Thursday, July 23, 2015

THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Miracle of "Miracles"

Look what they've done to my song, Ma ...

Last week I was catching up on Portlandia, when a haunting song played at the end of a skit caught my ear.

As fate would have it, I easily found that very skit on YouTube.  Watch the whole thing. It's worth it.



The song is called "Going Home," and it's sung by Rosalie Folger-Vent, who I'd never heard of before.

But I'd heard that melody. And even though it's well known in high cultural circles, the first place I'd ever heard it was on country radio in 1981. It was performed by one of my favorite country artists of that era, Don Williams. But the song he sang was called "Miracles."



The lyrics aren't deep, but they're sweet. I don't have the original record, but all the online sources credit the song to Roger Cook. And he's a story in himself.

He's a British songwriter who wrote or co-wrote other Don Williams hots including "I Believe in You" and "Love is on a Roll," (co-written by none other than John Prine.)

Cook had a hand in writing radio hits include The Fortunes' "You've Got Your Troubles," "Long cool Woman in a Black Dress" by The Hollies and "Talking in Your Sleep" by Crystal Gayle. But his best known song probably is "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)," which became famous as an ad jingle for Coca Cola. (And you thought Don Draper wrote that, admit it!)

Though Roger Cook may have written the lyrics to "Miracles," he certainly didn't write the melody.

Credit for that goes to a Czechoslovakian composer, Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). It comes from Dvořák's  "Largo" theme from his Symphony No. 9 (From the New World), Op. 95. According to American Music Preservation.com, "His symphony was composed while he was in America and was first performed by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893."

According to that website, "It has been said that Dvořák's themes in his symphony were inspired by American folk melodies, especially Afro-American or American Indian. But his themes are just as similar to Bohemian folk music."

One of Dvořák's students, William Arms Fisher (1861-1948), created a song out of the Largo theme and added his own lyrics. He called it "Going Home."

Said Fisher in 1922: The Largo, with its haunting English horn solo, is the outpouring of Dvorak's own home-longing, with something of the loneliness of far-off prairie horizons, the faint memory of the red-man's bygone days, and a sense of the tragedy of the black-man as it sings in his "spirituals." Deeper still it is a moving expression of that nostalgia of the soul all human beings feel. That the lyric opening theme of the Largo should spontaneously suggest the words 'Goin' home, goin' home' is natural enough, and that the lines that follow the melody should take the form of a negro spiritual accords with the genesis of the symphony.

"Going Home" has been performed by boys' choirs, bagpipers and Old Man River himself, the great Paul Robeson. Here is a version of Robeson singing it in 1958.



And here is the Dvořák piece from which it came. This is the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan.



All quite lovely. But I'm still a fan of Don Williams' "Miracles."

It's hard to get the best of a man named Don


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


Wednesday, July 22, 2015

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Bollywood Break


This week's Wacky Wednesday was inspired by the first video below, posted last week on my brother's Facebook page by a mutual friend, Joe. Hat tips all around.

I don't speak Hindi and I've never seen most of the movies these clips come from so I won't pretend to know what's going on in any of them.

But trust me, you won't need to know what's going on in these clips.


Just sit back and enjoy the work of people having a lot more fun that you!


This first one is from a 1985 film called Adavi Donga



I've actually seen the movie Zakhmee, (1975) from which the following clip comes. I didn't understand the plot, but it was full of great songs, my favorite being the one below. No animal masks, but plenty of hot pants!


This one is from a 1968  movie called Padosan. I don't really know what's going on in this one, but it might be about a beautiful woman who has fallen under the sway of a goofy guru.



Here's a fairly recent one. It's called "The Mutton Song" and it's from a 2011 film called Luv Ka The End (The End of Luv). 

Sunday, July 19, 2015

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, July 19, 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
Riot on Sunset Strip by The Standells
That Girl by The Mummies
Withered Hand by Thee Oh Sees
A New Wave by Sleater-Kinney
Steppin' Out by Paul Revere & The Raiders
Big Mistake by Royal Crescent Mob
Cha Dooky-Doo by Art Neville
People Who Died by The Jim Carroll Band
Questions I Can't Answer by The A-Bones
I Love Little Pussy by Little Marcy

Come Back Bird by Manby's Head
The Future is Now ... (and it Stinks!) by J.J. & The Real Jerks
You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover by The Sonics
She's a Knockout by Social Distortion
I See the Light by Reverend Beat-Man
Tres Borrachos by Left Lane Cruiser
Big Beat Strong by The Woggles
El Tren de la Costa by The Del Moroccos

Don't Shake Me Lucifer by Roky Erikson
Mr. Supernatural by King Khan & The Shrines
I Ain't Going Home Alone by The Hares
I Want to Rock You by Frankie Lucas
Amazons and Coyotes by Simon Stokes
Desperation by The Oblivians
Walking on My Grave by Dead Moon
I Warned You by Motobunny
Shot on Meredith by J.B. Lenoir

