THROWBACK THURSDAY: Brutal Jocularity and Assassination Blues

An editorial cartoon about McKinley's murder, apparently
from some old newspaper in The Republic of Toads

Yesterday for Wacky Wednesday, I featured songs about Watergate in a slightly belated celebration of the anniversary of Nixon's resignation. One of those songs was Tom T. Hall's "Watergate Blues," which I noted has a melody lifted from an old folk song called "White House Blues," which was about the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901,

So why the heck not, for this Throwback Thursday, let's have some variations of that song by some of the cooler artists who have performed it .. plus a couple of tunes about the other more obscure presidential assassination.

McKinley was shot while on vacation in Buffalo, N.Y. by a self-described anarchist named Leon Czolgosz.

According to the Old Weird America blog, which examines songs from Harry Smith's Anthology of AmericanFolk Music:  

It seems that the ballad originated with Afro-American “songsters” and, like “Stackalee”, was a kind of proto-Blues with a melody and a verse structure very alike another murder Blues ballad, “Delia’s gone” ... in his book Long Steel Rail, Norm Cohen tells about the writer D.H Lawrence, who used to sing a version of “White House Blues.” A friend of Lawrence recalled that in 1915, as he was singing several Negro Spirituals, he also “…set our brains jingling with an American ballad on the murder of president McKinley with words of brutal jocularity sung to an air of of lilting sweetness …

Brutal jocularity will do it every time.

It's been known by many names. Bascom Lamar Lunsford called his version “Zolgotz.' Ernest Stoneman called it  “Road to Whashington”  (sic) or  “Unlucky Road to Whashington” (double sic)

One of, if not the earliest recorded versions of the song was by North Carolina singer/banjo man Charlie Poole. He did it like this:




Bill Monroe brought "White House Blues" to the world of bluegrass. He did a wondrous version, but this more recent version by Del McCoury may be my favorite.



Did I mention another assassination? President James Garfield was shot and fatally wounded in June 1882. His murder at the hands of Charles Guiteau -- who felt The president owed him some patronage job.

The Field Trip South blog, dedicated to the Southern Folklife Collection has two (sadly way too short) sound clips by  Bascom Lamar Lunsford singing two different Garfield assassination songs.

YouTube has one of the songs, "Mr. Garfield," which Lunsford says he first heard in 1903. It's an eight minute murder ballad odyssey.




But I first heard the report of the report of Guiteau's pistol done by Johnny Cash, probably on his TV show in the late '60s.




The second Garfield song also appears on Harry Smith's magical Anthology, recorded in 1927 by Kelly Harrell & The Virginia String Band  "Charles Guiteau" is from the jailed assassin's perspective as he awaits his date with the hangman.

According to Bob Waltz in an article in Inside Bluegrass , this song is a "touch-up" song.

... the unknown author simply took the earlier ballad "James A. Rogers" (executed in New York in 1858) and "zipped in" the details of the Garfield case. This is no surprise; the same tune carried at least two other murder/confession ballads, "John T. Williams" and "Ewing Brooks."

Here's Harrell's version:

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Watergate in Song

One of Ralph Steadman's many Nixon drawings

This past Sunday was the 41st anniversary of the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

I was but a lad ...

Nixon was driven from power by what became known as the Watergate scandal.

Watergate, as it turns out, inspired a number of songs in the realms of blues, soul, country and rock, several of which are included here. Some were bitchen tunes by great artists. Some aren't. You decide which is which.

Let's start out with the great Howlin' Wolf. His "Watergate Blues" celebrated Frank Wills, the security guard at the Watergate who discovered the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.




Another "Watergate Blues" is a wry little country tune by Tom T. Hall. But by the last verse the Storyteller gets pretty serious. The melody is lifted from the song "White House Blues" (performed by Charlie Poole, Bill Monroe and others), which was about the assassination of President McKinley



Fred Wesley, best known for his work with James Brown did "Rockin' Funky Watergate" with The New J.B.s

 

 Even better is proto-rapper Gil Scott Heron's caustic "H2O-gate Blues."



I'm not really familiar with bluesman Bobo Jenkins, but his "Watergate Blues" is pretty spooky. Listen closely and at the 1:03 mark you can hear a phone ringing.



Here's an obscure country singer named Les Waldroop applying some Cash-style Chunka chunka to the Watergate saga. It's called "Watergate Bugs." (Update 8-9-2017: The only version currently on Youtube has a second Waldroop song  attached.)



This one, by someone called "The Creep" is just plain tacky.

And here is some incisive commentary from sampling pioneer Dicky Goodman.



Do you ever get Dick Nixon mixed up with Billy Jack? Me neither. But this band, appropriately called The Dick Nixons, did.

They say that on a full moon night you can see Nixon's ghost
 peering out of a sixth foot window of the Watergate

Tony Gilkyson & Friends at Skylight Tuesday

Gilkyson at Railyard in June

A few weeks ago former Santa Fe musician Tony Gilkyson made a rare local appearance at the Make Music Santa Fe show at the Railyard Plaza.

