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31 Dec 01 - 01:54 AM (#618892) Subject: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Bob Nelson (Deckman) posted the following on another thread: I've been eating fish exclusively
CHORUS Oh, the door is made of driftwood John [Dwyer], if you're a mudcatter, how about jumping in here and adding stuff. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson There are lots of great Northwestern songs that he used to sing, Old Settler Song (Acres of Clams) being about the earliest I remember. The title of the thread is actually the name of a poem by Emma Rounds that he liked and put to music. He wrote original songs about the Pig War on San Juan Island, and about the Blue Canyon mining disaster in Whatcom County, I think both were his own tunes. I'm sure I don't need to post a blue clicky thing for the Old Settler--that tune is Rosen the Bow. But is the song Bob posted available somewhere at Mudcat? I have the tune in my head, but that won't get it to this site in any meaningful way. (No osmosis, or communication without benefit of hardware, as has been discussed on another recent thread). This Ferry song was so appropriate to the Northwest (but probably originated someplace else). And then there is the classic, Frozen Logger, fake-song or folk-song, it's a wonderful slice of Northwest humor. What else is out there that people really enjoy singing, that fits best in the Pacific Northwest? Old Settler: I've wandered all over this country Frozen Logger: As I sat down one evening
I see you are a logger These have you humming the rest, don't they, if you're from the Northwest? Maggie |
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31 Dec 01 - 02:14 AM (#618902) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo I think Rosin is actually a person, not sticky stuff for violinists, and the tune should accordingly be spelt "Old Rosin the Beau". (Pedant! [raps knuckles]) Incidentally, there's an old Sedro-Woolley poem that is traditional in my family, that I wonder if there's a tune for. It starts On the banks of the mighty Skagit,Anybody? Liland with apologies to any offended by "Siwash" in this context |
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31 Dec 01 - 02:30 AM (#618906) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Liland,
I won't worry about the knuckle rapping on Rosin/Rosen if you'll take the hyphen out of Sedro Woolley! (grin)
A lot of the names of things I learned phonetically as a kid, and never saw in print. This could be one of them. A hilarious example of this was the Ezra Pound "Winter is a Cumin In" parody (and I don't have a CLUE as to how to spell it without it becoming a seasoning). He has a line "ague hath my ham" and I understand it perfectly as an adult. But as a child, and well-versed with Dr. Suess, it sounded to my ears like "egg, you hath my ham" and almost made some kind of sense. A friend who is a medieval scholar nearly broke something laughing so hard when I make a remark about this apparent nonsense line in that Pound poem (that I'd never seen written, just heard sung).
It's like I grew up speaking the music or folksong language, but stopped speaking it when I went off to college, so I never gained the adult syntax and meanings to things I filled in with my imagination as a child. I don't post to the list very often for that very reason. It's too easy to put my foot in it! Maggie
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31 Dec 01 - 02:32 AM (#618907) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Hi, Maggie-- That song of your dad's is a variant of Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim. The entry in the Digital Tradition has a link to the tune. Hope that helps! Aloha, Mark |
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31 Dec 01 - 02:36 AM (#618908) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo I wondered if you (or anyone) would catch that hyphen. It was deliberate. The pedantic side of me would justify it on the grounds that when an attributive adjective is made from a noun phrase, the constituents are properly linked by a hyphen. (In other words, "I like chocolate milk" but "Her skin was of a chocolate-milk complexion".) However, the poem in question provides a different justification, since it dates from a time (presumably the 1920's—or 1920s if you want to quibble about the apostrophe ;-) when Sedro[-]Woolley was normally a hyphenated name; the last stanza is So they formally buried the hatchetSeriously. Liland |
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31 Dec 01 - 02:49 AM (#618912) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Liland, Touché! Aren't you lucky I stumbled onto that so quickly, so you could spring your trap and not agonize that no one got the hyphen! ;-D I am going by the postmark (I lived out at Lake Whatcom for years, and was served by the Sedro Woolley post office). Mark, yes, that's the tune I had going in my head. I knew it was a parody of the sod shanty song, just hadn't taken the time to mull over the correct full name of it. In a similar vein, I love the transformation that Beulah Land makes when it arrives in the Northwest. I have a tape of Barre Tolken singing a version of it in a concert many years ago. Maggie |
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31 Dec 01 - 02:55 AM (#618913) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage P.S.--that wasn't meant to sound churlish, Liland. Your lacuna is my interstice. (BG) Maggie |
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31 Dec 01 - 07:00 AM (#618942) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman The varient of "Little old Log Cabin On The Claim" was taught to me by John Ashford, back in the fifties. His Father (Paul?) was a song collector of some note. Bob |
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31 Dec 01 - 07:25 AM (#618943) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Back in 1959, I witnessed quite a wonderful event. Don Firth, along with the wonderful, and beautiful I might add, Patti, produced and starred in a TV series of Folk Songs called "Ballads and Books." This was sponsored by the Seattle Public Library, hence the plug for books. Each of the shows had a distinct theme, and the fifth show was the bringing together, live on camera, of the late Ivar Haugland and the late James (Jim) Stevens. These men were long time friends and song writers and song collectors. For the show, they swapped songs and stories. It was all quite wonderful. Jim was best known as the author of "The Paul Bunyon Tales," as well as the composer of "The Frozen Logger." I well remember his expressing some frustration that folks were always singing the first verse wrong. He said that the line was not "A fourty year old waitress", but rather "A six foot seven waitress." Jim passed away just a few years after that session. I was able to give Ivar a tape of that show years later. He was most grateful and delighted. Bob |
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31 Dec 01 - 12:02 PM (#619028) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Back when I was a kid I thought that waitress was ancient. . . just goes to show you how wrong one can be! (A few years ago, back when we still subscribed to Playboy magazine, they ran an issue with a photoessay of women all over forty. I kept it for inspiration! Some of those 40- and 50-years olds were in darned good shape, something to aspire to!) Maggie |
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31 Dec 01 - 12:22 PM (#619033) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Uncle_DaveO Stilly River Sage: Here's the spellings you lacked for at least the first two lines of the famous Old English (or is it Middle?) poem: Sumer is icumen in to which I like to refer, when it's getting really chilly in early winter: Winter is icumen in Dave Oesterreich |
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31 Dec 01 - 02:07 PM (#619092) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Dave,
Pound's poem is:
Winter is icumen in,
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, An ague hath my ham.
Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm, Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM. Maggie |
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31 Dec 01 - 02:09 PM (#619093) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Oops. Using the "ul" to make indents seems to have also given large line spaces. But you get the idea.
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31 Dec 01 - 02:38 PM (#619102) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth Please forgive me for dipping into the "memoir" once again:— ----------------------------------------------------
During the early Forties my mother and my two sisters, Mary and Pat rose early on Sunday mornings to go to the Civic Ice Arena for figure skating lessons and practice sessions. Dad and I got up later, ate breakfast, and listened to a local fellow on the radio who played the guitar, sang songs, and told stories about the Pacific Northwest. He talked about Pacific Northwest history and folklore, and he had guests on his program, like James Stevens, the Northwest writer and collector of Paul Bunyan stories. ---------------------------------------------------- Listening to Ivar Haglund's Sunday morning radio program when I was pre-pubescent was one of my first introductions to folk music. Although much of what Ivar sang was pretty light stuff, such as All Hail the Happy Toredo (a toredo is a marine worm that eats hell out of the hulls of wooden ships) and stuff loaded with local puns, he did occasionally sing something of genuine historical or musical interest. He was considered by many (himself included) to be Seattle's "resident folksinger," although to my knowledge, he never gave any concerts, sang in any clubs, or made any records: just his radio program in the Forties and, later, on commercials for his seafood restaurants. Nor did he participate in any way in the Folk Revival when it hit this area. In fact, he seemed to studiously avoid the folk scene. Too bad. He could have been a lot of fun and a real resource, but he chose not to be. A few years after he was a guest on my television program (!!), I ran into him again, oddly enough, at one of his own restaurants—the cocktail lounge in The Captain's Table—where he had a folksinger named Nagle Jackson performing. I went to hear Nagle, and when Nagle and I were talking after his last set and just as the place was about to close, Ivar walked in. He, Nagle, and I sat at one of the tables in the lounge and passed Nagle's guitar around and sang at each other for about an hour. Ivar knew some good stuff, but he wasn't very inclined to share it. Often wondered what became of Nagle Jackson. He was pretty good, but he was primarily an actor. Last I heard of him was years ago. He was acting at the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As Ivar used to say, "Keep clam." Don Firth |
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31 Dec 01 - 05:08 PM (#619180) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Don, Other Northwestern television personalities who had great voices were Stan Boreson and Don McCune. How do they fit into your memories of those days? Right before dinnertime I always watched Stan Boreson but my brother wanted to watch Captain Puget. We took turns every other day watching each program. (Neither of us had the time of day for J.P. Patches). Maggie
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31 Dec 01 - 05:10 PM (#619182) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage P.S. Ivar used to turn up on McCune's program all of the time, and he used to sing. Maybe he just saved it for the kids? Maggie |
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31 Dec 01 - 05:32 PM (#619195) Subject: Lyr Add: ROLL ON, COLUMBIA (Woody Guthrie) From: Deckman Another great Northwest anthem is this gem written by Woody, about 1940: ROLL ON, COLUMBIA Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through, Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew, Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. CHORUS: Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks. The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks. Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Other great rivers add power to you: The Yakima, Snake, and the Klickitat too, Sandy, Willamette, and the Hood River too. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam, The biggest thing built by the hand of a man, To run the great factories and water the land. Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Don, do you remember when you and Patti and I sang this at the Seattle Yacht Club? Cheers, Bob |
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31 Dec 01 - 10:04 PM (#619291) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth The Seattle Yacht Club? I remember singing there, but I'm afraid I remember it only vaguely. Was that the time we sat around in the cocktail lounge and got thoroughly crocked before we were due to sing? Yeah, Maggie, I do remember Stan Boreson. He sang a lot of parodies, usually in a broad Scandinavian accent. I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas, Valking in my Vinter Undervear, and a thing called (harking to another thread on fish-tossing) Lutefisk, Oh Lutefisk to the tune of Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum. He's still at it. I saw him on the tube a few weeks ago, doing a commercial, complete with Scandihoovian accent and accordion. Don Firth Don Firth |
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31 Dec 01 - 10:36 PM (#619293) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage I have a cassette of Boreson singing a number of those. Do you remember McCune? When you think about it, there were a lot of folks singing on television in Seattle in the 1950's and 1960's. Maggie |
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31 Dec 01 - 10:53 PM (#619297) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman I remember Don McCune (sp?) well. He was Capt. Puget. He's one of the few that I never made a point of knowing. I always wanted too, he was very approachable, but I never got around to it ... darn. He passed away about ten years ago, as I recall. Bob |
