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Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist
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Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist |
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Subject: Ellen Stekert From: Thomas Stern Date: 11 Feb 24 - 09:25 PM For those of us who remember the 1940s-1960s folk revival, Ellen Stekert is an important singer, collector and folklorist. Ellen J. (Jane) Stekert Professor Emerita University of Minnesota, Department of English. There is now a website devoted to her: https://ellenstekert.com/ A 2017 recording of a concert she gave in Minneapolis MN https://youtu.be/M94j6e3Gmhw Hope someone can identify a few items in this concert marked ???. tentative list of the songs: 1 Little Drummer ??? 2 introduction 3 Midnight Special (Leadbelly) 4 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues 5 Where Have All the Flowers Gond (Seeger) 6 Little Boxes (Malvina Reynolds) 7 On The Rim of the World (Malvina Reynolds) 8 All Kinds of Trouble (from Folkways Anthology) ??? 9 Dummy Line 10 Ballad of October 16th (Almanac Singers) 11 Balance the Budget ??? 12 Shule Aroon 13 talk - recording Lumberjack Songs for Harold Thompson 14 Shugo ??? 15 Golden Apples of the Sun 16 Old Devil Time (Seeger) 17 Children's medley ??? what are the songs ????? who is the collecter she refers to ????? 18 talk - folk revival 19 So Long It's Been Good to Know You (Dusty Old Dust) (Guthrie) an extensive interview here: https://musicguy247.typepad.com/my-blog/2020/05/dr-ellen-stekert-cornell-indiana-university-of-pennsylvania-folklorist-recording-artist-educator-american-folklore-society.html WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Stekert recordings ---------- STINSON SLP 49 Ozark Mountain Folk Songs Volume I 10" LP 1955 Ellen Stekert, guitar, vocals Program notes by Kenneth S Goldstein and lyrics on container A1 Down By The Sea Shore A2 Grandma’s Advice A3 On The Banks of the Sweet Dundee A4 Father Grumble B1 Whistle, Daughter, Whistle B2 Wildwood Flower B3 Putting On The Style B4 Caroline of the Edinborough Town [a 2nd volume was mentioned in the liner notes, but not issued??] CORNELL Recording Society CRS 10050, 10" LP 1956 Ballads of Careless Love - Love Songs from Great Britain and the United States Sung by Ellen Stekert Notes written and edited by Prof. Harold W.Thompson, Editor: New York Folklore Quarterly. Side A (F8-OL-2442-1A) A1 Down in the Willow Garden A2 Frankie and Johnny A3 I Know Where I'm Going A4 Hand Me Down My Walking Cane A5 Dink's Song A6 Careless Love A7 Come All You Fair and Tender Maidewns A8 The Trees They Do Grow High Side B (F8OL-2443-2) B1 Died For Love B2 Charlie Is My Darling B3 Omie Wise B4 The Blackbird B5 Easy Rider B6 Go 'way From My Window RIVERSIDE RLP 12-634 LP 1956 Traditional American Love Songs Milt Okun and Ellen Stekert A1 Must I Go Bound A2 She's Like The Swallow A3 Shule Aroo (Ellen Stekert) A4 The Cambric Shirt = Scarborough Fair A5 The Lass From The Low Country A6 Poor Lolette A7 Who Will Shoe? A8 The Lass Of Glenshee A9 He Took Me By The Hand B1 Paper Of Pins B2 Trouble B3 The Foggy Foggy Dew # B4 The Brazos River B5 Adios Mi Corazon # (Spanish Is The Loving Tongue) B6 Every Night When The Sun Goes Down (Suzanne) # B7 Red Rosey Bush B8 No, John, No various tracks from this Riverside album reissued on Riverside Wonderland albums EVERYBODY SING! Vol.1, 2, 3. Prestige CD The Riverside / Folklore Series Vol. 3: Singing the New Tradition Songs, Singers, and Instrumentalists of the Folk Revival. in ELEKTRA EKL 151 OUR SINGING HERITAGE Volume I LP 1958 A8 Ellen Stekert: The House Carpenter B3 Ellen Stekert: Froggie Went A Courting [note: the unissued Volume II reportedly contains some Stekert tracks] Elektra 60402 O LOVE IS TEASIN' 3-LP box contains Froggie Went A Coutring. FOLKWAYS FA 2354 LP 1958 Songs of a New York Lumberjack Ellen Stekert A1 Bounding the U.S. A2 Hills of Glenshee A3 The Western Pioneers A4 The Two Sisters A5 Johnny Troy A6 Poor Old Anthony Rolly A7 Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade A8 The Drummer Boy A9 The Trouble Down at Homestead B1 The Fox B2 The Cumberland and the Merrimac B3 The Singular Dream B4 Lakes of Ponchatrain B5 The Black Cook B6 Abe Lincoln Went to Washington B7 The Shanty Boy and the Farmer's Son B8 Les Raftsman B9 The Jealous Lover FOLKWAYS