anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Bob Kimberly
Date: 25 Jun 24 - 05:37 PM

Yes. Many fond memories and I know several of the people mentioned. Some are gone and some remain.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Sydney
Date: 03 Oct 23 - 10:06 AM

Remember it well. Eric Andersen… Jim Qweskin
I always sat in front row center and learned their songs. Had my own jug band. Loved it all!
I’m 78 and still jam.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Sydney
Date: 03 Oct 23 - 10:06 AM

Remember it well. Eric Andersen… Jim Qweskin
I always sat in front row center and learned their songs. Had my own jug band. Loved it all!
I’m 78 and still jam.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Tom Burden
Date: 26 Nov 22 - 11:51 AM

Great place. I especially enjoyed Pat Sky’s performances. Too bad it didn’t last longer.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Feb 19 - 05:45 PM

I used Mapquest to try to find out what is at
612 Page Boulevard now, and it was anything but clear.
There's a restaurant selling soul food, but
the street number is different.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Rick Hall
Date: 01 Feb 19 - 03:17 PM

Remember the Sarpent well, played there a couple of times, would go out to "the Bear's" home to party. Among the notables already mentioned who played there was Don McClean of American Pie fame, Don had the very first Martin guitar I had ever seen. Remember Bob Lee well, I even still have a picture of him, aptly described, sorry to hear of his passing.

Jesse Colin Young also played there.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Terry Donahue
Date: 25 Oct 18 - 03:39 PM

I use to go there when i was in high school. Got out of Springfield and ended up on Martha’s Vineyard where I hot to kniw Bob Lee. Bob was one of the gentlest people I have ever met. Bob died on the island a few years ago. He wss found in a pond next to his house. We dont think he drowned more like his heart just went home

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,John Mark
Date: 10 Aug 18 - 11:21 AM

Remember the place very fondly, just starting to get into rootsy music senior year of high school. Used to go to hear Patrick Sky whose finger picking
WHILE SINGING ! really impressed me. Felt we had to sit through Richie Havens who I didn’t appreciate til later. Think I remember Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band there as well...

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,GUEST,krm
Date: 14 Jan 18 - 03:36 PM

Two years into folk guitar and songwriting and this place opened a half hour car ride away. Went when I had a ride back home and often when I didn't. Sipped fragrant jasmine tea even when there was none left in my cup or a tall glass of something cold with orangeat syrup when I had money for a few.
It was beautiful. Waitresses endured the crushed stare of my fifteen years as they would glide between tables and a few shy words to whoever was playing as they sat between sets often led to longer chats on quiet nights.
Shared a long time waiting for a ride outside with Richie Havens who i talked to a couple times there. Saw him again at Iron Horse Northampton in '95 and we both flushed with tears a bit at remembering that a long time ago.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,tom
Date: 20 Oct 17 - 01:03 PM

two of my older sisters worked at the pesky. since i had much dirt on them i would blackmail them into taking me to work. i still remember going down those stairs the first time. can remember seeing the lovin spoonful, joan baez and eric andersen and many others. my favorite act, even to this day was jim kweskin and the jug band. Kaloobafak!

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Ian W
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 07:03 PM

The short answer is, "Yes but not very much".

I'm a Brit who spent the summer of 1965 on a working holiday in the States, based in Hartford Conn., where I met some guys who ran the Folk Guitar Workshop (above the United Nations Gift Shop on Church Street). I went with them to the Pesky Sarpent on the evening of Monday, 23 August, which was a hoot night. Unfortunately, I can recall very little of that night or the place itself, other than the fact that it was in a basement.

I do seem to recall being told that Patrick Sky had played there quite a bit and his first album contained "Rattlesnake Mountain", the song from which the Pesky Sarpent took its name.

The previous Saturday (21 August), I'd been in Boston and saw the Chambers Brothers at the Unicorn Coffee House. The Pesky Sarpent was somewhat of a contrast.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Apr 17 - 04:14 AM

make sure your wife doesn't try talking to wasps - they really don't listen!

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Apr 17 - 07:31 PM

Flatt abd Scruggs and Mike Seeger used to do a song called FOD. which seemed to bear a certain resemblance.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,daniel
Date: 18 Apr 17 - 09:09 PM

can't believe i found this! yes, pesky sarpent on page blvd. i was just 18 when i was asked to play there after winning the springfield herald's hootenanny contest at forest park in the summer of '65. lots of people from the folk scenes happening in cambridge and greenwich village would stop there to perform in those days. i remember the huge poster of dylan's "times are a-changing" lp cover staring over my shoulder on stage....kinda intimidating.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,Mary
Date: 27 Aug 16 - 06:51 PM

I loved the Pesky Sarpent on Page Blvd. spent a lot of time there. Saw Richie Havens.
Does anyone remember Johnny Rivers?

