Lyr Req: Marcus (Pamela Polland)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Marcus (Pamela Polland)
From: Helen
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 03:53 PM

Gentle Soul - Marcus

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: hesperis
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 01:21 PM

No bad ones really, only half-finished ones, or ones that are GREAT choruses and wouldn't come up with verses for themselves, the buggers! (Thanks.)

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 04:53 AM

Bugger! Half the post fell out!

I didn't read this story the first time round... thank you for what ever reason made you refresh it..... I really think someone should post the link to the involved parties.

Hesp - beautiful again... never written a bad one yet, have you?!

LTS

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 04:51 AM

I named my daughter after my great grandmother, but could just as easily claim I named her after a line in 'Thousands or more'.. Bright Phoebe arises, so early in the sky... although she is developing her mothers' hedgehog habits... rolling into a ball when disturbed and waiting till the disturber goes away!

LTS

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: CStrong
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 05:59 PM

The real power of the internet is that it brings out people who want to share information. This was the best example I've seen yet.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 02:34 PM

Well I'm glad this thread came up again, I commend it to all as a tear duct flusher, and a restorative in the goodness of human nature. Had I remembered it when there was a thread nominating favourite Mudcat threads it would have been right up there.
I named my son Ewan in honour of Ewan McColl, if it's of any interest.
Giok

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: hesperis
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 02:17 PM

My name it is a song
My daddy died before too long
My mother never knew
The origin of the tune

And now the magic key
The song has been restored to me
New friends the search did try
My mother heard and cried

My father's gift to me
Came with such sweet history
I am my father's son
Marcus, named with love

Awww.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: priestess
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 12:52 PM

Dear Marcus and Friends,
This was a great thread for me to read because I just joined mudcat and had to laugh at how we are all connected!
After Rick Stanley made the Gentle Soul album he did some
recordings for the Transcendental Meditation Program singing with Paul Fauerso.
In the mid 1970s some friends and I sang and wrote with him too --doing T>M. inspired music.
Saw him recently playing his beautiful harp and singing with the same warm voice as ever in Fairfield, Iowa.
You all might like his CD
The Ballad of Bothwell and Marie where he plays harp etc and does the vocals.

can be purchased through Celticharps.com

Marcus--I hope you connect with Rick. This is a great tale!
You might also be fated to do a little meditation!!

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 06:25 AM

GUEST of 2003-12-20 - I'm sharing your feelings. Wonderful thread.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 02:43 AM

Mary Katherine,

This little story keeps growing and growing. You could probably have e-mailed Billy James the site address for this thread. He and Marcus would probably get as much of a kick out of it as the rest of us.

Helen

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: GUEST,Mary Katherine
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 12:06 AM

I took it a step further, and sent, not the whole thread, but just Marcus' original letter and Pamela Polland's reply, to Billy James, so that he can email it on to his (now grown up) son Marcus, who after all started this whole thing!! And I'm sure Billy and Marcus James will be glad to know that somewhere out there was growing up another Marcus, named after the song they inspired, and that, like them, that Marcus loves folk music too.

Mary Katherine

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 09:45 PM

I listened to the snippet of the lullaby and got spine chills. Congratulations, Marcus, for the happy ending of your quest.

Wonder how many people sat at their computers and cried as they read the saga? Somehow, Pamela Pollard's saying "after all, I am the composer of the song" was the over-the-top bit that made me overflow. Wonderful story.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Big Mick
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 09:25 PM

In the history of this place there are a number of good threads, a somewhat smaller group of great threads, and then there is that very exclusive and very small group of threads that are so wonderful as to be beyond description. My opinion is that this one belongs in that latter group.

Helen....you did great work, m'dear. I am proud to be associated with you here. Marcus, congratulations on finding the song. I like your style and I would join in the chorus of others who hope you will join as a member and contribute often.

This is why I love the Mudcat.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Helen
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 04:48 PM

T-boy, I don't think Marcus's wife or my hubby would like that! :-)

Helen

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Cool Beans
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 11:07 AM

Somebody could just trim and publish this whole thread as a short story. It's wonderful. Getting everyone's permission might be tricky.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: freightdawg
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 11:01 AM

I couldn't help but think as I read this thread that "there has to be a song in here somewhere." I believe that somewhere out there in Mudcat land there is a songwriter who could put this story to music. It is sort of a "Puff the Magic Dragon" loss of innocence kind of thing, but in reverse - it really is about the rediscovery of innocence. How many people are named for old friends or meaningful people, and yet how many ever get to know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would put it. Just a thought though. It's a great story and I echo the sentiments about how timely it is.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: smallpiper
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 09:36 AM

good story but I wonder what the hell that post from Artimis L. was all about!

