Lyr Req: White House Blues (John Renbourn)

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Sep 97 - 03:23 PM

Wolfgang, thanks for posting the link to "Meine BRD." Some of us out here are interested in that sort of stuff. Here in California, it's hard to get much news about Germany. When I lived in Los Angeles, the LA Times had an article or two a day about Germany, but I've lived in Northern California for 20 years now and no longer subscribe to the Times - and I've gotten out of touch with German current affairs.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Jon W.
Date: 26 Sep 97 - 10:23 AM

I should have remembered Neil Young's "The Campaigner" as a song about Nixon. Not exactly folk but at least it's acoustic.

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Wolfgang (Hell)
Date: 26 Sep 97 - 08:49 AM

not to forget this song on Nixon.
Karstens challenge got me interested. No songs on German chancellors? Perhaps not in English and perhaps no folksongs (no wonder considering the short history of democratic Germany), but a web search finds several such songs. The prime example is "Meine BRD" from Manfred Zick that mentions 5 of the 6 postwar chancellors so far (for the record: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hhbabe/dischvly.htm).

Cheers Wolfgang

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Dale Rose
Date: 25 Sep 97 - 11:33 PM

Here is another, We Take Our Hats Off To You, Mr. Wilson, sung by Nora Bayes in 1914. In the song, she expressed thanks to the president for keeping the U S out of the war. "Greater than a gladiator, you are the great mediator . . . the flag of peace you have unfurled" Apparently she was so popular at the time that when the mood of the country changed, and the U S finally did enter the war, her popularity was unaffected, while that of some other performers who had done anti-war songs came crashing down.

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Dale Rose
Date: 25 Sep 97 - 12:40 PM

A neat one that won't quite come back to me is by (I think) Bill Cox which praises the re-election of F D Roosevelt, mostly because the singer wanted legal beer, wine, and whiskey! Back again, back again, we've got Franklin D Roosevelt back again. . .

But you know what we are doing here~~getting off the original subject. Sometimes you just hafta. I guess it's close enough.

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Earl
Date: 25 Sep 97 - 11:39 AM

There is a song in the database called "CHARLES GUITEAU" which is about the assassiniation of president Garfield.

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Jon W.
Date: 25 Sep 97 - 11:19 AM

One that springs to mind is "Abraham, Martin, and John" referring to the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy, and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (in the later versions). It was popular around 1968 (?) after RFK was shot in Los Angeles.

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From:
Date: 25 Sep 97 - 07:33 AM

OK, of course I confused the two Roosevelt cousins. More McKinley stuff can be found on http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/glimpse/presidents/html/wm25.html , where one learns that he has been, well, quite an imperialist ... and that T. Roosevelt has been shot at, too, but subsequently recovered. And built the Panama canal etc. Are there more songs about American presidents (except the one by Marilyn Monroe)? Certainly there are none about German chancellors!

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Sep 97 - 05:41 AM

Gee, Karsten, it's been so long since I had to crack a history book....
William McKinley was shot in September 14, 1901, during the first year of his second four-year term as president. The assassin, who shot McKinley at an exposition in Buffalo, New York, was a young drifter named Leon F. Czolgosz, who proclaimed himself an anarchist and said he had an urge to kill a "great leader." He was electrocuted.
Theodore Roosevelt, the 42-year-old Vice President, became President when McKinley died. Teddy Roosevelt was elected President for a second term in 1904. With Roosevelt's support, William Howard Taft was elected President in 1908. Roosevelt and Taft later disagreed, and Roosevelt broke from the Republicans and ran for President as the Progressive Party ("Bull Moose Party") nominee in 1912. The Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, a professor of political economy who had served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey. Roosevelt got more votes than Taft, but Wilson won the election.
In 1932, Theodore's cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was elected President. FDR served from 1933 until his death in 1945.
There you have it.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From:
Date: 25 Sep 97 - 04:24 AM

Well, thank you folks (and apoligies for me posting twice in the first place). I came across that song myself in a John Renbourn fingerpicking book of my guitar teacher's ages ago. I remember it saying "by John Renbourn", which obviously is not quite true :-) Despite having forgot the lyrics, I still remember the picking stuff note by note ... Another question for you guys in America out there: What were the actual circumstances of that murder, why did he ride down to Buffalo etc.? And if McKinley was shot in 1901, Roosevelt obviously cannot be his direct successor, which the song suggests. Please enlighten me on American history!

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Earl
Date: 24 Sep 97 - 08:25 PM

These lines appear in a lot of old murder songs. I would guess that "Delia" is older than "White House Blues" but not by much. McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and the song couldn't be too much younger. By the time Charlie Poole recorded it in the 20's it had some verses which were less than respectful. In any case Renbourn's version doesn't sound like either "Delia" or Charlie Poole's "WHB"

Subject: RE: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From: Jon W.
Date: 24 Sep 97 - 07:15 PM

These words seem to be adapted from a blues ballad called Delia (who knows what that was adapted from). I've got a recording by David Bromberg and two versions in a blues guitar book, one by Blind Willie McTell. I've submitted a version to DT already, it may be in the next release. The similarities are that Delia gets shot, the silver cup verse, the graveyard verse, etc. But the refrain from Delia goes "She's all I've got is gone" or "All my friends are gone" or similar.

Subject: Lyr Add: WHITE HOUSE BLUES (John Renbourn)^^
From: Earl
Date: 24 Sep 97 - 11:41 AM

I started a thread a couple months ago looking for the source of Renbourn's version but with no luck. The words are obviously a subset of the versions on the database but I've never heard anyone sing it with the tune Renbourn used. Here are the words as I heard them:

White House Blues

Mr. McKinley he didn't do no wrong
Rode on in to Buffalo but he didn't stay too long
Hard times, hard times, hard times

The people all can running round to see what had been done
You have shot the president down with your Ivor Johnson gun
Hard times, hard times, hard times

The train oh the train, running on down the line
Blowin at every station, McKinley is a dyin
Hard times, hard times, hard times

The train oh the train, running on down the track
Taking him to the graveyard but it will not bring him back
Hard times, hard times, hard times

Now Roosevelt's in the White House drinking out of a silver cup
And Mckinley's in the graveyard and he never will get up
Hard times, hard times, hard times

Rooselvelt's in the White House, he's doin his best
And McKinley's in the grave yard takin his rest
Hard times, hard times, hard times

(first verse)^^

Subject: John Renbourn's White House Blues
From:
Date: 24 Sep 97 - 10:56 AM

Hello everybody,

I am looking for the lyrics of the John Renbourn Song "White House Blues", which is different from the songs already in the database. Can anybody help?

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