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Jun 16 - 12:08 PM

My wife found a rattlesnake in the garden yesterday. I wish that she would wear shoes instead of sandals. Instead, she just talked to the snake and asked the snake not to bite her. Knowing my wife, this will probably work.

She's mowing the grass in the garden right now, wearing sandals with her heels exposed...

Tu rudy nu, tu rudy nay
Tu rudy nu, tu rudy nay-i-ay

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: GUEST,JT
Date: 01 Jun 16 - 11:03 AM

Yes .. 612 1/2 Page Boulevard downstairs in an old bowling alley .. Great place while it lasted .. Good music .. good people

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: mrmoe
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 08:22 AM

I was not refering to the song, but to the folk club named after the snake in the song.....

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Jun 07 - 12:38 AM

Gone over ad nauseum in Mudcat; see especially thread 10108:
Rattlesnake-Springfield Mountain

Also three sets of lyrics in the DT

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachuse
From: Stephen R.
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 11:55 PM

It is indeed a parody of an older, serious song. No one has ever come up with a historical record of the original event, but it probably was originally written to commemorate a young man who died of snakebite.


Unless I miss my guess, there are a bunch of threads on this song in this list already.

Stephen

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 09:46 PM

....and Kendall was there.

-Joe, ducking for cover-

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachuse
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 09:15 PM

It appears to be a comic parody of an earlier, serious song. Yes, it was Springfield, Mass.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 09:11 PM

My Dad researched that one quite a bit. It's a song I'll be keeping my eyes open for as I go through his papers. I think he even made a point to visit places in question when he was on summer vacation back east one year.

SRS

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachusetts)
From: kendall
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 09:07 PM

Yes Joe. That was reputed to be the first song composed in the new colony.

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent? (Massachuse
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 08:51 PM

So, was THE Springfield Mountain in Springfield, Mass???

-Joe, very much afeared of pesky sarpents-

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent?
From: GUEST,Chris Smith
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 10:46 AM

On their "Am I Born to Die" CD, Taos-based duo Chipper Thompson and Mason Brown did a version of "Pesky Sarpent" for which they supplied a new melody. See http://www.folk-n-roll.com/buy_music.html (scroll down).

cjs

Subject: RE: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent?
From: kendall
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 10:30 AM

Buryl Ives sang a song called Springfield Mountain. It was about a young man who was bitten by a snake and died.

Subject: anyone remember the Pesky Sarpent?
From: mrmoe
Date: 06 Jun 07 - 10:10 AM

......on paige boulevard in springfield, massachusetts.....a link to its history....
http://www.randyshiltscenteroftroy.org/sarpenthistory.htm

---

Text copied from an archive of the Web page at archive.org -Joe Offer-

The original coffeehouse was opened in 1965 at 612 1/2 Page  Blvd.
in Springfield Massachusetts. It was located in a renovated, below
street level, former neighborhood bowling alley.

The rose  colored  cinderblock  walls lined with  original art, the
black  ceiling, the gleaming hard  wood floors,  cabaret seating,
large  stage & superb sound system, the massive  antique cash
register  at  the  entrance, the  immaculate  kitchen  lined  with
coffee  urns and espresso machines, the gourmet desserts, and
the signature beverage of the club, 'Red Stuff' are now legend.

It was a first establishment of  its kind in Springfield, and caused
some controversy, ( as all pioneering good ideas do ), and  had to
overcome a series of code enforcement hassles with the city.

We prevailed, the club became a legendary stop on the northeast
folk performers booking  circuit, and  the city council  went back
to doing  what  most  politicians  do best, rather than  protecting
the citizenry from folk singers.

The 'we' above refers to the clubs owners, and  associates, all of
whom contributed  to the  many details  that are now  part of the
Sarp's  history . . . Jay 'Bear' Avon,   David Boyd,  Art  Carroll,
Connie &  Doug Bradway,  Phyllis Grossman,  Harriet  Golden,
Suzanne Sickler, Rick 'Mouse' Berger, Bob Lee, Dave Mowry,
Mike Fairbanks,  Ellie  Avon, Eddie  Hogan,  'Gus'  Gustofson,
and many others.

The Name, 'The Pesky Sarpent' derives from an early American
folk song  from 1840's that is  reputed  to  have  been  originally
penned about two unfortunate lovers who dwelled on Springfield
Mountain. The song  has evolved through many verse and  title
changes in 200 years. Title  variants are: Springfield  Mountain,
'The Pesky Sarpent', and, 'Rattlesnake Mountain'.