Origins: Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis?)

Subject: RE: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: Pinetop Slim
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 05:59 PM

It doesn't shed much light, but ... another Travis standard, "Roll on, Buddy (aka Nine Pound Hammer)" came out of the Hazard area (last line: "It's a long way to Harlan and a long way to Hazard just to get a little brew." Harlan and Hazard are the seats of two of the rare "wet" counties in eastern Kentucky.) Though the gulf between Travis's native western Kentucky and the Hazard area is about as big as the one between Massachusetts and Montreal, he may have done some collecting in the eastern hills. Still, I don't think Travis ever claimed to have written "Roll.."
I think there are some downloads of the Singing Miner's work on a Smithsonian site. He's on the CD "Mountain Music of Kentucky," a collection of recordings made in the Hazard, Hindman, Whitesburg, Ky., area by John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers in 1960 or so. Roscoe Holcomb and Banjo Bill Cornett are among the others on it.
I wouldn't be surprised if Jack Wright, who used to drop in at the cat from time to time, could offer some insight.

Subject: RE: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: M.Ted
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 03:52 PM

Merle's songs tended to be collections of phrases that were floating around in the air(as are most popular songs)-- The remark, "I owe my soul to the company store" was often made by the coal miners, and he said he often heard his dad say it.. Lines like, "One fist is iron, the other one's steel, if the left don't get you, then the right one will." Are "toasts"(I think I heard Mr. T say it once), the rhymed spoken couplets that were often turned into blues--Years ago, I played a gang member in a performance art theater piece, we chanted "if you see me coming, better step aside, a lot of men didn't and a lot of men died"--the artist/author was Latino, and said that it was something that they heard as kids(prsumably in Spanish), so this stuff definitely is not original, and is so widely used that it is hard to tell where it came from--

Given that, I think that Merle's 1st recording of 16 Tons was in about 1946, which was nine or so years before Tennessee Ernie Ford made a big hit out of it, giving Davis ample time to hear the original and write and play his own "21 Tons", not saying that he did, but he could have--

The big point though, is that it seems very unlikely that, given that 16 Tons is one of the biggest country hits of all time, if you had actually written it first, you would tell only the person who was writing liner notes to your Folkways album, as opposed to say, a lawyers who might be able to get you a cut of the royalties--

Subject: RE: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 03:18 PM

Did your friend Shelly Romalis just write Aunt Molly Jackson's autobiography? Channeling?

Subject: RE: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 02:18 PM

Nope Mark. I haven't had that album for twenty five years.

Yeah, Don. Apparently she even claimed that "Pistol Packin' Momma" was written about her. My friend Shelly Romalis just wrote her autobiography.

Yep, about the "cross-fertilization". But with 16 Tons there would have been a LOT of royalties at stake. I'll keep lookin'. hope someone has some better info than I've got.

Rick

Subject: RE: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 01:14 PM

Walt Robertson once said, "If you want to hear some really colorful old-fashioned Kentucky cussin', walk up to Aunt Molly Jackson and say 'Merle Travis.' She says that she wrote most of the songs he claims he wrote."

I dunno. It strikes me that if one grew up in a particular area singing traditional songs, there is bound to be a lot of cross-fertilization, and no one can really say for sure who wrote what.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 12:37 PM

And here I thought you meant Merle WATSON and I was about to say No, it's much older than that... speaking of Merles to revere... what is un merle, anyway? A blackbird?

Subject: RE: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: Mark Clark
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 12:20 PM

Great thread, Rick. Do you have the original lyrics to Davis' "Twenty One Tons"? How about a few details on Davis such as date of birth, date of recording, musical influences, etc.

      - Mark

Subject: Did Merle write Sixteen Tons? Maybe.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Jul 01 - 11:43 AM

Boy, I'm gonna have to go back a long ways for this, so excuse me if some of the details are fuzzy.

Most catters will know how much I revere Merle Travis. As a matter of fact, a video I saw recently (of him from the forties) has confirmed in my mind that he may have been the most NATURALLY talented rural acoustic musician I've ever seen.

I had always assumed that "16 Tons" was his composition, from beginning to end, til I was loaned a Folkways album by George Davis "The singing miner of Hazard Kentucky".

Davis (and many of his friends agreed) claimed to have written the original, as "Twenty One Tons" and said he'd been singing it long before Travis' re-write. It's in a major key, and Davis is certainly not accurate, timing wise. The lyrics are quite similar to Merle's, and I have no reason to doubt that he actually DID write it. He sounds like a typical regional singer, country influenced, and his story is certainly credible.

Considering that several old time songs (Brown's Ferry Blues, Salty Dog Blues, Beautiful Brown Eyes, etc.) have conflicting stories connected to their authorship, there's a possibility that no DEFINITIVE answer may arise, but if anyone's got any info I'd love to hear it.

P.S. Thought of this, after reading Stewie's great research on the "You Are My Sunshine" thread.

Rick