Ohio Historical Songs

Subject: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Judy Cook
Date: 19 May 03 - 09:51 PM

One of my favorites is "The Old Canal" by Pearl Nye.
What are some of your favorite Ohio Historical Songs?
--Judy Cook

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: masato sakurai
Date: 19 May 03 - 11:39 PM

There's a related thread:

Lyr Req: Songs about the Ohio River.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 May 03 - 11:52 PM

Would I get in trouble if I suggested Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio?

-Joe Offer from Detroit, where we didn't think much of Ohio-

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Cluin
Date: 20 May 03 - 12:16 AM

One from John Denver:

Saturday Night in Toledo Ohio^^^

Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio
Is like being nowhere at all
All through the day, how the hours rush by
You sit in the park and you watch... the... grass... die...

Oh, but after the sunset, the dusk and the twilight
When shadows of night start to fall
They roll back the sidewalks, precisely at ten
And people who live there are not... seen... a... gain...

Just two lonely truckers from Great Falls, Montana
And a salesman from places unknown (-ces... un... known...)
All huddled together, in downtown Toledo...
To spend their big night all alone


You ask how I know of Toledo, Ohio
Well, I spent a week there, one day
They've got entertainment to dazzle your eyes
Go visit the bakery and watch... the... buns... rise...

But let's not forget that the folks of Toledo
Unselfishly gave us the scale
"No springs, honest weight"; that's the promise they made
So smile and be thankful next time... you... get... weighed...

And "Live and Let Live"; let this be our motto
Let's let the sleeping dogs lie (-ping... dogs... lie...)
And here's to the dogs...
Of To... le... do... O... hi... o...

Ladies, we bid you goodbye!^^^

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Cluin
Date: 20 May 03 - 12:17 AM

We done crossposted, eh Joe?

Subject: Lyr Add: JOHN GILBERT
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 20 May 03 - 12:41 AM

In the DT, Down the River(2). An extended version of the playparty song posted by Kytrad in the thread Masato linked- also in DT.

I couldn't find the song "John Gilbert" in the DT or the Forum, but it probably is posted somewhere. It is a song about the steamboat John Gilbert, built in 1881 and named for Capt. John Gilbert, president of the Ohio and Tennessee River Packet Company.

Lyr. Add: JOHN GILBERT

You see that boat a'comin',
She's comin' roun' the ben',
An' when she gits in,
She'll be loaded down agin.

John Gilbert is the boat,
Di De Oh,- Di, De, Oh,-
John Gilbert is the boat,
Di De Oh,-
Runnin' in the Cincinnati trade.

Lee P. Kahn was the head clerk,
Captain Duncan was the captain,
Billy Evit was the head mate,
Runnin' in the Cincinnati trade.

She hauled peanuts an' cotton,
An' she hauled so many
When she got to Johnsonville,
Her work would just begin.

She hauled so many peanuts
Her men run from her.
They went out in the wilderness,
An' they never come back no mo'.

She hauled so many peanuts
The rousters run from her
They couldn't git nobody to load her
But the free labors.*

They put her to Florence, Alabama,
Runnin' in the St. Louis trade,
An' when she got to Chester
She broke half in two.

*Men taken from shore.

From Steamboatin' Days, Folk Songs of the River Packet Era, Mary Wheeler, pp. 43-46, 1944, Louisiana State Univ. Press. Reproduced with sheet music in B. A. Botkin, Mississippi Folklore, pp. 574-575.

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 20 May 03 - 09:22 AM

Just a stupid little picky point, but the State of Ohio actually has no control of the Ohio River. West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania have the honors. So songs about the Ohio River would not really be about Ohio. Crazy, huh?

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 May 03 - 09:38 AM

RE: Saturday Night in Toledo

Out of Cincy for many years was a noon TV show known as the "50-50 Club." Originally started by Ruth Lyons and then taken after her death by her colleague Bob Braun, it was a typical local talk and entertainment show featuring it's own cast of "talent." Among these regulars was a guitar playing singer named Rob Ryder.

The "50-50 Club" was seen at every WLW affiliate in the state which meant every city including Toledo. One day Ryder decided to sing "Toledo" and everyone on the show and the Cincy audience enjoyed it. The folks in Toledo did not. The resulting uproar resulted in the Toledo affiliate damn near cancelling their contract and Rob Ryder issuing an apology. Additionally, the show went on the road to Toledo for a week with heavy emphasis on the great things about the town. Funny too....Rob Ryder, who had been really popular, just sorta' drifted away.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 20 May 03 - 11:49 AM

Boats and crews docking at Cincinnati are under the control of Ohio laws.

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 20 May 03 - 02:05 PM

Due to reciprocity agreements.