FS 3805 The Unfortunate Rake LP 1960 206 A Sun Valley Song Jan Brunvand and Ellen Stekert FOLKWAYS FH 5717 Songs of the Civil War LP 1960 206 The Cumberland and the Merrimac Ellen Stekert 304 Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade Ellen Stekert 1962 SWARTHMORE COLLEGE 1962 Swarthmore Song Fest (Folk Festival) Dreadful Memories: The Life of Sarah Ogan Gunning, 1910-1983 Film by Mimi Pickering, Produced by (c) 1988 Appalshop Films, 38min. https://www.folkstreams.net/films/dreadful-memories Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 12 Feb 24 - 04:08 AM To the above list of recordings, we can add one book of essays she co-edited. Américo Paredes and Ellen Stekert, The Urban Folk Experience and Folk Tradition (1970). I met her around the concert was recorded. At the time, she was living in a nice little house in south Minneapolis with her partner and (as I recall) a rather opinionated bird. She was recovering from a neck injury. She must have recovered pretty well; not too long after that, she was featured in an REI ad for outdoor equipment. Unfortunately, my parents took possession of all the LPs we got from her, so I can't look up the liner notes to see what information they add to the above. And, yes, that's the Milt Okun who did music arrangements for Peter, Paul and Mary (who needed his help desperately) and The Chad Mitchell Trio (who didn't). The cover photo on the LP is not them, however. The people who produced the album wanted a more photogenic couple. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert From: GUEST,Wendy M. Grossman Date: 13 Feb 24 - 06:37 AM Bill Steele, who was around the folk scene in Ithaca NY in the 1950s before migrating to SF and then back to Ithaca circa 1972, used to talk about her. He seemed to really admire her singing. I have a tattered copy of the Ozarks album I bought when a long-time folkie's collection was sold off. wg |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert From: GUEST Date: 13 Feb 24 - 09:00 AM The Little Drummer is Roud 2302. There are several versions in the Greig-Duncan Collection and broadsides on the Bodleian Ballads website under the title The Silly Drummer. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert From: GUEST,Stevebury Date: 13 Feb 24 - 12:05 PM Ellen Stekert recorded northern Pennsylvania/Southern Tier NY woods singer Ezra Barhight (Songs of a New York Lumberjack). I don't know where the original recordings may be archived. My notes include the following publications: 1966 “Four Pennsylvania Songs Learned before 1900, From the Repertoire of Ezra V. Barhight”, in Goldstein & Byington, Two Penny Ballads and Four Dollar Whiskey: A Pennsylvania Folklore Miscellany, published for The Pennsylvania folklore Society by Folklore Associates, Inc, Hatboro, PA, 1966, pp 15-32 1966 ‘Cents and Nonsense in the Urban Folk Song Movement: 1930-66’ in Rosenberg, Transforming Tradition, 96-97. The essay was originally published in Bruce Jackson, ed., Folklore and Society” Essays in honor of Benjamin A. Botkin (Hatboro, PA: Folklore Assoc, 1966) 153-68 1987 ‘Autobiography of a Woman Folklorist’ Journal of American Folklore 100 (Oct-Dec 1987 579-85 Stekert’s experience studying folklore at Indiana University and Dorson’s hostility toward the folk music revival 1987 Oral History 128 pp 160 minutes http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/AFS/id/135 Ellen Stekert speaks of her involvement with the Indiana University Folklore Institute. She outlines her early education and her early interests in folklore, mostly from classes at Cornell University and from her involvement in the folksong revival. She attended IU to earn her master's degree and then the University of Pennsylvania to earn her PhD. Stekert describes at length her turbulent relationship with Richard Dorson as a student and then a colleague. She describes her fellow students at IU and the intellectual environment they created. She touches upon her reasons for leaving IU after earning her master's degree. She describes her experiences as a doctoral student at U Penn. She also speaks briefly of her time at Wayne State University and her work in the Wayne State University Archives. Throughout the interview she mentions her childhood bout with polio, and how it has affected her life. She describes some pictures she has saved from her time at IU. She also evaluates the education she received at IU. -- Stevebury |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert From: Steve Gardham Date: 14 Feb 24 - 03:17 PM Sorry that was me sans cookie at 9 a.m. