Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs

Subject: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: walkinman
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 08:16 AM

I'm trying to compile a list of "Illinois" songs, so I'm jotting down the names of Steve Goodman, John Hartford, Greg Hildebrand, Dan Fogleberg, etc., maybe John Prine?

And song titles that include: Chicago Bust Rag, City of New Orleans, Steamboat Whistle Blues, Go Cubs Go, Illinois, Spoon River, Lincoln Park Pirates, Wish I Were In Peoria, Dying Cub Fan Last Request etc....

What songs and artists should I add to the list??

wm

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 09:20 AM

Depends how far back you want to go. GOIN' DOWN TO CAIRO...

Contact the Libertyville School of Music and-or David Adler Cultural Center, Libertyville. They specialized in Illinois music when I last visited, 12 years ago. I think you may find them online. Treasure-trove.

Also check with Hogeye Music, Evanston, and ask your question. Also ask them how to find Fred Campeau, and tell him we want a tape of The Old Chicago Waltz (which isn't a waltz either). Tell Fred Susan from backgammon at the Barbarossa sez hi and why isn't he a Mudcatter???? Let me know if you get his e-mail address!!

Don't forget the blues, now-- BORN IN CHICAGO, for a start!

Spoon River.... ahhh...

~Former Chicago Suburbs Girl

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 11:06 AM

What was that pop song about LSD?

Then there's Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town...

Someone had a comedy bit that included (basso): "Doctuh MAHrtinLuther KINGJoonyuh MeMOHrial Drahv...." I can't recall who, but I think all the street names mentioned were Chicago.

Then there was the band, Chicago.

And Everyone Knows it's Windy.

Theme music from St. Elsewhere and ER, both based on Cook County Hospital.

Both Blues Brothers films...

Geeze, whaddaya gonna DO with all this?

Now we have a Peoria thread too...

~Susan

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Jon W.
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 11:33 AM

Sweet Home Chicago, recorded by Robert Johnson and everyone else.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 02:47 PM

There's a song out there somewhere called "Galena" about riverboats and lead mining in the town of Galena...wish I could tell you who the writer was....I used to know these things!

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 03:18 PM

Jim Post wrote Galena, or, more properly, I believe it is Oh Galena. Jim played a lot around Chicago before discovering and moving to Galena. I dunno if he is still there. But when he was in Chicago, so were Prine, Goodman, and the Holstein brothers. Among many others, you could see them at small folk bars around town, just giggin' like anyone else. Acourse then a lot of them folks, wal, they got purty big for they britches!! But they had the talent, that's for sure.

This piece is part of what he has done as a one-man show as well as in a more expanded form, and it is the story of the mining town as it boomed. The songs tell the stories of the characters in the town, from many walks of life, including the native people who had been there, the slaves brought there to work, the ladies coming west to be with husbands, the riverboat people, the army.... Post takes each role on and does them all well.

My tape of this tends to come and go, as my housecleaning is somewhat variable. I may be able to lay hands on it. It's an old tape, and I sure wish I had a CD to see if the lyrics are on the thing. I could almost type a lot of them from memory-- the tape is so good that it is all in my head now and the tape is pretty well used up.

Anne Hills was one of the people who sometimes joined Jim to put this on, and the last I saw him do it was about 12 years ago. I am sure he is still doing it, here and there.

There is another album-length project he did about a boy named Daniel Christmas, and how one town found the Christmas spirit. I think it is called The Heart of Christmas. It has one particularly lovely song where Daniel is singing about getting into his rocking chair which, to him as a small boy, is a magic conveyance to adventure. I think the rocker sits in the kitchen. It's been awhile, but it will turn up I am sure.

Post is quite a character, and I will never forget the sight of this smallish, wiry man on a smallish, old- fashioned opera house stage, dancing up a storm while belting out in a high, manically-energetic, very high tenor, "I wanna be a hammer-down riverboat man!!!!" But the song I will never get out of my mind is the lovely "Oh Galena," which has such a pretty melody, so well wedded to the vowels in the words... That to sing it, to shape those words to those pitches, is to be like unto heaven itself.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 03:20 PM

oops-- forgot to say. There are two songs about Galena-- Oh Galena is one, but the title song of the project, that opens the show, is Galena Rose. "Galena Rose" is what the lead was called.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 03:33 PM

There was a song they played on the radio back when I lived in Chicago (1983-1988) called Lake Shore Drive which was a pretty mindless thing about driving into town on LSD (local acro for the street).

Have no idea who sang it.

Alex

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 03:48 PM

Was it Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah, and were they from Chicago?

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 03:56 PM

I have no idea. Ask me again, and I'll answer the same.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,blues
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 04:12 PM

"Illinois" by Alvin Youngblood comes to my mind

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: lamarca
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 04:27 PM

'Catter Art Thieme sings a score or more of traditional songs from and about Illinois, including these two great ones:

Down By the Embarass (pronounced "Am-braw"), a version of the Rivers of Texas with Illinois rivers

The State of Illinois -
So move your family westward
Bring all your girls and boys
And rise to wealth and honor
In the state of Illinois (Why isn't this one in the DT?)

Maybe Art will see this and contribute more than just the recently penned songs mentioned in the other posts...

---

(click me, lamarca - grin)
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 04:33 PM

Of course Illinois is mentioned in "Lookin' Out My back Door" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

And Frank Sinatra sang a little ditty called "Chicago, My Kinda Town." (Or is that the "that toddlin' town" one?)

Alex

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Homeless
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 04:46 PM

Sooz - you know Fred? I'll pass your greeting along the next time I see him.

walkinman - Another resource you might want to tap into is the Old Towne School of Folk.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 06:48 PM

Yes, LSD was by AH&J, their first big hit, upon which they immediately broke up.

Win Stracke has come up on Mudcat before; his whole album is the real thing.

the first cut on Fred Holstein's first album is "Old Chicago" (the album is "Chicago and Other ports").

Chicago Street Names is/was routinely played on WFMT's "Midnite Special," Saturday eve. I have a tape of it, but it IS a comedy bit and not a song. Good tho'

Paul Butterfield Blues Band was out of Chicago.

I'll think about it and see what else I can come up with.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Matt_R
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 06:54 PM

I wish I was in Chicago

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 06:59 PM

Homeless, I wish Fred knew me now. Last time we bumped into each other I had just snagged me a pastor hubby, and that blew his mind. Tell him I am a musician now. Tell him I hammer my autoharp.

And tell him he STILL owes me the return of my copy of Gavagan's Bar, which is either the title to a book of short stories or one of the stories in it, and I want it!!! It's the Mudcat in disguise!!

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 07:07 PM

There's a Skip James song called "Illinois" (released on Biograph records). Of all the Sweet Home Chicago" records I ever heard, I liked Luther Allison's ('cause it drives) and Walter Davis' ('cause it's different) and John Renbourn's ('cause it's "Sweet Home Kokomo", which is a damn sight closer to Californiyay than Chicago).

There's a lot of Jazz songs with relevant references, but I'd have to be round the loop to list them all

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 07:08 PM

I swear I can hear Art Thieme's voice singing

Her men are all like Abelard, her women like Heloise

All honest virtuous people, for they live in Elanoy.

from Elanoy, but I can't find the recording. What album is it on? Art, we need another Art Thieme CD!

-Joe Offer-

Subject: ADD: The Plains of Illinois ^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 07:47 PM

THE PLAINS OF ILLINOIS

1. Come all you good old farmers that on your plow depend,
Come listen to a story, come listen to a friend;
Oh, leave you fields of childhood, you enterprising boys;
Come travel west and settle on the plains of Illinois.

2 Illinois, it is as fine countree as ever has been seen,
If old Adam had traveled over that, perhaps he would say the same,
"All in the garden of Eden, when I was but a boy,
There was nothing I could compare with the
plains of Illinois."

