Lyr Req: I'm Going Home (Fred Geis)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Home (Fred Geis)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Dec 11 - 01:09 PM

Sometimes I wish Mudcat were structured more like Wikipedia so knowledgeable users could actually remove erroneous information instead of merely adding a corrective comment at the end of a thread, where people might not notice it. Then maybe we could lose the "fraught with errors" reputation that we often deserve, and not just in threads about the Kingston Trio.

But we're a forum, not an encyclopedia, so that's what you have to expect.

---

Closing this temporarily to keep the spammers out. They've hit it hard lately. Contact a moderator if you have something you'd like to post here. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Home (Fred Geis)
From: GUEST,Jim Moran
Date: 17 Dec 11 - 12:44 PM

And a big LOL for your nailing my OWN major error in attributing Mudcat to the UK. Simple if inadequate explanation - most of the threads I've read and used have pertained to English, Irish, and Scottish folk songs, and there is a really impressive number of genuinely knowledgeable people who are from the UK (internal evidence in their posts) who contribute to those threads.

My off-handed "fraught with errors" remark was intended to refer to some of the particulars about the Kingston Trio, not to the very useful info about Geis and Holstein. The "recognizable" element derives from the fact that initially most of the audience for my blog consisted of KT fans, an aged and graying lot like myself who would recognize the mistakes.

I had no idea when I started the blog three and a half years ago that its audience would ever extend beyond the KT fanbase, which it most definitely has. I still have a great affection for the KT and have really enjoyed the often volatile discussions of the group in Mudcat threads over the last decade and more, and I would add that my own interests in folk music have also broadened and deepened in the five decades since the Trio and the other pop folk groups were in their heyday.

Thanks for the link to my own pop folk group, the Chilly Winds, doing our replication of the KT. I have the first verse, FWIW.

And I now need to go back into the 140+ posts on my Comparative Video 101 site to correct every reference to Mudcat that lists it as a UK site. Apologies for the error, and thanks for the gently ironic correction.

Jim Moran

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Home (Fred Geis)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Dec 11 - 11:52 PM

There's a rather nice YouTube recording of the song here (click); and a very interesting page on the song (with lots of recordings) here (click) at blogspot.com, which makes mention of this very thread at "the UK's Mudcat.org," which is "fraught with recognizable errors but still interesting."

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Home (Fred Geis)
From: GUEST,John E
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:42 PM

The tune of "I'm Going Home" comes from Charles Gounod's opera, "Faust."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: GUEST,guest Linda
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 12:04 PM

Thanks, Art, this is how I remember it, as a friend sang it to me--but he always started with the California could not hold me verse. It's nice to know the title. I plan to teach it to the sing-a-long group I belong to. Too bad it isn't in rise up singing. thanks again. -Linda

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Art Thieme
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 07:28 PM

Linda try the 3rd post in this thread. All the words are there.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: GUEST,linda
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 03:04 PM

PLEASE HELP FILL IN THE REST --FOR YEARS, I'VE BEEN GOING NUTS TRYING TO REMEMBER. I THINK IT MIGHT BE A MIGRANT WORKERS SONG. BY THE WAY, I TRIED THE KINGSTON TRIO LYRICS SITE --IT'S NOT ON IT...

California could not hold me Although I loved her timbered mountians Worked her fields and I worked her orchards All up and down the Central Valley

Well no matter where I wander I know I'll always find a welcome At the end of every journey ....?

Folks who know me call me drifter They know.....never settle down ....?

I'm goin home, Lord, I'm goin home.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From:
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 03:09 PM

to all of you Thanks for all your help. Jeri, just for your info. I combines the two songs. Oh well they say the memory is the first to go. I blame it on a "senior moment" Again thanks Lois

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 12:45 AM

Yes, Joe, you're right. I forgot to mention that the title song from a big broadway show of the 60s or the 70s, about the early days of Israel, ___Land Of Milk And Honey___, had the same tune also.

"This is the land of milk and honey..."

