Well, I’ve spent the last week here rooting around the
Robert’ Collection for old love songs. I’m primarily looking for pieces that are
of older European origin, but more particularly those that have evolved from
their predecessors to have a regionalized flavoring. What do I mean by this? At
one level I mean that I’m looking for songs that contain phrases or grammar
that strongly indicate Appalachian origin.
Better yet, I’m looking for songs with new plot twists, or nuanced
phrases that are not present in earlier versions.
In this past week at Berea I’ve come across so many exciting
variants of these old songs that a good deal of the material I’ve looked at
will have to be spread out across several posts. This past week I listened to a
number of recordings from the Couch Family. The Couches were an amazing source
of material for Leonard Roberts, who interviewed members of the family from
1951-1955 in several sessions. Primarily Roberts interviewed Jim, Dave and
Frank Couch, and their father Tom. The brothers grew up in a family that farmed
for its livelihood on Sang Branch in the area of Greasy Creek, Harlan Co.
Kentucky. They recall learning stories and songs from their mother, and banjo
tunes and other songs from their father Tom. Jim recalls of his mother, Mary
Ann Harris: “She was the storyteller in the fambly and would tell one about any
time of a day or night. She would tell a story at the end of corn rows while we
was cooling and getting water, and of an evening around a gnat smoke in the
yard and of a night before bedtime.” Dave recalled of his father, “He’d tell us
stories, and bar tales and tell riddles, and sing songs for us…We coulda sat up
all night and listened, us children could.”
Jim, Dave and other family members were chock-full of
hundreds of songs, stories and riddles. Here are a few interesting love songs
that I came across this week.
The Devil and the
School Child (Child #3, The False Knight on the Road): This song has some
striking (and disturbing) variations from earlier popular versions. The False
Knight,in this version called the “proud porter gay,” challenges the boy called
the “child gentlemen” with riddles that indicate he intends to do the boy harm.
The boy’s answers to the riddles ward off the porter’s intended harm (clickhere to read an older, "classic" version).
One verse that speaks to the songs’ adaptation to
contemporary settings reads:
“I wished I had you in the woods,” said the proud porter gay “All alone by the wayside lone.”
“With a good gun under my arm,” said
the child gentleman,
And
the game feller’s walking along.
The boy has a gun, instead of a stick, and the woods are his
familiar territory. This version has no mention of going to school, nor, as in
older versions, of keeping sheep.
One of the most extraordinary verses reads:
“With your head broke in two,” said the proud porter gay,
“All
alone by the wayside lone,”
“O
a fence rail jobbed down yer neck,” said the child gentleman,
And
the game feller’s walking alone.
Absent, is the familiar refrain “And he stood, and he stood,
and ‘twere well that he stood,” replaced by “And the game feller’s walking
along.” The second line “All alone by the wayside lone” seems to have crept in
to better fit the melody, which necessitates the lengthening of each verse from
older versions.
The Couch’s also had a song called “Musket Fife and Drum.” Collector Cecil Sharp found versions of this
in other parts of Appalachia, calling it “Soldier Will You Mary Me?” A girl repeatedly
asks a soldier if he’ll marry her. The soldier promises only to get married if
she purchases various items of clothing for him. She does so, only to be told,
in a typical comic trope, that he can’t marry her since he has a wife at home.
In this version, amongst visiting the tailor and the miller for clothing items,
the girl also makes numerous trips to the “apartment (department) store.” Tom, as
well as his sons lived through the industrialization of eastern KY, during which
time it would have been impossible not to witness the replacement of
trade-oriented businesses (like a tailor shop) with department stores. This
song openly references that blending of old and new economies.
The Couch’s had a version of Wagoner’s Boy, popularly called “Wagoner’s Lad:” Sung to the tune
of “Rye Whiskey,” this song gives sympathy to the Wagoner, instead of the girl
he’s leaving. The first few verses present a different perspective than most
commonly sung versions provide:
“I courted pretty Nancy
by
night and by day,
Farewell,
pretty Nancy,
I’m
going away.
You used to wouldn’t have me
Because I was poor,
But now I have money plenty
Because I was poor,
But now I have money plenty
And a Wagoner boy.”
Suddenly, the entreaties we’re used to hearing from the girl
for him to stay, and feed his horses etc. are put into a suspicious context.
She’s only being nice to him for his money.
There’s a beautiful verse where she tries to persuade him to
stay:
“It’s a rainin’ and a hailin’
And
the moon gives no light,
You can’t see to travel
This dark and rainy night.”
You can’t see to travel
This dark and rainy night.”
The song ends focusing on the girl’s perspective. Despite
whatever selfish intentions, she feels sorrow at the absence of her lover, and
says,
“Go build me a castle
On
yonder mountain high
Where
the wild geese can see me
When
they’re passing by.
Where the turtle doves can hear me
And
can help me to mourn,
For
I am a poor girl
And
a long ways from home. “
So, that’s a little review of some of the songs I’ve run
across this week.
There’s much more to tell, but it’ll have to wait for future
posts.
Of course, though the songs above are interesting for a
whole variety of reasons, it doesn’t mean they'll appeal to a contemporary
audience. Though I’m fascinated by these songs at several levels, the heart of
my hunt, so to speak, is for pieces that would engage modern audiences. I’ll be
spending my next post talking a little about the politics of choosing and
re-representing older songs (a huge topic- I’ll try and make my short post do
it justice).
Goodnight!
