Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)

Subject: Lyric request: Rock salt & nails
From:
Date: 03 Jan 97 - 03:33 PM

I'm trying to find the complete lyrics for "Rock Salt & Nails." Also, does anyone know the lyrics to "Singing Bird"? I'm willing to trade lyrics from my eclectic bank of songs... Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyric request: Rock salt & nails
From:
Date: 03 Jan 97 - 04:18 PM

Hi,

Rock Salt And Nails is in the database. There is also a song in the database called My Singing Bird. I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for.

Subject: RE: Lyric request: Rock salt & nails
From: Susan of DT
Date: 03 Jan 97 - 05:42 PM

to CLHAMBY

If your bank of songs is on computer, please share it. That is how we got to the 6000 songs we have now. A lot of people have sent in songs they had on computer or wanted to enter. We can take songs in almost any word processor, but ASCII is easiest. We can handle PC or Mac disks. You can post a small number of songs here or email to Dick at [e-mail] or me at [e-mail] or mail him a disk if that is easier to Dick Greenhaus; 28 Powell Street; Greenwich, CT 06831. If you want your own copy of the database, you can either download it from here or include 4 formated high density disks and a stamped self-addressed mailer when you send in songs.

Please include tune, author, and copyright info on songs if you have them. Tune can be photocopied.

Thanx.

Subject: RE: Lyric request: Rock salt & nails
From: Clhamby
Date: 04 Jan 97 - 05:33 PM

To Susan, my "bank" is mainly in handwriting and in my brain. One of these days I'll take the time to get it on computer. To both writers: I have been trying to get songs from DT but success rate has been about 5% of all the times I've attempted. I'll try downloading; it might be easier. Thanks for the help. CH

Subject: Lyr Add: ROCK SALT AND NAILS (Utah Phillips)
From:
Date: 16 Jan 97 - 03:19 PM

I found this in a book by U. Utah Phillips, Bill Hoyman

ROCK SALT AND NAILS
By Bruce Phillips

On the banks of the river where the willows hang down,
And the wild birds all warble with a low moaning sound
Down in the holler where the water runs cold
It was there I first listened to the lies that you told

Now I lie on my bed and I see your sweet face
The past I remember, time cannot erase
The letter you wrote me, it was written in shame
And I know that your conscience still echoes my name

The nights are so long and sorrow runs deep
And nothing is worse than a night without sleep
I walk out alone and look at the sky
Too empty to sing, too lonesome to cry

If the ladies was blackbirds and the ladies was thrushes
I'd lie there for hours in the chilly, cold marshes
If the ladies was squirrels with their high bushy tails
I'd load up my shotgun with rock salt and nails

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Genie
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 06:48 PM

You mean "B. 'Utah' Phillips," don't you?

This song was done recently at a Seattle 'bluegrass' jam, and in the conversation around the song, I thought someone mentioned that Utah had apologized later on for some of the original lyrics (and maybe re-written them). Anyone know anything about that?

(I don't see anything offensive about the lyrics above (and in the DT) -- unless that "load up my shotgun" line is a metaphor. ; ) I still find the sentiment rather amusing unless it's taken literally as being about shooting women or other helpless creatures.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 07:15 PM

Bruce (who went by "U. Utah Phillips" as a parody of T. Texas Tyler) wrote the song in Korea after receiving a dear John letter from his wife. He didn't like to sing it, partially because the person it was written about was still alive (and remains so). It was one thing for other folks to sing it (he knew a good song when he wrote one) but it felt too personal to sing it himself. He also felt it was an angry, bitter song, and he didn't feel that way any more.

He told me that after he received that Dear John letter, he wrote two songs - one was Rock Salt and Nails, and the other "I Think of You" - one of the sweetest love songs I know. I had never thought of that song as being about a breakup before, and it added new depths to hear him say that.

Dan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Genie
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 07:31 PM

Thanks, Dan.
I've seen Utah's name printed as "Bruce 'Utah' Phillips" or just "Utah Phillips," but never as "U. Utah Phillips." Thanks for the info on the name and on the history of the song and Utah's feelings about it too.

Genie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 08:51 PM

The legend moves on...

As Utah told me once, "It's folklore! If ya don't know it, make it up."

Art

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 27 Aug 09 - 12:15 AM

Hmmm... I'm intrigued. Is there a different story?

Utah wasn't above telling different stories about the origins of his songs, but what he told me does square with what I picked up from others during the last couple years.

Warmly,
Dan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Hamish
Date: 27 Aug 09 - 03:33 AM

Thanks for all that: John Martyn did a grand version in his early days. It certainly echoes the trad song Blackbirds and Thrushes, but is a great song.

~8^)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Genie
Date: 27 Aug 09 - 09:52 AM

Nice video here:
Rock Salt and Nails, sung by Rosalie Sorrels.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Joe_F
Date: 13 May 11 - 09:55 PM

Some weirdnesses:
There is no link, at the top of this page, to the page in the database.
When I click on the request page in the "related" list, the line merely changes position; the page does not come up.
When I access the database page with a search, I find the words all right, but the tune given is "Rock of Ages", which does not fit, even for fun.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Joe_F
Date: 13 May 11 - 09:57 PM

And now, a fourth weirdness: My posting seems to have attached itself to the wrong thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rock Salt and Nails (Utah Phillips)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 May 11 - 05:12 PM

Hi, Joe-
I added the crosslink at the top of this page. We have so many Utah Phillips songs, that I haven't completed crosslinking all of them - that should settle your first two issues.

Issue 3: "Rock Salt and Nails" is Number 5017 in the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database. "Rock of Ages," which is Number 5016 does have the correct MIDI linked to it, but somehow our experimental notation display got connected to the subsequent song. I'll ask Mudcat owner Max Spiegel to take a look at it.

Issue 4: what thread should your posting have appeared in?

-Joed Offer-