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: GUEST,T-boy
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 07:58 AM

So, when are Marcus and Helen getting married ?

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 08:16 PM

I just now came back to this....how very, very wonderful!

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 08:13 PM

Great thread folks.......Nothing to be said about things like this. Simply beautiful. Sometimes the magic works!!!!!!!!

Then again, sometimes it doesn't.............

I gave my sons middle names for the two closest and absolutely greatest friends I, or any man, could ever have in a lifetime. Before either boy was 5, they were both gone......Alan from a heart attack and Dennis from cancer. Should I have any more children I will not name them after anyone I know.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Helen
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 02:21 PM

Uh oh, jaze, it was about 20% expertise and 80% dumb luck, really. If the song hadn't been called "Marcus" I don't know what I could have looked for next. It would have been a hard slog looking through Google search results based on a couple of search terms.

I don't want to become the "egg-spurt" here. We are all egg-spurts here at Mudcat, in our own field, and in our own way.

I'm just happy to have helped, and to have been a part of this lovely story. Thanks, Marcus, for coming to Mudcat and asking your question.

Helen

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: jaze
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 02:04 PM

What a great story and what a great ending! I'll remember you,Helen next time I'm on a quest. Happy Holidays, everyone.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 12:20 PM

AW, the POWER of MUSIC.

I visited Pamela's site to hear the song.

Someone should introduce her to Mudcat.

An old, hardened, unsentimental man who was a bit damp-eyed by this unfolding story.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: SINSULL
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 11:38 AM

A Mudcat moment. God bless us, everyone. And merry Christmas, Marcus.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: cobber
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 08:04 AM

Wow folks, this has been some thread. I named my son Gilbert because that was my grandmother's maiden name so Marcus, you might even have some distant relatives here in Australia. Merry Christmas everyone.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Mudlark
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 02:42 AM

Marcus, the gift of your story is rivaled only by the gift of Helen's wonderful expertise. Thank you both so much for this most Christmassy tale...it is truly heart-warming, a much overworked phrase that in this case is, if anything, an understatement.

Nancy (of the laughing face...)

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: GUEST,Emotional Heap guest
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 08:44 PM

Thankyou Marcus for sharing this with us.

My Dad died seven weeks ago, and I am sitting here now with streams of tears running down my face,not through sadness though, but because I know how lucky I was to have known him.Something reminds me of that fact every day that passes, and today Marcus you reminded me.

I am so happy your quest was fruitful.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: open mike
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 08:28 PM

wonderful, wunnerful, wunnerful!!
It warms the cockles (?) of my
heart to be amongst you fellow cats!
And speaking of names, our younger
daughter was named Muir, after John
Muir. She recently wrote a paper in
college comparing John Muir to Julia
Butterfly. Both loved redwoods, and
wanted to fight to save them from
destruction. If you don't know of
these people, Muir was a great
conservationist, and the founder of
the Sierra Club and early National
Parks proponent. Julia Butterfly Hill
sat in a giant redwood named Luna for
2 years in order to prevent the tree
from being cut down in the Headwaters
old growth grove. A name can take you
places you never thought it would.
My name is Laurel, and this summer
I was in Laurel, NE, Laurel, MT and
searching for other places with "my"
name.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:36 PM

..funny greg, as I remember you don't LOOK like a glass of.....never mind, I'll get me coat

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 06:52 PM

What a great thread. Makes it all worthwhile. I feel like a glass of sherry and a mince pie.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: GUEST,nancy king's secret santa
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 06:48 PM

So were you named after "Adieu sweet lovely Nancy" or "The streams of lovely Nancy"? Or possibly King's Polka No 1 or King's Polka No 2? Enjoy the CD. Glad to see the parcel has arrived Ho Ho Ho!

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Nancy King
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 06:12 PM

Fabulous story! Congratulations to all involved! Helen, you give Mudcat AND librarians a good name!