I Am Fire by Afghan Whigs
I Can't Stop Loving You by Laura St. Jude
Pierce the Sky by Dinosaur Jr.
Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
I'll Be Blue by Frank Black & The Catholics
Face to the Highway by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, July 17, 2015

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

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Friday, July 17, 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

Goddamn Holy Roll by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

Shortnin' Bread Rock by The Collins Kids

Jesus Was a Wino by Lydia Loveless

Hell Yes I Cheated by Patty Booker

Dried Out a River by The Dad Horse Experience

Over the Cliff by Jon Langford's Hillbilly Love Child

Working on a Guru by Bob Dylan

Desert Rose by Chris Hillman

Acadie A La Louisiane by Bruce Daigrepont

Diggy Liggy Lo by John Fogerty

I Heard the Voice of a Porkchop by Jim Jackson

 

Sam's Place by Buck Owens

Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll by Janis Martin

I'm Through Hurtin' by Dale Watson

Dream of the Miner's Child by Rose Maddox

I'm Ragged But I'm Right by George Jones

Don't Touch Me by Jeannie Seely

I've Got a Tender Heart by Eleni Mandell

Pickin' on the Chicken by Ray Stevens

 

Just Like Geronimo by Dashboard Saviors

Hillbilly Child by Paul Siebel

Bible Cyst by Legendary Shack Shakers

If You Play With My Mind You're Gonna Get Your Hands Dirty by Cornell Hurd

Don't Knock What You Don't Understand by Steve Train & His Bad Habits

Two Dollar Bill by Paula Rhae McDonald

Late Bloomer by Karen Hudson

Suburbia by The Riptones

Hey Warden by Audrey Auld

 

Sad, Horny and Blue by Porkchop Party

Just Between You and Me by Charlie Pride

Unwound by Ralph White

A Fool Such as I by Don Walser

King of You by Wilco

Bus Fare to Kentucky by Skeeter Davis

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

 

Thursday, July 16, 2015

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Remembering Coal Songs

The issue of coal has been in the news a lot lately. On Wednesday an Iowa utility agreed to stop burning coal five of its Iowa plants. The pants will either shut down or switch from coal to natural gas. This is due to a legal settlement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The government says this will make 200 coal-burning plants that have shut down in the past five years.

Locally, in my day job I've been covering the controversy over the coal-burning San Juan Generating Station near Farmington. (My latest article is HERE.)

Getting away from coal would mean less pollution, less black-lung disease and a lot fewer mining disasters.

But what about the music?

Coal-mining songs are a staple of American folk and country music for decades. Coal might be dirty and awful. But come on, can you truthfully imagine a song as powerful as "Dark as a Dungeon" or even "Big Bad John" coming out of a solar plant?

Back in 2008, I reviewed country singer Kathy Mattea's excellent album Coal, which featured several classic coal-mining songs, including some written by folksingers Jean Ritchie and Hazel Dickens.

At the end of the column I listed my Top 10 favorite coal-mining songs. I figured this Throwback Thursday is a good time to revisit those songs:

For my money, "Dark as a Dungeon" written by Merle Travis is the greatest song about coal ever written. It doesn't deal with a mining disaster or black lung or labor strife. It's about the psychic effects of spending day in and day out in a "dark dreary mine." This version is performed by Travis with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their landmark May The Circle Be Unbroken album.

  

"Dream of a Miner's Child" is a terrifying little number about a coal miner who's about to leave the house to go to work when his little girl stops him and tells him about her vivid nightmare: "I dreamed that the mines were all flamin' with fire /And the workers all fought for their lives ... "



In "16 Tons," (which also was written by Merle Travis) Tennessee Ernie Ford makes coal mining seem rather cool. It doesn’t pay well, but it apparently it gives you license to kill those who refuse to step aside when they see you comin’.



New Orleans soul man Lee Dorsey also made coal mining seem pretty cool with his 1966 hit
"Workin' in a Coal Mine."



And in the '70s, Loretta Lynn took great pride in being a "Coal Miner's Daughter."



In "Paradise," written in the early '70s, native Kentuckian John Prine sang of the environmental and psychic damage caused by "Mr. Peabody's coal mine."


Jimmy Dean immortalized a coal miner called "Big Bad John" in this early '60s hit -- before Jimmy started working at the sausage mine.



"Last Train to Poor Valley" by Norman Blake is about what happens to the workers when the mines all shut down.



'Quecreek" by Buddy Miller is the most recent song on this list. Buddy's wife Julie Miller (who sings with Buddy in the video below) wrote it in 2002 after nine Pennsylvania coal miners who had been trapped in a collapsed mine for three days were rescued. It's one of the few mining disaster songs with a happy ending,



The main message of  “Timothy” by The Buoys is that just because you’re in a mining disaster, that doesn’t mean you have to start skipping meals.


TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 28, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrel...