Civil War/Appomattox Songs
Deborah M Riel
>I have to do a radio show on April 9. Since that is the anniversary
>of the end of the Civil War, and since the preceding and following
>weeks have a lot of Civil War dates in them, I am planning on doing a
>half-hour or so of Civil War music.
>So, I am looking for suggestions.
I just got Jack Hardy's new cd entitled "Civil Wars." The last cut on
the cd, which he says would be the title song if there was a title
song, is called "The 111th Pennsylvane" (if that's not exactly right
it's because I'm at work and don't have the cd in front of me) and is
about a distant relative of his during the Civil War. I guess he
spent considerable time researching this relative and visiting the
sites before writing this song.
Debbie Riel
dr...@wpi.edu
Editurz
dic...@hotlanta.cac.psu.edu (Scott Dickson) writes:
<I have to do a radio show on April 9. Since that is the anniversary
<of the end of the Civil War, and since the preceding and following
<weeks have a lot of Civil War dates in them, I am planning on doing a
<half-hour or so of Civil War music.
<So, I am looking for suggestions. I am looking particularly for
<things that might fit in well with the start of the war, end of the
<war, Shiloh, Lincoln's assasination.
Certainly the soundtrack from the PBS series on "The Civil War" will give you
some great cuts. Also, there's an old Elektra recording from about 1961 of "Bob
Gibson and Bob Camp at the Gate of Horn" in which they do a beautiful medley of
3 Civil War songs, including Bikel's "Two Brothers" and "The First Batallion's
Home." Great stuff. A bit peripherally, there's Steve Goodman's "Spoon River."
The Weavers contribute one great song of escape from slavery: "Follow the
Drinking Gourd."
Then there's Bob Gibson's "Let the Band Play Dixie" from his "Uptown Saturday
Night" album.
That's just scratching the surface, of course. There must be dozens of
compilation albums. Have a good march through Georgia and Go, Penn State!
Mike Dresser, husband of Sheila McCauley Dresser PSU '77
Walter Nelson
: I have to do a radio show on April 9. Since that is the anniversary
: of the end of the Civil War, and since the preceding and following
: weeks have a lot of Civil War dates in them, I am planning on doing a
: half-hour or so of Civil War music.
: So, I am looking for suggestions. I am looking particularly for
: things that might fit in well with the start of the war, end of the
: war, Shiloh, Lincoln's assasination.
: Thanks,
: --
: --SCott Dickson
: Postmaster, Sysadmin, Newsadmin
: Penn State Center for Academic Computing
: dic...@cac.psu.edu
: +1 814-865-0829
Scott
I don't know how far you are from the Gettysburg battlefield, or perhaps
Antietem, but all of the Civil War battlefield visitor's centers I have
visited had pretty good collections of tapes of Civil War music. That
might be a good place to go to find something to play.
There is a guy named Horton, who has done a lot of tapes. He has almost
every song you might want on at least one of his tapes, but he uses a
synthesizer in many of his cuts, and a purist like myself finds that a bit
annoying.
The 97th Regimental String Band has also done a lot of stuff, and they have
a somewhat better sound. Their style is very Irish.
I have a few others at home, but their names escape me.
A few songs you might look for might be:
For the beginning of the war:
We Are Coming Father Abraham
Bonnie Blue Flag
Take Your Gun and Go John
For Shiloh:
The Drummer Boy of Shiloh (I don't much like this piece of maudlin
crap, but it does fit the theme and is very typical of the time)
For general purposes (ie some of my particular favorites).
Dixie
John Brown's Body (the predecessor to Battle Hymm of the Republic)
Rally Round the Flag
Goober Peas (Fun but familiar)
Johnnie Has Gone for a Soldier (Beautiful and sentimental)
When Johnnie Comes Marching Home
Yellow Rose of Texas (A song in praise of a Mulata)
Rose of Alabama (A song in praise of a black woman)
Year of Jubilo (The rejoicing of slaves at massah's departure)
Lorena (Sentimental--very popular in the South)
Auralee (From which Elvis stole the tune for Love Me Tender)
All Quiet Along the Potomac (Bitter and ironic)
Just Before the Battle Mother (Not a bad tune if you can get past
the Victorian sentimentality)
And for the end of the war:
Marching Through Georgia (This one is a damn fine tune, but it
annoys a lot of people)
I am a Good Old Rebel (This is a really bitter song, about refusing
to be reconstructed).
