Ramblin' is as interesting word and theme in popular music. Led Zeppelin recorded that song in 1969. A few years later, The Allman Brothers hit with "Ramblin' Man" written by Dickey Betts, ostensibly based on Hank Williams' 1951 "Ramblin' Man" Of course, in a black and white world, everything traces back to Robert Johnson who first recorded "Ramblin' On My Mind" which inspired the Marshall Tucker version of "Ramblin'." If the racial thing isn't confusing enough, let's introduce a woman: Fast forward to 2008 when Cat Power rewrote Hank Williams' song, "feminizing" it: "Ramblin' (Wo)man"
In such cases of confusion, I take solace in etymology.
13 comments:
Bob Seger - Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
(The apostrophe is necessary.)
Steve Martin - Ramblin' Guy
R-A-M-B-L-I-N-apostrophe
RAMBLIN'
Ohyes ohyes ohyes ohyes. ohNO.
Ramblin' Jack Elliot could not be reached for comment.
Oh, he's still alive, I just don't know how to reach him.
There are parts of my brain that are locked up pretty much forever.
Originally Perambulatin' Rose, it failed to roll off the tongue. Sounded like this:
Perambulating rose, perambulating rose, why you perambulate, no one knows. Wild and wind-blown, that's how you've grown. Who can cling to a a perambulatin' rose?
And Nat King Cole goes, "aw shit, I gotta thing of something better than that." And thus, the song ramblin' rose was born.
Whatever. Still not as good at that Apache song.
1950, and the Nash Rambler precedes Hank's proclamation.
Woody, also beat him to it, roaming and rambling and following his footsteps in the dusty road, while all around him a voice was sounding and letting him know this land was made for folks like him. Guthrie wrote the song in 1940 and recorded it in 1944. Its lyrics were based on an existing melody, in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he wrote a response originally called "God Blessed America"
My favorite ramblin' song is Never Did No Wanderin' from A Mighty Wind. Which, if you're old enough, is a laugh-out-loud-funny movie.
Oh boy. You got me thinking. Not feeling like an uneducated moron that doesn't comprehend 02 or 03 or any chemistry.
But like a real man. With thoughts, feelings, aspirations, sads, and triumphs.
To start, back in Wisconsin "Blue Collar Man" and Zeppelin "come from the land of the ice and snow" song play a lot.
I live in Colorado.
The snow recently was nice as, per usual, we need moisture.
The harsh environs demand extreme preparations in CO as the harsh demands of Martin Luther King Junior let us all appreciate America as a never-ending Utopia as compared to any other mixed society large enough to be, reasonably, as a country-state.
Thanks for all the mentions of other "Ramblin'" songs. I only mentioned the ones I own in iTunes.
Ooops! I left out "Midnight Rambler"!
Riffing on the Nash Rambler theme, there was the novelty song "Beep Beep", but more to the point, the brand name Rambler goes back at least to 1902, when Thomas Jeffery started his automobile business.
His original cars had a single cylinder 6 horsepower engine. We wouldn't buy a riding mower that puny these days.
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