Lyr Add: All the Good People (Ken Hicks)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: All the Good People (Ken Hicks)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 03:33 PM

I quite agree Guest Ed!

It is a great song for remembering people.....I'm sure it will be much appreciated at the memorial.

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: All the Good People (Ken Hicks)
From: GUEST,Ed G
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 02:15 PM

Geez folks it's a song about thanks - quit reading between the lines and take it for what it is for cry'n out loud.

We will sing these verses I penned at a memorial for an old sailing buddy and friend of many.

This is a song for all the good sailors
All the good sailors I've met on the sea
This is a song for all those good sailors
To all my mates who kept watch for me.

This is a song for all the good travellers
Who passed through my life as they moved along
The ramblers, the thinkers, the just-one-more drinkers
Each took the time to sing me a song

This is a song for all those good sailors
All those good sailers I’ve met on the Ruhm
The tall ones the short ones the I’ll come along ones
Yes All of those memories they’ll never be done

PS: A Sailor can be either male or female.

Subject: Lyr Req: ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE
From: glen197
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 04:06 PM

THERE WAS WAS A THREAD FOR THIS CLASSIC SONG WRITTEN BY KEN HICKS AND SUNG BY BOB ZAENTZ. WHERE DID IT GO?

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I moved you to the thread - easiest way to find threads is with the Filter.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: All the Good People
From: Joe_F
Date: 03 Aug 03 - 09:44 AM

"Touch up", in America, usually means "correct the remaining or accumulated minor flaws in". It is often used, e.g., with regard to inspecting a paint job and dabbing the odd spot that you missed or mussed, or rereading a MS for omitted words & infelicities of style. I doubt if the phrase means quite that in the song, tho %^).

I agree with some of the contributors to this thread in liking the song the way Mr Hicks wrote it. Even on the printed page, it comes thru with the voice of a man who recognizes that he has some of the traditionally masculine vices & that his womenfolk have some of the traditionally feminine virtues. So what? That's not all there is to life, but it's part of the truth.

Subject: Sung differently at camp!
From: GUEST,Amy
Date: 03 Aug 03 - 03:17 AM

I'm trying to figure out the lyrics, the way my camp sings the song. It's the staff song, and it begins:

"This is a song for all the good people,
All the good people I've known in my life.
Some helped in big ways, Some helped in small ways.
Some only said 'You're doin' all right."

I don't know where to go from there, but the end is:
"This is a song for all the good people,
People I'm thanking my stars for, tonight."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: All the Good People
From: glen197
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 11:59 AM

or thjose who ccomplain that the extra verses make the song to long...each time you siong it leave out or add different verses ands keep it to a comfie length.

Glen

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: All the Good People
From: Genie
Date: 12 Mar 03 - 03:16 PM

Sandy Paton's version is on the Mudcat CD: Orchid. Great song!

Genie

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Snuffy
Date: 21 Sep 02 - 12:02 PM

If you "touch up" a woman in Britain, she'll call a cop (molest is almost synonymous)

We would say 'touched' rather than 'touched up' my life. It's like 'visit' and 'visit with', or 'beat up' and 'beat up on' - being a smaller country, we haven't got room for so many words as you left-siders.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Sep 02 - 11:46 AM

Gee, this is one of my favorite songs, and I meant to sing it when I was in the UK last month. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't.
So, Kevin, what does "touched up" mean in the UK?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: for all the people who touched up my lif
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 08:16 PM

"Touched up" must mean something different in Virginia...

Subject: for all the people who touched up my lif
From: glen197
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 07:20 PM

Thjis song from the 70's by Ken Hicks of Eastern VA, prasises the various special people who ytouched up his life....popularized by Bob Zaentz...any body remember the exact words and melody?