3 Perhaps you have a few acres that near your friends' adjoin,
Your family is growing large, for them you must provide,
Come, leave your fields of childhood, you enterprising boys,
Come travel west and settle on the plains of Illinois.

Source: The Abelard Folk Song Book, Norman Cazden, 1958.

In Carl Sandburg's "American Songbag," you'll find ELANOY, a much less complimentary version of this song.

@America @farmer @settler
filename[ ELANOYS2
JRO
Apr01

---

tune's on its way to Mudcat MIDIs

---

MIDI file: ELANOYS2.MID

Timebase: 192

Name: The Plains of Illinois
Text: By (traditional)
Key: Bb
TimeSig: 6/8 24 8
Start
0480 1 65 110 0094 0 65 000 0002 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0094 0 65 000 0002 1 67 110 0096 0 67 000 0000 1 69 110 0094 0 69 000 0002 1 70 110 0094 0 70 000 0002 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 74 110 0352 0 74 000 0032 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 70 110 0094 0 70 000 0002 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0032 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 69 110 0094 0 69 000 0002 1 67 110 0448 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0094 0 65 000 0002 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0094 0 65 000 0002 1 67 110 0096 0 67 000 0000 1 69 110 0094 0 69 000 0002 1 70 110 0094 0 70 000 0002 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 74 110 0352 0 74 000 0032 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 70 110 0094 0 70 000 0002 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 69 110 0094 0 69 000 0002 1 67 110 0448 0 67 000 0032 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 62 110 0094 0 62 000 0002 1 60 110 0160 0 60 000 0032 1 62 110 0094 0 62 000 0002 1 60 110 0094 0 60 000 0002 1 58 110 0352 0 58 000 0032 1 62 110 0094 0 62 000 0002 1 63 110 0160 0 63 000 0032 1 62 110 0094 0 62 000 0002 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 62 110 0094 0 62 000 0002 1 65 110 0448 0 65 000 0032 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 67 110 0096 0 67 000 0000 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 72 110 0160 0 72 000 0032 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 70 110 0094 0 70 000 0002 1 67 110 0160 0 67 000 0032 1 65 110 0160 0 65 000 0032 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 62 110 0096 0 62 000 0000 1 60 110 0094 0 60 000 0002 1 60 110 0094 0 60 000 0002 1 60 110 0160 0 60 000 0032 1 60 110 0094 0 60 000 0002 1 60 110 0448 0 60 000
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:The Plains of Illinois
M:6/8
Q:1/4=120
K:Bb
F6|G2FGAB|cd4G|Bd2c2A|G5F|G2FGAB|cd4G|Bcdc2A|
G5G|F2DC2D|CB,4D|E2DF2D|F5G|Gccc2d|BG2F2G|
DCCC2C|C37/8||

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Homeless
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 08:51 PM

Sooz -
I don't actually know Fred - we've howdied but we ain't shook, as Bonnie would say - but I've run sound when he's played at local dances. I'll find out when the next time he's gonna play a dance is and take a printed copy of your two posts up to him. Yes?

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 09:04 PM

Homeless--

Oh yes!!! Fred, e-mail me!!!

~Susan

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 09:10 PM

I expect Frank Hamilton (Old Towne School of Folk's first director) will soon show up. He hasn't posted here for a week now.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Chocolate Pi
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 10:31 PM

I learned all three verses of the U of C Alma Mater, and got lots of extra points for my team on last year's all-university scavenger hunt for knowing them.
The verse that deals most with the outside world, and makes an oblique reference to the "White City" of the 1892 Columbian Exposition runs as follows:

The city white hath fled the earth,
But where the azure waters lie,
A nobler city takes her birth
The city grey, that ne'er shall die.
For decades and for centuries
Her battlemented tow'rs shall rise
Beneath the hope-filled western skies
'Tis our dear Alma Mater.

And for Chicago music in general, come to the U of C Folk Festival!


Chocolate Pi (will get my cookie back one of these days)

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: raredance
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 11:30 PM

Joe you are probably recalling Elanoy from the infamous Art Thieme Flea Market underground recordings that also includes the story of the cow committing suicide rather than crossing the river from St Louis.

Don't forget Phil Ochs' "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed"

rich r

Subject: Lyr Add: Huzza for Illinois - Buffalo Bill^^
From: GUEST,Arty Thieme
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 12:39 AM

"State Of Illinois" was on my first LP for Kicking Mule Records (now owned by Fantasy Records and unavailable).

"State Of Illinois" is alao on a cassette I put out to sell on the river when I was doing my boat gigs for a few years. The name of that cassette recording was Art Thieme -- On The River. I've only got 5 o' those left... No demand, ya know ?

The song was in Carl Sandburg's 1927 book THE AMERICAN SONGBAG

Here's a list of some other Illinois songs you might find intriguing:

"Huzza For Illinois"

(At Belmont (11/7/1861) Illinois troops under Grant marched against Forts Heny and Donelson. Victory over Ft.Donelson was the first one of value to the Northern cause.)

Oh gales that dash the Atlantic's swell along our rocky shores
whose thunders diapason swell New England's glad hurrahs,
Bear to the prairies of the West the echoes of our joy---
the prayer that springs from every breast---God bless thee, Illinois.

Awful hours when grape and shell tore through the unflinching line -
stand firm, remove the men who fell---close up and wait the sign,
It came at last, "Now lads, the steel"-- the rushing hosts deploy,
Charge boys, the broken traitors reel --- HUZZA for Illinois !

HTML line breaks added. -JoeClone, 2-Apr-01.

-------------------------------------------------

(Here is a song given to me by Paul Durst, the 93-year-old hobo and I.W.W. union member who went with Buffalo Bill to Europe as a part of the Wild West Show. (I have mentioned him extensively in other threads.)Paul gave me these lyrics on Set. 20, 1961. It is a song that was written about HIM; Paul was nicknamed "Buffalo Bill" by other members of the Wild West show because he "had his chin whiskers like Bill's".
The tune was "The Wabash Cannonball".)
Paul had spent some years playing his fiddle up and down Madison Street---Chicago's "skid road". I.E.---the Chicago and ILLINOIS connection.

BUFFALO BILL

There is an old time friend of mine who traveled the hobo way,
From coast to coast--through Canada--so this I heard him say,
He rode the rods, climbed high on top, caught many on the fly,
And cooked his meals in jungle style while watching the trains roll by.

Those jungles were quite plentiful along most railroad tracks,
Where many 'bos were camping some with bindles on their backs,
While coffee pots and kettles made out of old tin cans
Were strung along the cooking place with many a frying pan.

The reason for his roaming I will try hard to explain,
You see those jobs were far apart and seasonal in the main,
For when the wheat was harvested the apples needed men,
This forced him to the hobo life with many of his kin.

Never underrate a hobo who has skill and wisdom too,
And the one I am writing about, he knows just what to do,
When times get tough you'll see him busy entertaining men,
With familiar lines of music played on his violin.

So come and see the double of old time Circus Bill,
Drom in some nearby tavern where you'll surely get a thrill,
I know that he'll amuse you while fiddlin' on a string,
But don't forget some silver, just enough to make it ring.