You should be able to find most of these on the tapes available at a
battlefield visitor's center. The tunes to Johnnie has Gone for a Soldier,
Year of Jubilo, Lorena and a few more are available on the "Civil War"
series soundtrack.
Good Luck
Walter Nelson
Peter Schwarz
>In article <DICKSON.94...@hotlanta.cac.psu.edu>,
>dic...@hotlanta.cac.psu.edu (Scott Dickson) writes:
>
><I have to do a radio show on April 9. Since that is the anniversary
><of the end of the Civil War, and since the preceding and following
><weeks have a lot of Civil War dates in them, I am planning on doing a
><half-hour or so of Civil War music.
>
><So, I am looking for suggestions. I am looking particularly for
><things that might fit in well with the start of the war, end of the
><war, Shiloh, Lincoln's assasination.
>
album by Dalglish/Larsen/Sutherland. Bryan Bowers does a nice version of
"Dixie" on one of his albums. He also does a beautiful job of "Battle Hymn
of the Republic" on "By Heart". The only problem here is that it's sort of
an autoharp demo, so he intersperses the playing with (a little) commentary
about what he is doing. The (amusing) intro about playing "autoparts" can be
skipped if you want to focus on the Civil War. Norman Blake does "Greycoat
Soldiers" on some album. He also does "Lincoln's Funeral Train" on the
second Norman Blake/Tony Rice collaboration. An alternate title of this song
is something like "The Last Sad Journey from Springfield". Judy Collins does
"In the Hills of Shiloh" on one of her old albums.
That's all that comes to mind right now, but there must be zillions more.
Peter
Peter Schwarz
>A few songs you might look for might be:
>
> Year of Jubilo (The rejoicing of slaves at massah's departure)
The Red Clay Ramblers do this, with the words, on one of their albums. I
think the album is either "Stolen Love" or "Twisted Laurel", and they may
call the song "Kingdom Coming" instead of "Year of Jubilo".
Peter
Mike Shames
>> Year of Jubilo (The rejoicing of slaves at massah's departure)
>The Red Clay Ramblers do this, with the words, on one of their albums. I
and be REAL careful where you sing it ------
what was acceptable 130 years back in terms of language is
NOT acceptable now.
same goes for "i am a rebel soldier".
i live in oakland and usually do them as instrumentals.
fuzzy
ge...@macadam.mpce.mq.edu.au
You *have* to do it? You mean, you don't *want* to do it? I thought they
abolished slavery in the States....
Seriously, though, some Civil War suggestions;
Austin Lounge Lizards, War Between The States ("And when at Appomatox,
Lee surrendered up his sword/The fact that things looked pretty bad could
no longer be ignored.")
Judy Collins, Hey, Nelly, Nelly. Also, In The Hills Of Shiloh. (No, she
didn't write 'em, but she recorded 'em).
Gerry Myerson
Mike Shames
in the hills of shiloh is NOT a cival war song -- it is about
the cival war -- but was written by shel silverstein ( yup, uncle
shelby hisself -- of boa constricter fame) along with a bunch
of other songs about the civil war in the 1960s as part of the
centennial.
they are great tunes/songs -- but they ain't civil war songs --
and i would debate whether they are "folk music" -- shel holds
the copyrights just like he does on "never bite a married lady on
the thigh" and all his other wonderful devine insanity.
fuzzy
Walter Nelson
: Rhonda and Sparky Rucker do a medley he put together titled 'Buffalo
: Soldier Suite' about the buffalo soldiers, African Americans conscripted
: into the military to help spread Manifest Destiny on the Great Plains,
A minor point: the Buffalo Soldiers were not conscripts. They were
volunteers who served well and proudly, and had a far lower desertion rate
than their white counterparts. One might argue that they were pushed
towards the Army by a lack of opportunities elsewhere, but it was their
choice, not Uncle Sam's, to don the Army blue.
Also, they were post Civil War. The African Americans who served in the
war simply went under the rather colorless name of "Colored Troops". I'm
sure the Colored Troops invented songs about their lives, but I am not
aware of any which have survived. The only reference I have seen to a
specific song being sung by Colored Troops is "Year of Jubilo", which was
written by a white man. It was, according to the story, sung upon entering
Richmond by some US Colored Troops, and became an immediate hit with the
locals. Go figure.
Cheers,
Walter Nelson
BARRY M. SCHLESINGER
>In article <DICKSON.94...@hotlanta.cac.psu.edu>,
>dic...@hotlanta.cac.psu.edu (Scott Dickson) writes:
Actually written by Irving Gordon, Tin Pan Alley songwriter. Also
writer of "Unforgettable"
>The Weavers contribute one great song of escape from slavery: "Follow the
>Drinking Gourd."