Glen

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Messages from multiple threads combined. Personal message and link sent to glen.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: GUEST,Jenny Fitz
Date: 03 May 01 - 01:31 AM

I enjoyed all the discussion regarding this song and I had needed the words and author, so many thanks.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Jacob B
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 11:00 AM

Here is a link to the mini mart song.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 10:21 PM

I remember the mini mart song. It's about a starving band lifting food, and vowing that after they make it, they'll pay the mini-mart back. "Good People" is a great feelgood song, and I doubt Ken Hicks minds how people customize it to taste. -- MA

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 12 Jan 01 - 04:44 PM

I heard Ken Hicks sing this at a festival in Virginia many years ago and it has been a favorite of mine ever since. Love the sentiment, love the tune, and even though the words aren't Pulitzer prize winning poetry, they get the job done in a charming sort of way. Ken also did a song about relieving a mini mart of a few things which were crowding its shelves.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Jan 01 - 12:34 AM

Yep, Sandy - I changed the first message to reflect what you do with the verse. You also do the 'sing for my lady' verse a bit differently -

This is a song I sing for my lady
I sing for the lady who puts up with me
My ramblin', my roamin', my late night come-homin'
She is the sunshine that shines down on me.

And I like your recording very much, Sandy.
For those don't know, Sandy Paton's recording of the song is on For All the Good People: A Golden Ring Reunion. It's available at Folk-Legacy Records, of course. All of the Golden Ring CD's are classics.
-Joe Offer, a completely unbiased and objective reviewer-

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 11 Jan 01 - 08:47 PM

Listen again, Joe, to the version I sing. The "women" kitchen assignment always rubbed me a bit the wrong way, so I usually sing "people" again there, even though it repeats the opening line of the first verse. Did I decide to sing it as Ken wrote it when I recorded it? If I did, I'm sorry. I've always noticed that men friends can offer nourishing meals and sympathetic hearts, too.

As for the "others" verse: I believe it was a mutual effort by Bob Zentz and Gordon Bok, ribbing Ken a bit. I think I remember them singing it for him at Old Songs, years ago. However they euphemized with "screwed up my life," eschewing the F word the Berrymans warn us about.

The one verse I failed to record, and wish I had, is the "back steps and stages, for hugs and for wages," which was added by Joan Sprung. Ken Hicks loves that one.

Sandy

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 01 - 02:42 PM

Well, I can't say whether the song is quality stuff or not. I suppose there's all sorts of things about it you could criticize, but I like it. It's easy to sing and people like to sing it; it expresses a good sentiment; and it's easy to add "custom" verses to it. Whadda ya want, Stravinsky?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Jacob B
Date: 11 Jan 01 - 02:28 PM

The one time I saw Bob Zentz, he added another verse to this song:


This is a verse for all the other people
All the other people who fucked up my life
Some by invention, and some by intention
And some I won't mention, because of my wife


He had made a reference earlier to Gordon Bok having made up a "truly awful" verse to the song. I suspect that this was the verse he was referring to.

His wife was sitting next to him on the stage when he sang the song. She grimaced at this verse. Come to think of it, she might have been the one who used the phrase "truly awful".

Jacob

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 06:42 PM

Well, in my home, we have a working mother and a househusband who does get easily offended by teachers and others always asking for Mom first.

All points are considered. MT and MAG....have at it! Now that Allan has mentioned it, I'm inclined to agree.

Spaw

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 06:36 PM

You can read into it whatever you want, based, if you like, on your experience of groupies. But all it says is food and heart's ease.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 06:27 PM

And how familiar are you with the groupie scene, friend???

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 06:22 PM

MAG, it was the heart? Sounds like he's talking about food and good conversation. Anything else I would submit is a product of the dirty mind of the listener.

JMHO,
Alex

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Allan C.
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 06:17 PM

Mess with the lyrics all you want. It couldn't hurt. This still has the potential for being among the dullest songs I have ever had the misfortune of hearing. The sentiment is lovely; but I have yet to hear a delivery that was able to overcome the endlessly repetitive tune and the clonish verses. I sincerely hope that there are those among you who have found innovative treatments for this song that somehow improve it.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 05:48 PM

Actually, it wasn't just food; that was part of my point ...

