The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #44860   Message #660964
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
01-Mar-02 - 07:07 PM
Thread Name: Origin: Tell Old Bill (Van Ronk?)
Subject: RE: Origins of 'Tell Old Bill' (Van Ronk)?
It's in Sandburg's American Songbag all right. I remember many years ago borrowing it from a great little lending library that the American Embassy in London used to have, which had with lots of Americana books and records .

I seem to remember there was a recoird of Carl Sandburg singing a bunch of songs from the book, inckuding this one.

Then they decided that kind of thing wasn't dignified for an Embassy or cost too much money or something, and closed it down. Lost a hell of a lot of goodwill that day.