Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song

Subject: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Genie
Date: 19 May 10 - 07:04 PM

Here are a couple of songs composed in honor of Harry R Truman, the caretaker of the Spirit Lake Lodge on Mt St Helens for many years, until he and the lodge and the lake were caught up in the big eruption of that mountain on May 18, 2010 (30 years ago yesterday):

The Ballad Of Harry Truman (R W Stone) and footage of the mountain before and after the big eruption.



This song was composed Monday, May 19, 1980, the day after the big eruption, by Michael Lynch, who then recorded it, dedicating it to the memory of Harry Truman.
"THE MAN AND THE MOUNTAIN" (song composed 5-19-1980 by ) with photos of Harry Truman and the mountain

This is a rather whimsical folk rock song composed after the 5-18-1980 Mount St Helens Song

All of these videos have photos and videos of Mt St Helens before and after the big eruption too.

There's another song we were hearing in the Portland, OR, in the weeks leading up to the May 18, 1980 eruption, a song about "Old St Helens' gonna blow." The eruption was increasingly anticipated since March that year, and at first it was kind of exciting. But that song wasn't very funny right after the huge explosion of May 18 with all its devastation and loss of life and property and damage to the landscape, so it stopped getting played on radio. DK if it's still available to find online.

Subject: ADD: Harry Truman (of Mt St Helens) (Tom Hunter)
From: Stewart
Date: 20 May 10 - 12:32 PM

The late Tom Hunter of Bellingham, Washington, wrote a beautiful song about Harry Truman of Mt. St. Helens. The song is included in Linda Allen's song book "Washington Songs and Lore" (1988). It was also sung by Tom on the 5/11/03 PBS program "To The Best of Our Knowledge."

HARRY TRUMAN
(Tom Hunter) [Mt. St. Helens, 1980]

He had lived up there since 'twenty-nine,
Run a lodge and filled his time
Drinkin' whisky, raisin' cats and telling big tall tales
And now the mountain home he had
Was shaking, like the earth gone mad,
When they warned him, he said "No, I think I'll stay."

CHORUS
If the mountain goes, Then I'll go with it.
If the mountain goes, I'll go a-long
If the mountain goes, Then I'll go with it.
I'm gonna stay right here 'cause here's where I belong.

He said "The earthquake scared me bad up here,
But I've walked this mountain for fifty years
And it ain't gonna get me if the damn thing ever blows.
Besides I've got food, four weeks supply,
And whiskey, no, I'll never run dry,
I am this mountain, you can ask her, she knows."

Then on May eighteenth, Saint Helens blew
It tore the mountain right in two
With trees ripped, clouds of ash, the earth was glowing red.
As for Harry, no one knows,
He's up there still so the legend grows goes/i>
While the newspapers list him missing, presumed dead.

Now some say death's like going home
How the worst fate is to die alone,
Far from the people and the places you have known.
Maybe that's why Harry wouldn't leave,
It doesn't really matter what we believe,
Whether dead or alive old Harry's still at home.


Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Stewart
Date: 20 May 10 - 12:47 PM

On the PBS program I cited above,
you can hear Tom singing his song
at 27:58 into the 1-hour program.

S. in Seattle

Subject: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman songs
From: Genie
Date: 21 May 10 - 01:46 AM

A guy I encountered briefly back in 1980 sang me another song about Harry Truman and I really liked it but I don't know who wrote it or the title and can't remember much of the lyric - except this ending line:

"... or are you hangin' with Bigfoot and D B Cooper?
Well, I guess we'll never know."

I would love to find that song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Stewart
Date: 21 May 10 - 12:57 PM

I think Tom Hunter's song is far gentler
and more sympathetic to Harry and his
wanting to stay where his home was.

"Now some say death's like going home
How the worst fate is to die alone,
Far from the people and the places you have known.
Maybe that's why Harry wouldn't leave,
It doesn't really matter what we believe,
Whether dead or alive old Harry's still at home."

Cheers, S. in Seattle
under the shadow of Mt. Rainier,
quiet for now,
and we do see it once in a while,
when the clouds allow

Subject: Lyrics: Harry Truman Of Mt St Helens (Tom Hunter)
From: Genie
Date: 21 May 10 - 05:53 PM

Thanks, Stewart.