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31 Dec 01 - 11:15 PM (#619302) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Yes, he died some time ago. KOMO (tv), where he worked for all of those years, made some kind of special about his environmental work, and my mom taped it and sent me a copy. His specials were kind of like home-grown Lowell Thomas travelogues. Maggie |
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01 Jan 02 - 01:05 AM (#619319) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: artbrooks I recall Ivar's restaurant had all of the verses to "Acres of Clams" printed on the placemats. On the list of ought-to-be Northwest songs, how about "Slug by Slug, Weed by Weed". I can recall buying black and white beer expressly for the purpose of drowning them. |
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01 Jan 02 - 11:15 AM (#619436) Subject: Lyr Add: CLE ELLUM GIRL From: Deckman Here's a song that I doubt has ever been written down anywhere. I learned it from the singing of the late Walt Robertson. It's not a traditional folk song, but if obscurity counts, it qualifies. It was written by a lady who I only know by her first name, "Nancy." Later today, I'll get in touch with Don Firth, I believe he knows her last name. Perhaps he can tell the story behind the song. To me, this sad ballad has always touched me. I sing it, just to myself. At the moment, I don't know how to help you with the melody. It's called "Cle Elum Girl." Cle Elum is a small mountain town, just East of the summit of Snoqualimie Pass, in Eastern Washington. CLE ELLUM GIRL Cle Elum girl, where is your home, Why do you still roam? Well, when I was a little girl Lived on my Daddy's farm If I'da stayed where I was born, I'd never come to harm Many courtin' boys came by my door Just to see what they could see With pretty songs to turn my head And pretty toys for me. They took me down into the town Danced 'till the break of day And what I gave them in return Seemed a little price to pay But promises and lies don't last So I left my home Now I'm a poor Cle Ellum whore No place left to roam. Cle Elum girl, hang down your head Cry when the night is down |
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01 Jan 02 - 12:16 PM (#619466) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Bob, Cle Elum was a town that had (past tense!) the unfortuate reputation for a high volume of prostitution. I always understood this had to do with its being in the heart of an area of solitary resource extraction--mining and logging. The lonely miners and loggers would roll into town, and apparently when they were back in the mountains applied many hooker's names to the Alpine Lakes area of the Cascades. I learned about this when I worked for the Forest Service in Seattle in the mid-1970's on the land exchange team that established the land for the wilderness area. I saw the old maps with the original names. Some of them were changed, others cleaned up. Somewhere back there is a waterfall with a sweet name now (hence, I can't remember it) that used to be called Cunt Falls--now that's memorable! Sheesh. . . bet this can wrench the thread into a different topic. . . but it's still on the Pacific Northwest theme! ;-D Maggie
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01 Jan 02 - 01:08 PM (#619479) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Gee Maggie ... That's really neat ... more answers to questions I never asked! Bob |
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01 Jan 02 - 01:59 PM (#619491) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: GUEST,GUEST, Miken @work Last Sept at the wooden boat festival in Port Townsend I remember seeing a booth featuring tapes of Capt.Puget, Don McCunes' music. Was in a hurry at the time,so couldn't stop and peruse. Also heard some good maritime - shantey type songs coming from the beer tent. Interesting information re: Cle Elum. Mike
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01 Jan 02 - 04:34 PM (#619553) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth Cle Elum Girl. Maggie has Cle Elum pretty well nailed. Rough town in the early days, fairly nice little community now. It's about eighty miles east of Seattle, in the Cascade Mountains, just to the east of Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90. It's only a couple of miles from Roslyn, the little mining town that stood in for Cicely, Alaska in Northern Exposure. Nancy-Lu Patterson (née Gellerman; she graduated from Roosevelt High School a year before I did) was a, tall, willowy, beautiful young woman with long, flowing light-brown hair. She possessed a bundle of undifferentiated talent that she could focus on just about anything she chose and everything she turned her hand to, she did well. Bob, I'm sure, remembers the mural on the huge (about 4' by 20') sheet of paper that was used as the backdrop for the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society booth at the big, city-wide arts, crafts, and hobbies fair at the Hec Edmondson Pavilion in 1953 (this was the first time Bob Nelson and I met). Nancy-Lu painted that. In a style appropriate for a cartoon poster, she depicted scenes from four or five folk songs. I can't remember what all she did, but I think it showed Sweet William on his death bed as he died of love for the haughty Barbara Allen, complete with intertwined rose and brier; a reclining cowboy with comrades gathered 'round from The Streets of Laredo; and a couple ships firing smoky broadsides at each other from Henry Martin or any of a number of pirate songs and sea ballads. The one that drew the most attention was The Foggy Foggy Dew, but I'll just let your imagination play with that one. Sometime in the very late Forties or very early Fifties, Nancy-Lu had occasion to be in Cle Elum. There, in a restaurant or tavern, she met a woman who had lived in the town for a long time and they fell to talking, particularly about the woman's rather dismal life there. The woman's story struck Nancy-Lu as very sad—and the sort of thing that folk songs are made of. Nancy-Lu was interesting in folk music and she sang a bit, but despite the fact that she didn't really fancy herself a song-writer, she felt impelled to write Cle Elum Girl. She taught the song to Walt, and he sang it quite a bit. At the party after Pete Seeger's concert at the Wesley House auditorium in 1954, she sang it for Pete and told him the story. He was very interested and he wrote down the words, but I don't know if he ever did anything with it. I haven't seen Nancy-Lu since the Fifties, and it's been decades since I've heard the song. The tune, as I recall, was very similar to Leadbelly'sBlack Girl (In the Pines), but not quite the same. Nancy-Lu may have had that in mind when she wrote the words. If one were to sing it to the tune of Black Girl and "folk process" it a bit, you'd probably come pretty close. Don Firth |
