The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #17282 Message #166114
Posted By: Mark Cohen
21-Jan-00 - 02:07 AM
Thread Name: Who is Uncle Jack?
Subject: Who is Uncle Jack?
Tom Paxton's song "Uncle Jack" is, I believe about an artist who was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. When I heard Tom do this song at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pa. in 1971 or so, he gave the name of the person the song is about, but I think I was slurping my capuccino and missed it. Does anyone know the story?
In a similar vein, Fred Small's song "Jimmy Come Lately" is about a nationally ranked college basketball coach who chucked it all and went to drive a school bus in Sequim, on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Fred told the audience the man's name (this time it was in Northampton, Mass., 1985) and I missed it again. These have been bugging me. Any help out there?
By the way, Fred said that he had to redo the entire chorus of the song when he found out that the town's name is pronounced "Squim" and not "See-quim".
If anyone is interested, I can probably post the words to these fine songs from memory, but I'll bet someone can come up with a link, with tunes and all.
Aloha,
Mark