Chapter I
In the history of recorded blues, it was generally
the more urban singers who were first immortalized on wax running at 78
revolutions per minute. After the historic break-through of Mamie Smith
(the first black blues singer on record) with Crazy Blues in
1920, this opened the floodgates, because of the unexpected and
staggering response from the black working-class population; for many
more female artistes whose singing styles covered the whole range of
what was to become known as vaudeville-blues (nee ‘classic blues’).
Singers such as Edith Wilson, Rosa Henderson, Edmonia Henderson, Bessie
Smith. Clara Smith (not related), Ma Rainey and Bertha ‘Chippie’ Hill,
all contributed to the blues scene in the early 1920s. Ranging from the
lighter more vaudeville blues of Edmonia Henderson and Edith Wilson,
through the more bluesy Rosa Henderson (both Hendersons also not
related), to the ‘heavy’ blues of Rainey, both the Smiths and Chippie
Hill. Of course some of these singers, like Ma Rainey continued to
record until the end of the decade, with Bessie and Clara Smith going on
into the early 1930s.
In the ensuing dash to maintain the momentum of this
new source of income, the record companies scoured the big cities for
more talent. The reason for this was that the vaudeville blues singers
worked the theatre/cabaret circuit accompanied by various jazz groups
and bands who in themselves contained some illustrious names, King
Oliver and Louis Armstrong among them. As the fountain began to run
dry, the record companies began to search further afield, literally, as
they went ‘into’ the countryside, and between 1924 and 1926 with
recording debuts by Papa Charlie Jackson, Blind Blake, Bo Weavil
Jackson, Peg Leg Howell, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, the rural or country
blues had “arrived”. Of course in the evolution of the blues, some
thirty years old by 1920, the complete opposite was the case. In any
event, this paved the way for a whole host of country blues singers and
musicians such as the immortal Charlie Patton, Barbecue Bob, Texas
Alexander, Bukka White, Memphis Minnie, Bessie Tucker, Son House, Robert
Johnson, Memphis Jug Band, et al.
Unlike the earlier vaudeville blues singers who,
generally speaking did not play an instrument on their recordings, the
rural artists, in the main, used their own accompaniment. This usually
featured just a guitar or piano, and sometimes a harmonica, a fiddle, or
a second guitar were added. Also incorporated were rough unorthodox
instruments like a kazoo, jug, an imitation bass, washboard, and so on.
Many of these singers were decidedly not ‘sophisticated’. They
sang blues of 12-bars, 16-bars, 13½-bars, or no bars at all! Their
voices were sometimes rough, archaic-sounding and barely comprehensible,
and again sometimes clear and nearer white. Between these two extremes
were an endless variety of vocal styles including falsetto, moaned
choruses and antiphonal ‘call and response’ where the guitar becomes a
second voice which completes the half-sung line. Many of these blues
singers were itinerant beggars and ramblers, never staying in one place
very long before ‘hopping a freight’ and letting a train take them to
pastures a-new or walking ‘on down that old lonesome road’, often having
to live by their wits through lack of employment and the oppression of
the insidious Jim Crow segregation laws; it was especially tough for the
blind singers.
It was one of the latter and one of the greatest
blues men, Blind Willie McTell, who on a wintry day in November, 1940,
cut the first known recording of Crapshooter in the style of the
rural blues, in Atlanta, Georgia (McTell’s home state) for the Library
of Congress based in Washington D.C. It was a song he was to re-record
on two more occasions in the post-war period.
Table
A
Title |
Date/location |
Recording
Co. |
1. |
Dying Crapshooter’s Blues |
5/11/40. Atlanta, Georgia. |
L. of C. |
2.
|
Dying Crapshooter’s Blues |
-/-/49. Atlanta, Georgia. |
Atlantic |
3.
|
Dying Crapshooter’s Blues |
-/-/56. Atlanta, Georgia. |
Bluesville |
Although McTell had started his recording career as
early as October, 1927, for Victor Records, a commercial company, he did
not include Crapshooter in his repertoire; and like the potted
history of blues above, it was first recorded under the broad umbrella
of the vaudeville-blues with a small jazz group accompaniment, by Martha
Copeland in the same year. In the following month of June, Mamie
McKinney cut her version with Porter Grainger on piano but it remains
unissued. Viola McCoy recorded Crapshooter in late August with
a similar line-up to Martha Copeland. The following month Rosa
Henderson put out her version accompanied by Cliff Jackson on piano; and
remained the last recording of this particular blues until November 1940
in Atlanta. These four performances of Dying Crapshooter’s Blues,
as far as we know, are the sum total committed to wax (excluding
McTell’s version) in the pre-war blues era of 1890-1943. All four
female singers were vaudeville blues artists more at home in a jazz
setting. The recordings were all made within five months of each other
and they were all made in New York City.
Table
B
Title |
Artist |
Date/location |
1. |
Dyin' Crap-shooter’s Blues |
Martha Copeland |
5/5/27. New York City. |
2.
|
Dyin' Crapshooter’s Blues |
Mamie McKinney |
24/6/27. New York City |
3.
|
Dyin' Crapshooter’s Blues |
Viola McCoy |
c. late August 1927. New York City. |
4. |
Dyin' Crap-shooter’s Blues |
Rosa Henderson |
c. late September 1927. New York City. |
Blind Willie McTell’s first known recording of
Crapshooter as has already been stated was in November, 1940,
and as part of his introduction to this version he states “I am
gonna play this song that I made myself, originally this is from
Atlanta” (see
Appendix.I). This statement also has
strong significance when tracing the path of Crapshooter’s
origins which we will return to later. McTell’s third and final
version has a lengthy spoken introduction including the claim “I
started writin’ a song in ’29, though I didn’t finish it, I didn’t
finish it til 1932.” (see
Appendix II) But despite
this statement, I believe that 1927 was the year that McTell wrote
Dying Crapshooter’s Blues, or at least the best part of it.
I would now like to indulge in a little linguistic detective work!
By the time of his last session (1956) his memory
was not so quick (the effect of prolonged hard drinking?) as at the
time of his interview with Alan Lomax, the famous American
folklorist, in 1940. Besides the repeated words in the last quote
by McTell, this phenomenon occurred on three other occasions during
his introduction, plus one re-utterance three times! Plus two other
mistakes where he corrected himself (see
Appendix II).
Off-hand I can only recall one spoken mistake in the entire
interview conducted by Lomax some sixteen years earlier. So I am
saying he was mistaken in his remembrance of the year of
Crapshooter’s authorship, and did not correct himself on this
occasion. This would seem to indicate another downward spiral in the
condition Willie McTell’s memory, which would have been more
obviously apparent if another hypothetical ‘last session’ could
have been held some sixteen years further on, in 1972. (He died in
1959).
Eminent American blues authority, Sam Charters,
says of the 1940 version of Crapshooter’s: “This personal
reworking of the old ‘Streets of Laredo’ theme is one of
McTell’s masterpieces, and this version, which seems to have been
recorded not long after he wrote it , since he didn’t do it on
earlier sessions, has a clarity of musical detail that the two later
versions lack,” (1)
[Footnote 1: I find it intriguing to note that, apart
from Charters and myself, there is only one other blues writer who
makes any connection between this song and Crapshooter.
Richard Spottswood says of the McTell composition, that it “is
another version of the old bawdy funeral chant best known to most as
the expurgated ‘Streets of Laredo’.” (2) ] Thus
Charters would appear to put the date of authorship of
Crapshooter somewhere between 1935 and 1940, when a quick glance
at Table B would put it at least eight years earlier. Just because
Willie McTell didn’t record it then, could be down to a number of
reasons. Self-censorship if he thought the song too blasphemous or
‘over the top’. Or Victor Records might have heard it and censored
it for the same reason, or maybe because of the sudden ‘rush’ of
cover versions (see Table B) before his own initial recording
session; perhaps neither he or Victor thought there would be any
mileage in adding another version (albeit the original!) to the
list, in October, 1927. In any event, McTell could have seen it fit
to shelve the song until his recording sessions for Decca in 1935,
if one title Dying Doubter Blues is possibly his true first
recorded version of Crapshooter. We may never know as this
remains an unissued item. If it was the case, then it might seem a
natural selection for McTell in November, 1940, when Lomax gave him
virtually an ‘open cheque book’ as far as material was concerned,
for the Library of Congress.
Label shot from
Max Haymes' collection - used with permission
As this singer had been musically active for
several years before his recording debut in 1927, it would be fairly
safe to assume that he wrote Crapshooter sometime in the
first four months of that same year, but did not record it until
1940. This would at least explain the small ‘glut’ of cover
versions just discussed, if not the total absence of rural
recordings of the song at the time. Perhaps it would be more
accurate to say that McTell completed Crapshooter in
1927 although starting it a couple of years earlier.
Quoting a song called Rollin’ Mill, Odum
and Johnson reveal the third verse as follows:
|
Carried him off in hoo-doo wagon, |
|
Brought him back wid his feet a-draggin’, |
|
O babe, O babe! (3) |
It is possible that the above was collected from
an unknown singer, in 1925, whom McTell heard in person and got his
phrase ‘hoo-doo wagon’ from them. I believe that it was McTell, in
any event, that first popularized or even thought of, the
replacement phrase ‘one foot up, a toenail dragging’. Another source
of inspiration could have come from a ballad called Dis Mornin’,
Dis Evenin’, So Soon. This describes how a man leaves his wife
in the morning to go downtown ignoring her warning of possible
danger to himself as a coloured man; and his wife has her worst
fears realized “ ‘when she got word dat Bill was dead’. The final
verse is a scenario for a pantomime”. (4)
In view of the subject matter, either Sandburg knew little of
working class black culture or he had a grim sense of humour! The
last verse runs:
|
Dey brought Bill
home in a hurry-up wagon dis mornin’, |
|
Dey brought Bill
home in a hurry-up wagon dis evenin’, |
|
Dey brought Bill
home in a hurry-up wagon, |
|
Dey brought Bill
home wid his toes a-draggin’, |
|
Dis mornin’, dis
evenin’, so soon. (5) |
The
‘hurry-up wagon’ has a parallel in McTell’s ‘hoo-doo wagon’, and of
course the phrase ‘toes a-draggin’’ is very similar to his ‘a toenail
dragging’. Some thirty odd years later, McTell’s phrase crops up in a
blues by another Georgia singer/guitarist, William Robertson (aka Cecil
Barfield) who included it in the following verse of a totally unrelated
song:
|
You go into town
in the hoochie coochie wagon, |
|
With my heels
turned up an’ my toenails draggin’. (6) |
This would
seem more than coincidental with McTell’s lyrics and would point to the
latter having probably created this verse. In passing, while it is not
clear when the Sandburg verse was collected, the ‘plantation’
phraseology of ‘dis, ‘dat’, and ‘de’ puts it in the nineteenth century,
probably in the latter half. Carl Sandburg’s source for this song is
“Nancy Barnhart, painter and etcher, of St. Louis.” (7)
In all three songs quoted, by the use of the slang term for a hearse,
‘hoodoo wagon’, etc., would seem to indicate a superstitious attitude of
fear to death, as seen from a purely secular point of view. Although
McTell recorded such philosophically religious sides as We‘ve Got To
Meet Death Some Day in the 1930s and ‘40s, it was apparently not
from any inner conviction at the time. He did not ‘get religion’ until
much later, not surprisingly, just prior to his death in 1959. (8)
Perhaps as this superstition was so strong in working class blacks at
the time, it was a main factor of so little coverage of Dying
Crapshooter’s Blues by recorded rural blues singers. This might
explain why McTell’s Dying Doubter Blues of 1935 remains
unissued. It is interesting, or coincidental (?) to note that
Sandburg’s book was published in 1927, the year of the four female cover
versions of Crapshooter, and also the year I believe Blind Willie
McTell wrote it.