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01 Jan 02 - 05:57 PM (#619581) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Thanks for the posting Don. And Yes, I do remember the vivid poster backdrops to that stage. Yee Gawds Man, it's been a couple of years since then! One quality I so appreciate, and it's a rare one, in songs is B R E V I T Y ! Those who know my writing know that I often compose, then simply remove every other word. It's amazing just how many times you lose NOTHING in that process. And Nancy-Lu's ballad is a perfect example of that. Look at how many places she could have added more words, meter, etc. To me, the essence of the challenge of ballads is to tell the tale well, simply, and truly. "Cle Elum Girl" succeeds better than many. I would love to be able to find the author, if only to be able to thank her and to make certain her authorship is rewarded. Bob |
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01 Jan 02 - 06:08 PM (#619584) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Bob, switchboard.com turns up two Nancy Pattersons, one in Evans (eastern Washington, by the area code) and one in Puyallup. You might start there. Maggie |
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01 Jan 02 - 07:42 PM (#619629) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen As a former (1985-90) Seattleite, I'm endlessly fascinated by these amazing threads. I know Art Thieme has provided similar stories about the Chicago folk scene, and I'm sure there are others, but it's much more fun to read when I know the places, even if I didn't know most of the people. Don, when your book is published, be sure to let me (and all of us, for that matter) know about it, OK? Aloha, Mark |
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01 Jan 02 - 07:47 PM (#619632) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Mark ... remember you can always take the "sea" out of an "Attle," but you'll NEVER take the "Sea" out of a "Seattlite!" CHEERS, Bob |
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01 Jan 02 - 08:43 PM (#619667) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Absolutely, Bob....especially as I'm about to walk over to the beach and go swimming! Have to wish the sea turtles a Happy New Year. Aloha, Mark |
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02 Jan 02 - 01:34 PM (#619961) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman |
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02 Jan 02 - 02:34 PM (#619981) Subject: Lyr Add: TALKING COLUMBIA BLUES (Woody Guthrie) From: Deckman As many folks know, Woody Gutherie worked for the Bonneville Power Dam folks (BPA) for about 6 months back about 1940. He was a song writer on contract. He wrote something like 33 songs (I'm sure I'll be corrected by experts). Included in this brief song writing binge was "This Land Is Your Land." Also, was this gem, "The Talking Columbia Blues" Down along the river just sittin on a rock Looking at the boats at the Bonneville lock The gate swings open, the boat sails in Toots her whistle, she's gone again spoken Gasoline going up, wheat comming down Filled up my hat brim, drunk a little taste Thought about the river just going to waste Thought about the dust, thought about the sand Thought about the people, and thought about the land spoken folks running all over creation looking for some kind of little place Fellers back East doin' a lot of talking Some a balkin', some a squawkin' But for all their figgures and all their books Them fellers just didn't know their royal Chinooks spoken Salmon ...that's a mighty good river ...just needs another big string of them big power dams on it Pulled out my pencil, scribbled this song I figgured all them salmon couldn't be wrong Them salmon fish is pretty shrewd They got politicians and senators too spoken Just like the president ... they run every four years You just watch this river tho Pretty soon everybodys going be changing their tune The big Grande Coulee and the Bonneville Dam It'll run a thousand factories for Uncle Sam spoken Everything from fertilizers to sewing machines ... plastic bedrooms ... everythings 'gonna be plastic Uncle Sam needs houses and stuff to eat Uncle Sam needs wool and Uncle Sam needs wheat Uncle Sam needs water and power dams And Uncle Sam needs people and the people need land spoken "course I never did like dictators, but I think the whole country oughta be run by e l e c t r i c i t y It VERY interesting to read this song now, and know that the present political fight on the Columbia River system is to REMOVE all those power dams to make it easier for the Salmon! CHEERS, Bob |
