Recording of Golden Vanity

Subject: Recording of Golden Vanity
From:
Date: 29 Sep 98 - 04:55 AM

I have 'The Golden Vanity', sung by Gordon Bok, taped from the radio in 1978 or so. I love the recording and would like to find the album or CD it is on. I've tried the Forum Search and Universal CDs (I think) in vain. Can anyone point me in the right direction, or perhaps just give the album title and year? Thanks! - Susanne

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 29 Sep 98 - 07:35 AM

Folk-Legacy Records has lots of Gordon Bok. You can find The Golden Vanity on "The First Fifteen Years, vol 2" (Bok, Muir, Trickett). See the description at:

http://www.folklegacy.com/cd/tbm.htm

....Tiger

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 29 Sep 98 - 08:20 AM

Rory Block does a great version. I don't know which recording tho.

Bob S.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Craig
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 01:39 AM

The Brothers Four(I believe) also recorded another version. I think I have on a CD,but it's at my brothers.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Terry
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 01:53 AM

Rory's is on her compilation CD "Best Blues and Originals"

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: BSeed
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 01:59 AM

I think I first heard it by Burl Ives about 40 years ago. --seed

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From:
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 02:57 AM

In some versions the ship is called The Sweet Trinity.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: folk1234
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 12:27 PM

The Chad Mitchell Trio did a faster and more bouncy version of this on one of their albums of the mid-late 60's. Their harmonies, of course, were great. I have it somewhere.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Bruce O.
Date: 30 Sep 98 - 05:14 PM

The Sweet Trinity is the name of the ship in the original broadside, ZN2370 in the index on my website. It was printed June-Nov., 1685. (Child #286)

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Craig
Date: 01 Oct 98 - 12:01 AM

folk1234-I believe your right. It is the Chad Mitchell Trio version I have. Sorry to try to steer you wrong.

Craig

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: rechal
Date: 01 Oct 98 - 05:04 PM

Caryl P. Weiss also sings it (accompanied by Dennis Gormley, who occasionally posts on Mudcat) on her album (which is probably out of print) entitled, "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm."

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: greg
Date: 01 Oct 98 - 05:37 PM

Steeleye Span have done a great version of it (I'm not really biased!) its on an "various artists" album called "The Best of British Folk Rock" by Park Records (www.parkrecords.com) nice plug there.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From:
Date: 06 Oct 98 - 05:06 AM

Thanks to you all. I've no doubt there are great versions around - it is a very colourful song, and I also have 'The Sweet Kumadie' by Ewan MacColl. However, all I want is a decent quality copy of Gordon Bok's version because even in the very bad copy I have the combination of the events and the voice makes my hair stand on end every time I listen to it. I should be able to find it now! - Susanne

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Stacy
Date: 06 Oct 98 - 10:31 AM

Has anyone heard the version of this song done by 'Three Sheets to the Wind'? What a great name for a three person band whose focus is sea shantys! I forget the female vocalist's name, but she has a powerhouse of a voice!

Stacy

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,phloodleduck
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 08:39 PM

I heard the golden vanity recorded on the very first record I ever owned. It was sung by a man I think was Paul Evans. There were other ballads on the record, but I can't get them off the tip of my toung into this message. The singer played a a regular guitar and had no back-up singers. I really miss that record. A large part of the attraction was the fact that another song had the phrase "damn his eyes" which was really racy in my conservative upbringing. Does anyone have an idea about the record, singer, or a web site and key phrases that I should enter. I'm not computer smart and would appreciate any help.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Maryrrf
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 09:43 PM

I remember that record. My dad had it. The song you're referring to is "The Ballad of Sam Hall". I think the words are in the DT. I found Paul's website http://www.paulevans.com . Looks like he did a lot more pop than folk, but the album you're referrin to is "Folk Songs of Many Lands". I loved his version of "The Golden Vanity". As a matter of fact I recorded that song on my CD and it's very similar to Paul's version - you can listen to a couple of lines here: http://www.maryfsmith.freeservers.com/recordings.htm .

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Peace
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 09:45 PM

I entered

golden vanity, recording, evans

in a Google search. See if that helps you. If I can help further, post back here.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Peace
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 09:47 PM

Sorry Maryrrf. Cross posted. The google I did took me to the same site.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: DonMeixner
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 12:12 AM

My favorite Golden Vanity is the version Art Thieme sings. Just different enough to be memorable.

