Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jul 20 - 11:15 PM

Charlie Baum says: Song also called “Pytoria”, Smithsonian Folkways has a different version, with more history.

Any more info?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 08:34 PM

Link to the recording of Pytoria (Run, Come See Jerusalem):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owh_OLGbEjg

PERFORMER CREDITS
John Roberts - Lead vocal
H. Brown - Bass vocal
Charles Wallace - Vocal

Music of the Bahamas, Vol. 2: Anthems, Work Songs and Ballads

(c) 2004 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings / 1959 Folkways Records

Released on: 1959-01-01

Liner notes available at https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW03845.pdf
See also my notes above from 4 March 2004

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 09:12 PM

Oh, you gotta hear this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlhkKaOoVWU

"Run Come See Jerusalem" by Mr. Ackerbilk and the Paramount Jazzband.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 09:23 PM

From the liner notes:

SIDE II, Band 3:
PYTORIA (RUN COME SEE JERUSALEM) 4'40"
John Roberts, lead voice; H. Brown, bass; C. Wallace, treble.
Recorded at Fresh Creek Settlement, Andros, Bahamas Islands, August 10, 1958.

In nineteen hundred and twenty-nine

(REFRAIN)
Run come seek, Run come seek,

In nineteen hundred and twenty-nine
(REFRAIN)
Run come seek it, Jerusalem.

There was three sails leaving out the harbor, Etc.
I want you to tell me 'bout the three sails, Etc.
Will you name those three sails for me, Etc.
The Result, The Myrtle, the Pytoria Etc.
Now they're leaving out Nassau Harbor, Etc.
Now God send the Myrtle into Blanket Sound, Etc.
But God send Result into Staniard Creek, Etc.
Now we leave the Pytoria on the ocean, Etc.
There's a dark cloud build up in the north-east, Etc.
Now the wind and wave keep rolling down, Etc.
Pytoria couldn't hold up for the channel, (REFRAIN)
Now she's cut off for Standard Rock channel (REFRAIN) ,
When she get opposite the channel (REFRAIN) ,
Oh Lord, Captain George vas the captain (REFRAIN) ,
He spoke to the people on board her, (REFRAIN)
Said people, people what must we do? (REFRAIN)
Now everybody get confused in his mind (REFRAIN) ,
Now everybody get confused in his mind.
Oh he said, I cannot find the channel, (REFRAIN)
Oh Lord, I got to go in the channel now, (REFRAIN)
Nov the first sea hit the Pytoria, (REFRAIN)
Thank God everybody get confused, (REFRAIN)
The second sea hit the Pytoria., (REFRAIN)
Now she knock little Era to Glory, (REFRAIN)
Now she bad thirty-four souls board her, Etc.
Nov the next sea hit the Pytoria, (REFRAIN)
She leaved the people on the water, (REFRAIN)

Redacted from the liner notes below:
John Roberts composed PYTORIA. John remembered that the Pytoria sank on Wednesday, and on Sunday morning ". . . I had my song ready." John Roberts had been a crew member of the Pytoria until a week before it was destroyed on the rocks at Fresh Creek.


Since the 1920's the great Andros singers have composed ballads about their lives and experiences, and there has been a flowering of the ballad style. There are now five major ballads sung along the coast of Andros. McQueen composed CURRY CAMP BURNED DOWN and with John Roberts - who is mentioned in CURRY CAMP BURNED DOWN - composed PYTORIA. They are both from the settlement at Blanket Sound and John remembered that the Pytoria sank on Wednesday, and on Sunday morning ". . . I had my song ready." McQueen has certainly developed the magnificent CECIL GONE IN THE TIME OF STORM to its present form, but it was probably created by the entire community at Blanket Sound within a few weeks after Cecil's drowning. John Robert's singing of the ballad added a few details, but it was very similar to McQueen's. The other two ballads are from southern Andros and seem to have been composed by a singer from Long Bay Cay, Willie Bullard. They are HARCOURT DROWNED and CEDRIC. McQueen recorded HARCOURT DROWNED, but noone could be found in the Mangrove Cay area who could sing more than a few lines of CEDRIC. Bullard may have taken part in the development of CECIL GONE IN THE TIME OF STORM, since there is evidence that he sang the ballad in the 1930's. With the exception of CEDRIC and CURRY CAMP BURNED DOWN - which is regarded as McQueen's special song - the ballads all widely sung on Andros and are thought of as traditional.

The ballads of Andros are superb examples of a mature ballad style, and they have been collected at an early point, so that there is still a richness of detail and an intensity of mood. McQueen was on the beach at Blanket Sound when Eudie Newton was told that her son, Cecil, was drowned, and John Roberts had been a crew member of the Pytoria until a week before it was destroyed on the rocks at Fresh Creek. In their singing is the vividness with which they recall the scene. CURRY CAMP BURNED DOWN is a delightful example of that rare form, the comic ballad. Curry Camp was the ill-fated pineapple farm near Fresh Creek, run by a government official named Erwin McFee. McQueen paints a colorful picture of the confusion and excitement of the fire, and then solemnly recounts how the employees - including himself - cheated poor McFee when he was trying to make good their losses. McQueen sings the ballads with a moving sensitivity and expressiveness.

Recording by S. B. Charters, with the technical assistance of A. R. Danberg. Much of the recording was done under difficult conditions, and there is background noise from gasoline driven generators on at least two of the selections.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 14 Jul 20 - 09:57 PM

One more link (because the Hurricane tracking map I referenced in 2009 has since disappeared from the Web):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Bahamas_hurricane

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,Jim Troy
Date: 17 Jul 20 - 06:39 PM

Origin of the song, I do not have, but here's a version.

