Music for "I Bid You Goodnight"
John Weber
I'm looking for a source for the lyrics and chords for a song titled
"I Bid You Goodnight". I don't know the artist, but its played as the closing
tune on the WGBH Folk Heritage show Saturday afternoon. That's probably not
much to go on, but I'll appreciate any and all help.
Thanks,
/John
ghost
The original source, not the version 'GBH plays, is on "Spring of 65"
by Joseph Spence & the Pindar family, on Rounder. It was probably 1st out on
"The Real Bahamas, I or II", on Electra/Nonesuch, not out on CD yet as far
as I can tell. Spence is world famous for his guitar playing, but the
version on "Spring of 65" is
*<shape-note warning here for the fed-up-with-plugs crew>*
arranged as a shape-note song but with Bahamian rhyming chorus, & done
entirely acapella.
The *original* orginal source, as per Norma Waterson in a Waterson's concert in
Cambridge last year, is from a seaside village in Britain. The villagers do
not do the Bahamian rhyming chorus, needless to say, & the comparison between
British & Bahamian versions, British harmony vs
Bahamian harmony-with-a-lilt, is a blast.
At least...I sure *thought* I heard her say "village in Britain".
I've recently had my memory of recent events challenged quite substantially
(not re this) & am scrambling to recoup in the face of bewildering mounting
evidence against, so just let me say here "I'm sure I heard her say `village',
at any rate. *Could* have been the Pindars' seaside village in the Bahamas.
The song 'GBH plays sounds like its played Bill Staines, but I can't say
for sure.
For a version that's 3/4 of the way from the Watersons' version toward
Spence & the Pindars' version, check out this year's Hokey Pokey charity album;
the album's a tribute to Spence, called "Out On the Rolling Sea" after another
famous Spence song. The album credits the group "Blue Murder" which sounds
suspiciously like the Watersons.
ghost
Re: Norma Waterson on "Goodnight"
>At least...I sure *thought* I heard her say "village in Britain".
For an actual stab at versimilitude, what I actually thought I heard her say
was "X, a fishing village up the coast from where we live", or something much
like that, where X is the unremembered name. Anyone else who was there that
can fill in?
KO...@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Traum do a real nice version on their album "Hard Times in the Country".
Debbie Kapell
-Watson,P.L.
Might be able to help you, but I need more info.
I'm aware of two version of "I Bid You Goodnight",
one was once done by Helen Schneyer on A Prairie
Home Companion, and is distinctive in that, at least
in her version, the verse in in 5/4 time (or
possibly 3/4 and 2/4 alternating. Same thing.)
There is another version which is more like a sort
of straight ahead bluegrass song. Chorus goes:
And I bid you goodnight, goodnight,
Chariots are coming, keep the wheels a-rolling
Goodnight, goodnight,
Roll me on down to the river of Jordan,
Goodnight, goodnight,
Jesus and John will comfort you,
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
Sound like it?
Paul Watson, plwa...@att.com
AT&T - Bell Laboratories
Gavan Tredoux
There is a version of this (with the words) on the Incredible String Band
album "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter", part of the long medley
"A very cellular song" (or sumpin' like that).
"I was walking in Jerusalem
Just like John
And I bid you goodnight, goodnight ..."
Gavan Tredoux
Cape Town
Gary Martin
I don't have the lyrics or the chords (though it just uses the standard
I IV and V chords in very predictable ways). The recording WGBH uses
is by Bill Staines (I don't know which one). I've also heard a
recording of it by Pop Staples. Martin Carthy and the Watersons sang
it in their Christmas concert in Providence RI last year, introducing
it as coming from some fishing village on the East coast of England.
--
Gary A. Martin, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, UMass Dartmouth
Mar...@cis.umassd.edu
kevin_prior
>>"I Bid You Goodnight". I don't know the artist, but its played as the closing
>>tune on the WGBH Folk Heritage show Saturday afternoon. That's probably not
>>much to go on, but I'll appreciate any and all help.
