Updating a classic!

Subject: Updating a classic!
From: Suffet
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 08:02 PM

Greetings:

Please indulge me. I wrote these words four years ago, but it wasn't until the day before yesterday that I performed them in public. It is with considerable trepidation that I humbly append my lyrics to such a musical masterpiece. I pray only that they prove worthy.

--- Steve

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

New final verse to "Me and Bobby McGee"
Original song by Kris Kristofferson.
New words by Stephen L.Suffet © 1997, 2001.

Well, thirty years have come and gone since I let her slip away,
Searching for that home I hoped she'd find,
But just the other day, I'se down in West L.A.
When I thought I saw my Bobby from behind.
So I took my harpoon out of my dirty red bandana, And blew it like I did so long ago,
And when that stranger turned around, I knew right there and then,
I see my Bobby everywhere I go...

[Reprise Kris's final chorus]
Oh, freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose,
Nothing is all she left for me,
Feeling good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues,
Feeling good was good enough for me,
Good enough for me and Bobby McGee!

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 08:19 PM

Very nice, Steve. Good for at least a chuckle and a half. I liked your song in the current Sing Out!, too. Care to post it, or has it already been posted?

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Suffet
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 08:40 PM

"Wasn't That a Time?"

Original song by Walter Lowenfels and Lee Hays © 1950
New verses by Stephen L. Suffet © 2000, 2001
Use them ad lib with the old verses. Note the gender neutral refrain, lines 1, 2, and 4 of which are taken from the original version.


The slave fought back... with spade and hoe,
And sometimes with bare hands,
Swift feet ran down... the darkened road,
To escape... from slavery's land.

Wasn't that a time...
A time to try...
The human soul?
Wasn't that a terrible time?

Brave people walked... the picket lines,
And faced the bosses' rage,
They held aloft... their picket signs,
To demand... a living wage.

Wasn't that a time, etc.

The bombs fell down... on Vietnam,
They brought a napalm rain.
Young men refused... to go to war,
And they saved... the faith again.

Wasn't that a time, etc.

The racists come... in camouflage,
To tear our nation down.
But we shall stand... hand in hand,
Upon our faith... and hold our ground.

Isn't this a time...
A time to try...
The human soul?
Isn't this a terrible time?

Isn't this a time...
A time to free...
The human soul?
Isn't this a wonderful time?

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Amos
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 09:59 PM

Wow! That was one of my first jug band songs. Haven't thought about it in years!!! Thanks!

A

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 15 Mar 01 - 01:10 AM

I like the verse a lot, Steve.

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Mar 01 - 02:12 AM

Good work Steve. a worthy update. lee hays would be proud.

Rick

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Suffet
Date: 15 Mar 01 - 06:35 AM

I do a lot of updating, amending, and appending. In fact a critic once said that "it's usually impossible to tell where the original song left off and Steve's began." I take that as a compliment. After all, isn't that what we like to call the folk process?

Here's one more example.

--- Steve

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

"Roll On Columbia"
Original song by Woody Guthrie © 1941 (with music adapted from "Irene Good Night" by Leadbelly)

New final verse by Stephen L. Suffet © 1996, 2001

Well, the years have rolled by since Woody wrote this song,
You might take it right, and you might take it wrong,
But the Columbia River keeps rolling along,
It's roll on, Columbia, roll on!

Subject: RE: Updating a classic! Me & Bobby McGee
From: Genie
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 02:27 PM

Suffet,
I like your additional verse to Me And Bobby McGee, but I must take issue with your using Janis Joplin's lyric modification of the chorus and calling it Kristofferson's "original.

Kris's original chorus is:

Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose,
Nothin' ain't worth nothin', but it's free.
Feelin good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues ...

Personally, I think Kris's original lyric is cleverer and more memorable. Janis's version is the best known, but I'd never try to 'do' Janis, so I sing the song more the way Kris does, and I use his original lyrics.   Nothing wrong with doing Janis's version, but I hope her own lyric revision doesn't come to be thought of as the original lyrics to the song.

Subject: Updating a classic- Wasn't That A Time?
From: Genie
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 03:10 PM

I'll submit this as an additional verse to Wasn't That A Time -- subject to revision by me and/or anyone else who wants to subject it to the folk process. (I'm not 100% satisfied with it so far, but I think the concept and historical reference are important.)


Twin towers fell, and in their wake
The world seemed to unite.
Now "terror's" used to forge more chains,
To rob us of our rights.

(Then follow with the "Isn't This A Time ... " last verse.

Subject: Updating a classic! - This Is My Country
From: Genie
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 03:21 PM

I sing "This Is My Country" for July 4th programs (especially singalongs), but I wasn't satisfied with the two original verses, so I wrote a third.

THIS IS MY COUNTRY
lyrics: Don Raye* / music: Al Jacobs ©1940

This Is My Country, land of my birth.
This Is My Country, greatest on earth.
I pledge thee my allegiance, America the bold,
For This Is My Country to have and to hold.

This Is My Country, land of my choice.
This Is My Country - hear my strong voice.
I pledge thee my allegiance, America the FAIR,*
For This Is My Country to have and to SHARE.

This Is My Country from sea to sea,
Land of great promise for you and me.
I pray for thy enduring justice and peace,
For This Is My Country, where all can be free.*

*the bolded words in the second verse are substitutions made by Genie (Jeanene Pratt) and the 3rd verse is by Genie also

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 03:31 PM

And just another verse to Guthrie's "Which Side Are You On?":

We've fought in many a battle,
We're not done fighting yet;
As long as injustice rules this land
We never will forget!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Suffet
Date: 02 Jul 08 - 10:07 PM

Charley,

Good verse, but it was Florence Reece who wrote Which Side Are You On?, not Woody Guthrie.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jul 08 - 04:58 PM

Steve-

I knew that! ;~(

Where'd I put my brain?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 04:31 PM

But why this gender neutral nonsence? We are masculine, feminine and those who can't make up their minds.

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Suffet
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 11:09 PM

Genie,

I agree with you regarding Me and Bobby McGee. I just listened to Kristofferson and to Joplin, andI like his version better for all the reasons you state and then some.

Thanks.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Genie
Date: 05 Jul 08 - 04:27 AM

Bonzo, what "gender neutral nonsense" are you talking about????

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Genie
Date: 05 Jul 08 - 04:34 AM

Oh, I think you're referring to "Wasn't That A Time," right?

Well, in the case of that particular song, the term "man" is SUPPOSED to be "gender neutral." It's referring to humankind, not to male humans. As such -- and since there's no rhyme scheme to be messed up by changing the word "man" -- I do think the song would be equally powerful, or more so, if a word like "all" were substituted for the word "man" or a term like "the human soul" were used in place of "the souls of men."   But, as was said in a related thread, the phrase "try the soul of man" is a historic phrase, from Thomas Paine. For that reason, I'm inclined not to change that portion of the lyric.

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Suffet
Date: 05 Jul 08 - 11:28 AM

Greetings again:

Here's another example of my messing with the classics. New last verse to...

THE FAUCETS ARE DRIPPING IN OLD NEW YORK CITY
Original words and music by Malvina Reynolds
© Schroeder Music
Additional words by Stephen L. Suffet © 2003

This song was first written about nineteen sixty,
But things have since gotten much worse in this city,
It's not just the story of the poor and their pain,
But of the middle class now sinking down that same drain.


There is an unreleased demo of MacDougal Street Rent Party performing The Faucets Are Dripping with Anne Price singing that last verse.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Updating a classic!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 08 - 10:25 AM

Steve-

Well done! I'll add it to my collection.

Charley Noble