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 May 03 - 02:38 PM

Hi Judy (Dennis too)-------

A real good record is the old LP on Folkways called OHIO STATE BALLADS by Anne Grimes. (FH 5217) I'm sure you can get a tape of it (or maybe a CD) from Smithsonian Folkways these days. Great historical ballads like :

"The Pleasant Ohio" (a pioneer song on the beauty of the place)



"The Battle Of Point Pleasant" (1774-- Lord Dunsmore's War")


"Logan's Lament" (also from Lord Dunsmore's War-1774)


"St. Clair's Defeat At Fort Jefferson" (from Indian wars--Nov. 4, 1791) Bob Gibson did a good version of this.


"The Copperheads" (a song of the possible election of a Copperhead Governot of Ohio--but he was defeated. Prompted Lincoln to say, "Glory to God...Ohio has saved the Union."--1863-----Copperheads were midwesterners with southern sympathies.


"Ohio Guards" (1864---Ohio National Guard were called up to be "One Hundred Day Men" in the Civil War. Especially important in the Wilderness Campaign. Within 16 days 40,000 men were put into Federal service.


also songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal that connected the Ohio River to Lake Erie with it's North-South passages between Cleveland and Portsmouth. The Miami & Erie Canal connected Toledo to Cincinatti. There were offshoots to Atens and Marietts, Ohio. Captain Pearl R. Nye sang many songs of these waterways.

songs like:

Get That Boat
The Old Canal
Last Trip In The Fall
The Clever Skipper
A Canal Dance
The Gospel Boat

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 May 03 - 02:49 PM

Who says that "Ohio History" is restricted to the state of Ohio? Seems more likely that it pertains to the Ohio River, the Ohio River Valley, and environs. Governmental jurisdictions are not really a factor in folk music, as a general rule, anyway.

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 20 May 03 - 03:39 PM

Lets not forget Four Dead in Ohio, by CSN%Y. May not be a folk song, but definately a part of Ohio.

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 May 03 - 06:11 PM

Anyone know of any about Quakers in early Ohio region?

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 May 03 - 06:51 PM

Kat, this (Ohio History) (put in "quakers": subject) will lead you to a number of articles.

~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FOURTH DAY OF MAY (Thom Bishop)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 May 03 - 08:59 PM

"The Fourth Day Of May"
by Thom Bishop----tune: "The Bold Finian Men"

On the fourth day of May I went out a-walking
It was a bright sunny day 'til I heard someone talking
I listened a while to the things they were saying
Lord above, Lord above----there were four killed at Kent.

With fists clenched so tightly I walked through the town there
I went to the Commons to see what was down there
There were banners a-waving----loud speakers all 'round there
Lord above, Lord above---there were four killed at Kent.

Now it's been many years since the guns were a-blazing
And it seems we've gone numb in the process of aging
For not much has come from that war we were waging
Lord above, Lord above-----------there were four killed at Kent.

(Art Thieme)

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Padre
Date: 20 May 03 - 09:03 PM

You can get more information about Quakers in Ohio by contacting Wilmington College (my alma mater, by the way). It was founded in 1870 by the Wilmington Yearly Meeting. For many years, its sports teams were known as the 'Fighting Quakers,' which may explain why we won so few games.


Padre

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 May 03 - 10:23 PM

Padre......New Philadelphia in eastern Ohio was an early Quaker settlement. The high school also went by "Fighting Quakers" which seemed oxymoronic at the least.

"Darling Nellie Gray" and "Up on the Housetop" were both written bu B.R. Hanby of Rushville, Ohio (about 5 miles from me here in Bremen) although he lived most of his life in Westerville.

Spaw

Subject: Lyr Add: BURN ON (Randy Newman)
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 May 03 - 10:42 PM

Time magazine described the Cuyahoga as the river that "oozes rather than flows" and in which a person "does not drown but decays." It caught fire on numerous occasions including the well publicized time in 1969. Not exactly a piece of history we're real happy about, but Randy Newman memorialized the Cuyahoga River in his song "Burn On"........

There's a red moon rising
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There's a red moon rising
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake

Cleveland, city of light, city of magic
Cleveland, city of light, you're calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
'Cause the Cuyahoga River
Goes smokin' through my dreams

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can't make you burn

Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on

For a little background, CLICK HERE

Spaw

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 May 03 - 11:13 PM

Way, way, back in the '70s (that's the *19*70s) the State of Ohio was governed by James Rhodes (yes, the same dude who was governor when the Kent State shootings happened). Anyway, his office of tourism or something commissioned a New Ohio Song! Copies of this New Ohio Song were sent (on long-playing 45 rpm records) to every public library in the state! Free for nothing!

The New Ohio Song was entitled "Because We Love Ohio." One side had it done as to a popular music beat and the flip side as R&B! Fortunately, I only remember the line "Because, because we love Ohio!"

I don't know where you might get a copy, but you could try....

Subject: RE: Ohio Historical Songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 May 03 - 03:33 AM

Yep.......He was quite an asshole asset to the State. Along with the song and the debacle at Kent State, he also commissioned plans for a bridge to span Lake Erie.

Spaw