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert From: Thomas Stern Date: 15 Feb 24 - 10:56 PM Thanks Steve and Stevebury! |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert From: Thomas Stern Date: 27 Feb 24 - 10:14 PM update to the tentative list of the songs in the SOLID STATE concert: 1 Oh Hard Fortune/Little Drummer The Little Drummer is Roud 2302. There are several versions in the Greig-Duncan Collection and broadsides on the Bodleian Ballads website under the title The Silly Drummer. 2 introduction 3 Midnight Special (Leadbelly) 4 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues in STINSON album A Pete Seeger Concert (1953) WHO WROTE THIS ??? 5 Where Have All the Flowers Gone (Seeger) 6 Little Boxes (Malvina Reynolds) 7 On The Rim of the World (Malvina Reynolds) 8 Arthritis Blues (Butch Hawes) Butch Hawes in FOLKWAYS Lonesome Valley FP-10/FA 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0lDYldGbv0 Ramblin' Jack Elliott recorded ARTHRITIS BLUES on his 1962 Prestige/International album COUNTRY STYLE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OG8HSc3UEA 9 Dummy Line Joe Hickerson :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2yhZRA6H3E 1930 The Packard Family https://www.youtube.com/watch?=CJDuvvSVG2k 10 Ballad of October 16th (Almanac Singers) October 16, 1940 first peacetime draft became law. from Almanac Singers first album SONGS FOR JOHN DOE.: 11 Balance the Budget (Joe Glazer) from the LP BALLADS FOR BALLOTS (1960, Labor for Kennedy-Johnson) Revised in 1984 for Glazer's Reaganomics album JELLYBEAN BLUES V.2 Music: So Long it's Been Good to Know You. 12 Shule Aroon 13 talk - recording Lumberjack Songs for Prof. Harold Thompson 14 Shugo Collected by Ellen Stekert (Ezra "Fuzzy" Barhight, NY lumberjack). 15 Golden Apples of the Sun 16 Old Devil Time (Seeger) composed for 1970 film: Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon 17 Children's medley ??? songs collected by Asher Treat in Wisconsin from Kentuckians. 18 talk - folk revival 19 So Long It's Been Good to Know You (Dusty Old Dust) (Guthrie) Minnesota Public Radio WTIP interview Stinson, Cornell recording Fuzzy Barhight teaching, fieldwork photo exhibit at Solid State, field work, newport sings Careless Love https://ampers.org/folklorist-ellen-stekert-performs-and-shares-stories-from-folklore/ Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 28 Feb 24 - 06:10 AM Thomas Stern wrote: Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues in STINSON album A Pete Seeger Concert (1953) WHO WROTE THIS ??? It was collected in 1939 by William Wolff at the School for Southern Women, according to a Festschrift for Richard A. Reuss. I haven't located a copyright claim. So I think you can list it as traditional. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist From: Thomas Stern Date: 28 Feb 24 - 09:56 PM Thanks Robert! There are a couple of MUDCAT threads - one is for the VOLVO commercial which is not WINNSBORO - actually Hard Times in the Mills. https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=169188 https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=34402 The SECONDHANDSONGS site credits the music aa the 1919 composition ALCOHOLIC BLUES by Albert Von Tilzer. They state there is a 1948 recording - looks like they say by Seeger, but I can not find a reference to this. There is a track on LEADBELLY's LAST SESSIONS titles Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, but it is Alcoholic Blues. These recordings are c.1948. DOES ANYONE KNOW OF A SEEGER RECORDING FEFORE 1953 ??????????? Seeger sang WINNSBORO on the STINSON album A PETE SEEGER CONCERT 1953. Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. 28, No. 2/3, Special Double Issue: Labor Song: A Reappraisal (May - Dec., 1991), pp. 103-133 (31 pages) Doug DeNatale and Glenn Hinson The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered p.114 The "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues," sung to William Wolff in 1939 at the School for Southern Women Workers, is one of the finest examples of anger redirected through humor: Old man Sargent, sitting at the desk, The damned old fool won't give us no rest. He'd take the nickels off a dead man's eyes To buy a Coca-Cola and an Eskimo Pie ... When I die, don't bury me at all, Just hang me up on the spool room wall; Place a knotter in my hand, So I can spool in the Promised Land. When I die, don't bury me deep, Bury me down on Six Hundred Street; Place a bobbin in each hand So I can doff in the Promised Land Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (Unknown) [Zilphia Horton Folk Song Collection, Tennessee State Library.] Greenway, John. 1953. American Folksongs of Protest. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press The liner notes to a 1982 MAGPIE album WORKING MY LIFE AWAY states: WINNSBORO COrrON MILL BLUES Penned by an unknown mill hand in Winnsboro, North Carolina sometime during the 1920's, this song borrows its tune from" Alcoholic Blues", also well known during those days. The tune has survived oral tradition and was set to another lyric by electrical workers in Wausau, Wisconsin, during a strike in 1952. KEEFER lists Winnsboro/Winsborough Cotton Mill Blues Rt - Alcohol Blues Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof, 6, p 4 (1964) Fowke, Edith & Joe Glazer (eds.) / Songs of Work and Protest, Dover, Sof (1973/1960), p 74 Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), p260 Scofield, Twilo (ed.) / An American Sampler, Cutthroat, Sof (1981), p168 Silverman, Jerry / Folk Guitar - Folk Song, Scarborough Book, Sof (1983/1977), P184 (Winnisboro Cotton Mill Blues) Greenway, John / American Folksongs of Protest, Perpetua, Sof (1960/1953), p144 Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Folk Song Abecedary, Bonanza, Bk (1966), p370 ACTWU Songbook, AFL-CIO, Sof (1978ca), p44 Hillmen. Hillmen, Sugar Hill SH 3719, LP (1981/1963), trk# 10 Lead Belly. Lead Belly's Last Sessions, Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40068-71, CD( (1994), trk# 1.29 [1948/09/27] Mountain Musicians Cooperative. Brown Lung Cotton Mill Blues, June Appal JA 006, LP (1976), trk# A.06 Reams, James. Kentucky Songbird, Leghorn LH 004, CD (1994), trk# 14 Seeger, Pete. Pete Seeger, Archive of Folk & Jazz FS 201, LP (1965), trk# 4 [1953-54] Seeger, Pete. American Industrial Ballads, Folkways FH 5251, LP (1956), trk# B.07 Yarrow, Peter. Hard Times, Warner BS 2860, LP (1975), trk# A.04 Winny Hayes Cheers, Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist From: GUEST Date: 06 Mar 24 - 09:35 PM SOLID STATE Concert - updated list. Any additional corrections, additions, references, notes ????? Thanks, Thomas. Solid State Program from Solid State Records Ellen Stekert Program 2017-03-25 EJS: When I ended this program, as well as during it, I judged it the worst program I had ever given. I had just gotten over the seasonal flu and I was aware that I had lost the soaring high notes I used to have. The audience was a hodge-podge of friends and strangers who fit into this little record store off 46th Street and Minnehaha Ave. South in Minneapolis. During the program you will hear me speaking with and to the audience. Sitting near me was my partner, Beth Upton, who insisted that although my voice when I was younger was ethereal and pure that now that I was older one could hear a greater range of expression in it, the reflection of a life experience. She encouraged me to keep working at making a “comeback” as a singer. I was 82 when this program was done. Little did I know then that in two years I would no longer be able to sing or even talk clearly. Two surgeries to fuse my upper spine would accidently cut the nerve to one of my vocal chords, January 2019.] 1 Drummer Boy [Oh Hard Fortune/Little Drummer - Roud 2302] EJS: Learned from Ezra "Fuzzy" Barhight. From upstate New York There are several versions in the Greig-Duncan Collection and broadsides on the Bodleian Ballads website under the title The Silly Drummer. 2 introduction 3 Midnight Special (Huddie Leadbetter) 4 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues collected in 1939 by William Wolff at the School for Southern Women. author unknown. [Zilphia Horton Folk Song Collection, Tennessee State Library.] EJS: from Pete Seeger STINSON SLP57 (1953) A Pete Seeger Concert Greenway, John. 1953. American Folksongs of Protest. Philadelphia: U.Pennsylvania Press 5 Where Have All the Flowers Gone (Pete Seeger) EJS: Joe Hickerson is alluded to here. He helped Pete write it and made it a circular song 6 Little Boxes (Malvina Reynolds) 7 On The Rim of the World (Malvina Reynolds) 8 Arthritis Blues (Butch Hawes) Butch Hawes in FOLKWAYS FP-10 (FA 2010) Lonesome Valley (c.1950) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0lDYldGbv0 Ramblin' Jack Elliott recorded ARTHRITIS BLUES on his 1962 Prestige/International album COUNTRY STYLE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OG8HSc3UEA 9 Dummy Line EJS: learned from Sarah Newcomb at Oberlin and Swarthmore in 1962 – learned years earlier. It is from an early 78 rpm] Joe Hickerson :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2yhZRA6H3E 1930 The Packard Family https://www.youtube.com/watch?