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02 Jan 02 - 03:25 PM (#620008) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth For those who might be interested, I dug through my heap and came up with three excellent collections of Pacific Northwest songs. One of them is entitled (surprise!) Songs of the Pacific Northwest by Philip J. Thomas, published by Hancock House Publishers Ltd., 3215 Island View Road, Saanichton, British Columbia, Canada, V0S 1M0, 1979. Philip J. Thomas, is a founding member of the Vancouver Folk Song Society and has a list of credentials that just won't quit. The book contains words and music (and chords) for about fifty songs. The excellent historical and background notes are extensive, thorough, and fascinating, and the book is full of historical photos, drawings, and maps. Paperback, 8 1/2" by 11" format, perfect-bound, 168 pages plus front and back matter. The focus is fairly broad, covering not just the U. S. Pacific Northwest but Western Canada, which is reasonable, considering that national borders are arbitrary man-made political things and that Philip J. Thomas is Canadian. The book was given to me a couple of decades ago by John Dwyer, along with a companion record (vinyl). If the book is still available, the address I have for it is #10 Orwell Street, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V7J 3K1, telephone: 604-980-4113. I don't know how current this address is. Another is Washington Songs and Lore compiled by Linda Allen, published by Melior Publications, P. O. Box 1905, Spokane, Washington, 99210-1905, 1988. This compilation was sponsored by the Washington Centennial Commission. It contains folk songs and a variety of other material, including union songs, a few college songs, and some sentimental or humorous pop songs that seemed to have taken root in the area, and a few recently written songs, including one by John Dwyer. And, The Apple Maggot Quarantine Round by Mudcatter Mark Cohen. Words and music, some chords, complete with notes and historical commentary, photos, and drawings (including a photo of Stan Boreson [mentioned a few times in posts above] hoking it up with his accordion, and a cartoon drawing of a gooey-duck). Paperback, 8 1/2" by 11" format, perfect-bound, 186 pages, sixty-five songs of various genres. A real fun one is The Rainy Day Song Book, subtitled "Traditional and Contemporary Songs of the Northwest," collected and compiled by Linda Allen. This was published by the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, 121 Prospect Street, Bellingham, Washington 98225, 1978. It's gone into at least three printings. Paperback, 8 1/2" by 11" format, saddle-stapled (like a magazine, but it's on heavy, good-quality, durable paper), about sixty pages. Good comprehensive notes along with some great photos, and beautiful calligraphy by Mary Byrne. It contains thirty songs (with chords), including The Gooey-Duck Song (try singing that one with your mouth full of peanuts!), and two by John Dwyer: The San Juan Pig and — hello! — The Ballad of the Merry Ferry. You will note that the second two are compilations by Bellingham, Washington singer-songwriter Linda Allen. Linda's a good singer, songwriter, and song leader, along with being one neat lady. The Rainy Day Song Book should be available through her website, HERE. Washington Songs and Lore is currently out of print, but you might be able to find it through Bookfinder. Thomas's Songs of the Pacific Northwest can probably be found there too. I've learned that if a book is anywhere within this quadrant of the galaxy, I can usually find it through bookfinder.com. As far as the songs are concerned, there are, of course, some duplications between these collections, but if one is into songs of the Pacific Northwest or just songs in general, all three are well worth having. . . . and there is no "r" in Worshington! Don Firth |
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02 Jan 02 - 09:30 PM (#620165) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Linda sometimes pops into the Mudcat, too. I first met her at John Dwyer's house in Marysville, around 1986 or 87, probably. She was just starting to collect the songs that became Washington Songs and Lore, and John thought she would be interested in a couple of mine. Well, one for two ain't bad! (See, I can tell "old" Seattle folk stories, too!) I agree with Don, both of Linda's songbooks are excellent. And she is also an outstanding singer and songwriter, herself. Check out the Linda Allen homepage. Aloha, Mark (the turtles say hi, too) |
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02 Jan 02 - 09:54 PM (#620178) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Mark ... I'm also a HUGE fan Of Linda. I suspect that you and I were both at that gathering at Johns. One of the finest ballads, in my opinion, of Linda's is "The Ballad of Laura Law." I grew up with this tale. My Father is Finnish, and as such his family had strong ties to the Finnish community in Aberdeen, Washington. Every year, when my Father was a youngster, his family traveled from another side of the state and visited with friends in Aberdeen. Lo these many years ago, it turned out that Father had met Laura, and her husband Dick. When I sang him the song he was amazed. By the way Mark, when I first visited Honolulu some time ago, I was amazed to realize that the highway signs read perfectly in Finnish! True, same vowells, absence of consonants. The only time it got weird was when I would pronounce the highway sign names with traditional Finnish pronounciation. All the locals would just shake their heads and walk away complaining about the damned howlies!(sp?) CHEERS, Bob |
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02 Jan 02 - 10:12 PM (#620188) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Mark, For you and others who remember Dad's tiny little 800 square foot house on the beach (but NOT a beach one would visit for swimming today--it's cold and has sturgeon, not turtles!), it has changed. Last time I was there the new owner (who the neighbors happily approved of because she grew up out there at the beach) had completely remodeled. He had 50' on the beach, with large windows looking out to the deck and bulkhead. (His attached garage also had a picture window; most expensive parking per square foot in the region). The new owner took the fireplace out, and the wall between the kitchen and living room. Now when you walk in the back door there is a spacious cooktop counter and that gorgeous unimpeded view of Puget Sound, the Olympics, and the Cascades. When the accoustical tile came off the ceiling it revealed beautiful tongue and groove boards, so she left them rather than putting in a cathedral ceiling as she planned. She took out the wall where the bookcase was and now there's an "L" to the left off the livingroom (was his bedroom). A door was put through into the garage, which was enclosed and made into a large beautiful bed-sitting room with a bay window out the front (where the fishing tackle used to be). It has a laundry and small bathroom also. The second bedroom was enlarged when the closet was removed and the old bathroom was enclosed to serve just that bedroom. They paved the area across the road in front of the shed and now there's lots of parking. I know he wouldn't have bothered with all of that work, but I think he'd be pleased with the results. They were putting up shingles (on the outside--they're all gone from the bathroom walls!) last I saw it. In case you were curious! Maggie
