Stewie,

I plugged into the thread because Casey Jones is one of my favorite songs to perform. My arrangement is mostly from Mississippi John Hurt's guitar work and verses, but I've tweeked it here and there and lifted a couple of verses from Mance Lipscombe.

I've heard maybe 10 or 12 versions of the song, some with pretty radically altered melody lines, others with wildly different verses, but one thing I've always found interesting is the treatment of the widow Jones. Casey is treated as everything from hero to villian (see the Casey Jones, Union Scab version in the DT), but she is universally treated as cold, calculating, mercenary or uncaring — and sometimes a combination of all those things.

One of the things that facinates me about the song is the love-hate relationship between the songs' composers (known or otherwise) and Casey, but the real kicker is the Miz Jones thing.

What's your take on it?

david