The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #30285   Message #390144
Posted By: Sandy Paton
04-Feb-01 - 11:27 PM
Thread Name: Tales of Walt Robertson
Subject: RE: Tales of Walt Robertson
Check the DT for "The Ballad of Harry Pollitt." You'll find a number of differences in the text from the way we all sang it in Seattle, fifty years ago, but the song is there for the learning. What the DT doesn't tell you is that Harry was the head of the English Communist Party, 'way back when. I hadn't remembered that I first learned that one from Walt, but then, there were hundreds of songs inserting themselves into my head at that time, either from Walt or from a guy named Warren Povey. Povey had come west from Dartmouth to study playwriting under Doc Savage at the University of Washington. Bob or Don: do either of you remember him? He had a mess of good songs from Burl Ives and from the Outing Club at Dartmouth. Never pretended to be more than a happy living-room singer, and a darned good one he was, too. He may have gone off to write the great American drama before Walt got back from the army. Sure would like to know where and how he ended up. I liked his approach -- just good, honest, straight-forward singing for fun.

Sandy