>
>by Joseph Spence & the Pindar family, on Rounder. It was probably 1st out on
>"The Real Bahamas, I or II", on Electra/Nonesuch, not out on CD yet as far
>as I can tell. Spence is world famous for his guitar playing, but the
>version on "Spring of 65" is
>
>The *original* orginal source, as per Norma Waterson in a Waterson's concert in
>Cambridge last year, is from a seaside village in Britain. The villagers do
>not do the Bahamian rhyming chorus, needless to say, & the comparison between
>British & Bahamian versions, British harmony vs
>Bahamian harmony-with-a-lilt, is a blast.
[some more interesting stuff]
>For a version that's 3/4 of the way from the Watersons' version toward
>Spence & the Pindars' version, check out this year's Hokey Pokey charity album;
>the album's a tribute to Spence, called "Out On the Rolling Sea" after another
>famous Spence song. The album credits the group "Blue Murder" which sounds
>suspiciously like the Watersons.
Blue Murder are a combination of Martin and Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson and
Coope, Boyes and Simpson. I've only heard part of the track, as played a few
weeks ago by Andy Kershaw; it sounds a belter. (I know what I want in _my_
Christmas stocking....)
Dan Breslau
I don't have the album here, but doesn't it credit this song
("Goodnight", not "A Very Cellular Song") to the Carter Family?
--
Dan Breslau da...@lna.logica.com
It was the kind of rain that, at first, had claimed to be just
dropping by for a quick visit; but after a few hours, it brought the
luggage in from the car and said, "Oh, by the way, here's the kids".
Gerry Myerson
risk of total irrelevance, I'll mention that there's a recording of the
song by Bill Staines. I think it was on the album called, Bridges.
Gerry Myerson
ghost
So as not to mislead: The Hokey Pokey album is a compilation, & only that
one track is by Blue Murder. The idea is to get a lot of people to cover
material on a unified theme or by an important musical character.
I'm not disrecommending it, only specifying that its not a "Blue Murder"
album.
Russell kay
from Bill Staines' album "Bridges." Originally issued on vinyl by a
coffeehouse (Madison, WI?) on its own private label, Bridges is now on Red
House Records on CD. I just did a quick check on CDCONNECTION.COM and found
two other recordings than those discussed here: one by Nicolette Larson,
one by (are you ready for this) Aaron Neville. Inquiring minds ought to
know.
=========================================================
Russell Kay, Technical Editor, BYTE Magazine
russ...@bix.com 603-924-2591
Nick Gibbins
da...@lna.logica.com (Dan Breslau) writes:
In article <3c3o5a$8...@ucthpx.uct.ac.za>, ga...@mosaic.co.za wrote:
> There is a version of this (with the words) on the Incredible String Band
> album "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter", part of the long medley
> "A very cellular song" (or sumpin' like that).
>
> "I was walking in Jerusalem
> Just like John
> And I bid you goodnight, goodnight ..."
>
I don't have the album here, but doesn't it credit this song
("Goodnight", not "A Very Cellular Song") to the Carter Family?
There is also a much abridged version of this song (basically the
intro and first verse) on the Grateful Dead album "Live/Dead" (1967, I
think) which has some interesting harmonisation.
The song is not credited on the album, but the credit given above for
"The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" sounds familiar.
--
--
Nick Gibbins gib...@cpd.ntc.nokia.com
John Weber
|> House Records on CD. I just did a quick check on CDCONNECTION.COM and found
|> two other recordings than those discussed here: one by Nicolette Larson,
|> one by (are you ready for this) Aaron Neville. Inquiring minds ought to
|> know.
Thanks to everyone who sent info on recordings. I went to Newbury
Comics to try and find the Bill Staines version. They had several CDs there,
but not the one with that song on it. I did, however, run across the Nicolette
Larson CD which had a song with the same title on it. The albumn appears to
be a collection of lullabyes. However, the version of "I Bid You Goodnight" I
heard on the radio didn't sound much like a lullabye to me....does anyone know
if this is the same song?
/John
ghost
> Thanks to everyone who sent info on recordings. I went to Newbury
>Comics to try and find the Bill Staines version. They had several CDs there,
>but not the one with that song on it. I did, however, run across the Nicolette
>Larson CD which had a song with the same title on it. The albumn appears to
>be a collection of lullabyes. However, the version of "I Bid You Goodnight" I
>heard on the radio didn't sound much like a lullabye to me....does anyone know
>if this is the same song?