We now turn to McTell’s composition and influences on
it. While via his recorded output (1927-1956), his songwriting
reputation is assured, there is generally some outside influence which
helps to generate the inspiration and this in turn moulds the
influential parts into his own personal and very often very original
vocal and musical statements. While discussing some of his songs,
during the introduction to another 1956 recording called A Married
Man’s A Fool, (itself drawn from an earlier title by vaudeville duo
Butterbeans and Susie from 1924) McTell says with disarming
honesty “... I’d jump ‘em from other writers, but I’d arrange ‘em my
way…”. So Blind Willie McTell, in 1940, introduced and sang his own
Dying Crapshooter’s Blues to the accompaniment of his fine
twelve-string guitar. (see
Appendix I).
What stands out more than anything else in this blues
is the completely unholy content and atmosphere which is the central
theme; religious followers would deem these factors as blasphemous.
This blues typifies the picture that church-going blacks had of the
blues singers and the blues in general. It was ‘devil’s music’, evil,
encouraged promiscuity and drunkenness, etc. The main constituent of
this unholy atmosphere is what I will call the ‘numbers request’ motif;
‘sixteen real good crapshooters’, ‘twenty-two women out of the Hamilton
Hotel’, etc. This motif, in varying degrees, is to be found running
through the majority of songs which have links with Crapshooter
going back into the eighteenth century.
The song also has an air of secular
anti-establishment present, especially regarding the ‘high sheriff’, the
solicitor ‘who jailed me fourteen times’ and the judge. But over-riding
this is the complete disregard for death itself. The thumb-nose and
devil-may-care attitudes are all-pervading in this song. Also note the
veiled reference to advanced stages of venereal disease in his friend
Jessie in verse six, via the latter’s familiarity with the ‘hotels’
referred to. Venereal disease as the cause of death, although only
implied in Crapshooter, if Jessie hadn’t been shot, he’d have
died anyway because of his dissolute habits; has a strong connection
with the songs in Group Three: namely Young Sailor/Girl Cut Down In
His/Her Prime, and some versions of St. James Hospital. And
also some of the songs in Group One: The Unfortunate Lad/Lass and
Streets Of Port Arthur. Another aspect of Crapshooter is
Jessie’s illegal action when ‘he used crooked cards and dice’. This
links with songs in Group Two (see Ch. III for details of these Groups)
such as Flash Lad, Wild And Wicked Youth, and Rake And
Rambling Boy. The theme in these songs is that the reason for
‘a-robbing on the king’s highway’ was to keep the robber’s
wife/girlfriend in fine clothes and jewelry. Although not mentioned in
the 1940 version of McTell’s song, his friend Jessie had acquired a
female partner in the 1949 and 1956 recordings. Lorraine, pronounced
‘Loreen’, obviously applied the same financial pressures for material
comfort on Jessie. As soon as his ‘luck’ changed and he was penniless
‘Sweet Loreen had packed up an’ gone’ (1956). Lyrically there is little
difference between this and the Library of Congress version, apart from
the entrance of Lorraine, or rather her exit! What is different is
McTell’s approach. The contrast is marked between performing for a
white man (Alan Lomax) and potentially for his fellow black citizens
(the blues-buying public). The 1956 version comes across as more ‘jivey’,
less somber and even more disrespectful to the subject of death. (see
Appendix II)
The group of songs that Crapshooter itself
resides in, Group Five, includes a direct link via the American song
Those Gambler’s Blues (see
Appendix III and
Appendix IV)
which possibly evolved around the turn of the 20th. Century (c. 1899).
It was around this era that the word ‘jass’ became modified to the
familiar ‘jazz’, which lends support to my theory of the approximate
dating of this song.
But before we go diving back into the past, I would
like to mention some of Crapshooter’s song contemporaries which
seem to fall into two categories. First of all there is the group of
songs which come under the various headings of St. James/Joe’s
Infirmary/Hospital which was to become a jazz standard in the late
1920s. Interestingly, the best known title St. James Infirmary
seems to have evolved out of Those Gambler’s Blues just
mentioned. Indeed, some of the songs in this group are labelled
Gamblers Blues.