Well he's back.

Tony -- who has been a member of Lone Justice, X and Chuck E. Weiss's G-d Damn Liars-- is playing at Skylight Tuesday night.

He'll be playing with a band made up of Santa Fe all-star cronies including  David Gilliland, Arlen Johnson, Mark Clark, and Steve Lindsay, who is visiting Santa Fe after several years in exile.

Lindsay told me, "We'll be unrehearsed and winging it, but they are all great players and it's a one-off occasion so it might even be OK. "

I bet he's right. Show starts 7:30 pm Tuesday.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Better Off by The Routes

Putty in Your Hands by The Detroit Cobras

Andres by L7

House on Fire by The Electric Mess

Rogue Planet by Thee Oh Sees

Man With Soul by Alex Maiorano & The Black Tales

I Wanna Be a Girl by King Khan & The Shrines

Dog Tired by Wiley & The Checkmates

Want More by J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound

Katy Didn't by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages

Little Girl by John & Jackie

 

Duende by Churchwood

Chupacabra Rock 'n' Roll by The Blood-Drained Cows

Little Electric Chair by Iggy & The Stooges

Heart Attack and Vine by Tom Waits

Shy Guy by Juke Joint Pimps

Diddy Wah Diddy by Ty Segall

Shout Bama Lama by The Detroit Cobras

Sucker Punch by New Bomb Turks

 

Drug Through the Mud by Joe "King" Carrasco

Snake Drive by R.L. Burnside

Wax Dummy by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Saved by Boss Hog

Fire on the Moon by The Bell-Rays

My Baby's Comin' Home by Big Clyde Allen & His Movin' Masters

Sugar on Top by The Dirtbombs

Doug the Thug by The 99ers

Funny by The Black Lips

 

The Other Side of This Life by Jefferson Airplane

Crazy West Virginia Mutant Water Woman Blues by The Slow Poisoner

Broken Bones & Pocket Change by St. Paul & The Broken Bones

Magic Touch by Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, August 8, 2015
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

Maybelle by Jackie Cray

Out All Night by The Riptones

The Holygram's Song (Back From The Shadows Again) by The Firesign Theatre

A Day at a Time by Dale Watson

Maybe Little Baby by George Jones

I'll Be There if Ever You Want Me by The Rizdales

Rated X by Loretta Lynn

Cowboy in Flames by The Waco Brothers

Thank You Lord by James Hand

Ballad of Waterhole #3 by Roger Miller

 

Alone And Forsaken Social Distortion

Another Great Dream Of You by Eric Hisaw

Sleep With A Stranger by Nikki Lane

Choctaw Bingo by James McMurtry & The Heartless Bastards

One Road More by Butch Hancock & Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Big Fat Nuthin by The Bottle Rockets

I Want to Be a Cowgirl's Sweetheart by Lynn Anderson

 

The Breeze by Banditos

Lampshade On by Dustbowl Revival

Bad Man by The Appleseed Collective

Back in the Goodle Days by John Hartford

Cool Arrow by The Hickoids

The Great Joe Bob by Terry Allen

Jamie Was a Boozer by Joe West & The Sinners

 

There Must Be Someone by The Byrds

Where the Wind Will Let Me Go by Slackeye Slim

(Give Me) One More Mile by Peter Case

Donna on My Mind by Robbie Fulks

Left Hand Cigarette Blues by Trailer Bride

Storms Never Last by Waylon Jennings & Jessie Colter

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

 

THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Strange Allure of Moonlight Bay

This is one of those great songs that I used to assume was part of every American's DNA. I'm talking about tunes like "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," "I'll See You in My Dreams,"  "Shine on Harvest Moon" or "I'm in the Mood For Love."

Notice I said "used to assume." Maybe I'm getting old and cynical, but these days I wonder if many people under the age of, say, 40 would even recognize those songs.

Kids these days ...

But I didn't come here to grumble. I came to celebrate one of those great old songs, one that pops in and out of my skull when I least expect it:

"Moonlight Bay"

The song, originally published in 1912, features lyrics written by Edward Madden and music by Percy Wenrich.

So where is Moonlight Bay? I found a Moonlight Bay Resort & Campground in Minnesotta. And there is a Moonlight Bay Resort on Spider Lake in Traverse, Mich. Somehow I think these were named for the song, not the other way around. And why didn't anyone ever write, "We were sailing along on Spider Lake ..." ??

The lyrics to "Moonlight Bay" are below. You probably won't recognize the verse. I suspect most people who know the song are familiar only with the chorus.

Voices hum, crooning over Moonlight Bay
Banjos strum, tuning while the moonbeams play

All alone, unknown they find me
Memories like these remind me
Of the girl I left behind me
Down on Moonlight Bay

Chorus
We were sailing along
On Moonlight Bay
We could hear the voices ringing
They seemed to say:
"You have stolen her heart"
"Now don't go 'way!"
As we sang love's old sweet song
On Moonlight Bay

Candle lights gleaming on the silent shore
Lonely nights, dreaming till we meet once more
Far apart, her heart, is yearning
With a sigh for my returning
With the light of love still burning
As in of days of yore


I'm not 100 percent sure this is the earliest version on record, but the American Quartet, featuring Billy Murray, a huge star in his day, recorded it in 1913.



