Studs Terkel). With drawings by Woody Guthrie. Also see the section on his life, which starts on Reader p. 244. It's from Phil Hood, Artists of American Folk Music.  (There are other good sections from that book--on Pete Seeger, John Lomax, Odetta Carter Family, Elizabeth Cotten... I've included some of these in the Reader as well.)

Bound for Glory, cover, 1943

Also: Read this key chapter in John Szwed (Alan Lomax bio): Bohemian Folklorist (exploring the question of folksongs in the city), pps.141-167, particularly the section on Woody Guthrie in New York, pps. 157-167.  Those are the pages in the print edition.
Posted on iDocs:   http://www.idoc.co/read/45760/alan-lomax-john-szwed/1   
Note for 2017 class: Szwed's Bohemian Folklorist Chapter starts on p. 112 of iDocs, not 141. Skim this carefully. The Woody Guthrie section (read!) starts on p. 124 of iDocs, not 157. ("Alan had pushed back his trip...")

SONGS: Here are the main songs for this week (all in your tan songsheets). They're ALL good songs to sing...

This Land Is Your Land  (also--compare the way Dylan recorded it early on, included in YouTube section, below)

Roll on Columbia

Blowin' Down the Road
we can also do
Do Re Mi
So Long It's Been Good to Know You (Dusty Old Dust)

 Here are the (supplemental) titles on your Woody Guthrie download. I included some of his Dust Bowl ballads, (The Great Dust Storm, Tom Joad)  a "talking blues," his high-spirited version of Go Tell Aunt Rhody, some topical songs (Philadelphia Lawyer, Lindberg, and Jarama Valley) plus several other--to give you a good taste. There's of course lots more on YouTube, but this is a start (and the sound will be better...)

The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
John Henry
Talking Dust Bowl Blues
Dusty Old Dust (So Long, It's Been Good To Know You)
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Dust Bowl Blues
Blowin' Down The Road (I Ain't Going To Be Treated This Way)
Lindbergh
Tom Joad - Part I
Pastures Of Plenty
Tom Joad - Part II
Do Re Mi
Dust Bowl Refugee
Philadelphia Lawyer
Gypsy Davy
Hobo's Lullaby
Roll On Columbia
Jarama Valley
This Land Is Your Land
When That Great Ship Went Down
Long John

Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax,and friends, New York, early 1940s

YOUTUBE:

There are a number of great YouTube things as well. The first with Woody Guthrie live in an old film clip. These film clips of him are apparently rare. Can you find better? The first two are for LOOKING (so watch them carefully!!!); the next three, for listening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5NJKx8ObDY
Woody Guthrie performing, film fragment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbulO_FB2ZI&feature=related   
This Machine Kills Fascists  (A short Summary of the Year 1941). Sets Woody Guthrie's work in a historical context--what he (and his peers) were dealing with in the world. Good visuals...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s
This Land Is Your Land. Woody Guthrie's own version 

Bob Dylan - (Rare The Minneapolis Party Tape) - This Land Is Your Land - YouTube 
The Bob Dylan's version I wanted you to hear is no longer on YouTube  (although I'm sure you can find it elsewhere). The one above (even earlier, from Minneapolis in 1961, will give you a good idea of how he did the song.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM54-ZRd-9k&feature=related
Red River Valley. Woody Guthrie, early Asche recording. Compare with out S&P version (The Texian Boys, who were--in case it's not been mentioned--John Lomax and friends. I consider the Lomax version classic in terms of the meaning of the lyrics--one of our most beautiful songs. Woody Guthrie's version is sprightlier. Why do you think this is so?

Woody Guthrie's family, Okemah, Oklahoma

QUESTIONS: As with Leadbelly, there's a lot of social history in Woody Guthrie's songs--and in his life (he was born in Okemah, Oklahoma  and grew up with the music of that place--it was in him all throughout his life, even as he moved into and through MANY other social and artistic worlds. This is probably the key thing to consider: Woody Guthrie's heritage--and his life--as giving form to his songs. How did he become "a spokesman for the common man?"  (Oklahoman, vagabond, hobo, musical wanderer, hollywood radio show host, then new york, the recordings with moe asche (founder of folkways records), friendships with leadbelly, sonny terry & brownie mcgee and cisco huston, plus his influence on pete seeger (who loved the music, but didn't come from woody's "real" country background) and other subsequent "folk singers." And I left out his career in the Merchant Marine (his ship was torpedoed in the Atlantic during WWII) and the songs that came from that...plus his drawings and paintings...AND his jaunty autobiography (Bound for Glory). 

