Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster

Subject: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: GUEST,Ragamuffin Brian at Ragamuffin Radio.
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 03:33 PM

Hi fellow Listers.

I'm currently researching for any Folk or Blues music which may relate to The Titanic Disaster 1912, for an Internet Radio program which we hope to have edited & completed by the end of February for world wide web casting.

Based, as we are in Southampton UK., we have no shortage of local musical material & memorabelia. However, we could do with more material to evaluate from other Countries/Regions that were affected by this marine disaster. For example, songs originating from Newfoundland, the Dock area of New York, American Industrial Society of the time, the Canadian or American coastguard, search & rescue services. The connection with Southern Ireland is also strong, as the Titanic's last port of call was in fact Queenstown, & there is a strong immigration link through to the New World as a result. The vessal also called into Cherbourg, France, before departure to Queenstown,Ireland, & therefor a Bretton Folk Link also may exist with songs written about the disaster in Brittany or Normandy?

Any music of interest would be appreciated, especially if it comes with an authentic connection. The music does not have to be traditional, in fact one of the best available recordings has been completed in recent years by Tony Malo, a resident musician upon the Isle Of Wight:"Titanic Going Down".

All, & any 'leads', will be much appreciated: we can't guarantee to make use of all material supplied, but will be grateful for every single musical reference received.

We are not a commercial web station, simply an enthusiastic hobbyist crew.

I can be contacted upon email at:-

[e-mail]

or

[e-mail].

Alternatively you can go to the Ragamuffin Web Station page, listen to some darn fine acoustic music shows, & leave any messages upon this site re. The Titanic Music Search:

http://www.ragamuffin.fsbusiness.co.uk/ragaradiohome.htm


Many thanks for your interest & feedback.

Ragamuffin Brian.

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 03:43 PM

I would think.....just a guess mind you.....that the origins of any and all songs relating to this probably started because the ship sank. Had it not sunk, there would be no songs about it sinking and nobody writes songs about ships that are cut up for scrap.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: MMario
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 03:46 PM

m'gad 'spaw! It's no wonder you are known as the pinnacle of the intellectual elite here on the mudcat!

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 04:06 PM

He is right, there were no songs about the Titanic BEFORE 1912 when it sank. All came afterwards.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: GUEST,Ragamuffin Brian
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 05:56 PM

Sorry Boys,

Yer both completely wrong: We've already traditional Irish songs in hand, the lyrics of which subject the planned construction, & the actual building of the Titanic at the Harland & Wolff ship yard in Belfast around 1910, along with her Sister ship of the time, the Olympic.Other songs of the sea, originating from Liverpool: the Titanic's registered Port, & dating around 1910, tell about the building of the largest, moveable, man made construction to be built anywhere in the world: a fact still standing true till this day!

Irish Immigration songs (all traditional) are also in archive, which refer to the Irish Immigration to The Americas, the Titanic's sailing from Queenstown, & the lamented loss of life of those who boarded her in Queenstown, & who subsequently lost their lives off Newfoundland, when the ship struck the iceberg.

"A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing."

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:02 PM

Ten threads on the Titanic-Olympic. Enter titanic in filter and set for one year.

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: Stewie
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:14 PM

Here are a couple of things you may like to chase up:

1. There was a CD devoted to old recordings related to the disaster, not the crap on the film. I had a track listing of it, but seem to have lost it. The details are:

Titanic Songs
Original Phonograph Recordings Honoring the Disaster, Recorded 1912 to 1948
Various Artists
Unsinkable Music TSCD-22798, 1998.

I have a note that 'Usinkable Music' is Joe Showler of Toronto. Perhaps a Canadian 'catter can assist in this regard.

The CD was reviewed in 'Old Time Herald' Vol 7, Issue 1/Fall 1999.

2. The New York Public Library evidently has a list, compiled by a Solomon Goodman, of songs and musical works related to the Titanic.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: nutty
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:39 PM

There are a number of songs on the Levy site all published in 1912

My Sweetheart Went Down With The Ship

Death Song of the Titanic

The Wreck of the Titanic

The Titanic's Disaster

The Ship That Will Never Return

Just as the Ship Went Down

The Band Played "Nearer My God To Thee"

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:43 PM

Reluctant as I am to say anything on point and thereby break the mood, I have for a long time understood that one motive behind the Black compositions on the sinking was that Jack Johnson, a top-ranking heavyweight boxer, was refused first class passage on the ship because he was African, and that the songs that came out of the Black community were "I told you so's."

Hudie Leadbetter recorded "Ship Titanic" (They were nine days out of Liverpool and almost to the shore,/ When the rich refused to associate with the poor,/ So they put them down below where they were first to go,/And it was sad when the great ship went down.)