Cheers, Nancy

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 05:37 PM

A bit like a Frank Capra movie - just in time for Christmas. Thanks Marcus, and thanks Helen.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From:
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 05:33 PM

Well I had to drive 40 miles to find it, but I went out and purchased the CD today. The song is a very sweet lullaby. It is very touching since I have no memory of my father ever singing me a lullaby. Now I have a wonderful song to sing to my children at night.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 02:07 AM

Aw, what a nice story this thread turned out to be! I'll have to have my wife read this one - I'm sure it'll bring a tear to her eye. Helen, you're a treasure!
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: karen k
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 01:22 AM

Nice story. Great job, Helen.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Helen
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 11:37 PM

Well, here is the next interesting connection. I play Celtic harp too, in an amateur, dabbling kind of way, and I notice that Rick Stanley now makes and plays harps. He may still be on the e-mail Harplist that I have been a member of for about 7 years, as well. Six degrees of separation!

Helen

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Tinker
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 10:53 PM

Marcus, thank you so much for sharing your story. Great job Helen.

Tinker

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Amos
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 10:43 PM

WOW!!

Nice job, Marcus!

A

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 10:41 PM

Happy Belated Birthday, Marcus!
Thanks for coming back and telling us the rest of the story. I love happy endings!

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From:
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 10:17 PM

Thought I would give you all an update. When I found the song the first person I called was my mother. She imediatly began to cry when I played her the short clip of the song from the web. She assured me that it was the song. I snooped around a bit more and found the website and email address for Pamela Polland (half of The Gentle Soul). I decided to drop her an email just to see if I could find out more about the song. Here is the email I sent and her reply.

My father passed away when I was just 4 years old. All my life I was told by my mother that I was named after a song that he loved, but she could never remember the artist or album. All she could tell me was that the album cover was green and "springy' and that the lyrics said somthing like 'Marcus tell me a story, you can, I know you can". I have spent much of my adult life trying to locate the song, even searching the library of congress to see I could find any clues there. Today, 2 days after my 32nd birthday, I posted a message to a folk music message board called Mudcat. Within hours I had the answer I have waited my whole life for.   Someone named Helen posted a short message with a link to a band called Gentle Soul. After clicking around the net for a bit I was led here where I heard a clip from the song that verified it is what I have searched so long for. Now, not only do I have the chance to hear a small portion of the song, but also to email you and get a little insight into the inspiration and origin of the lyrics.

If it is mot to much trouble I would like to ask what the song was written about? What is it about? I would also like to ask what became of Rick Stanley? Did he make any music after Gentle Soul?

Thank you for any information you can share with me about the song. I have had very few ties to my father in my life, so I cherish every chance share something with him, even if only in memory.

Thanks again,
Marcus Gilbert

and her reply


Hi Marcus,

I was very touched by your story, and delighted that you chose to write me, because, after all, I am the composer of the song.

When Rick and I were together as The Gentle Soul, we had manager whose name was Billy James, and Billy had a son named Marcus. At the time I wrote the song, Marcus was 8 years old and I wrote it as a lullaby for him and as a gift to his dad. That was around 1966 or '67, so that would make Marcus James about 4 years (or so) older than you.

We all lived in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles at that time.

I wonder if your dad was a fan of The Gentle Soul, or if he even knew any of us?? It was mostly me and Rick, but over the 3 years we lived and played together as a band, we had a potpourie of musicians working with us.

The Gentle Soul album is hard to find. It crops up on EBay now and again for around a $100 or so, but a very nice record company out of upstate New York reissued the album earlier this year, and you can buy it right off their website for around $20.

www.sundazed.com

You asked about Rick - he has continued to play music all these years and you can read all about what he's up to now at:

www.celticharps.com

I'm not sure what site you went to to hear "Marcus", but just in case it wasn't mine, you can read about what I've been up to at:

www.pamelapolland.com

We're all so very web established, aren't we??? :)

Anyway, I hope this has been helpful. I'm quite honored that someone named their son after my song, and it does make me wish *I* knew you dad too!! And maybe I did - but my brain cells don't work very well remembering that far back.......

Happy holidays to you and yours.
With warm aloha from Maui,
Pamela Polland

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 07:55 PM

I'm rather impressed, too. I'd had a quick look round but saw no obvious leads. Well done, Helen. I was uncomplicatedly named after my grandfather, but my mother was named after a ship. I suppose I should look into that...

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Amos
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 07:35 PM

Very, very well done, Helen!!

