Subject: Origins: Wild Rose of the Mountain (Si Kahn)
From:
Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 16 - 12:05 AM
I've asked Si Kahn for information before, and he's always been quick to respond. Today is no exception. Here's an excerpt of what he said:Hi, Joe. Thanks so much for writing. I don't have time to answer at length (too many close deadlines), but the answers are:
1) Yes, I wrote the music and lyrics to the song "Wild Rose of the Mountain."
2) I dedicated the song in honor of my friend of many years, the great Kentucky fiddler J.P. Fraley, from whom I learned the fiddle tune of the same name. I always thought J.P. had written that tune but, as it turns out, it has a different authorship.
When my great friend John McCutcheon recorded the song, he segued into J.P's version of the fiddle tune, a very cool combination, and one I particularly appreciated because it took my song back to its roots—although not as far back as I thought at the time.
[snip]
I think the reason there's some confusion about authorship is because we're actually dealing with two different things, both named "Wild Rose of the Mountain":
1) The fiddle tune [Fiddlin Jesse James Large of Lawrence Co, Ohio] wrote. J.P. and Annadeene Fraley were good friends for many years ago. I first met them around 1961 at a festival in Ashland, Kentucky, organized by Jean Thomas, the "Traipsin' Woman." They invited a bunch of us to their home for a jam session, where Annadeene played a six-string lute tuned like a guitar. J.P. had brought it back with him from World War II, and Annadeene was fond of saying that J.P. had "looted it."
As you probably know, "Wild Rose of the Mountain" was J.P.'s "signature tune." I don't recall his ever mentioning where he got it, but that's typical of fiddlers. I just assumed it was "traditional," whatever that means.
2) The song I wrote is also named "Wild Rose of the Mountain." I believe that when I first recorded it in 1982 on my third LP Doing My Job (Flying Fish 221), I dedicated it to J.P. and Annadeene—but I can't check that, since the album is long out of print, and I don't even have a copy myself where I could check the liner notes.
As far as I can tell, the tune I wrote for my "Wild Rose of the Mountain" doesn't have any relation musically to [Large's] fiddle tune. But it was certainly inspired by his tune.
A few years later, my great friend, six-time Grammy finalist John McCutcheon, recorded my song—and followed it with your grandfather's fiddle tune.
Either before or after that, J.P. and I were both playing at the Old Songs Festival just outside Albany NY, and we did the same thing, me singing my song, and J.P. segueing into your [Large's] fiddle tune.
A lot of artists have performed and/or recorded my song, and some lyric changes have crept in. One is that where I wrote:
"Take my Rosie by the hand"
they change it to:
"Take my true love by the hand"
I chose "Rosie" rather than some other name for two reasons:
1) "Rosie" and "Rose" are pretty close as words go, and I liked that. If I had named her "Edna," for example, it just wouldn't have been nearly as sweet.
2) My mother's name was Rosalind. I don't know why her parents chose that name, or if they even knew that it comes from the Spanish "rosa linda," "beautiful rose," being Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Austria and Lithuania, not exactly among the major Spanish-speaking countries in the world.
Mom died from breast cancer in 1968, when she was 55 and I was 24. That was many years before I wrote the song. For me, it's very much a tribute to her.
Originally, there were four verses, including one that went:
If I had a pickup truck
I'd fill it up with water
Paint a catfish on the side
Make believe I caught her
Drive it slowly down the road
Try to keep from bumping
Park it down beside the creek
Watch those fish come jumping
But shortly after I wrote that verse, I decided it undercut what I meant as a very sweet love song for my Mom, so I took it out when I performed and recorded it. But somehow that verse got out anyway, and I think there may be a recorded version or two that include it.
[snip]
Oh well, Joe, I guess I just answered at length after all.
All the best,
Si Kahn | |
Joe sez: I deleted parts that were from correspondence between Si and Large's granddaughter.
Thank you very much, Si.
-Joe Offer-
|
sj