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: MMario
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 04:47 PM

'spaw's a good cook tho.

still - considering the first couplet of that verse

"This is a verse for all the good women
Who knew what I needed was something they had "

I'd be releaved he went with food

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 04:40 PM

If I am fed many good meals by women, but few or none by men, and I write a song thanking the wonderful people I've known, should I just not mention it? Are we so politically correct we must change our personal history to avoid offending someone?

Alex

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 04:26 PM

From what I would guess about the quality of Spaw's cooking, it's no wonder he expects his "wimmenfolk" to do it...
[grin]
-Joe Offer, a decent cook-

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 04:16 PM

You don't have a problem with "food on the table," etc., being applied only to women???

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 02:59 PM

I guess I'm an old fart.........I like some of the new verses added here, but the sexist bit.............

Some songs are sung by men, others by women. Sometimes we sing songs written from the other gender's point of view without changing the lyric. Sometimes we change the lyric to fit. Sometimes, as above, somebody comes up with a "unisex" version. All well and good and part of the process. HOWEVER, describing it as "sexist" bothers me as it implies, in today's vernacular, both chauvinism and slander. I don't see the intent or message of the original doing either.

Spaw

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 02:36 PM

The adapted verse above, "all my companions," is also how Fred Holstein sings/sang that verse -- he also found the original sexist. -- MA

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 10:23 AM

This is a verse for the won't-sing-alongers
The folks who are keeping their song in a cage
Here's a request to the won't-sing-alongers
Let fly your voice and the world be your stage

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE (Ken Hicks, others)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 03:08 AM

All the Good People
(Ken Hicks - adapted by Carol Holdstock, Faith Petric, and others)

Chorus:
This is a song for all the good people
All the good people I've known in my life
This is a song for all the good people
The people I'm thanking my stars for tonight.

This is a song for all my companions
who knew what I needed and shared what they had-   
food on the table, a heart that was able,
able to keep me just this side of sad.
(Chorus)

This is a song for all the good travelers
Who passed through my life as they moved along-
The ramblers, the thinkers, the just-one-more drinkers,
Each took the time to sing me a song.
(Chorus)

This is a song for all the good singers,
The songs and the music, the jokes good and bad.
We sang in the kitchen, had no competition
Each knowing the other was a good friend to have.
(Chorus)

Some helped in small ways; some helped me always.
Some cheered me on when I ran out of fight-
Many a dear friend, though a one-time-a-year friend
I know they would come if I called them tonight.
(Chorus)

Carol sings the chorus between each verse and at the beginning and end of the song. The words "shared what they had" in the first verse are Carol's.

That last verse she sent doesn't seem right - I'll ask her about it and post corrections. She said Ken Hicks heard her sing this version and liked it better than his own. I agree.

I have one verse that I made up:

This is a verse I sing for my children
They are the love and the hope of my life
May they have peace, may they have joy
May they keep faith through all trouble and strife.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE (Ken Hicks, Bob Fitch
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 02:51 AM

I love this song, but I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the lyrics because they seem borderline sexist to me. On the New Golden Ring CD called All the Good People, Sandy Paton sings the lyrics exactly as I posted them above (and of course he does a stunning job). My friend Bob Fitch (now of Santa Cruz) wrote some different lyrics and used them at a funeral of a folkie friend in December, 1997. I can't say I'm completely in love with Bob's version, but it has some good qualities. I do like the "those who left early" verse - because I dearly loved the man it was written for. I hate Bob's "great kiddos" verse - but I have to admit it's pure Bob Fitch.
-Joe Offer-

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ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE
(Ken Hicks - adapted by Bob Fitch)

This is a song for all the good people
All the good people I've known in my life.
This is a song for all the good people
People I'm thanking my stars for tonight.

This is a verse for all the kind people
Who knew what I needed was something they had
Food on the table, a heart that was able
Able to keep me just this side of sad.

This is a verse for all the great kiddos
Whose adventures & questions keep my life new
The hugs and the dancing,
The silly goof prancing
The love that they give recycles anew.