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02 Jan 02 - 10:14 PM (#620190) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen That's OK, Bob, I'm sure you were no worse than the other haoles, and probably better! My ex used to refer to Hawaiian names as "alphabet fruit salad". That is an interesting point about Finnish, though. [Caution, thread creep ahead.] "Haole" (pronounced as you wrote it, 'howlie') is an interesting word. It's usually used to mean "Caucasian", but my understanding is that the Hawaiian word really means "silent" or "not speaking". Apparently it was applied to the immigrants because they were not able to chant or state their genealogy, which was the traditional way Hawaiians introduced themselves in formal meetings. It's also interesting that people of Portuguese descent are the only white people in Hawaii who are NOT called haoles. (The term for them is "Portagee"!) There's probably a good historico-cultural explanation for that, but I don't know what it is. You may well have been at that gathering at John's house, Bob. It's faded far enough in my memory, though, that I can't recall anybody else who was there. But that's not surprising...I had forgotten I'd met Don Firth, too, even though he rode in my car for two hours or so from Seattle to San Juan Island. And Don's not an easy person to forget! That ride, by the way, was to the Seattle Song Circle's "performance" at San Juan Island National Historical Park, which was hosted by John Dwyer's daughter, Maggie, who was then a park ranger on the island, and who is now "Stilly River Sage", who started this thread in the first place....so there, I've brought the damn thing back on track! Aloha, Mark |
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02 Jan 02 - 11:19 PM (#620215) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: GUEST,mgarvey@pacifier.com speaking of Hawaians and the Northwest...there was quite a village in Vancouver WA at Ft. Vancouver....they had a deal with the king who sent "laborers", however defined..who worked probably for several years. Some returned, some stayed. And Hawaii was part of the Hudson's Bay territory of the Vancouver fort. Kalama is named after a Hawaian..as is Aloha OR. The fort had a nice Hawaian (am I spelling this right) Christmas re-enactment. Many of the H's were used as divers. Now, get this...near to where I live, at the mouth of the Columbia...there was a leper colony. I don't know what the connection is but I think my source told me it was related to Father Damian's colony in Hawaii. I'll have to learn more about it. mg |
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02 Jan 02 - 11:42 PM (#620227) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Mark, You did a better job of staying on topic than I did! But Don gave us a huge boost in material germane to the thread with his list of folks with books of Northwest songs. Now Mary has indicated that the Northwest stretches to include Hawaii. East apparently met west even before it was the global village.
Sing hey and sing ho and sing down a down derry Darn tune has been running through my head since I started the thread. Maggie |
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03 Jan 02 - 12:02 AM (#620234) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen I knew there was a connection! Thanks, Mary, you've helped my Northwestern/Hawaiian soul rest easy. Now I just have to deal with the Philadelphian part... Aloha, Mark |
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03 Jan 02 - 12:22 AM (#620242) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: GUEST,mgarvey@pacifier.com any time. I did a google search and here is something about a leper colony in New Brunswick. http://www.rubycusack.com/issue117.html and there was something else about the Elizabeth Islands near Cape Cod having a leper colony. I went under leper colonies U.S. I think. mg |
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03 Jan 02 - 10:59 AM (#620378) Subject: Lyr Add: GEODUCK From: Deckman This thread has inspired me to go to my files. I'm glad that I did as I just found a wonderful piece of writing that I'd forgotten. This collection of Northwest Folk Songs is titiled, "Folksongs From The Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound." It is a "Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Institute of Musical Art, Julliard School of Music." It was written by Winifred I. Knox, July 1945. In this collection are many songs that were sung in this region during the settling years. I recognise many of the songs as being fairly well known throughout the whole country at the time. However, here's a song unique to Puget Sound country. Geoduck It takes a lot of energy, strength and pluck To catch the elusive geoduck For it takes a man who's quick and strong To catch a goeduck with a neck a foot long A foot long, a foot long,a foot long, a foot long For it takes a man who's quick and strong To catch the geoduck with a neck a foot long To catch the geoduck you grab him by the neck And then you start to pull and you pull like heck But if you're not feeling very strong that day The geoduck will pull so hard he'll get away Away, away, away, away But if you're not feeling very strong that day The goeduck will pull so hard he'll get away CHEERS, Bob |