Here are the lyrics to Tom Hunter's song - at least the portion they played on that NPR broadcast (which is a very interesting show about volcanoes and other mountains).

Harry Truman Of Mt St Helens
(Tom Hunter)

He lived up there since 29,
Run a lodge and filled his time
Drinkin whiskey, raising cattle and telling big tall tales.
Now the mountain home he had
Was shaking like earth gone mad.
When they warned, him he said, "No, I think I'll stay."

"If the mountain goes,
Then I'll go with it.
If the mountain, goes I'll go along.
If the mountain goes,
Then I'll go with it.
I'm gonna stay right here, 'cause here's where I belong."

Then on May 18 St Helens blew,
Tore the mountain right in two
With trees ripped up, clouds of ash, the earth flowing red.
As for Harry, no one knows -
He's up there, so the legend goes,
Though the papers list him "missing, presumed dead."

"If the mountain goes,
Then I'll go with it.
If the mountain, goes I'll go along.
If the mountain goes,
Then I'll go with it.
I'm gonna stay right here, 'cause here's where I belong."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Stewart
Date: 21 May 10 - 07:16 PM

Genie, just look above at my first post
and you will see the complete lyrics,
from Linda Allen's song book.

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman s
From: Genie
Date: 22 May 10 - 01:52 AM

That's odd, Stewart. Somehow I must have scrolled too fast and totally missed that post. All I saw was the one where you talked about Hunter's song being "gentler."   
Anyway, it's good to have the full lyrics.

The NPR broadcast only includes the verses I posted though.

One question re the lyrics, though. It sounded to me like Tom sang "He's up there, so the legend goes" ( not "... grows").   Which is right?

Oh, and I'd still love to find the lyrics to the Harry Truman song that ends with the question about whether Harry went up with the mountain or maybe is "hangin' with Bigfoot and D B Cooper."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 May 10 - 09:18 AM

Definitely of the most shameful chapter in American journalism - all those smart aleck media punks publicizing that old man's stubbornness until it became impossible for him to change his mind. At least, it seemed impossible in his elderly, uptight world view.

They should have left him alone.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Stewart
Date: 22 May 10 - 01:03 PM

Genie, you're right
my mistake
the last part of the third verse is...

He's up there still so the legend goes
While the newspapers list him missing, presumed dead.

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,dc99
Date: 16 May 11 - 09:16 PM

does anyone know the name of the one that goes: oh harry truman your spirit lake is gone but oh harry truman your spirit will live on and on?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST
Date: 05 May 13 - 04:27 PM

Go to Youtube, type in "Harry Truman Song". You will get the song by RW Stone. Harry Truman Your Spirit Lives on. I co-wrote the song and sang it. Hope you can find it. Ron Allen

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Deckman
Date: 05 May 13 - 07:24 PM

I first met Harry when I was ten. He ran the "Spirit Lake Resort", which was a fishing dock with rowboats you could rent. As a youngster, our parents took my brother and I to Harry's place every summer to camp out and fish for trout. There were soooo many large trout in Spirit Lake that "they'd jump in the boat and clean themselves." At least, that's what Harry told us.

Harry was known for many things, one of which was being a hard drinker. And he wouldn't drink any of that cheap stuff ... it had to be of a good quality booze or else he'd charge you double to rent a boat. I know this is true, as my father told me so, and he always brought whiskey for Harry.

Harry was also famous for his pristine pink Caddilac. It was beautiful. Everyone wanted to buy it. At the time the mountain blew, my late brother Wayne was in serious negotions with Harry to buy it. By letter, Harry agreed to sell it to him for $2,000.

Oh well .... bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 May 13 - 08:50 PM

I posted this on another thread about Mt. St. Helens around three years ago. I thought I'd re-post it here because it contains a cautionary comment to people in general when such an event occurs.

