Subject: RE: Tom Glazer's Musical Heritage of America
From:
Joe Offer
Date: 06 May 10 - 01:26 AM
Well, here's the track listing for Volume 1 - from here (click)
THE MUSICAL HERITAGE OF AMERICA, Vol. 1. Tom Glazer (vocalist and narrator), Pat Moffitt (vocalist), Tom Glazer, Dick Weissman, William Nininger (guitars). Dick Weissman (banjo). Peerless PRCM121/4L (four records, nas, £792).
Record 1: Who Is The Man?
When Jesus Wept
Tobacco's But An Indian Weed
The Little Mohee
The Indian Christmas Carol
The House Carpenter
Lord Rendal
Barbara Allen
Pretty Folly
Springfield Mountain
Paper Or Pins
Henry Martin
The Golden Vanity
Blow Ye Winds.
| Record 2:
Brave Wolfe
What A Court Hath Old England
Chester
The Riflemen Of Bennington
The Battle Song of Saratoga
The Boston Tea Tax
The Liberty Song
Paul Jones' Victory
Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier
Cornwallis's Country Dance
The World Turned Upside Down
Captain Kidd
The Pirate Song
The High Barbaree.
| Record 3:
Blow The Man Down
Haul Away, Joe
The Constitution And The Cuerriere
The hornet And The Peacock
Ye Parliaments Of England
The Hunters Of Kentucky
The Cumberland Gap
Peter Gray
Sweet Betsy From Pike
On The Banks Of The Ohio
The Blue Tail Fly
O Susannah
Wayfaring Stranger
The Farmer's Cursed Wife.
| Record 4:
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Old Blue
Shenandoah
The Whale
The E-ri-ie
Got an Old Mule
Old Dan Tucker
Sourwood Mountain
Lolly Toodum
Pat Works On The Railway
Careless Love
Down In The Valley
Turkey In The Straw
Buffalo Gals
In The Days Of Forty-Nine
Sacramento.
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Listening to all four of these LPs immediately after one another is to run the risk of overexposure. There is, after all, really just the one linger (Pat Moffitt joins in rarely, only when the female touch seems called for) while the period dealt with seems relatively narrow— "from Colonial times to the beginning of the Civil War", as the subtitle puts it (Volume II will no doubt bring the saga up to our own century). Yet, surprisingly enough, the material seems remarkably diverse, and the performances grow more convincing as they become less British in origin and flavour. Tom Glazer's versions of Lord Rendal and Barbara Allen are uneasy, simply failing to communicate the tragic power of these ballads, but Glazer comes into his own in the gusty Turkey In The Straw, which is nothing if not wholeheartedly American. (Even this rule is not infallible, for one of the album's highspots is Glazer's spirited performance of The High Barbaree, written by Charles Dibdin and all about the fight between a British man-o'-war and a Barbary pirate ship.) On the whole the songs are arranged chronologically, following an historical sequence, beginning with pieces about American Indians (Tobacco's But An Indian Weed is especially delightful, with a genuine seventeenth-century feel about it) and the early settlers. (Pretty Polly, a murder ballad, achieves a perfect ironic contrast between a cheerful tune and manner and a macabre theme.) Songs about the Revolutionary War, including Cornwallis's Country Dance (better known as Pop Goes The Weasel), using the dance as a metaphor for military endeavours, are followed by songs of the war of 1812, a conflict usually glossed over in the older British history books, perhaps because the Americans won. There is a particularly strong selection of shanties and whaling songs (Shenandoah still comes across as startlingly beautiful despite its familiarity) and the album concludes with songs from minstrel shows and about those pioneers who were opening up the West or rushing after gold. There are disappointments here and there, notably an unsuccessful duet version of Careless Lone and a sloppy Down In The Valley. But the ups far outnumber the downs, among them being such triumphs as On The Banks Of The Ohio (another murder ballad) where the singing achieves the tight, clenched-in sound that you get in good white gospel music. Tom Glazer provides a narrative, linking the songs and explaining the background to most of them. This is reprinted in the accompanying booklet, as are the lyrics of all the songs. But here, oddly enough, there are often wide discrepancies between the texts on the page and the words actually sung. Sometimes it is a matter of a couple of words being altered ("our purpose is ready" changed to "our purses are ready"— which makes more sense—in The Liberty Song, and "Attica jail" instead of "Birmingham jail" in Down In The Valley); more frequently it is a matter of whole stanzas being omitted or altered or completely revamped. As a whole, however, these four LPs provide an admirable introduction to the subject—and also form a useful set of musical illustrations for anyone interested in how American took on separate nationhood. CHARLES Fox.
Gramophone Magazine, August 1974 : Page 97
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