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03 Jan 02 - 11:46 AM (#620400) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Wow, Bob, you're a fount of information! I have easy access to scholarly (subscription through the university library) databases, including thesis and dissertation abstracts. If there are any obscure terms you'd like me to check out, let me know, and I'll run them through a search. Then you can explain to the interlibrary loan librarian where to order it for you. ;) Maggie |
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03 Jan 02 - 12:23 PM (#620418) Subject: Lyr Add: COPENHAGEN From: Deckman You know Maggie, I've been accused of many things in my life, but never before "a fount of information." I'm usually known for missinformation and poor spelling! Here's another one: COPENHAGEN (Snuff or Snoose) To a geopolitician, Copenhagen is a city To an old time musician, Copenhagen is a ditty But to loggers and longshoremen, and the worker in the mill A rare of Copenhagen snoose gives power of the will CHO Take your steaks, and your stews, and your well boiled hen Give me a chew of Copenhagen I've had a tough life, taken plenty abuse And I'd never stood up without my snoose. Some say it ain't neat, It isn't polite Try to take way my snoose and, brother, I'll fight A blood transfusion wouldn't do me any use Just fill me veins with tobacco juice CHO For men in the woods, the mills and the mine Good old Copenhagen takes the slack out of the lines And here's a fact I forgot to mention To chew Copenhagen is fire prevention. |
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03 Jan 02 - 03:38 PM (#620500) Subject: Lyr Add: PORTLAND COUNTY JAIL From: Deckman Here's another typical Northwest song. I believe that the late Walt Robertson recorded this on one of his albums for Moses Asch of Folkways Records fame. We used to sing this with great gusto ... the later the hour, the more the gusto! PORTLAND COUNTY JAIL I had no money to pay me fine, no one to go my bail, So I got stuck, for ninety days, in the Portland County jail. Oh, such a bunch of divils, as no one ever saw, Robbers, thieves, and highwaymen, breakers of the law, They sang a song the whole night long, the curses fell like hail, I'll bless the day, that takes me away, from the Portland County jail |
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03 Jan 02 - 03:41 PM (#620502) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman For some reason, the first line of the first verse did not get printed. It should read: I'm a stranger to your city, my name is Paddy Flynn, I got drunk the other night etc ..... |
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03 Jan 02 - 05:06 PM (#620545) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Here's the last verse: The only friend I ever had was Officer McGurk He said I was a no good bum, a lazy and a shirk One Saturday night, when I got tight, he trun me in the can And now, you see, he's made of me, and honest workin' man |
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03 Jan 02 - 10:44 PM (#620713) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage "he trun me in the can"? Something tells me your fingers weren't over the home row when you typed that line. Or I'm drawing a complete blank. |
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03 Jan 02 - 11:02 PM (#620724) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stewart It's here with music score. Portland County Jail, that is. This is a great thread Maggie, thanks. Cheers, S. in Seattle |
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03 Jan 02 - 11:26 PM (#620730) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman "he trun me in the can" was the way I learned it! Bob |
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05 Jan 02 - 01:34 AM (#621398) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Sounded like a modern mechanical aspect of the folk process--the typo. Did this line make sense to you as you sang it (yes, I understand that "the can" is jail, etc.)? Or were you singing "he trun me" as a kind of nonsense verse? I guess the question is, does trun mean something in another language or in slang or folksong lingo? In other words, I'm refreshing the thread. ;) Maggie |
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05 Jan 02 - 02:17 AM (#621401) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Miken Maybe a drunk pronunciation of 'thrown'? |
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05 Jan 02 - 02:25 AM (#621403) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth "Trun" is the way Walt sang it, I learned it from him and that's the way I sing it. I think we all (moss-covered Northwesterners, that is) can trace it back to Walt. I think he learned it from Carl Sandburg's American Songbag. I don't have my copy handy at the moment, but if someone does, they can check it. Trun=thrown. Don Firth |
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05 Jan 02 - 02:28 AM (#621404) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth Threw? Don Firth |
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05 Jan 02 - 11:10 AM (#621486) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Snuffy Throne?? |
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05 Jan 02 - 04:53 PM (#621644) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage This thread has been wonderful to read, and I've thoroughly enjoyed finding a web site where so many current and displaced Northwesterners can chat so easily with one another. Though I don't know a lot about Mudcat, I know Max is the guy with the servers and the great setup. He posted this yesterday: Well folks, it's getting tough around here. Just got back from arguing with our old landlord about our security deposit. Turns out we lost it cause we needed out of our lease one month early. Could have really used that. Onstage has all but dried up and so far I'm having no luck finding work in the real world. January is a tough month for me here, and I'm asking for help. I have no idea how I'm gonna pay Mudcat's January bills. The concrete ones are $270 per month for the ADSL line and $100 per month in electricity. Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. Fill up that auction with the Christmas presents you didn't want. And thanks to everyone that bought a calendar, every little bit helps.
