The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19743 Message #4220903
Posted By: Robert B. Waltz
14-Apr-25 - 08:55 PM
Thread Name: Origins: The Ballad of Aimee McPherson
Subject: RE: Origins: The Ballad of Aimee McPherson
Here is the current Ballad Index entry. It should be noted that there is no real evidence that the song has gone into tradition. Ed Cray found a version somewhere, but that very likely came from a recording.
Aimee McPherson
DESCRIPTION: Aimee McPherson, radio evangelist, vanishes after a camp meeting; later claiming she was kidnapped. A grand jury investigation uncovers a "love-nest" at Carmel-by-the-Sea. She's jailed and bailed out; her paramour vanishes. AUTHOR: Words: Unknown/Music: Cab Calloway EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Pete Seeger) LONG DESCRIPTION: Aimee McPherson, radio evangelist, vanishes after a camp meeting; upon returning, she claims she was kidnapped. A grand jury investigation uncovers a "love-nest" at Carmel-by-the-Sea, where "the dents in the mattress fitted Aimee's caboose." She's jailed and bailed out; her paramour vanishes. Last lines: "If you don't get the moral then you're the gal for me/'Cause there's still a lot of cottages down at Carmel-by-the-Sea" KEYWORDS: sex abduction bawdy humorous clergy HISTORICAL REFERENCES: 1926 - The "disappearance" of Aimee Semple MacPherson FOUND IN: US REFERENCES (2 citations): Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 189, "Aimee McPherson" (1 text) DT, AIMEEMC* Roud #10296 RECORDINGS: Pete Seeger, "Aimee McPherson" (on PeteSeeger39) CROSS-REFERENCES: cf. "The Hi-De-Ho Man" (tune) ALTERNATE TITLES: Aimee Semple McPherson The Ballad of Aimee McPherson NOTES [86 words]: The song tells the story pretty accurately. - PJS Aimee Semple MacPherson (1890-1944) was truly larger than life. Born Aimee Kennedy, she married Robert Semple in 1908; he died in China on missionary work in 1910. In 1912 she married Harold MacPherson, whom she divorced in 1921. In 1918, she founded the Foursquare Gospel church (a Pentecostal sect which still exists, though it's not overly large). 1926 saw her disappearance. A third marriage failed in 1931. She died in 1944, of a heart attack or drug overdose. - RBW File: FSWB189A