REQ: Song lyrics about Greenwich Village
ROGER SCIME
: Hi -- this is a personal project of mine.
: I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich Village or
: streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
: Please feel free to mail me personally or post to the list.
: Any help would be appreciated!
: Andria
Didn't Bob Dylan do a talking blues about Greenwich Village? And, don't
forget "Creque Alley" by the Mamas & the Papas. Also, Dylan's "Positively
4th Street" refers to that street in GV. I'll try to remember some others.
Actually, come to think about it, Dylan's talking blues wasn't /about/
GV, but referred to it . . . as /Green/-wich Village. Sort of a cheap
laugh (which it got!)
--
ROGER SCIME
Graduate Student
Institute for Ethics and Policy Studies - University of Nevada, Las Vegas
=========================================================================
Elyse Eisner
Morning 3 A.M. album.
Andria L. Fiegel
I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich Village or
streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
Please feel free to mail me personally or post to the list.
Any help would be appreciated!
Andria
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andria L. Fiegel Lighting Design
and...@panix.com 212.969.8933
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
joyweave
girls--Cantcha dance the Polka?" in which the guy gets rolled by a girl
on Bleeker St. But, I'll bet you've go that one already.
-Watson,P.L.
first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.
Paul Watson, plwa...@att.com
AT&T - Bell Laboratories
-------------------------------
drhack...@delphi.com
Subject: Re: REQ: Song lyrics about Greenwich Village
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
References: <andria.13...@panix.com>
In article <andria.13...@panix.com>, Andria L. Fiegel writes:
>Hi -- this is a personal project of mine.
>
>I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich Village
or
>streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
>
>Please feel free to mail me personally or post to the list.
>
>Any help would be appreciated!
>
>Andria
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Andria L. Fiegel Lighting Design
>and...@panix.com 212.969.8933
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
Paxton at least once and by Dave Von Ronk two or three times. This song really
captures the feeling of what it was like on McDougal Street in the early
sixties. Another song by Dave Van Ronk, about The Gaslight Cafe is on a few of
his early albums and may be hard to find but definitely worth listening to. He
talks about having a fantastic dream in which all sorts of impossible things
happen, including "Dylan played Rock". You can get an idea of how long ago the
song was written! I believe the song is also found in a double album record set
released some time ago called "Bleeker and McDougal" I'm not sure if there are
any other songs on it that actually refer to Greenwich Villiage. It seems to me
that maybe there were a few.
If I think of any more, I let you know.
R. Fass (who used to live on Sheridan Square many years ago).
Greg Bullough
>Hi -- this is a personal project of mine.
>
>I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich Village or
>streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
Elizabeth Cotton's well-known 'Freight Train' has 'When I die please bury
me deep, down at the end of Bleecker Street.' It was, I believe, written
while she was Pete Seeger's parents' house-keeper.
There are versions of 'New York Gals' [Can't You Dance the Polka]
which mention streets in the Village as being the abode of the 'flash girl,'
though the character of the song make the Bowery-ish names seem more
plausible.
Greg
Gary Martin
In article <andria.13...@panix.com>, Andria L. Fiegel writes:
>Hi -- this is a personal project of mine.
>I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich Village
or
>streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
The Roches have one called "Face Down at Folk City". I don't know
their songs well, but you might find something by the Washington
Squares that fits the topic.
--
Gary A. Martin, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, UMass Dartmouth
Mar...@cis.umassd.edu
Dave Wilson
>Fiegel) writes:
>>Hi -- this is a personal project of mine.
>>
>>I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich
>Village or
>>streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
>
Night, Thursday Morning_, the song's title being "Bleeker Street", if I'm
remembering correctly
Dave Wilson
wee...@bix.com
Paul Barroqueiro
"Raining Down On Bleeker Street" by Devonsquare from the album Bye Bye
Route 66
"Kitty's Back" by Bruce Springsteen from the album The Wild, The Innocent,
the E Street Shuffle
Gerry Myerson
Fiegel) wrote:
>
-> I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich
-> Village or streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
Tom Paxton's Talking Vietnam Potluck Blues has a stanza,
Well, I lit up, and, by and by,
The whole platoon was flying high,
With a beautiful smile on the captain's face.
He smelled like midnight on St. Mark's Place.
Or something like that --- it has been 30 years.
Didn't Peter, Paul, and Mary do a verse of Freight Train like
When I die please bury me
Down at the end of Bleecker Street
So I can hear old Number 9
As she rolls down the line.