Don

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Roberto
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 01:35 AM

Among the many recordings of this ballad, The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity) (Child #286), I would suggest the following from traditional and revival singers:
Traditional singers:

The Golden Victory (Dodie Chalmers)
The Golden Vanity (Bill Cameron)
The Golden Vanity (Johnny Doughty)
The Golden Vanity (Duncan Williamson)
The Golden Willow Tree (Justus Begley)
A Ship Set Sail For North America (Ollie Jacobs)
Merry Golden Tree (Almeda Riddle)
Lowland Low (Frank Proffitt)
The Lowlands Low (Warde Ford)
The Golden Vanity (Doug Wallin)
The Merry Golden Tree (Jean Ritchie)
The Turkish Rebelee (Horton Barker)

Revival singers:
The Golden Vanity (A. L. Lloyd)
The Golden Vanitee (Tony Rose)
The Sweet Kumadee (Ewan MacColl)
The Sweet Kumadie (Ian Manuel)
The Sweet Kumadee (Tom Spiers – The Gaugers)
The Old Virginia Lowlands (Martin Carthy & John Kirkpatrick – Brass Monkey)
The Golden Vanity (Jez Lowe)
The Green Willow Tree (Brian Peters & Gordon Tyrrall)
The Turkish Revery (Daithi Sproule)
Turkey Reveille (Barbara Dane)
The Golden Vanity (Paul Wilson, Dead Maid's Land)
The Golden Vanity (Martyn Wyndham-Read)
The Turkish Revelee (Paul Clayton)
Sinking in the Lonesome Sea (The Carter Family)
Sinking in the Lonesome Sea (The New Lost City Ramblers)
The Golden Vanity (Jody Stecher)
The Golden Vanity (Alan Mills)

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: bill kennedy
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 08:48 AM

Susan Reed did a lovely version on one of her albums

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 10:46 AM

Don, thanks. That's nice to know. My rendition of the Golden Vanity (recorded live at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas) will be on a planned CD to be called "Art Thieme--On The River" which Sandy Paton will be issuing down the road on Folk Legacy Records.

That will be after the CD called " A.T.--Chicago Town And Points West" comes out.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Peter T.
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 07:34 PM

Not to mention Richard Dyer-Bennett.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,Scott S.
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 07:49 PM

both Joan Baez and Carolyn Hester did lovely versions of this song in the 60's.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 09:07 PM

My father sang a very nice version of the song. Often times it was while he was sitting on the side of the bed at bedtime, and he sang several requests for each of us (he also had us pinned by the sheets as a captive audience when he was learning new songs).

SRS

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 09:26 PM

I should add that he learned the words he sang from the Penguin Book of English Folksongs.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,spiriteagle20
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 08:55 PM

Paul Evans Folk Songs From many Lands includes Golden Vanity

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,Frank Lee
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 09:18 PM

Lonnie Donegan recorded this. I had a copy, on a 78 I think.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Leadbelly
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:07 PM

Frank, thanks for mentioning Lonnie's version! Where have all british mudcatters been from 98 to 05?

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Zhenya
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:16 PM

Bruce Molsky's version of this is called The Golden Willow Tree, and it's on his album Soon Be Time.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:25 PM

There's a rather odd version by Woody & Cisco. The best imho is by Jez Lowe.
Doc John

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Stewie
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 06:24 PM

The rendition by Babara Dane, listed above by Roberto and titled 'Turkey Reveille', is first rate.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: bodgie
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 06:32 PM

There is a wonderful Australian version recorded from Simon McDonald and released as a field recording in the late 1950s on 'Traditional Singers & Musicians of Victoria'. It has been reissued. I subsequently recorded his version on my 1969 LP 'Limejuice & Vinegar' (EMI then reissued on Larrikin). It has (last week) been included in my 10CD set 'Australia: Its Folk Songs & Bush Verse' (ABC Music). The tradition lives and rolls down through time.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 06:35 PM

Roger McGuinn's version of Golden Vanity is superb, as of course is everything that Roger McGuinn has ever recorded.

Most of what Martin Simpson has recorded is magnificent as well, but unfortunately not his rendition of Golden Vanity, about which the less said the better.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 06:38 PM

I have been told that the late John Jacob Niles recorded this one, probably in the 1930's or '40's. Can anyone confirm?