Art

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 08:50 PM

Art, is the tune original. I swear I've heard other songs done to that tune. Maybe not, though - maybe it just sticks in my head because it's a generic "folk" style of tune. I do like the song, though, generic or not.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 06:51 PM

Thanks Wolfgang for the reference in the other thread. I know that this is thread creep but when I looked through the KT discography I couldn't see a KT album I used to own (probably a UK or Australian release) with a song called Nostalgias Tucamaras - or similar - sung in Spanish. Any clues please? Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 10:39 AM

Yep, Fred is alive & O.K. in Chicago. Still does concerts once in a while--not often though.

Art

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Tom on Comfort
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 01:55 AM

Fred Holstein did a fine version of that song on a great album called "Gathering at the Earl of Old Town" Wonderful song. (Wonderful voice--is he still around?)

Tom

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Art Thieme
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 03:19 PM

The K-Trio would change lyrics and words from anything remotely social/blue-collar to things more yuppie that might sell better to college kids and the middle class---that, even though "yuppie" had not been invented as a word or a concept yet. Back then, they were just folks who bought Playboy to find out what to drink and how to dress---among other things. Listen to their version of "It Takes A Worried Man To Sing A Worried song". It's about dating girls & driving Cadillacs instead of a man in a southern prison telling his story.

Art

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 10:20 AM

I know it sung by the Johnstons, an Irish group. Lyrics with minor differences to what Art has posted can be found on the Kingston Trio Place .

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: BK
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 12:19 AM

Great song; used to love to sing along w/the KT; will have to try to get that poorly labled CD. Thanks for the info.

Cheers, BK

Subject: Lyr Add: I'M GOIN' HOME (Fred Geis)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 11:29 PM

This song, called "I'M GOIN' HOME", was written by Fred Geis. Originally from Sacramento, California, fred did the Woody Guthrie thing and was a migrant agricultural worker back in the late '50s. He 'boed around the nation and wrote some fine songs as he went. He lived in Chicago in the very early 60's and he taught this to many of us around Chi. then. Fred Holstein recorded it on an LP of folks who played at the EARL OF OLD TOWN. Fred Geis also wrote a song called "Lament For Brendan Behan" that was recorded by the Clancy Brothers.

"I'M GOING HOME" was recorded by the Kingston Trio in the early 60's and the song quickly went to number one on the top 40. After about 2 weeks it was found that the tune was actually from Gounod's Faust---an opera. Fred had a Lawrence Tibbet 78 of the aria around his home when he was young and he'd used that tune for his song---just like Woody did all the time. The song quickly just disappeared from the top-40 and from radio play!! Recently I found it on a Kingston Trio cheapie CD on Excelsior called __The Kingston Trio -- Greatest Hits__.(EXL-2-5238) There are no mentions of the composers/writers of any of the songs on the CD---Not even "Early Moning Rain (which is by Gordon Lightfoot), "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" (which is by Pete Seeger, Joe Hickerson and Ecclestiastes), "Goodnight Irene" (which is by Leadbelly), "Hard Travellin'" (which is by Woody Guthrie) and "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" (which is by Bob Dylan)!!

I'M GOING HOME
by Fred Geis

Well no matter where I wander,
I will always find a welcome,
At the end of every highway,
There are friendly people waiting.

California could not hold me,
Though I loved her timber mountains,
I worked her fields and I worked her orchards,
Up and down her Central Valley.

I have ridden empty boxcars,
Through your golden Utah valleys,
Watched the rivers gently gliding,
Waved my hand to friendly people.

Those who know me call me a drifter,
They don't know I've stopped my ramblin,
They don't know that somewhere---
Sometime someone's gonna make me settle down...

I'm goin' home, I'm goin' home.

(repeat the first verse.)
I just wrote this out from memory. The trio seems to use the verse that starts:--"California could not hold me..." as a chorus.

Hope this helps.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: California Could not hold me
From: Jeri
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 07:45 PM

I think you're looking for THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND by Woody Guthrie.

Please note lots of verses have been added over the years. Perhaps there's a different Girl Scouts version of the song?

Subject: California Could not hold me
From:
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 07:10 PM

Looking for lyrics to a song that I use to sing in girls scouts.

some of the words were

California could not hold me even though I love her utah byways worked her fields and worked her orchards

As I was walking, that ribbon of highway, I saw above me the endless skyway