Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .

Subject: Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .
From: DonMeixner
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 09:49 PM

Hi Art,

I always enjoyed you version of this song. You had some lyrics that generally aren't heard. Can you tell me the reason for the difference and direct me to a source?

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 10:19 PM

Until Art Arrives......From the previous postings of Art:

The version I put on an LP is one from Paul Durst, a 93 year old (at the time) Wobbly and hobo fiddler I made some tapes of in 1961. His version said, "Here's to Montana Whitey--may his name forever stand, And always be remembered by the 'bos around the land..."

The version I recorded for Sandy Paton is the one I got from the elderly hobo fiddler, 93 year old, Paul Durst. (born-1868) Paul sang/recited it as: 'bo's accomodations when he showed it to me in October of 1961.

And, as I've said, the version I got from 93 year old hobo, Paul Durst, in 1961, says:"Here's to Montana Whitey..."
Paul said that he and Whitey were jumping a freight in the yards in Missoula, Montana in 1910 (Paul was already 42 years old) and Whitey lost his grip, fell, and was killed. Paul always put Whitey's name into the song, "just to remember him".
And that's how I always sang the song.


Also:
"We'll ride the rods & brakebeams..."

also:
"from the rocky coast of Oregon to ice-bound Labridor..."

Originally the song WAS a contrived song about a mythical train that would go anywhere the guys needed to go. It was invented by the knights of the road. The song got so popular among the hobos riding the rods that, eventually, the Wabash Railroad named their crack run after it. The train became popular also. Right now I'm looking at an old schedule for the train on that line. Eastbound, it left St. Louis at 9:15 AM daily. Went through (with stops in) Decatur, Danville, Lafayette, Logansport, Peru, Huntington, Fort Wayne, Toledo and Detroit. Westbound, it left Detroit at 8:00 AM and arrived in St. Louis at 4:20 PM.
Another text variation says:
"We'll ship him off to hell on the Wabash Cannonball."
(THE HOBOS HORNBOOK by Geo. Milburn--1930)

Paul Durst's version also had this variation: "There's a train of "doozy" layout, quite well known to all..."
The "Deusenberg" was a classy auto in the early days of the 20th century.---The song seems to date from the days after the Civil War--when all the guys and gals came home & couldn't find work. This was a cheap way to get from a place of no work to a place where they might find some sort of job. But the automobile reference sort of dates this verse to the 1920s and 30s--a depression version.

Another of Paul's variations was:


This train she runs through Quincy, Monroe and Mexico,(Missouri),
Heads into Kansas City--she isn't runnin' slow,
Heads on into Denver and makes an awful squawl,
They all know her by her whistle, it's the Wabash Cannonball.
If you connect the dots on the map between the towns above, you'll draw a line through the Midwest---but a totally different route than that of the actual W.C.

( All the engineers, like the great pilots on the rivers, had very distinctive ways of blowing their whistles in the days of steam.)
Paul's version is available on cassette only now (by me) "On The Wilderness Road"--C-105(I think) Folk Legacy Records...

{another version soon--from Paul Durst}

The song below has the tune of W.C. It was written about Paul Durst, the hobo I've been talking about in my postings here. Paul did this song for me in September of 1961. A friend of his wrote the song for and about him in California many years earlier. Paul, 93, born in 1868, (parents emigrated to USA in 1848 from Switzerland--settled in Wisconson 'cause it reminded them of their homeland) Paul accompanied Buffalo Bill to Europe as a part of Bill's Wild West Show. He had a beard much like Bill's so folks with the show nicknamed him Buffalo Bill---ie. the name of this song about Paul Durst was "BUFFALO BILL". When it was discovered that all of the show's cattle had "hoof & mouth disease", the cattle were killed by the authorities in Germany and the entire show came back to the USA, broke. Bill was re-financed by P.T. Barnum---and Paul went on the road as a migtratory worker, fiddler, hobo and a Wobbly organizer dedicated to organizing for his union. He told me they "organized" by asking riders in the boxcars if they wanted to become a Wobbly. If they said, "NO", the poor fellow would get tossed off of the moving train. Most guys--gals too--joined up on the spot!
"BUFFALO BILL"

I know an old time friend of mine who traveled the hobo way,
From coast to coast, through Canada, or so 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.


These jungles were quite plentiful along most railroad tracks,
Where many boes were camping, some with bundles on their backs,
While coffee pots and kettles made out of old tin cans,
Were strung around the cooking place with many frying pans.


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 lifewith many of his kin.


Never underrate a hobo for he has wisdom too,
As the one that I am writing 'bout, 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,
Drop 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 skid row with a fiddle in his hand,
Travelin' up and down the coast, this happy smiling man.

Most of the above taken from THIS THREAD ....Links to others there as well.

Spaw---Student at the feet of the the Great Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .
From: DonMeixner
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 10:35 PM

Thanks Pat,

Good pupil, great teacher.

I still think Art should do performance workshops at festivals if he is up to it. I still recall a house concert he did years ago and his stage craft was just grand.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 09:46 AM

Let me put in a quick plug here. Art's two Folk-Legacy records, "That's the Ticket!" and "On the Wilderness Road," are now available on CD. Check our web site: www.folklegacy.com.
    Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .
From: DonMeixner
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 10:02 AM

Plug away Sandy. Early and often.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 01:55 PM

That taped interview with Paul Durst was made in 1961 --- actually December---not what I said in another post as reposted here by Pat. (Thank you, sir !). I was 20 years old and knew what a link to other amazing historical times Paul was, but I knew very little about the specific historical times he had been a part of. S-l-o-w-l-y, Very Slowly, I learned more about the Ludlow, Massacre, Buffalo Bill, rafting the length of the Mississippi River before the locks and dams, Joe Hill, migratory crop workers, being a hobo entertainer---a fiddler going from house to house, organizing for his union---the Wobblys, the Haymarket Riot in Chicago. Mostly, though, the ZEAL and the SHINE in his countenance when he got tired of this young ignorant guy who had just asked him, "Were you a Wobbly? You were in there?"-------And he blurted out almost angrily, "You're damn right. You betcha. Here. I got my card still ! You betcha"----------That was as clse to swearing as I've ever heard Paul allow himself to get. I do wish I could say the same for myself.

There was little interest in that tape until Bruce Utah Phillips got wind of it from Bruce Brackney, both of 'em being proud modern Wobs. Utah asked me for a copy and then he used it for his radio show Loafer's Glory---show Number 77--- now available from him at his "Long Memeory" website----on CD.

www.utahphillips.org

Click on the LOAFER'S GLORY tab and then scroll down to the last listings. There it will be under the designation LG 4/77. It doesn't mention Paul Durst or my roles ---- just says "an old hobo recalls" or something like that. But it is radio show # 77

And a huge THANK YOU TO SANDY AND CAROLINE PATON and Folk Legacy for making those two albums of mine available on CD. (an aside: Please tell Caroline I'll be looking for the package she mentioned...)

Don, thanks for the too-nice camments. I hope I answered your queries. If not, just re-ask 'em and I'll try harder next time.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hey Art! The Wabash Cannonball .
From: Mark Clark
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 11:40 AM

Great thread and a nice gathering of important information from other threads. I used to have Milburn's Hobo's Hornbook checked out quite a lot from the public library forty-odd years ago. I just tried finding it on the Internet and came up with copies ranging from $75.00 to $250.00 depending on condition. If you own a copy of this great resource, treat it gently and pass it on.

      - Mark