Woody Guthrie, Eric Shaal photo, New York, 1943

Week 10: LEADBELLY

Leadbelly & Woody Guthrie

DOWNLOAD: Leadbelly Songs

https://berkeley.box.com/s/3ps7p4cpsairtjcrro1m

READING: First, read Jas Obrecht on the Lomax Family, Reader pps. 248-49. Then continue with the following selections from John Szwed's Alan Lomax biorgraphy: Introduction (pps. 1-4), and his two Leadbelly chapters: Road Scholars (pps. 31-58) and The Saga of Lead Belly (pps. 59-76). Together these will give you a good understanding the Lomax recordings--and what they went through to make them (including the unwieldy recording set up they carried in the trunk of their car). And the beginnings of an understanding of Huddie Ledbetter himself... (The Szwed book, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World, is availalble in the UC Libraries (Main and Music). It's also available online--iDocs cureently has it posted: http://www.idoc.co/read/45760/alan-lomax-john-szwed/1 
Also note that there are many other online sources for learning about Leadbelly's life. Explore some of them!

On the road, 1934--the Lomax car trunk

I kept this week's download a bit more manageable in size, but you'll still need to be selective as to what songs you concentrate on. Remember that our original S&P set has these three (they're basic):

Rock Island Line
Goodnight Irene
Midnight Special


The ones below are in the Leadbelly supplement download for this week. They're all good, of course, but I've picked out a few favorites (in red). In particular, I want you to consider the words Leadbelly uses for Take This Hammer. The sequence of the verses as well...

The Gallis Pole
Duncan And Brady (Acapella)
Take This Hammer  (lyrics in gray songset--give them some thought)
Grey Goose
In The Pines
Bring A Little Water Sylvie (beautiful song to do together)
Corn Bread Rough
We Shall Be Free (with Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, and Sonny Terry)
Let It Shine On Me
Blind Lemon
Sukey Jump

Leadbelly, cover of Life magazine, 1935

Here are some additional questions/points of departure:

* Consider the chorus in Midnight Special. What WAS the Midnight Special? How did this image figure in Leadbelly's life? Look into this.
* With Rock Island Line, there's some important history: the song was subsequently covered (basically stolen) by the English Skiffle Band figure, Lonnie Donnegan (in the 1950's), who  recorded--and later copyrighted--the song as his own. Look into this. There are videos of the skiffle version on YouTube. (The same thing happened with Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train--you can look into the details here as well.) We can discuss this phenomenon in general...
* In the Pines and Bring a Little Water, Sylvie are just plain beautiful songs...

Also, and VERY important--as you look for videos of Leadbelly, as always with YouTube it's a question of how to sort through the vast array. Here are three that I think are IMPORTANT to pay close attention to (I WANT YOU ALL TO DO THIS!):

1.  Leadbelly /  segment from the Gordon Parks film (1976)
LEADBELLY (1976) Pardon Song for Governor Neff - YouTube  Note how Parks presents both Leadbelly and Texas Gov. Pat Neff. (Paramount has the copyright, and this film keeps getting removed from YouTube, but people seem to re-post parts of it.)

It's well worth watching how Gordon Parks (the distinguished African American photographer and film maker) depicts Leadbelly. There's a lot of "attitude" here--and it's worth paying close attention to. Ask yourselves, why is this film almost impossible to find...?
It's a little dated--but remains important as a landmark for how Park shows us his vision of Leadbelly... Here's one still from the opening sequence. Compare with the "Newsreel" version following.

Leadbelly in Gordon Parks' film version, 1976

2.  The Leadbelly "Newsreel"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxykqBmUCwk
In which the "story" of Leadbelly is told--with footage of John Lomax and Leadbelly acting their parts, and a narrative which stands in relief to Gordon Parks' treatment. Note that the script here was written by the March of Time newsreel producers, not John Lomax. Consider the audience--in other words, who was this for? Newsreel features were common at the time--shown in theaters before the movies. (The newsreel images are fictional--a picture follows of the actual Angola Penitentiary in a period photo.)  CONCENTRATE ON THIS VIDEO!

Leadbelly and John Lomax, from the 1935 March of Time newsreel

Angola Penitentiary (Angola, LA), period photo

3.  And finally, Leadbelly singing Goodnight Irene (with Martha Promise Ledbetter)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMarv156mKw&feature=related
I just found this recently--it's a gem. Martha Promise was Leadbelly's wife...! The setting is "set up" of course--how could it not be--but their personalities shine through...

Leadbelly and Martha Promise, Wilton, Conn. 1935

A good question throughout--in fact, the main question I'd like to consider--who WAS Leadbelly? The man himself--and the figure he presented to the world (the several figures). How do we come to our own terms with the question? And in relation to Mississippi John Hurt? They both left what was home--at very different times in their lives, and under very different circumstances. How is this reflected in their characters--and in the character of their songs?
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One more thought: Leadbelly's late recordings, from 1948 (made in  New York, in his apartment with Martha during those last years) are also worth looking into. (Where Woody Guthrie slept on the couch for something like a year.) They may not show Leadbelly in full vigor, but each one has a ranging introduction in his own voice--and these are priceless. Listen to his version of Goodnight Irene here--even just the beginning...

