Flood songs (Was: umf-ers in Cumbria?)
Molly Mockford
<look...@nospam.invalid> wrote in
<nE1VYlB2...@parkhead.demon.co.uk>:
>In message <Mk0vyDXa...@molly.mockford>, Molly Mockford
><nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> writes
>>At 15:29:55 on Sat, 21 Nov 2009, William Black
>><willia...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in
>><he911i$5g1$1...@news.eternal-september.org>:
>>>Molly Mockford wrote:
>>>> At 11:39:58 on Sat, 21 Nov 2009, Ron <r...@lunevalleyaudio.com>
>>>>wrote in <3PudnVA_w5AaTJrW...@bt.com>:
>>>>> Gill Smith wrote:
>>>>>> "William Black" <willia...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
>>>>>>news:he60l8$ted$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>>>>>>> Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
>>>>>>>> I think Ally is right in the middle of the area worst affected by
>>>>>>>> the floods. Anybody heard from her?
>>>>>>> Power is off to 12,000 homes, I imagine a lot of the phone
>>>>>>>junction boxes are under the water by now, so no net and few
>>>>>>>phones, water levels higher than the 'Great Cockermouth Flood'
>>>>>>>I think I remember singing about...
>>>>>> Maybe she'll have a song about it too!
>>>>> Waist deep in the big muddy?
>>>> When we in Lewes were severely flooded in 2000, the song which
>>>>kept hammering in my head was "Five Foot High and Rising". Later,
>>>>when Boscastle's turn came, I was very moved by the determination
>>>>and optimism which they regularly expressed with "The Mary Ellen Carter".
>>>Row row row your boat
>>>Gently up the street...
>>>
>>>Dirty British coaster with a salt caked smoke stack
>>>Butting up the High Road in the mad November days...
>>The water is wide
>>I cannot cross o'er
>>And neither have I wings to fly;
>>Build for me a boat
>>That will carry two
>>And both shall cross
>>My true love and I.
>The Great Storm is Over
>(c) Bob Franke
>
>The thunder and lightening gave voice to the night
>The little small child cried out in her fright
>Hush little baby a story I will tell
>Of a love that has vanquished the powers of hell
>
>Chorus
>
>Hallelujah the great storm is over
>Lift up your wings and fly
>Hallelujah the great storm over
>Lift up your wings and fly
>
>(Complete words at http://www.black-brothers.com/songs/32.htm)
On the sixteenth day of September,
in the year of 1928,
God started to riding early
and He rode to very late.
In the storm, oh in the storm, Lord
somebody got drowned.
Got drowned, Lord, in the storm!
He rode out on the ocean,
chained the lightning to his wheel.
Stepped on the land at West Palm Beach,
and the wicked hearts did yield.
Over in Pahokee,
families rushed out the door.
And somebody's poor mother
has never been seen no more.
Some mothers looked at their children,
and as they looked they began to cry.
Cried, oh my Lord, have mercy,
if you don't we all must die!
Schoolhouses, halls and theaters,
in the storm, they was all blown down.
In the city of West Palm Beach,
only two churches left in town.
I'll tell you, you wicked people,
what you had better all do.
Go down and get the Holy Ghost,
and live a good life, too.
Out around Lake Okeechobee,
all scattered on the ground.
The last account of the dead folks,
there was twenty-two hundred found.
South Bay, Belle Glade and Pahokee,
they tell me they all went down.
And in the little town of Chosen,
they say everybody got drowned.
Some folks are still missing,
and ain't been found, they say.
But this we know, they will come forth
on the Resurrection Day.
When Gabriel sounds the trumpet
and the dead begin to rise.
I'll meet those saints from Chosen,
up in the heavenly skies.
In the storm, oh in the storm, Lord
somebody got drowned.
Got drowned, Lord, in the storm!
"West Palm Beach Storm", which I originally heard from Jeff Warner, and
the details of which I later checked with the ultra-knowledgeable Abby
Sale, who said:
"This song is one of the very rare indigenous Florida traditional songs.
I think all I've ever seen are about hurricanes - no big surprise. There
are others, brought from other states and some ultimately from GB but I
mean actually born & passed on here.
"It's ... collected by Alton Morris, Folksongs of Florida. It was
written very soon after the storm and went immediately into folk and
gospel traditions ... A hurricane swept south Florida. Lake Okeechobee
was virtually blown out of its bed. Partly because the land owners had
refused to build any proper dikes, three (best estimate) thousand people
drowned - mostly small-farmers & migratory workers.
"It's rarely sung by modern Florida 'folksingers' who only sing about
happy events in Florida, white silver sands and the plight of the
manatee..."
[XP to rec.music.folk, where I expect Abby to be.]
--
Molly Mockford
Nature loves variety. Unfortunately, society hates it. (Milton Diamond Ph.D.)
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)
Gill Smith
http://www.gillsmith999.plus.com/Southern_Waters/index.html
Abby Sale
Hi Jack,
Yes, for reasons unknown, I'm still here at rmf.
I can't quite tell what the subject of this thread is...obviously has
something to do with floods and songs. I'm sure all know there are vast
numbers of songs about floods.
Re _Folksongs of Florida_, it also prints "The Lost Boys Of East Bay"
another indigenous song. I sing it October 1st re the 1894 flood.
Of recent songs, there's the fine "Hold Back The Waters" by Will McLean.
It's about "The Night 2000 Died," Sept 16, 1928.
Of course, THE Flood began Cheshvan 17, 656 AM (ie, about 3105 bce). That's
equivalent to Nov 4 in 2009 and I sang then:
Brother Noah, Brother Noah,
May I come into the Ark of the Lord
For it's growing very dark and it's raining very hard.
Halleloo, Halleloo, Halleloo, Hallelujah!
No, you can't sir, no you can't, sir,
You can't come into the Ark of the Lord,
Though its growing very dark and its raining very hard.
Halleloo, Halleloo, Halleloo, Hallelujah!
Very well, sir, very well, sir,
You can go to the dickens with your darned old scow,
'Cause it ain't goin' to rain very hard no how.
Halleloo, Halleloo, Halleloo, Hallelujah!
That's a lie, sir, that's a lie, sir,
You can darn soon tell that it ain't no sell,
'Cause its sprinklin' now and it's goin' to rain like hell.
Halleloo, Halleloo, Halleloo, Hallelujah!
"Brother Noah," from _My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions_ by
Frank Shay.
Dave Van Ronk's version is fairly well known but he loses some of
the deep religious nature of the song.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---
I am Abby Sale - in Raleigh, North Carolina
Skate free or die!
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---