This is a verse for all my work comrades
Whose shared goals & passions help keep our work kind
The caring for others, our sisters & brothers
Surpasses the force of the greed & the grind.

And this is a verse for those who left early
A legacy clear for all friends to see.
The way that life humbles, the joys and the tumbles.
The way that they lived this speaks daily to me.

This is a verse for the pickers and singers
Whose songs & whose voices have blended with mine
On the back steps & stages, for hugs & for wages,
It's some kind of sharing & some kind of fine.

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: Roger Himler
Date: 16 Aug 98 - 05:42 PM

Thanks Joe,

I forget about this song. I first heard Bob Zentz do it a few years back. It tingles my spine just reading it again!! God I love it when music does that.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: LYRICS ADD: All the Good People
From: rich r
Date: 15 Aug 98 - 11:36 PM

Nice mellow song. Somewhere I have a recording of Fred Holstein of Chicago singing this. Without looking for it I can't remember if it was from a concert setting or was from the old Flea Market radio show in the 80's which was hosted by such notables as Fred himself, Jim Post, and last but not leased, Art Thieme.

rich r

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE (Ken Hicks)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Aug 98 - 03:33 PM

ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE
by Ken Hicks, published by Folk Legacy Records

This is a song for all the good people
All the good people who touched up my life.
This is a song for all the good people
People I'm thankin' my stars for tonight.

This is a verse for all the good women *
Who knew what I needed was something they had
Food on the table, a heart that was able
Able to keep me just this side of sad.

This is a song for all the good fellows
Who shared up my time, some good and some bad
We drank in the kitchen and shared no competition
Each knowing the other was a good friend to have

This is a song for all the good people
All the good people who touched up my life.
Some helped in small ways, and some helped in hallways
And some always told me you're doin' all right.

This is a song I sing for my lady
For my lady who puts up with me
My ramblin' and roamin', my late night come-homin'
She is the sunshine that flows down on me.

This is a verse for the pickers and singers
Whose songs and whose voices have blended with mine
On the back steps and stages, for hugs and for wages,
It's some kind of sharing and some kind of fine.

A E D A / D A D E / A E D A / D A E A

*Sandy Paton sings this line:

This is a song for all the good people

He uses the first verse as a chorus, sung after every verse.

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Here are the lyrics and notes from the Folk-Legacy recording:

ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE

(Ken Hicks, BMI)
Folk-Legacy Records, Inc., BMI, 1987

Sandy Paton: guitar, lead vocal; Dave Para: guitar, vocal; Cathy Barton: banjo, vocal; Additional chorus vocals: Caroline Paton, Ed Trickett, Harry Tuft Ken Hicks, the "round mound of sound" from Virginia Beach, VA, is known for his humorous songs delivered amid monologues that leave one's laugh-muscles aching. But, occasionally, one catches a glimpse of the sensitive and caring person that lives within the clown. This song, a simple "thank you" written for his friends and his wife, could be a theme sono for all of those who enjoy sharing good songs and good times with good people - in other words: for all the "Golden Rings" that gather to make music in kitchens and living rooms everywhere. Many singers have added verses to this song, including loan Sprung, Bob Zentz, and Ken himself. In fact, Ken says, "It's not unusual for someone to change verses or add new ones to thank their own 'good people,' so if this is, one day, the longest song ever written, I'll be pleased as punch." (Sandy Paton) This is a song for all the good people, All the good people who've touched up my life. This is a song for all the good people, People I'm thanking my stars tor tonight. This is a song for all the good people Who knew what I needed was something they had: Food on the table, a heart that was able, Able to keep me just this side of sad. And this is a song for all the good fellows Who shared up my times, the good and the bad. We sang in the kitchen, held no competition, Each knowing the other was a good friend lo have. And this is a song I sing for my lady, I sing for the lady who puts up with me, My rambling my roaming my late-night come-homin; She is the sunshine that shines down on me.

©1992 Folk-Legacy Records, Inc. Sharon, Connecticut 06069

Source: Cathy Barton & Dave Para Website.