Table C
Title |
Artist |
Date/location |
1. |
Gamblers Blues
(St. James Infirmary
Blues) |
Hokum Boys |
c.-/10/29. Chicago |
2.
|
Gamblers Blues No.2 |
Hokum Boys |
c.-/10/29. Grafton, Wisconsin |
3.
|
St. Joe’s Infirmary
(Those Gambler’s Blues) |
Mattie Hite |
27/1/30. New York City. |
4. |
St. James Infirmary |
Walter Taylor |
15/2//30.
Richmond, Indiana |
5. |
St. James Infirmary |
Emmet Mathews |
c.-/5/31. Grafton, Wisconsin. |
6. |
St. James Hospital |
Mose (Clear Rock) Platt |
-/12/33. Sugar Land, Texas. |
7. |
St. James Hospital |
James (Iron Head) Baker |
-/534. Sugar Land, Texas. |
8. |
St. James Hospital |
James (Iron Head) Baker |
-/10/34. Sugar Land, Texas. |
9. |
St. James Infirmary |
James Wadley |
11/12/34. Atlanta, Georgia. |
10. |
St. James Hospital |
James (Iron Head) Baker |
29/5/36. Washington D.C. |
Added to these pre-war recordings is an unissued
St. James Infirmary by McTell himself in 1956, down in Atlanta,
Georgia, as yet unheard by me. Of course all the foregoing are secular
by nature and the other category or songs contain all sacred items; or
to be more accurate variations of one religious theme, i.e. ‘if you stay
a sinner all your life, you will go to hell’. Virtually all the titles
allude to the gambler about to die.
Table D
Title |
Artist |
Date/location |
1. |
Dying Gambler |
Rev. J.M. Gates |
early Aug. 1926. New York City |
2.
|
Tell Me Where Is The Gambler |
Rev. H.R. Tomlin |
19/8/26. New York City. |
3.
|
Dying Gambler |
Rev. J.M. Gates |
9 or 19/9/26. New York City. |
4. |
Dying Gambler |
Rev. J.M. Gates |
11/9/26. Camden, New Jersey. |
5. |
Dying Gambler |
Rev. J.M. Gates |
c.15/9/26. New York City |
6. |
Wonder Where is The Gamblin’ Man |
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet |
C.-/10/27. New York City. |
7. |
Where Is The Gamblin’ Man |
Unk. convict group |
19/12/34. S. Carolina. |
8. |
Dying Gambler |
Blind Willie McTell |
23/4/35. Chicago. |
9. |
Dying Doubter Blues |
Blind Willie McTell |
25/4/35. Chicago. |
10. |
Dying Gambler
(O Save Me lord) |
Bright Moon Quartet |
21/6/35. Charlotte. N. Carolina. |
11. |
Death Of The Gambler |
John D.Twitty |
4/5/37. Aurora, Ill. |
12. |
Where’s That Gamblin’ Man Gone? |
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet |
15/7/37. New York City. |
Once more, Willie McTell himself recorded a Dying
Gambler and on this occasion it is available to us. The
much-travelled singer was far from his Georgia homeland when he recorded
a session for another commercial company, Decca this time, in Chicago on
23rd. April, 1935; which included this version of Gambler
(see
Appendix V). This originates from the Rev.
J.M. Gates’ recording of the same title in 1926, and obviously reflects
the situation with a religious bias; and it is significant that the lead
vocal is taken by McTell’s wife, Kate, who was a devout believer and
would not record blues. Certain similarities can be seen between
Dying Gambler and the sacrilegious Crapshooter. Starting
with the obvious one included in both titles, we can also see a parallel
of sorts in the unstated cause of death. Although less implied in the
religious song than in Crapshooter, one could draw conclusions
from the line ‘His body began to grow so weak, an’ things began to
shake’. The ‘numbers-request’ motif is not present, but requests there
are, nevertheless, in the final verse; and a direct connection with
Crapshooter can be made via the statement ‘My dice an’ cards will be
by my head’.