The Last Sessions  (samples from the original Folkways recording)
You can access these on the Music Library's Streaming Audio Databases, under American Song:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MUSI/audio.html
under streaming Audio, American Song.
Search for Leadbelly's Last Sessions and you'll find all the recordings. (There's a wealth of earlier Leadbelly material in this archive as well. Poke around!) I'm sure that at least some of it is posted on YouTube as well. Listed on Alexander Street archive with this spelling: Lead Belly's Last Sessions.

Leadbelly

Week 9: SONGSTER II 2017

Henry Thomas, Ragtime Texas

Preliminary note: Usually we do two full weeks on Mississippi John Hurt. But this semester let's broaden things a bit and focus on more examples from the Songster tradition.

We'll continue this week with the Songster material on your Mississippi John Hurt download (from last week). Including the "Ragtime Texas" Henry Thomas--whose songs also give us a look back into the 19th century (Thomas recorded around 1925, a little earlier than Mississippi John Hurt). His "Fishin' Blues" being one of the great examples. (Listen in particular to the way Thomas plays the reed pipes!) Harry Smith put this song in the final spot of his Anthology of American Folk Music (Folkways, 1952) as we discussed in class--you have Smith's notes as the last chapter in your Reader; see the last entry as you listen, Reader p. 287.) Contemporary blues musician (and much more), Taj Mahal made a well-none cover of the song in 1968 (on his first album De Old Folks at Home), one that became a kind of touchstone of those "return to sources" years.

Henry Thomas - Fishin' Blues - YouTube  (same version as on your download)
Taj Mahal - Fishin' Blues - YouTube (early version-1968)

Note that there are several additional Henry Thomas songs on the same download. Plus Old Dog Blue (a gem) by Jim Jackson (1928).

We'll also listen to Doc Watson, Sittin' on Top of the World, one of his best songs, recorded in about 1960, and borrowed from a jug band original by the Mississippi Sheiks, who first recorded it in 1930. Bob Dylan later did a great version of his own (closer to the Mississippi Sheiks). And I'll give you a video of Sam Chatmon who recorded some of these songs in old age--in 1978--with Alan Lomax. (Sam Chatmon was a member of the original Mississippi Sheiks!) All interesting for the back and forth across time--and across musical cultures...

SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD (1964) by Doc Watson - YouTube 
The Mississippi Sheiks, Sitting On Top Of The World - 1930-YouTube
Sittin' on Top of the World (Remastered) - Bob Dylan - YouTube (Removed--see audio below)
Sam Chatmon: Sittin' On Top of the World (1978) - YouTube   (Alan Lomax Archive, with video)

Here's Dylan doing the song with Big Joe Williams in 1962: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY6Rimo6mb0  
And the audio version from his album, Good As I Been To You (1992):
 https://berkeley.box.com/s/8kgf9l5l6d68v3o7ikyofx3inkphsjsw
How would you describe the change over those 30 years? The difference between these two versions?

And then there's Reverend Gary Davis (you know his Candy Man) who brought the songster material to New York City. Cocaine Blues, one of his best songs, was also a jugband favorite. See the Memphis Jugband's version, from about 1929. (You already have the Memphis Jug Band's Stealin' Stealin' on Supplements Download, and in Tan songbook.)

Rev. Gary Davis playing "Candyman" - YouTube (This is his guitar playing.) You have the song version on first S&P download.)
Cocaine Blues - Rev. Gary Davis  (THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED. But here's Rev. Gary Davis on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest instead:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=972Dx71AtFA
'Cocaine Habit Blues' THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND (1929) Memphis Blues Legend - YouTube
YouTube - 'Stealin' Stealin' THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND, Memphis Blues Legend  

These fit this week as well... All in our Tan Songset and on your S&P CD download:

Candy Man (Rev. Gary Davis version and Mississippi John Hurt version)
San Francisco Bay Blues (Jesse Fuller)
Stealin' Stealin' (Memphis Jug Band)
Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train would also find a place here.

Your neighborhood jug band

Here are some related terms: Songster / Ragtime /  Old Time Music / Piedmont Blues / Vaudeville / Minstrel / Medicine Show

READING. You can read the Elizabeth Cotten entry, Reader pps. 257-262. Use google sources to followup on rest of the above--including Henry Thomas, songster, jug bands, and Reverend Gary Davis...

This would also be an excellent time to return to the Reader for a section from Bob Dylan's book, Chronicles, pps. 79-81. He writes beautifully about New York at the beginning of the folk revival--through his own experience.