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Don Firth
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 06:59 PM

"The Golden Vanity" was one of the first songs I learned back in the mists of antiquity (early 1950s). I learned it from one of Richard Dyer-Bennet's records. Nice version. But I had to sing it about seven octaves down.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: tdcrjeff
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 02:05 AM

Version by Crooked Still on their new album "Some Strange Country."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4J9ZV62vBs

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 04:41 AM

A propos this & another current thread, Folk Learned At School: The Golden Vanity was in one of the school songbooks ~~ I think one edited by Walford Davies, Master Of The King's Music in 1930s ~~ in use at Northampton Town & County School in about 1942. It is a widespread and well-known [even to children] ballad, by no means obscure, and so of course much recorded.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: kendall
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 07:13 AM

Does anyone know what happened to Caryl P. Weiss?

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Zen
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 07:28 AM

I quite like the version sung by Rory Block as well.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: alex s
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 10:51 AM

Brian Peters does a great version of this

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 01:32 PM

Loudon Wainwright IIi does it as "The Turkish Revelry" on Hal Wilmer's magnificent Rogues' Gallery compilation. And Alisdair Roberts has an excellent version on his new CD, Too Long in This Condition.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Larry The Radio Guy
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 11:35 PM

The first version of the song I ever heard was Lonnie Donegan's. I think it was the "b" side of either My Old Man's a Dustman, or Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Anglo
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 10:43 PM

To answer Kendall above:

Caryl P. Weiss lived in Texas for many years but moved back east not too long ago, 2 or 3 years maybe. She lives around Annapolis now and is still singing. Possibly she has done the odd reunion gig with the Liverpool Judies, but I heard Teresa Pyott just had bypass surgery.

Caryl was a featured performer at the Chicago Maritime Festival this last February, which is where I last saw her.

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Mike in Brunswick
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 11:43 PM

To add yet another name to the list of those recording The Golden Vanity - Pete Seeger on one of his American Ballads records.

Mike

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: raredance
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 11:50 PM

Australian folksinger Lionel Long had a version on his 1964 "Songs of the Sea" LP

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 Jul 18 - 10:22 AM

There's a bit of serendipity if you like - even if it is only from someone trying to sell something

I am at present assembling a file of recordings of Irish versions of the Child ballads for distribution to interested parties
I am told there is a recording of an Irish source singer singing The Golden Vanity - damned if I can find it
As I'm trying to show the historical existence of these ballads in the Irish tradition, I'm not interested in modern renditions which are copies from other traditions
I would also be happy to find a published text and tune
I wonder if any ballad buff can help
I thought there might be an American version taken ove by Emigrants -drew a blank on that too
I know there is an early 20th century parody of the ballad from Joyce's Ancient Music of Ireland entitled 'Lowlands Low' but nothing more
Any help would be very much appreciated and anybody interested in a copy of the project is very welcome to have on - PM me
Thanks
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Pamela R
Date: 23 Jul 18 - 11:16 AM

>I thought there might be an American version taken ove by Emigrants -drew a blank on that too

Jean Ritchie had it as "The Golden Vanity"
Alameda Riddle had it as "The merry willow tree"
I'm not aware of whether either of them was descended from Irish vs Scottish ancestry.

I can't recall a primary field recording from Ireland offhand, the geographically closest I can think of is Dodie Chalmers of Turriff, Aberdeenshire.   But it could be under so many different names it's hard to search for it. See the long list at:
http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/C286.html

P

Also

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 Jul 18 - 11:48 AM

Thanks Pamela
I don't think either had roots in Ireland
I've been though all the major American collections we have on the shelf
I'll check though your list
Much appreeciated
Jim

Subject: RE: Recording of Golden Vanity
From: Reinhard
Date: 23 Jul 18 - 01:18 PM

When I search for "Roud 122" and "Ireland" in the Roud Database, I find only one entry of The Golden Vanity:

The Golden Vanity
Roud Folksong Index (S384021)

First Line
    There was a gallant ship sailed on the Lowland Sea
Roud No
    122
Other nums
    Child 286
Source
    Kane, Songs & Sayings of an Ulster Childhood (1983) pp.130-131
Performer
    Kane, Alice
Place
    Northern Ireland : Belfast / Canada : Ontario : Toronto