? I realize there was no Number 9 train in the New York subway system,
but that's what I remember them singing.
Gerry Myerson
Ken Nagelberg
on his first solo album. I think it's called MacDougal Blues or
something like that.
Also there's Paleface's "Down on Avenue B" (that may be a little too far
east?).
Why don't you post a list after you get all the entrees together?
Ken Nagelberg
john...@halcyon.com
> Elizabeth Cotton's well-known 'Freight Train' has 'When I die please bury
> me deep, down at the end of Bleecker Street.' It was, I believe, written
> while she was Pete Seeger's parents' house-keeper.
>
Not quite. Elizabeth Cotten wrote "Freight Train" when she was about twelve, in 1905. And
the original lryic does not refer to Bleeker Street in New York, but to a street in Chapel Hill,
N.C., where she lived. The song has undegone many varietions, and it's likely that you
heard somebody sing the song using the "Bleeker Street" line.
The connection with the Seegers happened in the 1940's, by which time Libba had moved
to Washington, D.C., where she was working in a department store during the Christmas
rush. She helped return a lost little girl to her mother in the store, which led mother to offer
Elizabeth a job as a housekeeper. Mother was Ruth Crawford Seeger, and the little girl was
Peggy Seeger (Pete was son of Charles Seeger and his first wife--Ruth Crawford was
Charles' second wife) .
The Seegers had no idea that Elizabeth was a musician herself until Peggy and her brother
Mike heard her playing Peggy's guitar in the kitchen. The song was "Freight Train."
Jim Gunson
>Hi -- this is a personal project of mine.
>
>I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich Village or
In "Good Friends" by Joni Mitchell, released around 1986,
can't remember the name of the album, there are the lines:
"Sun goes down over Jersey,
Rises over Little Italy"
Jim Gunson
Charles Thomas
An old one called "The Rose of Washington Square".
That's all I can think of at the moment.
Charlie
Beverlie Robertson
In article <1995Mar27.1...@leo.vsla.edu>, gbal...@leo.vsla.edu
(George Ballentine) wrote:
> john...@halcyon.com writes:
> > > gr...@netcom.com (Greg Bullough) writes:
> >
> > > Elizabeth Cotton's well-known 'Freight Train' has 'When I die please bury
> > > me deep, down at the end of Bleecker Street.' It was, I believe, written
> > > while she was Pete Seeger's parents' house-keeper.
> > >
> >
> > Not quite. Elizabeth Cotten wrote "Freight Train" when she was about
twelve, in 1905. And
> > the original lryic does not refer to Bleeker Street in New York, but
to a street in Chapel Hill,
> > N.C., where she lived. The song has undegone many varietions, and it's
likely that you
> > heard somebody sing the song using the "Bleeker Street" line.
> >
> I would like to know what the strret was in the original
> lyrics. I heard it as 'When I die please bury me deep, Place a
> stone at my head and feet'. Of course, now I play it as an
> instrumental and don't sing the lyrics ;-)
> --
> George Ballentine gbal...@leo.vsla.edu
> w) 804-692-1856
>
> Primum non nocere "First, do no harm" Hippocrates
Greg Bullough
>Or something like that --- it has been 30 years.
>
>Didn't Peter, Paul, and Mary do a verse of Freight Train like
>
> When I die please bury me
> Down at the end of Bleecker Street
> So I can hear old Number 9
> As she rolls down the line.
>
>? I realize there was no Number 9 train in the New York subway system,
>but that's what I remember them singing.
And subways aren't freights. But if you turn the 9 over you get
6, which does stop at Bleecker. Not sure what happens if you
play the album backwards.
Someone who really, really, should know tells me this was a PPM-ism
and not part of the original song as I had earlier attributed it.
Greg
George Ballentine
> > gr...@netcom.com (Greg Bullough) writes:
>
> > Elizabeth Cotton's well-known 'Freight Train' has 'When I die please bury
> > me deep, down at the end of Bleecker Street.' It was, I believe, written
> > while she was Pete Seeger's parents' house-keeper.
> >
>
> Not quite. Elizabeth Cotten wrote "Freight Train" when she was about twelve, in 1905. And
> the original lryic does not refer to Bleeker Street in New York, but to a street in Chapel Hill,
> N.C., where she lived. The song has undegone many varietions, and it's likely that you
> heard somebody sing the song using the "Bleeker Street" line.