HMV in Harvard Square has both the Spence & Pindar family record
"Spring of 65", which is as close to the version Staines & everyone else in
America got it from as you'll get until Electra/Nonesuch re-releases
"The Real Bahamas, I & II", & the Hokey Pokey tribute album with the
Blue Murder version on it. Not a plug, just a suggestion.
You should be warned that Larson was a very good backup singer who released
some impressively anemic "frontup singer" albums.
Stella Wahburn
> Martin Carthy and the Watersons sang
> it in their Christmas concert in Providence RI last year, introducing
> it as coming from some fishing village on the East coast of England.
Blue Murder (which is the Watersons and Coope, Boyes & Simpson) sing
the version Jody Stecher collected from Joseph Spence on the recent
Spence tribute album *Out On The Rolling Sea* (on Green Linnet in the
USA and Hokey Pokey in the UK). There's also a Malagasy language
version by Tarika Sammy on the same CD.
Waterson:Carthy (Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson) sing
the version collected in the N.E. of England on their own new CD
*Waterson:Carthy* (Topic Records, UK)
Stella Washburn
Lynn Damme
Bill Staines' "Bridges" was recorded live at the Coffeehouse Extempore in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, and released on Coffeehouse Extempore Records.
(The Coffeehouse also recorded live, produced and released Greg Brown's
"One Night," which, like "Bridges," is now carried by Red House Records.)
The Extempore was one of the oldest folk music venues in the U.S. when it
closed for good seven or eight years ago.
Ian Anderson
I just did a quick check on CDCONNECTION.COM and found
> two other recordings than those discussed here: one by Nicolette Larson,
> one by (are you ready for this) Aaron Neville. Inquiring minds ought to
> know.
Actually, the Aaron Neville version from an album or two ago is a
REALLY good one, and any I-Bid-You-Goodnight-completists should check
it out. It was in fact his recording which Tarika Sammy used to get
comprehensible lyrics to translate from when concocting their Malagasy
version for the Out On The Rolling Sea compilation, since Spence is
so wonderfully and inimitably garbled.
Ian Anderson (Folk Roots)
Patrick M Crumhorn
: I don't have the album here, but doesn't it credit this song
: ("Goodnight", not "A Very Cellular Song") to the Carter Family?
My copy of "Hangman's..." credits words and music to the Pindar Family.
(German Elektra CD).
Patrick Crumhorn pat...@cup.portal.com
Jim Teza
I found this lyric in the gdead ftp site:
And We Bid You Goodnight
Lay down my dear brother, lay down and take your rest,
Won't you lay your head upon your savior's chest,
I love you all, but Jesus loves you the best
And we bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
Walking in Jerusalem just like John (goodnight, goodnight)
I would never ride, well, I would never ride (goodnight, goodnight)
But His rod and His staff, they comfort me (goodnight, goodnight)
Tell "A" for the ark, that wonderful boat (goodnight, goodnight)
Tell "B" for the beast at the ending of the wood (goodnight, goodnight)
You know it ate all the children when they wouldn't be good,
Walking in Jerusalem just like John (goodnight, goodnight)
I go walking in the valley of the shadow of death,
And we bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
- Jim
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James P. Teza te...@cs.pitt.edu, te...@ee.pitt.edu
Optical Computing Laboratory University of Pittsburgh
The views expressed above do not reflect those of the University of Pittsburgh.
Mrs Ackroyd Enterpri
on 'I bid you goodnight', and Martin's given me the following note on the
song 'Sleep on beloved' which appears on the Waterson:Carthy CD:
"The song came from Mr Willie Wright, who is one of the Staithes
Fishermen's Choir in North Yorkshire. It's a Sankey hymn (Baptist). 'I
bid you goodnight' comes from the Bahamas and derives from 'Sleep on
beloved' and was sung by Joseph Spence and the Pindar Family on a
Nonesuch album called 'The Real Bahamas' recorded by Jody Stecher and
Peter K Siegel in the 1960s. It also appears on a Rounder CD called
'Joseph Spence'. The Incredible String Band recorded the song in the late
1960s ('67 or '68?) on 'The hangman's beautiful daughter' as part of a
track called 'The minotaur's song' on the Elektra label."
-Les Barker.