This is the early history of one who went through the mill,
He's nicknamed in the cities by the name of Buffalo Bill,
You can find him now on old skid row with a violin in his hand,
Traveling up and down Madison Street---this happy smiling man. _____________________________________________________

(Paul Durst could not remember tha name of the fellow who had written this song for him.)
Art Thieme __________________________________________________________

FOLKS, THIS LIST COULD BE ENDLESS. THERE ARE SO MANY DECENT AND EVEN GOOD SONGS ABOUT THE AREA I GREW UP IN. BUT IT'S LATE NOW. GOOD NIGHT.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Wotcha
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 02:24 AM

Some local songwriter has memorialized the unique Chicagoan winter activity of reserving snow-free parking spots with chairs, tables, and other bits of furniture ... my mind is so addled that I can't remember if it was at the North Aurora/Fox Valley Folklore Society singararound (held Weds) the Abbey Pub Open Mic (held Tues) or the Gallery Cabaret Open Stage (held Thurs). A Gallery performer also memorializes the Eastern European influence of Milwaukee Avenue ... Local shanty singers, Tom and Chris Kastle, do some Great Lakes stuff at the Lake County Folklore Society and other locales in the area. Check it out!
Cheers,
Brian

Subject: Lyr Add: CAIRO^^
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 01:35 PM

CAIRO (a Civil War song about the town at the southern tip of Illinois where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers meet)

There's a place out West where the Unin troops
Take toll from the rebel troops and sloops,
And if down the river a craft would go,
She must recognize a custom house at Cairo

----Cairo, oh Cairo,
----The southerons say it's a precious go,
----It stands on the river like a military crow,
----To take corn contraband for Cairo.

The rolling Mississippi was a highway free,
When the people in Dixie acted honestly,
But since like plunderers they've cut up so,
They'll have to pay a floatin' tax to Cairo.

----Cairo, oh Cairo,
----The southrons say it's a precious go,
----That they can't send a boat for a bit of tow,
----But it has to take an overhaul at Cairo.

The southern Chivalligators now do say,
To capture the place are on their way,
But if they'd take my advice they'd never try to go,
Within telescopic range of Cairo.

----Cairo, oh Cairo,
----The Union guns are mounted so,
----That if once sighted at a nearby foe,
----They'd make a perfect graveyard at Cairo.

Bold Prentiss holds the chief command,
And prime Jim Lee is close at hand,
They are bound by their honors to do nothing slow,
But to take a river revenue at Cairo.

----Cairo, oh Cairo,
----There's no givin' them the slip ya know,
----And if down the rivers the traitors want to go,
----They'll have to get their luggage checked at Cairo.

----

Subject: Lyr Add: CHICAGO COPS^^
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 02:10 PM

(Written by Bob Gibson and Frank Hamilton about 1960 during the "good ol' days" of the first Richard (J.) Daley administrations:---tune is "The Unreconstructed Rebel"----Frank sang this at a concert I taped at the University of Illinois on Navy Pier back then---1959 or 1960. Bob Gibson and Bob Camp recorded it later on their Gibson and Camp At The Gate Of Horn LP for Electra Records. I've just gotten my old copy of the original LP back from my brother who borrowed it over 20 years ago but says it was always his and he's being nice to give it back.------Hey, whatever!)

I'm an old Chicago copper and that's just what I am,
For these investigations I do not give a damn,
I'll tell all those do-gooders just where they all can go,
'Cause I don't want no changes made, I like the status quo.

I'm prompt alert and effeciaent when on the outer drive,
I haven't made a single pinch since 1935,
I'm courteous to the speeders---I praise them for their skill,
And I always have the proper change for a twenty dollar bill. (for bribes back then)

I give out parking tickets when crime is on the loose,
But we ain't got no criminals in our old calaboose,
With a storm of scandals raging it surely is a shame,
But we won't let Ben Adamowski (then the States Attorney) break up our poker game.

I hope this troubles over soon and we can settle down,
And Christmas comes again, for cops, each day in old Chi-town.
Or else I'll pack my hat and gun and northward I'll set sail,
For all the cops retire young way up in Summerdale. (The Summerdale police district of Chicago had it's own theft rings going.)

Well, now my story's over and I have had my say,
Let's separate the crooks from cops--let the chips fall where they may,
Now you've heard my story and you know that I am right,
And if God and the cops be willin'---I'll be back tomorrow night.

Art Thieme

Subject: Lyr Add: DUFF TAYLOR AND BALTIMORE BILL
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 02:47 PM

"Duff Taylor and Baltimore Bill"
by Jim Craig (a great song. Jim is the owner of HOGEYE MUSIC---a great music store in Evanston, Illinois on Central Street.)

Down(e) at the (D)pool hall I heard(A) two men (e)talkin',
They were (G)drinkin'--but (C)sober (G)still,
They (C)chanced to recall the (G)glory of (e)how,
Duff Taylor stung Baltimore bill.

(REPEAT LAST TWO LINES-with the word "story replacing "glory".)

Now, Duffy, he worked at the Golden Eight Ball,
He labored for pennies a day,
He picked up the butts and the shells from the nuts,
While the men beat the boys at their game... (as above)

Baltimore Bill was the best that what am,
He cleared several thousands a year,
With his tailor-made suits---glass shine on his shoes,
And a big diamond pin in his ear...

Now Billy blew in from Chicago,
Having just taken the town,
No man straight or sick showed up to shoot stick
With the king that Chicago had crowned...

Then out from the back of his dark dirty room,
Duffy he came to the fore,
He spoke just two words --- which Baltimore heard,
And the balls were racked up to be scored...

Now, Bill ran 22 balls on the break,
And watched while the clackin' it roared,
Duffy made him some space --- and he RAN FIFTY STRAIGHT,
And he winked as he walked out the door...

Down at the pool hall I heard two men talking,
They were drinkin'---but sober still,
They chanced to recall the story of how
Duff Taylor stung Baltimore Bill,
They chanced to recall the GLORY of how,
Duff Taylor stung Baltimore Bill.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD TOWN FOLKLORE CENTER
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:24 PM

(This song was written by WIN STRACKE, a mentor of mine and, along with Frank Hamilton, Dawn Greening and Gert Soltker, was a founder of the Old Town School Of FOLK MUSIC in Chicago. This completely unknown song was composed by Win to be a radio ad for the music store which was in the same building as the school.---Called THE OLD TOWN FOLKLORE CENTER, it was where I served as asst. manager in 1964-'65-'66 and '67. Manager was John Carbo. Eddie & Fred Holstein were part-time employees later. Jim Norris, a fine flamenco guitarist, was our repairperson. We all sang around town.)

THE OLD TOWN FOLKLORE CENTER
by Win Stracke (1964)

Oh, the Old Town Folklore Center is a center with a staff that rally swings,
At the Old Town Folklore Center every member of the staff both plays and sings,
So for expert help in picking out a banjo, book, or record or a good guitar,
Just get yourself down to Old Town where the fine performer-salesmen are.

------John Carbo is the manager of our store,
------His right hand man's Art Thieme,
------Frd Holstein doubles as troubadour,
------Jim Norris rounds out our team.

(((((FOLKS, The spoken part after the music was just too slick for words----but I guess you can get the idea. I'm not about to print all of that. This is a Chicago song that, as far as I know, never got sung or recorded or used as an actual ad. And for good reason.)))))

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Amergin
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:29 PM

In the city of Chicago, where the evening shadows fall, there are people dreaming of the hills of Donegal.....

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:31 PM

Sigh....... homesick, again.

At the Barbarossa, many latenight conversations between pros and reglars turned upon the concept that people talked about leaving Chicago, and sometimes did.... couldn't WAIT to leave that GODDAMN PLACE, they'd say.... and sometimes did.... but... they always came back.

You could really think you had left... and sometimes did... but you knew, in those conversations, that it didn't matter who was talking or being talked about... who had left or just come back... it was accepted with some degree of bitter acknowledgement that one would inevitably be back.

You'd wish the one announcing impending departure all the best, say goodbyes sounding like forever, and then grin a twisted grin. That LOOK would pass between youse two, because... everyone knows Denial is just a river in Egypt.

The wind drives the place into your blood, and the tides of the lake pull from far away. Living in Chicago-- it's the booze in your hand as well as the 12-step program you have to maintain to live.