A

Jim, my daughter was named after a woman I admire -- Ariel Durant -- she hadn't gotten out of grade school before the Disney mob encroached on her name-space with that damned mermaid. Sigh.


A

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Helen
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 07:25 PM

Marcus, You've made my day too, because I was so happy to find it for you. I was settled in to a good info-detective search and was so surprised when it only took me a couple of goes and about 10 minutes.

One of these years we are going to go over to the U.S. for a visit, and Utah is definitely now on my list.

This, I think, is one of the nicest, happiest Christmas presents I've ever given anyone. giving is definitely as much fun as receiving in this case.

Helen

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Joybell
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 06:58 PM

Yes Marcus, Please do. Your story is a sort of song-legend.
         Joy (named for the emotion but present in a lot of songs).

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 06:43 PM

Why don't you stick around as a member, Marcus?

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 06:43 PM

I can't think of a time when anyone gave us a better reason for wanting to find a song.

Which reminds me, my own son acquired the nickname "Bunkie" when he was a baby—and we used that name for several years—because I was reminded of a line from an old comedy routine that goes "Is that what's bothering you, Bunkie?" At that time, I couldn't remember the name of the comedian who had used that line. So I wrote to the St. Paul Pioneer Press—they have a feature called Bulletin Board that operates a lot like Mudcat, but with an editor—and they came up with the name for me. It's Eddie "The Old Philosopher" Lawrence. You can hear a bit of his original routine on the "Dr. Demento 25th Anniversary Collection" at Barnes & Noble.

My son's real name is William, and we called him Willie after he outgrew Bunkie. We weren't thinking of Willie Dixon when we named him; that was just a happy coincidence, but when I later remembered the blues musician I made a point of obtaining a couple of his albums—any excuse to get my son interested in music. It worked, sort of. My son is now a bass player—electric bass guitar, that is.

I think more people ought to name their kids after people they admire, or songs they like. It's one way we can pass some of our values on to our children.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 05:36 PM

I LOVE YOU HELEN!!!!!

I have been searching for years and thanks to you and this wonderful group I have heard the song I was named after. IF any of you are ever in Utah I will buy you dinner!!!

Thanks again,
Marcus

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Amos
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 03:37 PM

It actually goes, "Oh, MArcus can I tell you a story -- I can, you know I can -- I'm gonna tell you stories about your daddy..."

which under the circumstances is a bit ironic and reveals you may be heir to a sense of humor!


A

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Helen
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 02:56 PM

I'm wrong about the lyrics "Oh Marcus, tell us, tell us a story" but hubby is still asleep (It's 6.55 am here in Oz so I can't turn it up loud). Also, Ry Cooder plays on the album. Interesting!

Helen

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: open mike
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 02:44 PM

wooo hoo i love the mud cat!!
always find an answer...and
usually it is the right answer!
congrats marcus...you asked the
right question to the right group.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Helen
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 02:35 PM

Is it this one from 1968?

All Music Guide - Gentle Soul

You can use the search box on that site and put Marcus in it, then click on "song" and a number of songs with the name in the title pop up.


It does have a "springy" cover and there is a CD reissue this year, so you can listen to the song here.

CD Universe - listen to the track

Okay, am I good or what!! (Sometimes my librarian skills still surprise me). Listen to the track. It starts, "Oh Marcus, tell us, tell us a story".

Helen

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 12:56 PM

Phew! I'm glad you weren't named John Jacob Ingleheimer Schmidt!

Jerry (named after my five year old sister's love of her life at the time..)

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Brakn
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 11:19 AM

That album "Marcus" had Marcus Malone on vocals and Tim Bogert on bass so I suppose it would be "rock". Marcus Malone played percussion on Santana's Abraxas.

Subject: RE: Help finding song I was named after
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 10:44 AM

Well, there was a band called Marcus that brought out their self-titled album in 1970. AMG - All Music Guide classifies it as "rock" but that seems to be the default classification for any album they know nothing about. I wish I could help you more.

Subject: Help finding song I was named after
From:
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 09:35 AM

My father named me after a folk song that he really liked. He passed away when I was 4 and my mother was never able to remember the song or artist. Here is what I know:

It was an album released before Dec 1971
My mother thinks the lyrics said something like "Marcus tell us a story. I know you can"
She thinks is was performed by a group of 3 or 4 people
The album cover was green and "springy"

That is all I know.

Thanks for your help solving this mystery.
Marcus