Run Come See Jerusalem

Acker Bilk Paramount Jazz Band '60's

this one stuck in my head ever since
that, and Willie The Weeper.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyms6hm5XAc

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,Jim Troy
Date: 18 Jul 20 - 08:15 PM

Thanks to whoever made a clicky of my link.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 05:25 PM

When Gordon Bok rolls this out...it is unforgettable.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,Greg Stephens
Date: 03 Jan 21 - 02:52 AM

A reminder of singing in bars. Hopefully covid will soon let us do this again. Here's a session in the Lazy Turtle on Carriacou (Caribbean island)
Run Come See at the Lazy Turtle

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 03:32 PM

A Bahamian song written by Blind Blake. My favourite version is by the X Seamans Institue from Smithsonian Folk Ways. It's on YouTube.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 03:55 AM

I first heard this song performed by Ethel Raim and the Pennywhistlers of Philadelphia...back in the day. 70s...

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,JeffB
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 05:14 PM

Guest - See Charlie Baum's posts above of 14 July 2020. The song was written by John Roberts and Frederick McQueen a few days after the tragedy. Roberts had been a crewman on the Pytoria (which seems to be the schooner's correct name) only a week before. The format of their song was as a usual Bahamian rhyming ballad, a term coined by the researcher Peter Siegel. Blind Blake later re-worked it as a calypso for performing at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Nassau, where he was bandleader. He recorded the song in 1934.

The musicologist Samuel Barclay Charters visited the Bahamas in 1958 and luckily was able to make a recording of the original arrangement sung by John Roberts, H. Brown, and Charles Wallace. As Charlie Baum says, you can hear this track on "Vol. 2, Music of the Bahamas" by Folkways Records. It's well worth getting hold of.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,#
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 05:41 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqyHdsFcpwY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqyHdsFcpwY

A link to Johnny Carroll's version mentioned previously.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 05:03 AM

Guest Jeff: The song was written by John Roberts and Frederick McQueen a few days after the tragedy. Roberts had been a crewman on the Pytoria (which seems to be the schooner's correct name) only a week before.

Have you located any pre-Blake sources for the song? Or any source at all for the spelling? We know she was registered as the Pretoria.

"Pytoria" reads more like what a Yank trying to sound out "Pretoria" in Bahamian English would come up with. Just guessing.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 10:59 AM

Hi Phil - I didn't know that the schooner was registered as 'Pretoria', but it seems that 'Pytoria' was the way her name was pronounced locally, certainly in 'Pytoria' (sub-titled 'Run Come See') as transcribed by S. B. Charters from his recording of the song which he had from its authors, John Roberts and Frederick McQueen. The spelling and conformation of authorship I quoted was from p. 6 - 8 of the notes to the Folkways 'Music of the Bahamas, Vol. 2' by Charters. These notes happen to be on-line at https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW03845.pdf

Incidentally, Mr McQueen (among others) was also recorded some seven years later by Jodi Stecher and Peter Siegel of Princeton University. Their field recordings were issued on the LP (now available as CD) 'The Real Bahamas'. Again, well worth getting hold of. I believe it was this LP which brought the singer and guitarist (and sponge fisher) Joseph Spence to the attention of American audiences. A fine player and bass singer, he enjoyed a well-deserved period of fame and respect and was influential to a number of musicians. There's a little Wiki article about him.

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,JeffB
Date: 26 Mar 21 - 11:05 AM

Sorry - above post is mine

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Aug 21 - 11:17 PM

New release from Smithsonian Folkways, in which Peter Siegel makes available previously unreleased recordings he made in 1965 of Joseph Spence. The notes here suggest it was first recorded in 1958 by Sam Charteris, but that Joseph Spence took it to heart since the succour he had provided trying to save the mariners and retrieving the dead had made such an impression on him in 1929.

His version on the album has very few lyrics but that doesn't reduce its power.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/joseph-spence-encore-story

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: Mysha
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 07:29 AM

Thanks.

I have no idea how the instructions are supposed to match my browser, but the obvious September song is Run come see, Jerusalem.

Don't know what data we have about it, sorry.

Bye,
Mysha

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: Mysha
Date: 21 Sep 21 - 07:38 AM

Oops. Is there an elf nearby who can remove the circular reference above (and this one)?
Sorry,
Mysha

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 22 Sep 21 - 05:38 PM

Google Books , Info about the song     https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0dlUAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=A+Great+Storm+Pass+Over,+written+by+a+Bahamian+sponge+fis

Subject: RE: Origins: History of 'Run, Come See Jerusalem'
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 27 Sep 21 - 03:23 PM

FYI that's: Neely, Wayne, The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1929, (Nassau, Media Pub., 2013)

Bahamiana sorta getting lost in the merged threads:
One (1) storm; two (2) songs (this thread only) like the Ballad Index note says: NOTES [17 words]: While the storm described is the same one described in "Run Come See," this is an independent song. - PJS

The September Songs thread might/would/should list both song titles.

FYI the previous ('28) September: Lyr Add: Somebody Got Drowned (Palm Beach 1928) is one storm with a half dozen or so songs (minimum.)

Also, Bahamians don't spell like they speak any more than Texans or Londoners. The vessel was real. Her name was the Pretoria (see Neely, above.) If one is writing about the real world that's how to spell it.