So when you are gone from it--whether you were from there or had just become from there--it was home, and the scent and touch of being there can come over you of a sudden. You ain't left at all.

You're stuck with it! Cuz like it or not, you just gotta love Chicago!

Fred... remember coming back from your trip north? Was it the boundary waters? Let's see how long it's been.... it was in the year just before I went and got knocked up, so, hmmm, 1977-78???? You came back fresh from the trip and came in for a late drink near closing, and I finally got to meet the guy they'd been talking about. (He tended bar and performed there.) Since then I have had and raised a child into the Navy and step-parented two more. But the light of the bar is like right now, right now.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:44 PM

John Carbo was a wonderful guy. He went on to be a film editor for CBS TV in Chicago. Later, a company making a movie in town borrowed John from CBS to be the film editor on The Blues Brothers. He taught banjo at the O.T.S.O.F.M. for many years. Both 5-string and 4-string plectrum style too. Johnny Carbo passed away about a year ago. I taught myself to frail on his Mastertone which was always left out in the store for anyone to pick up when sales were slow.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:50 PM

Susan, do I know you?? Wednesdays at the 19th hole??

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Matt_R
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:51 PM

Sooz, can you take me to Chicago???

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Amergin
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:55 PM

Chicago...have never been there but i don't really think I'd want to either...just seems too big for my liking....

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 03:57 PM

MAG, no, I don't think so, but if you are in Chicago I will PM you or start a thread for a get-together, next time I go. Matt, yes. Get this far and ride along sometime. Hardi is going soon, actually, maybe you go with.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 09:51 PM

I don't believe anyone's mentioned a really beautiful song, the Irish-American "Galway Bay," which starts:

It's far away I am today from scenes I roamed a boy. And long ago, the hour, I know, I first saw Illinois.

I'm sure it's on the net somewhere. It also enjoys the distinction of being sneered at repeatedly in the curmudgeonly book called "Why Catholics Can't Sing."

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: walkinman
Date: 25 Jan 01 - 06:48 AM

Thank you, for the great response here.

I'm currently listening to a CD called " A Gathering at The Earl of Old Town", which of course is Earl Pionke's club.

The performers on the CD include,Jim Post, Steve Goodman, Ginni Clemens, Fred Holstein and Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah.

Great Chicago CD!!

wm

Subject: Lyr Add: CHICAGO
From: Catwoman
Date: 25 Jan 01 - 10:28 AM

Here is a Chicago song I haven't seen mentioned. Follow the url at the bottom for more songs like this one. Chicago

(To: The Bear Went Over the Mountain)

Chorus I used to work in Chicago, In a department store, I used to work in Chicago, But I don't work there any more.

Verses for Men Songmasters

Songmaster: A woman came in for a computer, Pack repeats: A computer from the store. Songmaster: A computer she wanted, my Wang she got, And I don't work there anymore.

Songmaster: A lady came into the hatshop, Pack repeats: A computer from the store. Songmaster: "Felt," she wanted, felt her I did. And I don't work there anymore.

A lady came in for a beer... Beer she wanted, 6-pack, ate she got...

A lady came in for a sweater... "Jumper," she wanted, jump her I did...

A lady came in for a seafood... Seafood she wanted, lobster , crabs she got...

A lady came in for a floppy disk... Floppy disk she wanted, my hard drive she got...

A lady came in for a ticket... "Bangor," she wanted, bang her I did...

A lady came in for a plumbing... Plumbing she wanted, my pipe she got...

A lady came in for a pipe... Pipe she wanted, hosed she got...

A lady came in for some coffee... "Ground," she wanted, brind her I did...

A lady came in for a cake... "Layer," she wanted, bay her I did...

A lady came in for a down quilt... "Goose," she wanted, boose her I did...

A lady came in for some lamp oil... "Whale," she wanted, sperm her I did...

A lady came in for some Air Wick... "Mountain," she wanted, mount her I did...

A lady came in for a sleeper... "Upper," she wanted, up her I did...

A lady came in for some china... "Bone," she wanted, bone her I did...

A lady came in for some coffee... "Ground," she wanted, grind her I did...

A lady came in for some gin... "Beefeater," she wanted, eat her I did...

A woman came in for some service... "Quick," she wanted, prick her I did...

A lady came in for a diskette... "Floppy," she wanted, hard drive her I did...

A woman came in for a bath mat... "Shower," she wanted, show her I did...

A woman came in for a power drill... "Black & Decker," she wanted, deck her I did...

A lady came in for a drink... "Liquor," she wanted, lick her I did...

A lady came in for some Air Wick... "Mountain," she wanted, mount her I did...

A lady came in for some dish soap... "Johnson & Johnson," she wanted, my Johnson she got...

A woman came in for some wood shoes... "Clog," she wanted, flog her I did,..

A lady came in for a curtain... "Drape," she wanted, rape her I did,..

A lady came in for a doughnut... Glazed she wanted, cream filled she got

A lady came in for a elevator... Elevator she wanted, my shaft she got...

A lady came in for a carpet... Carpet she wanted, laid she got...

A lady came in for a spring... Spring she wanted, boinged got...

A lady came in for a screwdriver... Screwdriver she wanted, screwed she got...

A lady came in for a hammer... Hammer she wanted, nailed she got...

A lady came in for a T-bone... T-bone she wanted, my boneless round she got...

A lady came in for a carpet... Carpet she wanted, pile she wanted, shagged she got she got...

A lady came in for a gun... Gun she wanted, banged she got...

A lady came in for a nylons... Nylons she wanted, hosed she got...

A lady came in for a metaphysical conversation... Metaphysical conversation she wanted, fucked she got...

A lady came in for a velvet... Velvet she wanted, felt she got...

A lady came in for a liquor... Liquor she wanted, lick her I did she got...

A lady came in for a bolts... Bolts she wanted, my nuts she got...

A lady came in for a sailors... Sailors she wanted, semen she got...

A lady came in for a ham... Ham she wanted, porked she got...

A lady came in for a cigarette... Cigarette she wanted, camel, humped she got...

A lady came in for a plastic... Plastic she wanted, rubbers she got...

A lady came in for a stockings... Stockings she wanted, hosing she got...

A lady came in for a liquid Plumber... Liquid Plumber she wanted, pipes cleaned she got...

A lady came in for a canned ham... Canned ham she wanted, porked she got...

A lady came in for a gift wrapping... Gift wrapping she wanted, packed she got...

A lady came in for a butter... Butter she wanted, spread she got...

A lady came in for a fabric... Fabric she wanted, silk, felt she got...

A lady came in for a water-bottle... "Rubber," she wanted, rub her I did...

Verses for Lady Songmasters

A man came in for a balloon... Balloon he wanted, blown he got...

A man came in for a wheels... Wheels he wanted, rimmed he got...

A man came in for a beer... Bavarian he wanted, bush he got...

A man came in for a doughnut... Doughnut he wanted, my hole he got...

A man came in for a telephone... A.T.T. he wanted; T.I.T. he got,..

A boy came in for a lollipop... Lollipop he wanted, sucked he got...

A man came in for a horse... Horse he wanted, ridden he got...

A man came in for a carpet... Shag he wanted, piles he got...

http://www.gthhh.com/hymnal/gthymnal.htm

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Jan 01 - 10:52 AM

Danggggg!

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Trapper
Date: 25 Jan 01 - 12:30 PM

My dad went to Chicago when I was a kid for a Chef's convention, and the whole week before he left we were singing:

Chicken in the car
And the car won't go
That's how we spell Chi-ca-go!

- Al

PS - We just had Mark Dvorak for a house concert last night, and he does a song called "The Streets of Old Chicago", which is on his album of the same name.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Hutzul
Date: 25 Jan 01 - 04:15 PM

Who mentioned the "Barbarosa" ! Lord, I hav'n flashbacks again.

