Just one niggling point: as a boy, I knew instinctively that he sang "Virgil quick come see, there goes the Robert E. Lee." The Robert E. Lee* was a riverboat you see, and I knew that because I had built a scale model of her by then. The song was talking to me, man.
Built shortly after the war, the Lee was quite famous and had beaten the Natchez in a famous 1870 steamboat race immortalized by Currier & Ives:
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*According to the Wiki, the Robert E. Lee still holds a record time for a commercial craft on the Mississippi, set that night of the Currier & Ives lithograph. That's astonishing and quite an achievement for a racist boat race.
15 comments:
Joan Baez looks gorgeous in those old photos. How did Bob resist?
Old, old song.
PS The Articles were only in force for about 10 years (mostly while we fought the Revolution).
If Jefferson Davis appears in history like a weak leader, it has to be remembered he had to deal with the Articles.
They'd have been better off with the Constitution amended to prevent some of the abuses they'd encountered in the Union.
chickelit said...
Joan Baez looks gorgeous in those old photos. How did Bob resist?
She was one of those rare women who got better looking with age.
Howsomever, she also liked girls at least as much as guys and Dylan liked to play the field.
Joanie, whatever her failings, seems to have had more spine.
from the Wiki:
The cabin and outfit of this great southern steamer surpasses that of any boat that has yet graced the trade, and her accommodations are on the same scale of grandeur and magnificence. She has sixty one staterooms in the main cabin, twenty four extra rooms in the texas for passengers, a nursery for servants and children, and a cabin adjoining the nursery in which are staterooms for fifty passengers. … The main cabin carpet is a single piece 17 ½ feet wide and upwards of 225 feet (69 m) in length, a royal Winton velvet purchased of A. T. Stewart of New York and made to order. The furniture also made to order, all of modern style and costly materials in fact solid rosewood, the chairs, sofas, sociables, etc., most artistically and elaborately carved. The cushions of all seats are heavy crimson satin, and the style of the furniture is of new and original design, all made in this city at the manufactory of John Sim. She has 20 extension dining tables in the main cabin, each to accommodate twelve guests; thus seating 240 for dinner with plenty of room for extra side tables.
Truly the most sumptuous palace afloat at her time. Worthy of punitive taxes!
I can still sing that song in 3-part harmony. It was part of our 7th grade concert, along with "City of New Orleans" and an excerpt or two from "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown." And, so? So, what? It goes? Or noes. Knows.
Maybe it's just: nose. Ahhh-chooo!!!
; )
And I hope you won't be offended, chickelit, by my posting a link to an example of Joan Baez singin' it live (on the Midnight Special, no less).
See @ approx. 57 seconds in: Joan entreats (personally, I'd say using the so-called archaic definition, now, of entreats) the studio audience to sing along, on account of it not being "very difficult, 'kay."
Check it out. OK?
For the record, while I do not agree that the Confederate Flag ought be banned everywhere (I'm on record, long-time running, as a person who has no use for boycotts of any kind, personally, nor as a litmus test for others), I do think it's well past time for individual governments (state & local) to voluntarily take it down from facilities housing currently operating government offices. Well past time and beyond.
Have at me, for that, if anyone wants to. *shrug*
I have no desire to wipe the record, any record, so as to make it uncomplicated.
Great post and song, Chickelit.
There's an Irish song, The Wearing of the Green, about how " have you heard, the shamrock has been forbid by law to grow on Irish ground". The English at one time banned the wearing of shamrocks in Ireland. The alternate lyrics to this song are "put the pike upon your shoulder at the rising of the moon". It ends badly when you start banning symbols of identity........I think that it's a good thing that southern lawmakers are agreeing to take down the Confederate flag, and I think the best thing about it is that southern lawmakers themselves are initiating the change.......I can't help but notice that when some group of Muslims commit an act of terror it becomes incumbent on the rest of us to make note that the crime has nothing to do with the Idlamic faith; but, on the other hand, the act of this weird loser in Charlestown is emblematic of white, southern culture.
Both blacks and white southerners are members of a vanquished people. Blacks are encouraged to flash symbols of defiance to help them overcome their feelings of defeat and loss and recover their pride. Southerners not so much.
Small little story, because it really does not have to do with anything that's going on now, but it does have to do with the Band.
My husband and I met at the Deer Park in early '92 (for the record, I do know not just the date and day, but also down to the minute; I'm not being specific for obvious online reasons). That night that we met, we ended up going to another local bar--now long extinct--in Newark. Anyway, at that time, there was a popular band there known for its excellent covers of the Band and early Eric Clapton. So quaint of us, but in fact we did not "hook up" that night; we didn't even hold hands, much less kiss. However, we did dance one dance that night (significant especially because my now-husband of 20+ years never dances: never did and to this day does not). It's special to me and to us. For many, many years after that, when my husband was still actively playing in a couple-so bands weekly, in first Delaware and then Iowa (and, significantly, a reunion in Delaware a few years, before we knew we'd end up back here[!]) now and again there was a song or two he and his mates would strike up when I showed up at gigs. And while we didn't dance, exactly, as typically defined, he'd always step out in front, playing his guitar without missing a beat, and I knew how to place a hand on a shoulder and an arm, so that we could we move together without interfering with the music-making (hey, what can I say? I was born and bred to fit in with musicians without complication or drama). This is special to me, not just generally, but also quite specifically: the Band etc. will always have a particular, reserved place in my heart, warm and beloved, with gratitude.
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Eh, you know, so that went. Just...sharin'.
rcommal said...
See @ approx. 57 seconds in: Joan entreats (personally, I'd say using the so-called archaic definition, now, of entreats) the studio audience to sing along, on account of it not being "very difficult, 'kay."
Check it out. OK?
I did and thanks, r,l ! Sorry about he late response. As per usual, I needed to get my beauty rest between 11 PM and 6 AM PST. I shouldn't post and run, but it's hard to get a post in edgewise around here evenings which is really the only time I can do.
I noticed a couple things about your posted video: Joan is even better looking than ever abut her voice is truly gorgeous. Second, she really elides the "the" in that version. Third, that studio audience wanted nothing to do with the sneering "na na-na-na- nah" chorus.
@r,l: I too met my future wife at a concert and I have the poster so I know the day and time (approximately). We even memorialized it by getting married on the same day.
Actually, I do not at all think that Joan's voice is "gorgeous," especially not in that era. Hell, her pitch problems in and of themselves make the "gorgeous" description odd, to me, specifically in her earliest decades.
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