Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song

Subject: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 07:05 PM

Late 'fifties, early 'sixties, there was a popular rock & roll song on the vanishing hitchhiker theme. It was not Bringing Mary Home. It was, however very similar in story line, except that, because his strange passenger is chilled, the young man gives her his suit coat, and she still has it when she vanished. The next day, when he returns to the house to which he took her, he is told that she was killed years ago in a wreck, and that she is buried in a nearby cemetery. He visits the cemetery and finds his coat folded neatly over the tombstone. I would appreciate help in identifying this song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: GUEST,Mrrzy-at-work
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 03:21 PM

Don't know this one, but it reminds me of The Suffolk Miracle, which is a ghost story also. Young woman loves poor man, and her parents send her away to keep them apart; he dies of grief and a year later, his ghost rides to where she has been staying, and fetches her home. On the way he complains of a headache and she wraps her handkerchief around his head. When they get to her home, he vanishes and her parents don't believe he brought her, since they knew he was dead, so they dig up the grave to prove it to her, and "tho' he had been twelve months dead / The handkerchief was 'round his head."

The reason I find this ghost story so interesting is that in each and every other ghost ballad I know where lovers meet after one dies, the living one tries to kiss the newly-arisen dead lover only to be told something like "my lips they are as cold as clay / My breath smells vile and strong / If you take one kiss from my clay-cold lips / Your time will not be long." (That one's from The Unquiet Grave). So I've always assumed that a while after the end of the Suffolk Miracle song, she would also die. But I've never heard any further lyrics, anyone know any? I started answering this before checking to see if it was in the DT, sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: GUEST,Mrrzy-at-work
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 03:27 PM

OK, I've checked and the version I know isn't in the DB, but since there are 3 other ones there I'm not sure you need another. I had an entire LP of ghost ballads by someone whose name escapes me now, but it was shelved in the G's, I can picture it near Cynthia Gooding and Bob Gibson... There was also a murder ballads album, also in the G's, also the artist escapes me... if I can remember who the artists are, I'll submit the lyrics - any help would be appreciated.

Brain attack: One of them was Dean Gitter. Not sure if he was the ghost ballads or the murder ballads. Will check when Mom gets back from Hungary. Does the DigiTrad need yet another version of The Suffolk Miracle?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 04:52 PM

Mrrzy--

Much obliged! I had forgotten about the Suffolk Miracle, which I studied in a ballads course in graduate school years ago!
Both the murder album and the ghost album sound terrific; I would be most interested in hearing them. Don't forget to check with your mom when she returns. In the meantime, you have given me some material to run in a search. I would also like to get your version of the Suffolk Miracle, since it's different from the ones in the db. My email address is at the resources site.

Thanks again--

Bill Foster

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 05:00 PM

I kinda want you to hang onta that dime...

Keep it as a souvenir...
Yeah, keep it as a souvenir...
Of Big Joe, and Phantom 309.

More ghost-on-the-road songs!

] Spirit of Willie-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: alison
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 02:37 AM

There was a more recent one sung by Stan Ridgeway called "Camouflage" about a young soldier "caught in a barrage" and a big marine helped him out.......only when he got back to his HQ did he find out that the big marine had died the day before.......

I'll post them if you want them

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: GUEST,Ravensong
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 03:15 AM

Hello there, Look for Dickey Lee and his recording of "Laurie" (aka "Strange Things Happen in This World.") It was his sweater he found on her tombstone in this version which was a (necro-rock) hit. If this isn't enough, I have the 45 RPM somewhere and will try to help you out further. Best, Ravensong in Michigan

Subject: RE: Bill/Alabama-Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Apr 00 - 10:35 PM

Put it here for all who might be interested, but wanted to flag it for you. Mom is back from Budapest and here are the ghost/murder (often very similar) ballad records to which I know all of the lyrics to most of the songs, and most of the lyrics of all of the songs... if anyone wants them I'll do some Lyrics Adds.

Mom types:
BLOODY BALLADS sung by Paul Clayton [OK, it was a C, not a G], Riverside Records # RLP12-615. Recorded May, 1956 by Kenneth S Goldstein.
Side 1:
1. Pearl Bryan
2. The Banks of the Ohio
3. Stackolee
4. Two Brothers
5. The Brookfield Murder
6. Rose Conneley
7. Jellon Grame
8. Omie Wise
9. The Suncook Town Tragedy
side 2:
1. Poor Ellen Smith
2. The Miller Boy
3. Delia
4. Pretty Polly
5. The Cruel Mother
6. John Hollin
7. Tom Dula
8. Edward
9. Lula Viers

GHOST BALLADS sung by Dean Gitter, Riverside Records #RLP 12-636, edited by Kenneth Goldstein, recorded by Kendean Productions, January 1957.
Side 1:
1. Anne Boleyn
2. The Phantom Stagecoach
3. Skin and Bones
4. The Unquiet Grave
5. Finnegan's Wake
6. Sweet William's Ghost
Side 2:
1. The Flying Dutchman
2. The Suffolk Miracle
3. Miss Bailey's Ghost
4. The Reaper's Ghost
5. The Lady Gay
6.Lost Jimmie Whelan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: GUEST,Bill in Alabama
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 08:20 AM

Thanks, Mrrzy--

Thanks, also, to your mom.

Bill

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 03:39 AM

One other interesting thing about this "Traditional" song motif is that it keeps popping up in popular songs, even today--

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Variant of Vanishing Hitchhiker song
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 08:29 AM

Ted-- Give me some examples--I', very interested in this, and I can use such examples in my class lectures.

Bill