Tom Dula: The Full Story

Subject: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 23 Nov 10 - 01:34 PM

http://www.planetslade.com/tom-dooley01.html

In 1958, The Kingston Trio scored a massive global hit with an 1860s folk song about Tom Dula's killing of Laura Foster. I've just posted a 25,000-word essay on the song describing Tom's return from the Civil War to his North Carolina home, the many women he slept with there and his role in spreading the syphilis that ultimately led to Laura's murder. Tom hanged for it in the end, but many still insist he was not the true killer.

I also examine the song's continuing development by artists like Doc Watson, Steve Earle and Greg Brown, and recount my own visit to the story's key sites in September this year.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 23 Nov 10 - 01:50 PM

Old news then ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 23 Nov 10 - 01:55 PM

Information covered 10 years ago in the other thread

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Nov 10 - 05:00 PM

Much of the information on that other thread is, however, mistaken. If you've any interest in separating the fact from the fiction, I think you may find my piece more useful.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 01:29 AM

Paul, thanks for posting the link. Ignore the above curmudgeons.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: fretless
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 09:43 AM

Well, I'd feel better about the essay if it didn't open with the statement "We're introduced to a man called Tom Dooley and told he's due to hang tomorrow morning for stabbing an unnamed beauty to death" and if my memory of the KTrio's song didn't have it start with the words:
"Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Killed poor Laura Foster
You know you're bound to die."

Perhaps I'm misremembering the version of the song that was recorded by the KTrio, but "Laura Foster" sounds pretty much like a name to me.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: bobad
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 09:50 AM

THE KINGSTON TRIO
"Tom Dooley"

[Intro:]
Throughout history
There've been many songs written about the eternal triangle
This next one tells the story of a Mr Grayson, a beautiful woman
And a condemned man named Tom Dooley...
When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley... must hang...

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die
I met her on the mountain
There I took her life
Met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Hadn't a-been for Grayson
I'd a-been in Tennessee

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down in some lonesome valley
Hangin' from a white oak tree

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Poor boy, you're bound to die
Poor boy you're bound to die
Poor boy, you're bound to die...

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 10:05 AM

In fact, The Kingston Trio don't mention Laura Foster at all. Listen for yourself if you don't believe me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoBLGE2cCdU

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GUEST,Cpt. Colin
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 10:54 AM

Doc Watson's famous version does.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GUEST,fretless
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 11:42 PM

As do the New Lost City Ramblers, and it may be their version I was remembering.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GerryM
Date: 01 May 22 - 09:44 PM

Another long essay about the history and the song at chess.com, of all places: https://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl/hang-your-head-and-cry.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GUEST,tom/oregon
Date: 04 May 22 - 08:59 PM

I like old time banjo singer/player Dwight Diller's version which I play/sing too rather than the more polished Kingston Trio version.

Subject: RE: Tom Dula: The Full Story
From: GUEST,The Sandman
Date: 05 May 22 - 02:18 AM

it was not a triangle but a foursome