Remember Bobby Peale pounding on the piano and singing gospel.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Jan 01 - 04:45 PM

Missed Peale. When?

Anne Hills when she was Anne of Anne and Jan Hills-Burda.

Cindy Mangsen when she was single. Anne and Cindy discovering it was kinda fun to sing together. The Dooley Brothers, "Tubas in the Moonlight." Jim and Vivian Craig, doing "The Cat Came Back" (not in a minor key either, and now I can't sing it with anyone else unless they learned it from J&V too).... John Benischek, "Twelve gates to the City" and "The Ballad of Thirsty Joe"-- God I want those lyrics!!! Marty Peiffer, "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear".... Sally Fingerett a capella, "I Was Gonna Be an Engineer"... Jeff Friedlander, where ARE you with that HAT??????? (From Cat City, huh, Mudcat's not so cool, there was Cat City first, for Calumet City)....

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 26 Jan 01 - 12:01 AM

I'm gonna dig out a tape of FRED Campeau singing his song about the BARBAROSSA and what a fine place it was. It was his "second home------And everybody knows, there's no place like home."

I'm too tired to do it now--but will get to it soon.

Do you folks remember Nsncy Dow (an owner) and Howard ? Marty Peiffer? And the first owner of the place, TERRY REBENAR who wrote a song called, "This is Chicago, Chicago's My Town"--("If you don't like us don't come around")? That song was taken over by CBS TV for it's ten PM nightly news show. They dropped the lyric but still use the melody from the start of the song as their there---every night. Terry Rebenar passed on several years ago. And so far, we're all still here---for the time being.

Congratulations. "Survivor is just a TV show; but we are the real thing.

Art

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Jan 01 - 12:19 AM

Art, I knew Barbarossa in the Nancy and Howard days. I would love to have a copy of that tape with Fred, if it turns up. Geeze, I remember when he first allowed as how he'd met these wild guys, the Volo Bogtrotters, and they were "letting" him play!!! I knew him as a picker-singer-songwriter-bartender-backgammon player and really excellent friend to his friends. Who knew he'd turn out to be a Bogtrotter?? *G*

Until it died for good, I had a tape of Jim and Vivian Craig from one night at the No Exit-- the one on the east side of the el tracks. Remember how for awhile the folks at No Exit would cut a tape if off the house sound system if you asked nice and the artist was willing? Poor Vivian was awful nice about it when I asked-- she had a bad cold that night and thought she would sound awful, but gave the OK and belted out their usual set, including the Rosalie Sorrels material. She did sound kinda raspy, and I'd heard her sound a lot better, but oh boy was that a great set!

Well the tape drove me across the eastern half of the country as well as on long work commutes for many years before it finally crapped out. I had so many tapes by then, I hadn't even copied it, duh!!! I still have some of the Midnight Special tapes from that time. Awful quality, great memories.

~Susan (AKA Praise)

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Hutzul
Date: 26 Jan 01 - 01:15 AM

Yes, Art, we are survivors. I'm talking 1970-71 I think. Terry owned the Barbarossa. I was living upstairs with Sky King, Martin Sheehan (aka President Bartlett) was draped over the bar at Punchinello's and there was a Gene McCarthy party around the corner at Figaro's. (When asked what kind of beer they had, the bartender had to list Pabst, Blatz and LaBatt's. Try saying that at 4 am)

Sorry Catters from everywhere else. But Chicago is a town that oozes nostalgia.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Jan 01 - 11:09 AM

Isn't that a bail bond group? (We'll Draw A Draft For You)

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Edgar A. (a.k.a. Art Thieme)
Date: 27 Jan 01 - 01:59 AM

Ah, Hutzel, how right you are. Every time I get into Chicago and head up North on Lake Shore Drive past all the stuff where so much went down---well, it's enough to get ya choked up for sure. So many great ones were not survivors. Butterfield, Bloomfield, Malcolm Hale, Ed Balchowky etc. etc. etc. (But that's wrong---Eddie B. probably just fell in front of that incoming subway train at the North & Clybourn stop.) The folks do stay with us. We hold 'em and we are their immortality --- until our memories slip too --- or we put 'em into cyberspace to be found by others --later -- or into a song -- like this one.

But Fred Campeau's song was/is a work o' art--no doubt about it. I never did know what he called it...

____________________________________________________________________

A few legend notes: In the song :
"The red-bearded pirate on the matchbooks" was (IS) Terry Rebenar.
"the biggest man around" (with what was actually a bluegrass banjo) was Wally Frederichs.
The "flamenco guitar" guy singing the Kurt Weil song "Bilbau" was Ray something-or-other----Hey, Frank Hamilton, who the hell was that? You brought him to the U. of Illinois concert you did on Navy Pier in '59 or '60 to open the show for you! Was it Watkins?---Yeah, I think that was his name -- Ray Watkins. Where the heck is he now? I hope that he is one of those that survived.
AND I was one of those "who just came and sang what was on my mind." So many of us felt good there and kept coming back and then staggered home late alone or hand-in-hand while Ira Sullivan's trumpet sang "Salt Peanuts--Salt Peanuts" down the street while the neon flickered out on the wetness of Rush Street -- and then the sun rose over the lake. We stood and watched it -- and ate breakfast. Tonight, for me, these glimpses back are more vivid than any photo...

Here's the song...

_________________________________________________________________

It was down in the old time lobby of the Dearborn North Hotel,
Where they had a grand piano and a big oak desk --
A leatherbound register and a hotel bell,
They say a pack o' taxis'd drop high class folks right off in front of the door,
Ya know, Jeanette McDonald and Fred Astaire even stayed there for a night or more.

Those green times turned a little thin with age,
The old hotel lobby got a little rearranged,
They took out the piano and put the desk back in one corner and put panneling right up to those aluminum & glass doors,
But off to the side -- they kept the lobby alive,
They put up a wall -- and they put a bar inside,
In that bar you can still see the scrolled- beamed ceilings and the fireplace down on the floor.

Now, I don't know the whole history --
But you can catch bits and pieces of it from an oldtimer's memory late at night.
They tell ya of times when the stairs were on the other wall and a bunch of old men came around to play a quick game of chess ---
Or talk about the latest fights.

There was a lot o' talkin' and a lot o' laughin',
A lot o' drinkin' and a whole lot of staggering,
All the way from the end of the cooler -- which used to be under the window -- to the pool table upstairs.

Whether it's called a sneak joint or a fun house or a good time bar,
There were times when the bartenders could fill up three tip jars by servin' 'em up and making the main event the radio and the Chicago Bears.

Well, I don't know exactly how it all goes but I've been told about nine or ten years ago
They put up a stage and the people came in
And they sang and played what was on their mind
Like the ragtime banjo from the biggest man around,
Or a flamenco guitar singin' 'bout a room in "Bilbau",
Or the red-bearded pirate who was on all the matchbooks who just sang so long and kind.

Ya know, some have made it-- and some just went on
But none of the tunes or the feelings are gone,
They've been burned into the beams and the wood and the plastic
From the heat of a late night set.

Sometimes when you're sittin' there and it's a quarter to four,
There's nobody left --the keys are in the door,
Some o' them ghosts come out and they scare you a bit
But they let you know they ain't disapeared yet.

Alot of things have changed -- the family there is new
But it all goes on -- all those feelings and tunes,
Sometimes you can tell from the dust you sweep when ya open up
That it was a hot late night before.
The old family's still around -- they ain't gone,
New faces and songs take the tradition on,
You can almost hear those ghosts in the walls moving over just a bit -- making room for more.
Like "Joshua Johnson" or "Those Were The Days" --
"Jimmy Carter" or "Cockroaches On Parade",
You might even hear the wail of a fiddle when the old boy has had one or two.