Steve Harris
>
> My copy of "Hangman's..." credits words and music to the Pindar Family.
Which, as I recall, was an early Caribbean (Jamacian??) folk group/family.
Can anybody confirm?
--
Steve Harris - Eaton Corp. - Beverly, MA - vsh%etn...@uunet.uu.net
Robert Franke
writes:
>
>(Patrick M Crumhorn) writes:
>>
>> My copy of "Hangman's..." credits words and music to the Pindar
Family.
>
>Which, as I recall, was an early Caribbean (Jamacian??) folk
group/family.
>Can anybody confirm?
The Pindar family was/is Bahamian; the late Joseph Spence was a
member. They weren't so much a folk group as a family that happened to
be singing when somebody really smart with a tape recorder came along.
Bob Franke
rfr...@ix.netcom.com
ghost
> The Pindar family was/is Bahamian; the late Joseph Spence was a
>member. They weren't so much a folk group as a family that happened to
>be singing when somebody really smart with a tape recorder came along.
As (the illustrious Mr.) Franke doubtless knows, somebody really smart
didn't just happen along; they made an appointment & came with the latest
portable equipment.
The family was Spence, Spence's sister Edith, her husband Raymond & Raymond's
sister Geneva. Spence was a professional musician (along with the more
lucrative job of stonemason) at home in the Bahamas; his sister Edith
accompanied him on a tour of New York, Boston & Philadelphia in 1965, so
would be considered professional in that setting. The material on record of
them was all recorded in the Pindar's yard in the Bahamas in 1965, so in
that regard it is about as "folky" as you can get. None of these people
were unaware that other people liked to hear them sing, however.
(Except Spence himself; his bass growls popping up at the least expected
places on all his guitar pieces are undoubtably the reason he never ever gets
played on modern slick folky radio, while everyone he influenced, who have
remembered not to sing along, or sing in a more socially acceptable manner,
get played all the time. But the songs all had words, & he knew them all,
& though he didn't think he could sing either, he couldn't help but sing
them.)
"On Thursday May 13, 1965, the astounding Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence
played his debut public concert in the United States. His music was
enhanced by Edith Spence Pindar who was a magnetic vocalist and his sister.
Exactly three weeks later I was sitting in the subtropical night in a yard
beside the home of Edith and Raymond Pindar, surrounded by lush vegetation
and small children, recording vibrant, funny, tragic, gorgeous music, the
possibility of which had never occured to me."
--Jody Stecher, from the liner notes for
"The Spring of Sixty-Five", Joseph Spence and the Pindar Family,
Rounder CD 2114
"The folklorist Alan Lomax had heard some singing from Andros when he was
collecting songs along the harbor front in Nassau, the capital of the
Bahamas, in the 1930s and included in the series of 78s the
Library of Congress released of his material were three songs from Andros.
I had never heard anything like them. They were antiphonal singing which
seemed to go back to the 1700s, but they had a haunting melodic and harmonic
form that showed as much influence from their African-American roots.
I spent many of my early afternoons in the university's music library
listening over and over to these three small songs."
--Sam Charters, 1993, from the liner notes for
"Happy All the Time", Joseph Spence, on Hannibal, HNCD 4419
Charters,with Ann Danberg, went to Andros in 1958 & discovered Spence, who's
guitar genius seemingly blew all fascination with "those 3 little songs"
away, because Charters writes of the 1965 tour that so enthralled Stecher:
"In 1964 I was asked by the Newport Foundation to travel with Spence and
two Bahamian singers for a tour through New York and Boston, and I could
see immediately why Spence would have difficulty becoming part of the new
scene. With him when he arrived were two women family members who were
deeply religious. With them he didn't drink, he didn't laugh much, and he
mostly performed religious music. They also thought he should sing the
hymns, and to help him they sang along. Instead of the loose, exuberant
guitar player I'd seen on Andros, here was an intimidated and often
uncertain gospel musician who didn't know what anyone expected on him."
--Sam Charters, 1992, from the liner notes for
"The Complete Folkways Recordings, 1958" Joseph Spence,
on Smithsonian/Folkways 1992 CD SF 40066
Well, different strokes for the same folks at different times, I guess.