Lomax points out that if you put the verses in proper order, they
provide instructions for an escape North from southern Alabama.
-BMS
Robert Broughton
>
> One more is the sound track album to the movie 'The Long Riders', about
> the
> James Gang, music by Ry Cooder and David Lindley, some good songs about
> and from the Civil War.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, Warren Zevon did a song titled
"Frank and Jesse James" which I really like. It's on his first album.
--
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Robert Broughton Robert_B...@mindlink.bc.ca
"We calm and reassure. We embrace people with the message that we're
all in it together. That our leaders are infallible and that there is
nothing, absolutely nothing wrong." - Miles Drentell, _thirtysomething_
wis...@newton.hartwick.edu
> Scott Dickson (dic...@hotlanta.cac.psu.edu) wrote:
> : I have to do a radio show on April 9. Since that is the anniversary
> : of the end of the Civil War, and since the preceding and following
> : weeks have a lot of Civil War dates in them, I am planning on doing a
> : half-hour or so of Civil War music.
>
> : So, I am looking for suggestions. I am looking particularly for
> : things that might fit in well with the start of the war, end of the
> : war, Shiloh, Lincoln's assasination.
If you're looking for authenticity, the old Mercury records "The Civil
War: Its Music and its Sounds" has been reissued on two CDs (Mercury
432591-2). The billing is: "Frederick Fennell, Eastman Wind Ensemble,
The Reactivated Civil War Unit, Battery B, 2nd New Jersey Light Artil-
lery, Gerald C. Stowe Military adviser, Martin Gabel, narrator."
It's got music from various parts of the war, including both band music
and field music of both armies plus some songs, bugle calls and sound
effects (I think that's what the 2nd New Jersey was for). The most
important thing about the set is the reconstruction of two specific
bands from their surviving band (music) books. The small (originally
8 man) regimental band of the 26th North Carolina and the rather larger
band of the 3rd New Hampshire, stationed for most of the war at the
naval blockade headquarters at Port Royal in South Carolina, playing
for admirals, no doubt.
These records were originally issued for the Civil War centenniel, and
the spirit of the thing was authentic reconstruction. Some of the brass
instruments are a mite peculiar, cornets, for instance, with their horns
pointing backwards over the player's shoulder. Whatever else, there's
a lot of fun in it.
Umm. I just realized our newsreader only just picked up your posting
on the very eve of your broadcast. Maybe next year?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
R. N. (Dick) Wisan - Email: internet WIS...@hartwick.edu
- Snail: 37 Clinton Street, Oneonta NY 13820, U.S.A.
- Just your opinion, please, ma'am: No fax.
wis...@newton.hartwick.edu
> In article <2nsidr$l...@juniper.almaden.ibm.com> p...@akbar.almaden.ibm.com (Peter Schwarz) writes:
>>> Year of Jubilo (The rejoicing of slaves at massah's departure)
>>The Red Clay Ramblers do this, with the words, on one of their albums. I
>>call the song "Kingdom Coming" instead of "Year of Jubilo".
>
> and be REAL careful where you sing it ------
> what was acceptable 130 years back in terms of language is
> NOT acceptable now.
>
You want to keep in mind that songs like "The Year of Jubilo" and "The
Yellow Rose of Texas" are not black at all. They're of the period all
right, but they're pseudo black minstrel show songs.
They pose a problem all right, because they're good songs with marvellous
tunes. If you do it as an instrumental, I guess you could call it the
Maxwell House Coffee Hour theme and be historically accurate for ca. 1938.
And, wasn't there an instrumental version of it on pop radio in the middle
60's under the name "The Doodletown Pipers"?
Walter Nelson
: In article <2nsm3r$j...@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM>, nas...@sse05.Corp.Sun.COM (Mike Shames) writes:
: > In article <2nsidr$l...@juniper.almaden.ibm.com> p...@akbar.almaden.ibm.com (Peter Schwarz) writes:
: >>> Year of Jubilo (The rejoicing of slaves at massah's departure)
: >>The Red Clay Ramblers do this, with the words, on one of their albums. I
: >>call the song "Kingdom Coming" instead of "Year of Jubilo".
: >
: > and be REAL careful where you sing it ------
: > what was acceptable 130 years back in terms of language is
: > NOT acceptable now.