Subject: RE: BS: Mt St Helens big eruption 30 years ago
From: Don Firth - PM
Date: 19 May 10 - 06:33 PM

I was working for Ma Bell at the time, as an operator. I had just plugged in (8:30 a.m.) and two minutes later, St. Helens blew. It had been gurgling and rumbling for some time, and it was being watched pretty carefully. Mt. Baker, in northern Washington, had done the same thing not that long before (triggering bumper stickers in Bellingham, not that far from the mountain, saying "Vote NO on Mt. Baker eruption!"). Baker finally stopped rumbling and venting steam, so it was expected (hoped) that St. Helens would do the same.

But no. At 8:32 a.m., she blew. Within a couple of minutes, the entire telephone system was jammed. Bulletins were going out over the radio and television telling people to stay off the telephones in the hope that emergency calls could get through.

The vast majority of calls were in the nature of "Wow! I'm watching it on TV! Isn't that something!?" and "How is it out your way, Aunt Martha?" People kept dialing operators, wanting emergency interrupts because they were getting what they thought were busy signals, when actually it was a similar signal, but much faster, which meant "busy circuits." Too many calls for the system to handle. Not even the operators can do anything about that, so even if it had been an emergency call, nothing could be done.

Which meant, of course, that real emergency calls couldn't get through either!

Operators are supposed to be polite to customers, but on that day, just plain rude was about the only way one could handle some people. "Look! Even if Aunt Martha is in trouble, there's nothing you can do about it anyway. So do what the emergency agencies are telling you to do and stay off the phone!"

Helluva day at Ma Bell's Skunk Works!

Don Firth

Unless you have a really overwhelming need, stay off the bloody phone! Because even if you DO have a need, chances are you simply won't be able to get through because of all the people checking up on Aunt Martha.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 13 - 12:15 PM

my uncle mark wrote a song back then, and i think it may be the one you are talking about that says are you hanging with big foot and db cooper well i guess we'll never know. it went, something like this: mt st helens would you please settle down, you're takin everythig we love, ashes fell and covered everything we own, then then the mud came and took away his home, theres more i cant remember, but i know its recorded somewhere in my family. my uncle died so i cant ask him

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 May 13 - 09:34 PM

G'day GUEST of,19 May 13 - 12:15 PM (above...),

What was your "uncle mark"s full name?

With the breadth of the modern web ... there's just a chance the lyrics are somewhere out there ... and an intelligent 3-line Google search might just gouge them out ... for you - Genie ... me ... and everyone else!

Regards,

BobB

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Aug 14 - 12:37 PM

it was mark bennington and he lived in olympia at the time

Subject: Lyr Add: HARRY TRUMAN (from Headgear)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Aug 14 - 12:15 AM

There's a video of this song on YouTube. It's also on Spotify:


HARRY TRUMAN
As sung by Headgear on "Flight Cases" (2007)

I have climbed my mountain, and I'm not coming down.
I've wasted enough time.
I have paid enough fines.
I have paid enough swines.

I don't need to live in fear.
I can see it all from here.
Don't wait for me; I've got my own faith.
I eighty-three and I'm Harry Truman.
You can move the mountain, but I'm still not coming down.

I don't believe in this life, and I never have.
I don't need to think twice, and I never have.

I don't need to live in fear.
I can see it all from here.
Don't wait for me; I've got my own faith.
I eighty-three and I'm Harry Truman.
You can move the mountain, but I'm still not coming down.

I'm on nobody's leash, and I've taken what I'll take.
I just want(?) moonshine(?) mistakes(?) out on Spirit Lake.
I'll rise up with the sun like a cloud.
You pack up, turn and run with the crowd.
You can move the mountain, but I'm still not coming down.
You can move the mountain, but I'm still not coming down.
I'm never coming down.
I'm never coming down.
I'm never coming down.
I'm never coming down.
I'm never coming down.
I'm never coming down.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,Cosmic
Date: 05 Mar 16 - 01:15 PM

My Old Man (both literally and figuratively) wrote a song used in one of the films about Harry R Truman... Genie referenced it in a post from 2010 ("..."... or are you hangin' with Bigfoot and D B Cooper? ")....