Skip ahead a little more than 30 years, and we find Bing Crosby singing it with a vocal quartet called
The Charioteers -- a group that started out singing gospel but later branching out in to pop and jazz.
The Charioteers was the studio chorus from on der Bingle's Kraft Music Hall between 1942 and 1946. (A few years later Crosby recorded it with his son Gary in a faux Dixieland style.)



In the 1951 Doris Day vehicle called On Moonlight Bay, leading man Gordon MacRae, following a smug tirade against baseball, gives a harsh review of the song that gave the movie its title. My favorite line is when Bow-tie Daddy tells popcorn muching Doris, "That must have been written by a man with a glass of beer in one hand and a rhyming dictionary in the other."



Speaking of beer, often, epecially in cartoons, "Moonlight Bay" is associated with sentimental drunks. In this Porky Pig clip a bunch of drunken cats serenade. (UPDATE: The original video posted featured drunken fish. That one disappeared from YouTube.)



And in this early '60s British variety show, the comedy team of Morecambe & Wise team up with the Fab Moptops to sing ... you guessed it!



And now we have this guy:




For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Bye Bye Beware of the Blog

For more than 10 years, WFMU's Beware of the Blog has served as a wellspring of  the weird, the wild and the quirky. It didn't have to be Wednesday for Beware of the Blog to get wacky.

It's part of the New Jersey-based independent public radio station WFMU's web of craziness, and many of the station's DJs have contributed blog posts though through the years. But during its time the blog has taken a life of its own.

But here's the bad news: On July 30, station manager Ken Freedman officially posted that the party is over.

You No Longer Need to Beware of the Blog

After ten fun-filled years, we're packing up shop here at WFMU's Beware of the Blog. Many thanks to the dozens of volunteer authors who put in so much time and love into their posts and articles, and thanks to the commenters and trolls who almost feel like part of our dysfunctional family. 

Damn! Another good thing has done gone on. Freedman doesn't really say why the station is ending the blog, though he mentions the thing hasn't had an administrator in several years.

Also, a recent post on WFMU's Facebook page said, "Social micro posts have killed blogs, more or less, but there is great reading and strange truth to be found on the blog archives. Also lots and lots of links to great audio."

So, thanks Twitter! Perhaps WFMU should start a new feed called "Beware the Tweet."

To commemorate the passing of Beware, I'm just going to post a few links to some of my favorite music posts.

* One of coolest was a post about "Country Fuzz" -- the use of fuzz-tone guitars in the 1960s and '70s. Some of the best-known country stars of that era -- Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, (who sounds outright grungy on this one),  Wanda Jackson -- all went fuzzy for a while back then. Greg G, who posted this credits Nashville cat Grady Martin for inventing fuzztone -- with the help of a malfunctioning channel on the control board --  during a Marty Robbins recording session in 1960.

Here's one of the later examples of country fuzz featuring Webb Pierce:





* Speaking of country music, Greg G. also had a post about songs about them women's libbers burning their bras. I've played "Burn Your Bra, Baby" by Benny Johnson many times on the Santa Fe Opry. But there actually are TWO songs by that title, the other being the one by a ventriloquist named Alex Houston and his dummy, Elmer. It'll be worth your while to read the post, which unveils a woman's bizarre conspiracy claim that Alex Houston hypnotized her into becoming part of a government cocaine smuggling ring. It's not clear what role Elmer played in the conspiracy.

* Beware the Blog regular Bob Purse (a musician I wrote about in my very first Wacky Wednesday last year)  is fond of "vanity records" -- self-financed recordings by amateur singers. This is a recent one by a guy named Scotty Scott. Purse posted both the A-side,  "Chattanooga, Nashville, Battlecreek Trek" (my favorite) and the B-side  "Antique Hunter's Craze." The first song includes some real poetry: "One man gets a job, then his brother gets one, too / Then his Uncle Bob, with or without a shoe."

* Back in 2008 Beware had an entire series of posts about Fake Beatles bands. One of my favorites was the one about The Beagles, a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon about a group of rock 'n' roll canines.

Another post in the Fake Beatles series featured a bunch of advertising jingles for Hoagiefest -- a convenience store's big sale sale on hoagie sandwiches.

So the bad news is that there will be no new posts -- no fake Beatles or weird vanity records or anti-feminist rants -- on Beware of the Blog.

But the good news is that Freedman promised: We will keep every single post up here for all of eternity, and someday, WFMU may resume online publishing. 

And you can still find plenty of crazy sounds over at WFMU's Rock & Soul Ichiban (which has its own 24-hour online stream for rockabilly, soul, R&B, garage, surf and hillbilly music.)