re: Old Timey -- a thread for pre-rock country, folk, and blues

Red River Dave - "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" (1941)

A ship out on the ocean, just a speck against the sky
Amelia Earhart flying that sad day
With her partner, Captain Noonan, on the second of July
Her plane fell in the ocean far away

There's a beautiful, beautiful field
Far away in a land that is fair
Happy landings to you, Amelia Earhart
Farewell, first lady of the air

Half an hour later her SOS was heard
Her signals weak but still her voice was brave
In shark-infested waters her plane went down that night
In the blue Pacific to a watery grave

There's a beautiful, beautiful field
Far away in a land that is fair
Happy landings to you, Amelia Earhart
Farewell, first lady of the air

Now you heard my story 'bout this awful tragedy
We all pray she'll fly home safe again
In years to come, though others blaze a trail across the sea
Well ne'er forget Amelia and her plane

There's a beautiful, beautiful field
Far away in a land that is fair
Happy landings to you, Amelia Earhart
Farewell, first lady of the air

I just spen an hour listening to about 15 songs in this thread!!

LINK

Leadbelly - House of the Rising Sun

LINK

Blind Willie McTell - Statesboro Blues

Fiddlin' Bob Larkan & His Music Makers - "The Women Wear No Clothes At All" (1929)

Cleveland Simmons Group - "Histe Up The John B Sail" (aka "Sloop John B", 1935)

quote:

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"The John B. Sails" is a Bahamian folk song from Nassau. A transcription by Richard Le Gallienne was published in 1916, and a version was included in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag in 1927. Since the early 1950s there have been many recordings; variant titles include "I Want to Go Home", "Wreck of the John B", and most famously, "Sloop John B," as recorded by American rock band the Beach Boys in 1966

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quote:

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The song was transcribed by Richard Le Gallienne, with five verses and the chorus published in his article “Coral Islands and Mangrove-Trees” in the December 1916 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine (pp. 81–90). The first two verses and chorus were also published in Chapter IV of Gallienne’s 1917 novel Pieces of Eight.

Second publication

Carl Sandburg included the first three verses and chorus of "The John B. Sails" in his 1927 collection of folksongs, The American Songbag. He states that he collected it from John T. McCutcheon (a political cartoonist from Chicago) and his wife, Evelyn Shaw McCutcheon, who at the time owned Blue Lagoon Island, a Cay off of Nassau. The McCutcheons told him:

quote:

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Time and usage have given this song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau. The weathered ribs of the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Harbor, whence an expedition, especially sent up for the purpose in 1926, extracted a knee of horseflesh and a ring-bolt. These relics are now preserved and built into the Watch Tower, designed by Mr. Howard Shaw (ed. note: Evelyn Shaw McCutcheon's father) and built on our southern coast a couple of points east by north of the star Canopus.

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This is apparently the first recorded version (in French, 1953)

Terry Clement & His Rhytmic Five -
"Diggy Liggy Lo"

A later photo of The Clément Brothers, composed of Terry on accordion, Purvis on violin, and Grant on guitar

Kelly Pace and Prisoners - "Rock Island Line" (1934)

Recorded by archivist John Lomax at the Cummins (Ark) prison camp.

Lead Belly accompanied Lomax on the trip; supposedly this is how he was introduced to the song.

Barbecue Bob - "The Monkey And The Baboon" (1930)

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