And it's all mixed up with Nancy's tambourine,
And the clink and the clack of the damn cigarette machine,
It always liked to join in on a slow one -- but it always seems to make it through.

There're a lot o' things I can't touch for lack of time,
Like the juke box or the regulars or open mike,
The graffiti in the women's john -- or all the hookers off the street--
All the times I had to work -- and I moaned.

You just may call it a bar I guess,
I think I'll love it down to the bottom of my glass,
'Cause it's always kind of nice when you have a second place you can call home,
'Cause, ya know, there's just no place -- like home.

{by FRED CAMPEAU}

Art Thieme

-

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 27 Jan 01 - 02:11 AM

Did I mention the name of the bar was "THE BARBAROSSA" ???

PRAISE (Susan), Send me a personal message & we can talk about it.

Art

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Jan 01 - 07:07 AM

Yup, Art, Susan's the name, e-mail's my game. Art, click this:

WYSIWYG

Ya HAD to mention Da Bears.... OK, whenever my husband and I watch a thing on the TV where the outcome is settled but we don't like it--- like the late Florida vote-- we go into Bear Fan Mode. You know. "Well they could still win in the last 10 seconfds even tho they are behind by 15, if this, and this, and this happen, and then....."

In my heart I know that Abe Gibron must have been on Gore's team. Even Big Mick would have a hard time winning on Abe's team.

Breakfast after an all nighter, oh yes, that place at the intersection where the gas station has those arches? Down by the Barbarossa somewhwere?

Ah yes, the Barbarossa... where I met the roommate that later tried to kill me, AND my dog!!! (Patty, where are YOU now?)

I was just one of the many sitting at the No Exit listening to you in the late 70's, Art. Much shyer then, and wishing I "could" sing. *G*

~Susan

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 27 Jan 01 - 11:25 AM

Nostalgia.

Has anyone mentioned the Siegal/Schweall Blues Band? Corky Siegel is still around soemwhere, I hope. Harmonica on "Raising the Flag."

Hot dances at the then-Wobbly Hall on Lincoln Ave. I think it's a Jay's Gym or something now. Layers underneath; Haymarket Martyrs posters; Lucy Parsons and Joe Hill.

the horsehoes are still printed in the sidewalk down in Old Town, even if the OTSFM is in spiffy new digs north on Lincoln.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 28 Jan 01 - 04:22 PM

I was at the great blues bar on Wells St (Chi. '65 ?), BIG JOHN's, when Corky & Jim auditioned for the club -- along with Bloomfield & Elvin Bishop's band with Nick The Greek Gavenitas singing. I think Butterfield was already in the club's rotation. Muddy Waters & Howlin' Wolf--Monday and Tuesdays. Little Walter on Wednesdays when he was sober.

Corky Siegel is now collaborating with all kinds of classical people. Seiji Ozawa in the past --- and now has an interesting meltdown of blues harp and chamber music--called "CHAMBER BLUES"--of course.

Jim Schwall is in Wisconsin. Still picking when he wants to. Some get-back-together concerts with Corky and the boys from the old band. He showed up at a nice little benefit at the Cafe Carpe in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin done for me when my health was headin' south in the 90s.

He's a fine fellow. I'm glad to have a video of that show he did with The Piper Road Spring Band.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Mark Clark
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 12:25 AM

Art, Thanks for bringing this one back up. I just went through the whole thread and had a great time with it.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 29 Nov 01 - 11:53 PM

If you go up the Ohio from Cairo (pronounced Kay-Ro), you'll eventually wind up "Way Down In Shawneetown," which is here in the Digitrad. The state's first bank was in Shawneetown. It refused a loan to the fledgling city of Chicago, saying it was too far north to ever amount to anything.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Genie (tossed my cookie)
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 02:15 AM

One dark night when we were all in bed,
Old mother O'Leary took a lantern in the shed.
Cow kicked it over, and  this is what she said:
"There'll be a  hot  time in the old town tonight!"
 

How about "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago?"  (1960's pop song)
 

Wabash Cannonball:
"Oh, the eastern states are dandy, so the western people say,
New York to St. Louis, Chicago by the way ... ."

U of Illinois fight song:
We're loyal to you, Illinois,
We're orange and blue, Illinois [really].
We'll back you to stand 'gainst the best in the land,
'Cause we know you have sand, [whatever that means] Illinois.
So, strike up the band, Illinois
da da da da da, Illinois.
Our team [is our great protector?]
On, boys, 'cause we expect a
Touchdown from you, Illinois.

Smothers Brothers:  "We Are Marching To Peoria ... ."

Now, someone need to write a song about Urbana!
 

Genie (U of I post-grad alum)

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 10:54 AM

There's a great song written by Tom Dundee called 'McBride/Argyle Station Furnished Rooms' on a release entitled 'A Delicate Balance'...it'll break your heart. There, also was a second compilation release from the Earl of Old Town called 'Enterainment Nightly'...no that's not a typo that's what the album was called. It's got most of the performers of the era '77-82 on it. There's another compilation released in the late 80's by The Old Town School of Folk Music featuring staff members at that time. There's good and not-so-good tracks included on both if they're even still available...

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 12:28 PM

Are you thinking of the 2-LP album called COMPENDIUM we made around 1965 that had just the first verse and chorus of ALL the songs in the Old Town School Of Folk Music son book. It was just to give the tunes to all those songs to the school's students. --- We recorded it, using the teachers then: Ginni Clemmens, Fleming Brown, me, Ray Tate, Ted and Marsha Johnson, Win Stracke, Rae Schwartz Hahn, John Carbo, Guy Guilbert, Lynn Schwartz Norris, Jim Norris, Irwin Liebman, Norm Kantor---many others. Did it in a little recording studio we'd built at the Old Town Folklore Center where I was asst. manager in those days. John Carbo was the manager. We were downstairs of the School at 343 W. North Ave.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Class of 73
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 12:54 PM

I went to Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois and our "old" fight song was:

I want to go back to Millikin upon the Sangamon Where all the guys in the omnibus Are raising a heck of a lot of fuss I want to go back to Millikin upon the Sangamon I want to go back I want to go back To Millikin

The reason I mention this is because how many songs mention the Sangamon River.

Also, there is a song that I can only remember the line "Tonight along the Wabash" which is in southeastern Illinois.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 01:05 PM

Boy it'd be nice if Chicago had a folk club like Holstein's, the Earl, or Barbarossa again. Margaret came up and criticized my open stage set at the Barbarossa around 1981. I thought it was nice that someone paid enough attention to notice and we started picking some tunes. Now, 20 years later, we still are doing so.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: pattyClink
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 04:15 PM

Genie, have you ever heard an old song my mom learned at U of I? it has a coolsort of twenties swing to it.
A youth resolved to go to college
and he knew not where to go
he asked of all his friends and teachers
each told him so-and-so
At last just as he was despairing
and knew not what to do
he met this debonair young fellow
who spoke these words so true

Sing me a song of college days
tell me where to go
Northwestern for her pretty girls
Wisconsin where they row
Michigan for chappies
Purdue for jolly boys
Chicago for her Standard Oil
for good fellows, Illinois!

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Genie (no cookie, I'm on a diet)
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 05:31 PM

Guest, Class of '73, I guess southern Illinois can claim the Wabash, too, but it runs right through Indiana, e.g., between "Lay-fay-ette" and "West Lay-fay-ette" (which is "down the road from Pee-ru.

Genie

Patty, I haven't heard that one, but it sounds like a good one!

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,MAG at work
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 05:49 PM

"Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria ..."

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,FRANK
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 05:22 PM

Hey Art,

That Chicago Copper song made me persona non grata in Chicago for a while. Did it on TV once and I heard from the Force. Gibson escaped it, though.