Genie - we can connect if you want more info

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Mar 16 - 12:54 PM

http://www.marthadigs.com/flightcases/flight_cases_harry_truman.html

Interesting 'bio' of Harry Randall Truman at that link.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,Gayle Kosydar
Date: 18 May 17 - 12:55 PM

While attending Folk Life Festival in Seattle one year there was a band who played a Harry Truman, Mt Saint Helens ballad. Then a cassette tape came out of 4 Washington State Ballads on it. This song was one of them. If anyone can guide me to who sang this Harry Truman/ Mt Saint Helen Song I would be so appreciative...

I remember part of the word to the St. Helen's song

Harry what you going to do when the old girl blows
Stick your fingers in your ears
Going to hold your nose
Going to head for the hills w/a bottle in your hand
Going to ride that old volcano to the promise land.

Harry Truman was a man w/a mind of his own
Upon St Helen he built him a home
He build him a home way out on a lake
That place he built his home was his first mistake.

The scientist came w/there PHD's
Said the girls going to blow and she won't say please
etc etc etc...   

That is about all I remember. So please help fill in the gaps.
Thank you

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,steve burke
Date: 31 Oct 18 - 09:21 AM

Here's the first verse as I remember it, learned it from a friend in Wisconsin:

G
Gonna tell you a story about old Harry Tee
                                                   D
Might of read it in your paper or seen it on your TV
                G                         C
He lived on the mountain up by old Spirit Lake
       G                        D                      G
but the place where he built his cabin was his first mistake
                   C                     G
Was his first mistake was his first mistake
                               D                      G
The place where he built his cabin was his first mistake

The graduate students and the PHD's
Said it all gonna blow, and she won't say please





Harry what you going to do when the old girl blows
Stick your fingers in your ears
Going to hold your nose
Going to head for the hills w/a bottle in your hand
Going to ride that old volcano to the promise land.

Harry Truman was a man w/a mind of his own
Upon St Helen he built him a home
He build him a home way out on a lake
That place he built his home was his first mistake.

The scientist came w/there PHD's
Said the girls going to blow and she won't say please
etc etc etc...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,steve burke
Date: 31 Oct 18 - 09:23 AM

the chords didn't end up in the right place, sorry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: leeneia
Date: 31 Oct 18 - 12:51 PM

This song is so callow. The poor, stubborn old man died horribly, and his pets with him.

So DAMN callow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 31 Oct 18 - 05:58 PM

It is philosophical and symbolical. There is another man in another Washington, whose name is not Harry Truman, and what did he say about climate change? And what about his pets?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 19 - 03:08 PM

I'm sure there's another powerful song about Harry Truman on one of Kat Eggleston's CDs, but I don't recall enough of it to even search for the lyrics competently. When I run across the disk, I'll try to remember to post them here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 May 19 - 08:08 AM

I'm with leeneia on that song. Cheap and nasty.

Alan Hovhaness's Symphony no 50 was a far more appropriate response.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Nov 23 - 03:17 PM

You forgot the original Harry Truman tribute song by R W Stone. Harry Truman Your Spirit Lives On.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Nov 23 - 01:39 PM

There was a "Harry's" restaurant in Anchorage est. 1980. Named in his honor. I may have been in there in those days. I remember his picture and possibly a sculpture of him. I haven't been aware of it for many years. They have an internet presence but no sign of activity. I remember where it was. I may go looking for it out of personal interest.

In the 80s toured the park with my parents. There was a trail system into the 'ruins'. There is farm country and one of the comments I remember was that square miles were covered with ash and people wondered if the grazers would starve. Surviving cattle pawed their way through the cover and ate the grass beneath.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Nov 23 - 03:17 PM

You forgot the original Harry Truman tribute song by R W Stone. Harry Truman Your Spirit Lives On.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mt St Helens eruption, Harry Truman song
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Nov 23 - 01:39 PM

There was a "Harry's" restaurant in Anchorage est. 1980. Named in his honor. I may have been in there in those days. I remember his picture and possibly a sculpture of him. I haven't been aware of it for many years. They have an internet presence but no sign of activity. I remember where it was. I may go looking for it out of personal interest.

In the 80s toured the park with my parents. There was a trail system into the 'ruins'. There is farm country and one of the comments I remember was that square miles were covered with ash and people wondered if the grazers would starve. Surviving cattle pawed their way through the cover and ate the grass beneath.