=CJDuvvSVG2k 10 Ballad of October 16th (Almanac Singers) October 16, 1940 first peacetime draft became law. from Almanac Singers first album SONGS FOR JOHN DOE. 11 Balance the Budget (Joe Glazer) from the LP BALLADS FOR BALLOTS (1960, Labor for Kennedy-Johnson) Revised in 1984 for Glazer's Reaganomics album JELLYBEAN BLUES V.2 Music: So Long it's Been Good to Know You. 12 Shule Aroon EJS: learned from Phlip Claude who learned it from her step father, Asher Treat, who collected it from singers in Wisconsin who were originally from KY 13 talk - recording Lumberjack Songs for Prof. Harold Thompson 14 Shugo EJS: Learned from Ezra "Fuzzy" Barhight. From upstate New York 15 Golden Apples of the Sun EJS: Song of the Wandering Angus – Yeats 16 Old Devil Time (Seeger) Composed for 1970 film: “Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon” EJS: Seeger was probably influenced by the song “Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maidens”] 17 Children's medley EJS: collected from singers in Wisconsin who were originally from KY 1-Water water Wildflower 2–How many Miles to London Town 3-Little Red Wagon Nobody’s business 4-Turn Cinnamon turn 18 talk - folk revival 19 So Long It's Been Good to Know You (Dusty Old Dust) (Woody Guthrie) |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist From: Thomas Stern Date: 06 Mar 24 - 09:41 PM The cover of a brochure is pictured on the Ellen Stekert website. The full brochure is online here: Ellen Stekert brochure Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist From: Thomas Stern Date: 08 Mar 24 - 11:35 PM WINNSBORO COTTON MILL BLUES - found the 1948 recording CHARTER 25 (People's Songs, Hollywood) second pressing, 1948 Travelin' Pete Seeger with his 5-string banjo The Death of Harry Simms (Jim Garland) / Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (traditional) Pete Seeger Thomas. |
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Subject: RE: Ellen Stekert-singer, collector and folklorist From: Thomas Stern Date: 23 Mar 24 - 09:57 PM The Solid State concert appears to be PRIVATE now - perhaps this is temporary while the titles are being corrected ??? Parts of the concert are on SOLSTA's Facebook page. A Pete Seeger concert at Corell University, Ithaca NY - May 16, 1957 has been posted to YouTube. Pete is accompanied by Ellen on a few songs. Pete Seeger concert at Cornell, 1957 Sourwood Mountain/Nobody's Tone Death Deep Blue Sea I Never Shall Marry Housewife's Lament He Will Just Do Nothing At All Oleanna Tangled Melodies (spoken) 0Abiyoyo Demi Song The Miller's Song (She'd Have Her Corn Ground) Dayenu Passover Song Aguinaldo Song (Puerto Rican Christmas song) Que Bonita Bandera (Puerto Rican Flag Song) Open the Door, Softly/Over the Mountains Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas) United Nations Make a Chain (WWII left-wing words to "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" How Can I Keep from Singing? It Takes a Worried Man (w/Ellen Stekert & Joel Hendler) The Brazos River (The Texas Rivers Song - Ellen and Pete) The Er-I-E Canal Down By the Riverside This Land is Your Land The Wedding Songs Get Along Home Cindy Cindy Special thanks to Ellen Stekert for clarification of titles, etc.) Part 2 Banks of the Ohio (Ellen and Pete) Rock Island Line (Joel Hendler and Pete) Leadbelly Medley (Pete on 12-String): In the Pines Kisses Sweeter than Wine, Mr. Tom Hughes' Town Pay Me My Money Down/The Water is Wide Green Corn (Leadbelly song) Sloop John B. There Was A Cottage in the Woods Spanish Civil War Song Freiheit! Old Man Atom Hush Little Baby, Don't Say a Word/There Once Was a Man and He Was Mad Oh Eve, Where Is Adam? Oh When the Saints Go Marching In Go Down Ye Blood Red Roses End of tape - Pete is still going Thomas. |
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