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Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 04 Feb 09 - 03:52 PM The Oscar Brand song brings back memories. Several slept in my basement until they got themselves settled here in Canada. |
Subject: Lyr Add: A VERY NICE COUNTRY (Oscar Brand) From: oldhippie Date: 04 Feb 09 - 12:57 PM A VERY NICE COUNTRY (Oscar Brand) I was born in Philadelphia Not too far from Rittenhouse Square Maybe you pass by that place sometimes My family still lives there But please don't ask them about me Especially not my Dad As far as he's concerned I'm just another bit of good luck that went bad And, so, I'm living up here in Canada Living here all alone A very nice country But not my own Funny thing about the people here They're just like the people back home And the buildings look a lot alike Not much of that New York tone The streets are a little bit cleaner And every one has its sign Printed very neatly Half a million streets Not one of them mine I'm still living up here in Canada Living here all alone A very nice country But not my own I've been writing lots of letters home I get answers once in awhile They say things like Please don't catch a cold Well, that always makes me smile But they never mention my brother Or what he intends to be I guess they're all afraid If we got too friendly He'd turn out like me So, I'm living uo here in Canada Living here all alone A very nice country But not my own Funny thing the war is over now They're not making anyone go Seems like they just got tired of it They used to love it so You'd think they'd say we're sorry now And maybe you were right But they won't let us back They say it isn't fair To the kids they forced to fight Meanwhile, I'm living uo here in Canada Living here all alone A very nice country But not my own There are lots of others living here Twenty, thirty thousand or so Some of them say they'd much rather stay But I sure would like to go And now they're talking the draft again And resuming nuclear tests I'll find some empty spots Set up folding cots Cause I'm expecting lots more guests Meanwhile, I'm living up here in Canada Living here all alone A very nice country But not my own A very nice country But not my own Also in this thread |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Mark Ross Date: 04 Feb 09 - 12:36 AM GREEN ROLLING HILLS OF WEST VIRGINIA was written in the early '60's by Utah Phillips while he was traveling thru that state. When people asked him if there was any work out where he was from, his reply would be that there wasn't which was why he was back there in the W.Virginia hills looking for work. He stayed with an old woman down in some hollow. When he asked her why people didn't leave to find work, she told him that it was the hills that would keep you and never let you go. He left her the song as a "Thank You" when he departed the next morning before she woke up. It was written a while before the John Denver hit. Mark Ross |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 04 Feb 09 - 12:12 AM Thanks for that. Enjoyed it. Who wrote it? I would like to get some old ones, but they seem to be rare. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: topical tom Date: 03 Feb 09 - 11:30 PM Dolly Parton's "Smokey Mountain Memories" |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 03 Feb 09 - 08:33 PM Isn't it odd! So many moved, yet almost no one sang about it. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Charley Noble Date: 03 Feb 09 - 07:59 PM Q- I guess I always assumed that "You Gave Me a Song" had to do with moving north to Detroit although there is no mention of that in the verses: I got a job in a factory On that old assembly line Thought I'd climb on up the hill And leave my past behind But the only climbing that I did Was five flights up the stairs And the past I thought I'd left behind Went with me everywhere. But when I hear "assembly line" I think automobile factories, and when I imagine a 5-flight walk-up I think major Northern city. The other song's title I believe is "The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia." Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 01 Feb 09 - 02:15 PM "You Gave Me a Song" seems to be about leaving for a job in the nearby southern mills, but not leaving for the north. I can't find lyrics to "The Green Hills of West Virginia" (a relative of "Country Roads"?). In the Civil War, people there were bitterly divided. My wife's relatives (Georgia) considered it renegade Yankee territory; not part of the South. Burnett's "Farewell Song" (Man of Constant Sorrow) is about a troubled (and blind literally?) man leaving his home Kentucky and going north; other singers may have got the song from Burnett's broadside publication. Not an 'exodus' song. Thanks for the recommendations. They give me ideas about where to search. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Bob the Postman Date: 01 Feb 09 - 10:48 AM "Man of Constant Sorrow", first published in 1913 and possibly derived from an oral source, according to the Traditional Ballad Index, speaks of being "bound to ride that northern railroad". In the hoopla following the movie "Oh Brother" much was made of "Constant Sorrow" as a song about emigration to the industrial north. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Feb 09 - 10:32 AM The ones that come to my mind are more contemporary and have more to do with White Appalachian migrants. I'm thinking of "You Gave Me a Song" and "The Green Hills of West Virginia" as sung by Hazel and Alice. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs About Moving North From: Joe_F Date: 31 Jan 09 - 08:31 PM I don't know at all. But if Detroit failed to produce such songs, I'd like to know the reason why. |
Subject: Lyr Add: GOING FROM DE COTTON FIELDS (Westendorf) From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 31 Jan 09 - 07:08 PM Although many African-Americans moved from the South to the North in the period from 1870s-1930s, and probably almost as many whites did the same, there seem to be few songs about the exodus. The thread on secular African-American music caused me to wonder about their scarcity. I would especially like to find folk songs or folk versions, both Black and White. The parlor song "Going from de Cotton Fields," 1879, by Thos. P. Westendorf, entered White folk song repertoire. It has been sung by Grandpa Jones, and Bob Walker recorded it for the Library of Congress in 1937; the Carter Family sang a modified version. It was sung by the Gilbert Family of Arkansas. Their version: GOING FROM DE COTTON FIELDS 1 I'se a goin' from de cotton fields, I'se a goin' from de cane I'se a goin' from de old log hut dat stands down in de lane I'se gwine to join de expedition headed for 'de Norf And de boat is on de ribber dat's gwine to take me off. Chorus: I'se goin' from de cotton fields and oh it makes me sigh For when de sun goes down tonight I'se gwine to say goodbye. 2 They say dat up in Kansas so many miles away De colored folks is flockin' round and gettin' better pay I don't know how I'll find it dere but I is bound to try So when the sun goes down tonight I'se gwine to say goodbye. 4 I dread to leave de dear old place where I was borned and bred To leave de friends dat I have made and de graves of dem dat's dead De flowers dat bloom on Massa's grave will miss de tender care No hands like mine will take de pains to keep dem bloomin' dere. 4 Now Dinah she don't wanta go, she says she's gettin' old She says she's 'fraid we'll freeze to death de country am so cold But I'se bound to help my chillun some befo' I'se called to die So when de sun goes down tonight i'se gwine to say goodbye. 5 I'se sold de old log cabin and de little patch of ground Dat good old Massa gave to me when de Yankee troops came down My heart is sad and sore now, de tears are in my eyes For when de sun goes down tonight I'se gwine to say goodbye. With musical score, pp. 186-187, Appendix One. Robert Cochran, 1999, Singing in Zion. The University of Arkansas Press. A similar version of Westendorf's song has been collected in Alabama: "I'm Gwine from the Cotton Fields," pp. 107-108, with music, Robert W. Halli Jr., Ed., 2004, "An Alabama Songbook, Ballads, Folksongs and Spirituals Collected by Byron Arnold." |
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