>
Andria L. Fiegel
>> When I die please bury me
>> Down at the end of Bleecker Street
>and not part of the original song as I had earlier attributed it.
You're right. The original 'Freight Train' by Liza Cotton did not say
Bleecker street. However, in response to this query, I received an
illuminating piece of e-mail:
It started,
--Dear Andria,
--Peter, Mary and I sang the words to Liza Cotton's 'Freight Train' as:
--"When I die please bury me deep,
--Down at the end of Bleecker Street".
So, yes, Greg, you're right. And I got it 'straight from (one of the three)
horse's mouths'. ;)
Belvoir
Original was "Chestnut Street".
re: Greenwich village songs---there were very few published/commercially
performed songs, but quite a few in the indigenous oral tradition:
ie Come all you young fellers and listen to me
I'll sing of the place where you all oughter be
I'll tell you the truth and I'll try to be fair
Of the rackets we had down at Washington Square
Derry down, down etc.
dick greenhaus
Theodore Slotkin
> Date: Mon, 27 MAR 1995 17:53:22 GMT
> From: George Ballentine <gbal...@leo.vsla.edu>
> Newgroups: rec.music.folk
> Subject: Re: Freight Train (was: Song lyrics about Greenwich Village)
The original location is Chestnut Street (in Chapel Hill NC), which is
within hearing distance of the railroad that used to run through Chapel
Hill/Carrboro. You can hear the original version as sung my Mike Seeger
(who learned it, of course, from Elizabeth Cotten, as she was the family
nursemaid).
Beverlie Robertson
posting about Freight Train & identified the street in the song as
"Chestnut Street". I don't have an endnote on my signature. I don't know
who posted the Hippocrates quote. Beverlie
In article <1995Mar2...@hnrc.tufts.edu>, je...@hnrc.tufts.edu (Jerry
Dallal) wrote:
> In article <beverlie-270...@coopmac30.uwaterloo.ca>,
beve...@nh1adm.uwaterloo.ca (Beverlie Robertson) writes:
> >> Primum non nocere "First, do no harm" Hippocrates
> Wrong!
Jerry Dallal
It was not she who misqoted Hippocrates as part of a sig. I got lost in
the thread.
--Jerry
Edie Gale Hays
: I'm trying to compile a list of songs which mention NYC's Greenwich
: Village or streets/landmarks therein. (Bleecker Street, West 4th, etc.)
Aileen and Elkin Thomas do a song called "Jolie Girl" which involves GV.
It's on their "A Handful of Honeysuckle" cd (c)1994 Shantih Records, PO
Box 150 Krum, TX 76249
Edie
edg...@umr.edu
Howard Kaplan
There is a song called "In This Bar on MacDougald Street" in the
Elly Stone album "The New Legend of the Ancient Mariner or The
Spirit of '76 & Other Tales", which was the first (and perhaps last
LP issued by EEBEE records, catalog EEBEE 001, circa 1976. The song
is by Eric Blau and Robert Kessler. Elly Stone was a member of
the original cast (and various subsequent casts) of "Jaques Brel
is Alive and Well and Living in Paris."
Howard Kaplan, Toronto
howard...@canrem.com
John H. Zureick
Since somebody mentioned "Little Italy" as a reference to Greenwich
Village you can probably include Dylan's Song "Joey".
"Bob Dylan's Dream" does not directly mention Greenwiich Village
but the scenes where everybody is singing their songs and telling
their stories took place in Greenwich Village.
"Positively Fourth Street". Some say this is the street in Minnesota,
some say the New York Street.
One of the early Dylan talking songs, perhaps "Bob Dylan's Blue" or
"Talking New York Blues" mentions Greenwich Village, even using the
mispronunciation on "Green Witch" for comic effect.
"Tangled Up In Blue" mentions a MacDougal street with the lyric
"There was music in the cafes as night and revolution in the air".
Some think it is a reference to the Village.
There is an excellant book on this time in the Village. I think it
is a history of Folk City. I wish I could be more specific, perhaps
somebody else on the next can be more complete.
Another person you might check out is P.G. Wodehouse. He lived in
Greenwich Village in the early part of the century and wrote lyrics
for Jerome Kern (I think) songs. In the Wodehouse books he frequently
refers to the Village.
--
John H. Zureick || "And I told you as you
zur...@ucunix.san.uc.edu || clawed out my eyes,
Unversity of Cincinnati || I never really meant to do you
Solvitur ambulando! || any harm." B.Dylan