Finally, although to recall all the songs which might have a vague and
tenuous link with McTell’s blues would be an almost infinite exercise, I
feel it necessary to include a list of obvious possibilities which could
claim some connection, however nebulous, with Crapshooter in the
world of the Blues in the pre-war era.
Table
E
Title |
Artist |
Date/location |
1. |
Dying Pickpocket Blues |
Barrelhouse Welch |
c.-/1/29,. Chicago, Illinois. |
2.
|
Lay Some Flowere On My Grave |
Blind Willie McTell (unissued) |
14/9/33. New York City. |
3.
|
Lay Some Flowers On My Grave |
Joshua White |
13/11/33. New York City. |
4. |
Lay Some Flowers On My Grave |
Blind Willie McTell |
26/4/35. Chicago, Illinois. |
5. |
Let Her Go God Bless Her |
Richard & Welly [sic] Trice |
13/737. New York City. |
6. |
Let Him Go, Girls, God Bless Him |
Aunt Molly McDonald |
30/10/40. Livingstone, Alabama. |
It should be stressed here that similar looking
titles in print can be misleading and in fact have no bearing on the
subject whatsoever. For instance Dying Gambler’s Blues by Bessie
Smith, which she recorded three times in 1924; Gambler’s Blues by
Charlie ‘Specks’ McFadden in 1929; Gamblin’ Man’s Prayer by
Piano Kid Edwards in 1930; and the 2-part Dying Sinner’s Blues by
Tommy Griffin in 1936. Conversely, some titles can seem a little
obscure. The Trice brothers’ 1937 rendition (Table
E) gets its title from a line borrowed from
St. James Infirmary (Table C).
Some thirty-odd years later (1969-1971) the same line crops up in Bud
White’s 16 Snow White Horses.
(Footnote
2: See Rounder LP Georgia Blues [Rounder 2008. Somerville,
Massachusetts] 1970.) White
was a singer-guitarist from Richland in Georgia, also of course Blind
Willie McTell’s home state. However, the rest of the 45-year old Bud
White’s song does not appear to have any connection with McTell’s
Crapshooter. Interestingly, the only female title from the US in the
story of this song, sung by ‘Aunt’ Molly McDonald (Table
E), was a variation of this same line and
was recorded only about a week prior to McTell’s version in 1940, also
by the Library of Congress; in Livingstone, Alabama, this time. McTell
himself was responsible for another less-than-obvious title Lay Some
Flowers On My Grave (Table E)
which he first recorded for Vocalion Records in September, 1933.
However, this side was unissued and Joshua White’s ‘cover’ came out a
couple of months later for the rival ARC organization. Eventually
though McTell re-recorded it for Decca two days after his Dying
Gambler (Table D)
in 1935. (see
Appendix VI). Although the first
three verses contain the secular but respectful strand of death, by
verse four the unholy strand, by implication has taken over. With
repeated references to his ‘hot mama’; and extending his harem with
lines like ‘I left a-many gal’s heart in pain’ and ‘When I’ve bidded
this life goodbye, don’t none of you womens cry’. These lines and
the first half of verse two all share the same ‘unholy’ atmosphere of
Crapshooter.
The first title in
Table E,
Dying Pickpocket Blues was recorded with piano accompaniment some
eighteen months after the four female versions of Crapshooter and
could do with a little scrutiny. (see
Appendix VII).
‘Barrelhouse’ Welch the singer –pianist on this blues, recorded it in
January, 1929, in Chicago and seems to have adopted the secular but
respectful strand to death. The first two verses incorporate a similar
theme to be found in not only Crapshooter but some of the earlier
variants as well; such as Tarpaulin Jacket (see
Appendix XII)
and The Dying Cowboy (see
Appendix XIII). That is that
the dying man’s friends are gathered round his death-bed (although only
implied in Cowboy) so that they may hear his last words
and requests. This is only a short step to the ‘numbers-request’ motif
so prevalent in Crapshooter. As Welch, or Welsh, recorded his
blues at the beginning of 1929, obviously any inspiration he got for
writing Pickpocket must have come from a year or two earlier,
possibly from McTell’s composition in 1927. Although recorded in
Chicago, it could be significant that Dying Pickpocket Blues with
its ballad-like theme set in the New York City workhouse
(Footnote
3: See Riverside LP. Piano Blues 1927-1933 [Riverside 8809. New
York City] c. 1965.)