Mance Lipscombe ("The Texas Songster"--Alhoolie label, several CD's) did "Titanic," in a very old-fashioned setting with lots of drone. (Fourteen day of April,/ Year nineteen and twelve,/ Titanee were a-sinking (Lord!)/ Mos' too sad to tell--God knows, all the people had to run and pray.)

Living on the Faultline has a verse on it--"Remember Titanic, long and tall, big enough to blot out the moonlight, knifing through the North Atlantic with the keenest edge ever honed on an ocean liner ...." etc.

All of which you probably have alread, but just in case.

Spaw: Actually Jack the Ripper sank the Titanic; that's a little known chapter in the annals of conspiracy. Or should I say anals ....

CC

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: nutty
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:47 PM

There are what seems like a hundred more if you put "titanic" "lyrics" into Google

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: Neighmond
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:48 PM

"Down with that(the) old canoe"

circa 1937

Blue Sky Boys or some such brother duet as I recall
RCA Victor had it on a black label 78

"It was twenty-five years ago,
when the winds of death did blow
And spread ot on te oceans far and wide
That great ship sailed away,
with her passangers that day
to never, ever reach the other side.

Sailing out to win her fame
Titanic was her name
When she was but 500 miles from shore
Many passanger and crew went down with that ol canoe
They all went down to never ride no more."

There are more verses but I can't recall them

Happy hnting

ChAz

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 07:01 PM

okay....it was a joke but a really bad joke and I can't resist bad jokes!! But to be serious....or at least on target.......

CHECK THIS THREAD

We had a member around for awhile that worked for Cunard and was checking some records there--"swirlygirl"........Also at the top of that thread is a list of the other various Titanic threads as well with a lot of info on them. We've talked about the subject in a lot of different ways and those threads are a good start on the way to the point of this one.   Worth a read.

I still contend that you can't have a "Titanic Disaster' song until the damn thing sank, but I will agree that perhaps the greatest disaster of all started with her design and the steel and rivets used at H&W!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 07:23 PM

If ya want the real story you have to hear Jamie Brockett's song. He covers the entire convoluted story and doesn't leave out any details, doe to the 297 foot of rope that the 1st mate brought on board with him....

Bobert

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 09:27 PM

You know what I meant ~ ;-)

Art

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaste
From: mg
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 12:24 AM

my father had a friend in Longview, Washington, named Pat Blessington..handsome old Irishman. He must have been around 80 say in 1956. He was 14 I think when the Titanic went down and survived. he lost his memory and they had to write to Ireland to find out who he was. That is all I know. Maybe I'll do agoogle search. Perhaps when he died there was a story of some kind.

mg

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 06:24 PM

First, I must amend my previous post. Not "Living on the Fault Line," but rather "Born on the Fault Line." Woke up this morning at 2:00 AM in a cold sweat realizing the gravity of that egregious error.

Mary--

I'm naturally curmudgeonly and skeptical. In one of Walter Lord's books--I think "The Night Lives On," there is a list of Titanic survivors. Would be interesting to verify that and to see if Pat's name is there.

I say this because of a wonderful story I came across concerning a reunion of the Light Brigade several years after the charge. As every fan of Tennyson (or should I say, "As both fans of Tennyson") know, there were 600 men in the outfit, and they suffered horrendous casualites, but when they had a reunion, something like 900 men showed up.

Chicken Charlie

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaste
From: mg
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 09:04 PM

I looked him up on the internet and he wasn't there. He was not the sort to make up stories. My father told me, not him. He could have been adopted or taken a new name or misidentified maybe...don't know... mg

Subject: RE: Origins: Folk/Blues Songs: The Titanic Disaster
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 12:11 AM

I found the track listing for the CD I mentioned above. Below is the list exactly as I copied and pasted it:

from 1912 to 1948.
18 Tracks:
1.Sinking of the Great Titanic
2.The Ship That Never Returned
-Vernon Dalhart(1928)
3.Down With The Old Canoe
-Dixon Brothers(1938)
4.The Last Scene of the Titanic
-Frank Hutchison(1927)
5.The Sinking of the Titanic
-George Reneau(1925)
6.Titanic Blues
-Virginia Liston(1926)
7.God Moves on the Water
-Blind Willie Johnson(1929)
8.The Sinking of the Titanic
-Vernon Dalhart(1925)
9.Sinking of the Titanic
-Richard "Rabbit" Browne(1927)
10.The Wreck of the Titanic
-Jeff Calhoun(1927)
11.Titanic Blues
-Hi Henry Brown(1932)
12.The Titanic
-Leadbelly(1948)
13.Sinking of the Tutanic
-The Blue Ridge Mountaineer(1926)
14.When That Great Ship Went Down
William and Versey Smith(1927)
15.The Titanic
-Ernest V. Stoneman(1925)
16.Stand To Your Post
17.Be British
-Ernest Gray(1912)
Be British
-Frank Oldfield(1912)

--Stewie.