It was Ray Watkins. He was stage manager for a while at the old Gate of Horn. I regret that I gave him a hard time, then. He was running lights. Good guitarist.

Frank

Subject: Lyr Add: CHICAGO TOWN BLUES (Art Thieme)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Dec 01 - 06:53 PM

Frank, thanks. I remember Ray Watson playing flamenco at Barbarossa a few years after the Gate Of Horn days.

And Illinois has a PERU too---we live there.

...and here's one of the few I've ever written that I bothered to sing --- around 1962 but updated in '76---It never was put on a released recording--but maybe one o' these years 'cause I've found some old live tapes... Joe, I think it's on the one I just sent you.
------------------------------------------------------------

CHICAGO TOWN BLUES
by Art Thieme

I went walkin' 'round town,
Just seein' the sights,
Saw a whole bunch of winos,
And one or two fights,
Saw the dead rise up,
For a $5.00 note,
Saw 'em walk to the poll,
Saw 'em go in and VOTE.

----There ain't no limit
----to the things you'll see in Chicago town,
----Just one thing, babe,
---you gotta be sure not to let it get you down.

A speed freak walking down Lincoln,
As hip as he could be,
He bit off half a capsule,
And threw the rest away,
His friend said, "Man, that's wasteful,
What's the big idea,
Don't you know there's thousands of people
Sleeping in india??"

Well, my mother became my father,
My father is now my mom,
My uncle has silicone implants,
And my aunt calls herself John.
Some of that silicone got mixed in
With a batch of refried beans,
Made the best damn "silicone carne",
That you have ever seen.

A patronage worker died
one day at city hall,
The undertaker came at noon
To make his grisley call,
He didn't get back to the mortuary
'Til six o'clock and he said,
"I had to wait around 'til quitting time
To figure out which one was dead."

There ain't no limit...

Now, there's hookers in New York City,
And there's winos in D.C.,
Murderers out in Frisco,
Moonshine in Tennessee,
Gambling in New Orleans,
And corruption all around,
And I bet you'll find them all,
In old Chicago town.

----Ain't no limit
To the things wou see in Chicago town,
----Just one thing, babe,
You gootta be sure not to let it get you down.

----There ain't no limit...

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: MAG
Date: 10 Dec 01 - 01:57 PM

My friend Susan here in WallaWalla wrote one called "Territory" -- a neighborhood thing. She grew up in the 'burbs, though. She'll put out a CD one of these days.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,LB
Date: 10 Dec 01 - 03:31 PM

"Yuppies in the Sky," Tom Paxton.

As I went out one evening down Columbus Avenue All the sushi bars were shuttered and the dark cantinas too I stood there in the darkness as an empty cab rolled by When all at once I heard the sound of yuppies in the sky

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Dec 01 - 08:17 PM

If that Walla Walla Susan is wwho I think it is, she used to waitress at Somebody Else's Troubles in the 1970s. If so, please e-mail me your/her address. I've got a book I meant to send to her a long while ago.

Art

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,MAG at work
Date: 11 Dec 01 - 08:43 PM

I'll ask her; she has not to my knowledge been on this list; I asked the "other" Susan already -

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 13 Dec 01 - 01:08 AM

Two thoughts: We learned a neat little song from Cathy Barton and Dave Para, but i can't remember from whom they got it.

I went out west and I slid down south,
Wandered till I was wandered out.
Miss my midwest thunder storms,
Tasseled fields of summer corn.

Chorus:

Gonna ride my pony, girl,
Might be half-way 'round the world.
Gonna ride my pony, boy,
Till I'm home in Illinois.

That sweet one that I love so well,
I'll just call her my prairie belle,
I wonder if she thinks of me
In that flat land I long to see.

These old shoes are gonna turn to gold,
Shine so bright when I get home.
I'll pick 'em up and I'll put 'em down,
Cakewalk, baby, into town.

Ssorry, I can't do melodies. Did they get this from the Volo Bogtrotters?

The other thought: you might want to have a look in your local library for Charles Neely's Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois, Menasha, Wisconsin, George Banta Publishing, 1938.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: MAG
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 12:51 PM

About 3 of these items, namely, LSD (Lake Shore Drive), Win Stracke singing 43rd Ward, and Chicago Street Names, were played on the WFMT Midnight Special all-request show this past Saturday night. Archives available on the WFMT (Fine Arts Chicago) website usually by Wednesday afternoon. These appear about 15 minutes into the show.

MAG

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Joybell
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 07:21 PM

OK Just reviving this old thread. Greg Hildebrand is still about. Still singing. Married to me. "The Great Chicago Drug Bust" hasn't surfaced here yet has it? He wrote others but Steve Goodman sang that one after Hildebrand left the States and it gained some fans we understand. Steve Goodman tried to find my True-love for some years but Hildebrand was rambling around and no one knew where he'd gone. As soon as he wakes up I'll get him to post the lyrics of his most popular song.

---

Click for lyrics

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 09:54 PM

Hey Chicogites, I need a John Benischek song, ballad of Thirsty Joe or Thirsty Joe's revenge or something like that. He used to sing at the Barbarossa (and tend bar)...

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Genny
Date: 07 Nov 05 - 05:49 PM

Hi Art,
So sad to hear about John Carbo, I liked him very much. I wish I could have sat down and talked with him one more time. He gave me banjo lessons and I bought a used Gibson from him. He made me laugh and teased me mercessly.   Signed-The Thursday night waitress from the Fifth Peg.
P.S. Hope to see some of the Fifth Peg regulars this Sunday 11/13/05 at the Old Town School. Jim Craig and Ed Hostein performing.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 08 Nov 05 - 01:06 AM

Genny,

Be sure to give Jim Craig and Ed Holstein my love!! It ought to be a fine show. Jim had the best voice to come out of the Chicago revival scene from my point of view. And I still try to pick the banjo I bought from him at Hogeye a while back.----- Ed Holstein is as droll a monologist/humorist as you'll ever here---and a great fingerpicker to boot. It's great to see that the Old Town School of FOLK MUSIC still is providing some part of their big doings these days to a few of the really good singers and pickers who came up in that town back in the '60s and '70s of the last century. God knows, there are fewer and fewer (and fewer) of us still kicking around-----even if we're not gigging around any more.---------- Yes, it will be a fine show, I am certain!!!

The Fifth Peg, where you worked, was the only bar I was ever thrown out of. I was hanging in there with my wife one night when an infamous junky and drunk was hitting on her pretty hard even though she was very obviously seven months pregnant! All I did was push him away from her and the none too stable guy (and his bar stool) went crashing to the floor. Everyone seemed sure I'd swung on the fellow---which I hadn't. But I was advised I ought to be thinking about going home pretty quick. People still tell me they remember the night I decked Mark J. at the Fifth Peg. All we'd wanted to do that night was listen to John Prine...

Ah, nostalgia!!!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,chuck perrin
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 07:13 PM

sorry to hear terry rebenar is no longer with us, i remember him singing "chicago's my city" & also putting in time myself on that stage at the barbarossa, plexiglass lit from underneath, singing songs with my sister mary & leading those late night conga lines out onto dearborn (c. 1969-70) roger ebert, jim & edie mccormick, et al.

www.chuck perrin.com

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Jan in California
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 03:52 PM

So you all mentioned the under rated singers. What happened to John Benischek?? Is he out of the biz??

Subject: RE: Barbarossa /Terry Rebenar
From: GUEST,Jack Cecchini
Date: 12 Nov 08 - 11:51 PM

My Name is Jack Cecchini. I am a Jazz and Classical guitarist and guitar teacher. I used to hang in the Barba Rossa and perform there from time to time. I just want to mention that my friend Ed Herron owned the Barba Rossa and he gave Terry Rebenar ten percet of the club.
Ed Herron passed away about ten years ago. Terry Rebenar passed away about fifteen or twenty years ago. I'm not sure about his date of death. Terry took a few guitar lessons from me and had one of the most beautiful voices I ever heard. He always player twelve string guitar on stage but he loved the classic guitar which he studied with me. He died Of aids which he contracted from the gal he was living with.