: >
: You want to keep in mind that songs like "The Year of Jubilo" and "The
: Yellow Rose of Texas" are not black at all. They're of the period all
: right, but they're pseudo black minstrel show songs.
: They pose a problem all right, because they're good songs with marvellous
: tunes. If you do it as an instrumental, I guess you could call it the
: Maxwell House Coffee Hour theme and be historically accurate for ca. 1938.
: And, wasn't there an instrumental version of it on pop radio in the middle
: 60's under the name "The Doodletown Pipers"?
I'm sure Dick Wisan and others are right about the possibility of someone
taking offense at an old minstrel tune, but it is a very sad comment on the
state of the world.
As offensive as minstrel shows are to our modern sensibilities, they were
THE most popular form of popular entertainment in America for many years,
and were the breeding ground for many of our best popular tunes. Some of
them of course, were black songs, which were stolen, without attribution,
by white men who could copywrite them. Others owe their vitality and
sense of fun to a conscious imitation of the African style of music (much
like rock and roll). While their outward presentation was pretty
grotesque and understandably offensive (black face, white gloves, silly
accents etc.), the music itself, I think, represents the mixing of
traditions that has made American popular music so lively and interesting.
I think it would be a terrible shame if we let the fear of offending
someone consign songs like The Yellow Rose of Texas, Rose of Alabama, Dixie
etc. to the obscurity of perpetual instrumentals. Words like "Darkie" can
be changed, but the song should be able to continue if presented in the
right spirit.
What that spirit is, I imagine depends on the audience, and I also imagine
someone will be offended no matter what you do. The wounds of the Civil
War and slavery are still pretty fresh.
I imagine someone may even be offended by this post.
Cheers
Walter Nelson
P.S. Yes, some minstrel tunes are beyond redemption (Ol' Black Joe, Ol' Zip
Coon etc.).
Joe Felsenstein
>> Year of Jubilo (The rejoicing of slaves at massah's departure)
and someone else warned that
>: You want to keep in mind that songs like "The Year of Jubilo" and "The
>: Yellow Rose of Texas" are not black at all. They're of the period all
>: right, but they're pseudo black minstrel show songs.
and someone else said:
>As offensive as minstrel shows are to our modern sensibilities, they were
>THE most popular form of popular entertainment in America for many years,
I believe that "Year of Jubilo" is definitely pseudo-black but not really
a minstrel show song. It was written by Henry Clay Work (the author of
My Grandfather's Clock and many other songs) who was probably the best
American songwriter after Stephen Foster and before Irving Berlin. He
was a strong abolitionist and the song reflects that. I doubt that anyone
in a minstrel show ever performed it.
>The wounds of the Civil War and slavery are still pretty fresh.
The wounds are more recent than that. During my youth there were
Whites Only signs everywhere in the South, African-Americans could not
vote in the Deep South, and until 1964 they did not appear among the
"normal" people depicted in television commercials -- including local ones
made Only for northern audiences. Not to mention all the wonderfully
sensitive comments other people make all the time.
Sorry not to atrribute the quotes but the nesting of >'s was too deep for
my brain.
-----
Joe Felsenstein, Dept. of Genetics, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195
Internet: j...@genetics.washington.edu (IP No. 128.95.12.41)
Bitnet/EARN: felsenst@uwavm
Abby Sale
JF> and someone else said:
>As offensive as minstrel shows are to our modern sensibilities, they were
>THE most popular form of popular entertainment in America for many years,
JF> author of My Grandfather's Clock and many other songs) who was probably
JF> the best American songwriter after Stephen Foster and before Irving
JF> Berlin. He was a strong abolitionist and the song reflects that. I
JF> The wounds are more recent than that. During my youth there were
JF> Whites Only signs everywhere in the South, African-Americans could not
Nota bene: Stephen Foster never saw the Suwannee (or probably Florida),
misspelled it and it was the 3rd river name he tried for the song. "Old
Folks At Home" was specifically written for a black-face minstrel show.
Somehow, it's the Florida state song by law since 1935. Unofficially,
but by common consent, when sung at the dedication of the new state
capitol the comic-book dialect was eliminated & "darkeys" changed to
"brothers." (_Not_ intended at the time as pseudo black-talk.)
Would anyone maintain that they should have stuck to the original song?
Now, many question a State Song, not only in comic dialect but also
about the joys of slavery. There is a growing movement to choose a song
of a real Florida troubadour, Will McLean, "Florida Sand." A bill is now
being introduced.
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