was set in the same city in which the four cover versions of Crapshooter
were recorded.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Essay (this
page) © Copyright 2012 Max Haymes. All rights reserved.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
|
|
Introduction
|
|
Chapter I
|
|
Chapter II
|
|
Chapter III
|
|
Appendix I
|
"Dying
Crapshooter's Blues" by Blind Willie McTell, 5/11/40, Atlanta, Ga. (L.
of C.) |
Appendix II
|
"Dying
Crapshooter's Blues" by Blind Willie McTell, 1956, Atlanta, Ga. (Bluesville) |
Appendix III
|
"Those
Gambler's Blues" ("The American Songbag", Carl Sandburg) |
Appendix IV
|
"Those
Gambler's Blues" ("The American Songbag". ibid.) |
Appendix V
|
"Dying
Gambler" by Blind Willie & Kate McTell, 23/4/35. Chicago, Ill. |
Appendix VI
|
"Lay Some
Flowers On My Grave" by Blind Willie McTell, 25/4/35, Chicago, Ill. |
Appendix VII
|
"Dying
Pickpocket Blues" by Barrel House Welch, -/1/29. Chicago, Ill. |
Appendix VIII
|
"The Flash
Lad" |
Appendix IX
|
"In Newry
Town" ("Folk-Song Society Vol. 1." Ed. A. Kalisch. c. 1905.) |
Appendix X
|
"The Wild
And Wicked Youth" Vsn 2 ("The Constant Lovers" Ed. Frank Purslow. 1972.) |
Appendix XI
|
(Unused) |
Appendix XII
|
"The
Tarpaulin Jacket" written by George Whyte-Melville. c. 1855. |
Appendix XIII
|
"The Dying
Cowboy" ("The Penguin Book of American Folk Songs" Alan Lomax. 1964.) |
Appendix XIV
|
"The Young
Sailor Cut Down In His Prime" ("The Everlasting Circle" J. Lee.) |
Appendix XV
|
"The
Unfortunate Lass" sung by Norma Waterson, c. 1977. |
Appendix XVI
|
"The
Unfortunate Lad" (Everyman's Book of British Ballads" Ed. Roy Palmer.
1980.) |
Appendix XVII
|
"The Wild
Cowboy" (The Dying Cowboy) ("Folk Songs of The South" John Harrington
Cox. 1963.) |
Appendix XVIII
|
"The
Cowboy's Lament" ("Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. John A.
Lomax. 1966.) |
Appendix XIX
|
"The Dying
Hobo" written by Bob Hughes c. early 20th century. |
Appendix XX
|
"The Dying
Hogger" (Anonymous) "A Treasure of American Ballads". |
Appendix XXI
|
"The Newry
Highwayman" ("More Irish Street Ballads" C.O. Lochlainn. 1965) |
Appendix XXII
|
"Rake and
Rambling Boy" by Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers. |
Appendix XXIII
|
"The Young
Girl Cut Down In Her Prime" sung by Frankie Armstrong. 1972. |
Appendix XXIV
|
"The Bad
Girl's Lament" ("Folk Songs of Canada" Eds. Edith Fulton Fowke & Richard
Johnstone. 1955.) |
Appendix XXV
|
"St. James'
Hospital" sung by Laura V. Donald ("English Folk Songs From The Southern
Appalachians Vol. II. Cecil Sharp. 1952.) |
Appendix XXVI
|
"St. James' Hospital - "Iron Head's Version" by James (Iron Head) Baker.
-/5/34. Sugerland, Texas. 1966. |
Appendix XXVII
|
"Dying
Crapshooter's Blues" by Blind Willie McTell, 1949, Atlanta, Ga.
(Atlantic). |
Notes
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Bibliography
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