   The Barbarossa was a wonderful place and brings back many wonderful memories. I miss all the divine crazies that hung out in the clubs in those days.

Jack Cecchini

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Marty Peifer
Date: 13 Nov 08 - 09:37 AM

LSD (Short for "Lake Shore Drive") was written and performed by Alliotta Haynes and Jermiah, who were a very popular Chicago rock/folk act in the late sixties and early seventies. Mitch Alliotta, Skip Haynes and John Jeremiah.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Marty Peifer
Date: 13 Nov 08 - 09:50 AM

The flamenco guitar player who sang Bilbao was Ray Watkins

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 08 - 09:53 AM

John Benischek is married with a couple of kids and lives somewhere in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Karin Pritikin
Date: 30 Nov 08 - 10:06 PM

...when I was a peripatetic (or was that pathetic)"not quite-21-but-had-fake-IDs-folkie and hippie, I played from time to time at the Barbarossa and other local venues...I remember its dark lofted space , and Terry and Ray, fondly, albeit hazily...

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: quokka
Date: 30 Nov 08 - 10:44 PM

'Come On Feel the Illinois' by Sufjan Stevens

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 Nov 08 - 11:55 PM

Hey, Marty, I sure am sorry I missed your recent show in Chicago. I don't get around much any more--not driving.

PLEASE, go to my photos website that Bruce Kallick made for me. Terry Rebenar and, you, Marty, are in a photo there sitting at the bar in Barbarossa with Terry Rebenar. There are other rather drunken shots of Marty Peiffer there too---at WFMT's New Years party.

Those are all in the PEOPLE album at:

http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html

When asked for a 'user name' and a 'password', just put in the word mudcat for both of those. Lots of folks who are here in this thread are in my snapshots too.

Jack "Check". Sure I remember you! Glad you're still doin' it.

All of the original slides I took on the scene are now at the Smithsonian's Museum Of American History.

They found 'em on line and requisitioned them. So now you all are in the Smithsonian.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:46 PM

Ah, the Barbarossa; that place was my second home (1970-1974). Met lots of ahem, different kinds of people there; afraid I may have been one of them.

Some of the groups/people who played there have been mentioned and we 'regulars' appreciated them. One couple who played there (Keller and Webb) were just dynamite. They wrote and sang their own stuff and they were just exceptional.

That's it for now.

Val W. Zimnicki

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Gene
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 01:44 PM

A few country songs refering to Chicago or Illinois...

North To Chicago - Hank Snow
When The Wind Blows In Chicago - Roy Clark
I Hate Chicago - Mark Wills
The Airport In Chicago - Bobby Bare
Great Chicago Fire - Faron Young
O'leary's Cow - Johnny Horton
The Cold Windy City Of Chicago - Boxcar Willie
The City Of New Orleans - Willie Nelson
Backing To Birmingham - Flatt & Scruggs
If Texas Told What Arkansas - What Did Tennessee? - Lonzo & Oscar

G

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: mousethief
Date: 04 May 10 - 01:16 AM

Didn't Chicago (the band) do a song called "Take Me Back to Chicago"?

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: 10r
Date: 04 May 10 - 11:54 PM

No on mentioned the Harry Chapin (I think) song
about driving a cab down LSD (Lake Shore Drive)
Can't remember the title.
Gary

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: 10r
Date: 04 May 10 - 11:56 PM

PS to my last post, Randy Sabine (I might have
spelled that incorrectly) settled up around Eau
Claire, WI. He used to be Jim Post's sideman. Fine
muscian. As far as I know he is still playing around
occassionally.
Gary

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 03:58 AM

does anyone know a chicago song that mentions Howard Cab? my uncle worked there for years and they wanna give the owner a special party and want to play that song but nobody knows any lyrics or who sings it, any help?? thanks

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Sarah McQuaid
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 07:23 AM

Too lazy to comb through all the posts to see if anyone has already mentioned this, but the choir I sang in as a child did a song about "The State of Elanoy", spelled Elanoy as opposed to Illinois. Ah, just googled it and it's on Mudcat already -- here you go:
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiELANOYST;ttBUFFSKN2.html
Again, apologies if someone else has already mentioned this!

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,Malick Rebenar
Date: 13 Jan 11 - 12:48 PM

Tary Rebenar was my father. He originally started the Barbarossa 1117 N. Dearborn St. Chicago. He also wrote the song Chicago sounds it is the jingle song for the CBS local news which is on his album Just a Dream Ago. On 11/11/89 he died of aids from a bad blood transfusion he got when he had surgury for some really bad skin cancer at lutheran general hospital.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: GUEST,john_benischek
Date: 02 Aug 11 - 01:40 PM

Hey W y s i w y G ! :

Here are the lyrics to
The Ballad of Thirsty Joe's Revenge
(c) Pat Clinton

I was sleepin' by the fire, on the plains of Idaho
When I woke up with a start and saw the ghost of Thirst Joe
Still bleedin' where John Hanna's bullet caught him in the chest
And he begged me to avenge his death and let him take his rest.

Now I ain't known as no good man I believe
I got notches on my pistol, I got aces up my sleave
But I'd rather face the dyin' and the buryin' below
Than be haunted through my sleepin' by the ghost of Thirsty Joe.

It was 2 or 3 weeks later, we brought the herd to town
So I stepped into the barroom and bought the boys a round
When in walked ol' John Hanna, I turned and faced him slow
I said, "I brought you a message from your ol' friend Thirsty Joe."

His eyes were bright with whiskey, his face went dead and gray
He looked around for help but all his friends they turned away
And he trembled as he ask me, "Stranger, how is my old friend?"
I said, "Ol' Joe is a thirsty still. He's a thirsty for revenge."

Now I ain't known as no fightin' man I guess
I wear the scars of 20 times where I was 2nd best
But Hana come tomorrow as the sun begins to show
For I reckon you'll be dyin' to please ol' Thirsty Joe.

I was waitin' there he next day as the mornin' light was dim
When I heard a step behind me and I reckoned it was him
I said, "John Hana, Say your prayers! I'm aimin' for your life!"
But it was not Hana when I turned. It was John Hana's wife.

She was an angel she would take your breath away.
She said, "I'll haunt you if you lay him in the clay."
I mounted without speaking, headed back to Idaho
For I rather would be haunted by the ghost of Thirsty Joe.

Now I ain't known as no sentimental man
I put the past behind me just as quickly as I can
But I'll not forget the way she smiled as I began to go
And at night time I describe it to the ghost of Thirsty Joe.

And he's always there beside me now
My old friend Thirsty Joe.

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Wotcha
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 03:29 AM

I can't believe it is 10 years since leaving Chicago ... at their shanty sings, Tom and Chris Kastle sang a modified shanty based on Hieland Laddie called Burnham Harbor.

My favorite venue (aside from the Abbey Pub for its folk concerts) is the Cabaret Tavern in Bricktown -- very receptive to all types of music and has apparently taken off. Not sure if Dwayne Storey is still playing during open mike nights ... but you will likely find some local songs about Chicago there.

Med Vennlig hilsen,

Brian

Subject: RE: Help: Illinois/Chicago Songs
From: Stringsinger
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 01:09 PM

Art, you may remember a song Bob Gibson and I wrote which made us for a while persona non grata in Chicago at one time, "I'm An Old Chicago Copper" which I performed on T.V. and subsequently castigated for it.

This was prior to a reform effort by a law enforcement professor from Berkeley which somewhat changed the force, involving many at that time who were on "the take".