Charters is either remarkably inconsistant as to taste or
he just had such an overwhelmingly amazing time on his trip to the
Bahamas that anything that followed that didn't enforce those memories
was suspect.
"When you go out into a new part of the world with a tape recorder to look
for music you always dream that someday you might find a new performer
who will be so unique and exciting that their music will have an effect on
anybody who hears it. One of those few times it ever happened to me was in
our first few weeks in the Fresh Creek Settlement on Andros. We went out
one day about noon to walk from the small headland close to the mouth of
the creek. Some men were working on the foundation of a new house, and as
we came close to them we could hear guitar music. It was some of the most
exuberant, spontaneous, and uninhibited guitar playing we had ever heard,
but all we could see was a man in a faded shirt and rumpled khaki trousers
sitting on a pile of bricks. He had a large acoustic guitar in his lap.
I was so sure two guitarists were playing that I went along the path to
look on the other side of the wall to see where the other musician was
sitting. We had just met Joseph Spence.
As I wrote the first time I tried to describe the experience of hearing
him play:
...I had never heard anything like Spence. His playing was stunning.
He was playing simple popular melodies, and using them as the basis for
extended rhythmic and melodic variations. he often seemed to be
improvising in the bass, the middle strings and the treble at the same
time. Sometimes a variation would strike the men and Spence himself
as so exciting that he would simply stop playing and join them in the
shouts of excitement. One of the men sent for a bottle of rum, and others
drifted off back to work."
--Sam Charters, 1992, from the liner notes for
"The Complete Folkways Recordings, 1958" Joseph Spence,
on Smithsonian/Folkways 1992 CD SF 40066
Charters does get back to the shape-note connection, though:
"Guy Droussart found two shape-note hymnals from Tennessee in Spence's
house, and many of the hymns and anthems sung in the Bahamas today were
included. Spence's performance of pieces like "Face to Face That I Shall
Know Him" have many of the characteristics of shape-note singing,
including contrapuntal melodies and strongly outlined bass harmonies.
At the same time he slyly embellished the melodies and harmonies with his
own more complex rhythmic patterns."
--Sam Charters, 1992, from the liner notes for
"The Complete Folkways Recordings, 1958" Joseph Spence,
on Smithsonian/Folkways 1992 CD SF 40066
Stecher writes more about it:
" "Victory Is Coming" is from a shape-note hymnal called "Harmony Heaven",
published by Vaughan in Tennessee in 1935. The book, along with another
Vaughan publication, "Crowning Harmony", 1941, is very popular in the
Bahamas,particularly among the people from Cat Island, the birthplace of
Spence's wife Louise. Joseph Spence learned the contents of both books,
so different in style and feeling from the songs and anthems of his native
Andros, during his many visits to Cat Island among Louise's people."
--Jody Stecher, from the liner notes for
"Spring of Sixty-Five", Joseph Spence and the Pindar Family,
Rounder CD 2114
Note that Charters 1st became fascinated with those "3 songs from Andros",
and that Spence's sister Louise must also come, with Spence, from Andros,
but Stecher believes they learned the style & material from Cat Island,
not Andros. The notes don't say where the Pindars were brought up, or learned
the material.
"Spence, whose father was pastoring a Baptist church near Small Hope,
played mostly sacred songs and this collection and all the other albums
he has made reflect his particular fondness for hymns like
"Diamond on Earth" and "Oh, How I Love Jesus". The latter, along with
"Hallelujah Side", can be found in the "Church Hymnal", another shape-note
book from Tennessee much used in the Bahamas."
--Guy Droussart, Zurich, 1993
from the liner notes for
"Happy All the Time", Joseph Spence, Hannibal HN CD 4419
At no time does anyone of the liner-noters claim that "I Bid You Goodnight"
is to be found in any of those hymnals, yet its definitely a shape-note
song in arrangement, both the Watersons' version from the village of
Staithes in Britain & the Pindar's version recorded on Bahamian island of
Nassau.
There's no point to all this; just some great liner notes about some
great music. Which you can't hear over usenet, at least not in its full
glory, unless someone wants to void copyright & build some really mammoth
sound-code files...perish the thought. Go out & get the records.
Happy New Year.
Nathan Sarvis
Dave Royal
<https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=171408#4195158>
--
(Remove numerics from email address)