Origins: Down the Corduroy Road

Subject: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 05:52 PM

I got a new song in the woods at Rainycamp yesterday..down the Corderoy Road..obviously from hearing down or up the Caribou road at the camp. Here is a picture

http://www.krisweb.com/krisbigriver/krisdb/html/krisweb/history/big_18.jpg

Anyone know the history of Carnation, WA and how it was named? After the dairy or was dairy named after? I will gogol in a bit. mg

Subject: RE: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: Stewie
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 06:34 PM

Some time ago, Art Thieme sent me a cassette of a powerful ballad by Dave Gordon titled 'In Wyandotte County' which uses that line as a refrain - for example:

Your wife, Martha, she yelled from the door at the rear
'You know, we don't allow any redskins in here'
Down by the Corderoy Road

It is probably not the song to which you refer - I think Wyandotte County is in Kansas - but it is first rate.

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: CORDUROY ROAD (Carolyn Leigh)
From: Peace
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 06:37 PM

Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh: "Corduroy Road"

Some more lyrics by one of my top three favourite lyricists, Carolyn Leigh. This song, "Corduroy Road," is from the musical Wildcat, where it was sung by a group of people working on an oil rig. It has all the stuff I love about Leigh -- lots of rhymes combined with language that is both colloquial and full of unique phrases ("the shriekin' of the spider"; "all the angels lettin' go"). And notice how, like most good lyricists, Leigh doesn't settle for generic or vague images; she deals in concrete images of things associated with the oil rig -- specific objects (winches, piping), sounds ("bangin' and clankin'), all leading up to the climactic image of what they're working up to ("the earth will explode").




Take up them hammers and lay down that plankin'
If you've a derrick you wanna get growed.
Here come the greaseballs a-bangin' and clankin',
Here come your cousins of Corduroy Road.

Tattoo and Sandy and Corky and Oney,
Cisco and me and the tools to unload.
Half of us stinkin' and all of us stoney,
Here come your cousins of Corduroy Road.

I wanna hear the moanin' and the windin' of the winches,
I wanna hear the grindin' of the gears.
The shriekin' of the spider on the pipin' where it pinches,
Buddy, that is music to my ears.
Talk about your Christmas and your choir singin' carols,
Talk of all the angels lettin' go,
Let me hear the rumble of a half a million barrels,
That's the only song I wanna know.
Corduroy Road, the highway to hell,
The wages are rotten, and so is the smell,
The whiskey runs low and the temperature high,
You can't see the sun for the mud in your eye,
Then all of a sudden the earth will explode,
And halfway to heaven is Corduroy Road.
Then all of a sudden the earth will explode,
And you're halfway up to heaven on the Corduroy Road.

Crude oil or sweet oil or oil to your order,
Oil for to light up your lady's abode.
If you've a well and you ain't yet explored 'er,
Count on your cousins from Corduroy Road,
Count on your wildcat cousins from Corduroy Road!

Subject: RE: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 07:18 PM

"Corduroy Road" in my experience refers to a temporary work road lined crosswise with small logs. It a useful way to cross wetland or other undeveloped areas. No roadbed is needed. We made use of the ones that the logging crews constructed in the Maine woods when I was doing reconnaisance geology mapping for the State back in the early 1960's. In a few short years the logs rot out, and the Corduroy Road is no more than a bumpy memory.

I assume something similar is being referred to in this song.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 07:45 PM

Yes...it is from the ox's point of view. mg

Subject: Lyr Add: DOWN THE CORDUROY ROAD
From: mg
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 12:32 AM

Here are some of the words...I forget the first two or so verses..

-----------
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Your master's name does he treat you fair
Down the corduroy road
Her name is Sue she's beyond compare
Down the beautiful corduroy road

Does she ever crack the whip...
Only when my feet should slip..

Does she move you to go faster
She says she'll put me out to pasture

Do you ever wish you were not yoked
There was that time I almost choked

How often have you climbed this mountain
So many times I just stopped counting

Heave and trudge heave and trudge..
An extra yank when the sled won't budge

A teamster's life is never dull
Not when there's all these trees to pull

We'll always work so have no fears
They'll need us for two hundred years

Subject: RE: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:56 AM

Thanks, mg!

We're putting together a recording of lumbering songs, from the woods to shipping them out to the mills, and everything in between. Does it have a traditional tune?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:17 PM

Well, probably it sounds fairly traditional....it is sort of going through my head.

I also have one I am fond of that is about the shingle bolt drivers coming down the Cowlitz River to Kelso and also probably several more..one about the pulp mills in Kelso...This ox one is sort of interesting because there is a woman in Centralia or Chehalis who puts on presentations as being a bullwhacker....a story in the paper about her. mg

Subject: RE: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:22 PM

THe NW CD that Stewart put together has some very good logging songs..a tree planting one Linda Allen sang but didn't write..Percy Hilo wrote a great one..I had one about hard times in Winlock, WA...probably more I can't remember. mg

Subject: RE: Origins: Down the Corderoy road
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 05:21 PM

mg-

I'll check my copy of Stewart's CD.

Charley Noble