That address is I'll be sending a check in today's mail. I hope we can all keep this great forum in the black, so this kind of discussion can continue. A note: I've done some searching, but haven't found any online version of Portland County Jail. I'll go check the subscription sites later, and will look for the Sandburg book at the university on Monday. Maybe "trun" will be explained there somewhere. Maggie
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05 Jan 02 - 05:48 PM (#621667) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: artbrooks "Trun" is in my copy of "The American Songbag". There is an introductory note that says "the word "trun" means "threw" or "throwed"; it rhymes with fun". It also says that the fourth/last verse (the one with "trun") was contributed by "philosophers at the extreme left in the labor movement and in modernist art in Chicago". There are some other small differences from the link to Art Thieme's version, provided by Stewart. |
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05 Jan 02 - 06:16 PM (#621681) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Yes, I also checked out my book and that's excatly what is written. Maggie, how well I remember that your late Father could NEVER refer to Carl Sanburg's "Song Bag" ... it always came out "Carl Songbirds Sand Bag!" Oh well, such is the stuff of memories, CHEERS, Bob |
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05 Jan 02 - 06:20 PM (#621685) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Another piece of North West doggeral happened the first time the late Bob Goibson showed up in Seattle. He really caught my attention when he started off a concert with: If you want to give marriage a whirl And you've got some change in your purse Whatever you do, marry a Seattle girl 'Cause whatever happens, she's seen worse! I'm sure that as Bob Gibson traveled around the country, he would insert that name of whatever town he happened to be in ... I know I did! CHEERS, Bob |
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05 Jan 02 - 08:29 PM (#621764) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo Deckman, Bob, what's the tune for the Geoduck song you posted in this thread? I don't think I've seen that one before. Liland |
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05 Jan 02 - 08:59 PM (#621804) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman I just picked up my guitar and plucked out the tune, as written. I don't have the ability right now to post the score, but perhaps soon. This is not a tune I recognise. I would also add that I don't even think it's very tuneful at all. I suspect a couple of things: This tune happened on paper because someone that this was a nice melody ... I do feel that you could sing these words to any number of traditional tunes that 'felt right.! Many, many of the NorthWest ballads, especially the songs from the woods, had almost no melody. By that I mean, they were almost dirges, sung to the same five notes as every other song the itinerant worker knew. Many of these songs could almost be sung as a chant. This is NOT to disparage all North West ballad melodies, as some of the are quite melodic and beautiful, but this ain't one of them! CHEERS, Bob |
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06 Jan 02 - 11:05 PM (#622512) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage If Walt and others got the song from Sandburg, did his Song Bag also have the chords? I know I've seen the book, but I can't say that I've ever opened it and looked at it. It was just always there on the shelf. Not sure who has Dad's copy right now. Did you visit the link Steward posted above? Does that seem at all like your music? Maggie |
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07 Jan 02 - 12:02 AM (#622525) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Oops. Sorry Stewart! Dyslexic fingers. |
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07 Jan 02 - 01:13 PM (#622769) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth Liland, the tune for The Gooey Duck Song can be found in both of the songbooks compiled by Linda Allen that I cite above (my post of 02-Jan-02 - 03:25 PM). It's also been recorded (on cassette) by Sandy and Caroline Paton, WHEN THE SPIRIT SAYS SING, C-1002, Folk-Legacy. Great stuff. Sandy and Caroline singing with a batch of kids. Don Firth |
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07 Jan 02 - 02:38 PM (#622806) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Barbara If you folks are interested in more recent NW songs that sound traditional, hit Mary Garvey up for some of her gems. How about it Mary? Got a home page up and running? The most recent one I heard named the NW rivers swum by the salmon, with a chorus of "Come home Little Brother..."
One Saturday night, when I got tight, he trun me in the can
And on the subject of 'trun', I assumed it was a dialect translation of 'he's thrown' |
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07 Jan 02 - 04:43 PM (#622881) Subject: Lyr Add: PUGET SOUND From: Deckman Against my better judgment, I'm going to post the following song. This comes from a small collection of songs written by the late, great Ivar Haglund. For those of you who never had the chance to meet and hear him, I'll give a highly prejudiced background. Ivar was pure Seattle. He opened a waterfront "Aquarium" just after WW2. He charged five cents to enter, and you could wander around and look at a dozen very small salt water aquariums full of the normal stuff stuff we always saw in Puget Sound: bull heads, dog fish, star fish. It was NOTHING exciting, but it was new. I was about 7 or 8 when my folks took me there first. But what was a treat, was Ivar, sitting on a folding chair with his guitar, singing these goofy songs whenever he was bored. From this very modest start, his empire grew to a maximum of at least five premier restaurants during the Worlds Fair era of 1962. Many of us, including Don Firth, had personal contact with Ivar Haugland. The stories we tell of him are legion. So, going through my library, I just found this book he self published in 1953 ..."An Ivar Book Of Ballads." He charged the mighty sum of fifty cents. I've always viewed this book of twelve songs as pretty silly, except that he did publish the complete version of the traditional "Old Settler." Here is Ivar's introduction to a song titled "Puget Sound." ... "In these few bouncing stanzas the late Carlton Fitchett, beloved reportorial rhymester of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has composed a catchy metrical catalogue of most of the places and things Ivar sings about ..." PUGET SOUND As happy as a butter clam when tides are high I sing A grateful ode to Puget Sound the land of everything I love it from Tulalip to Puyallup Sequim and Pysht And to the Dosewallips where many times I've fished Cho 1 From Brinnon to the Bogachiel, from Lummi to La Push And from the lordly Sol Duc to the lovely Duckabush From Samish to Sammamish, SuQuamish to Quilcene, The climate is so friendly it's a land that's evergreen. There's peace on the Skokomish on the Queets and on the Hoh, There's calm on the Nisqually born of ageless ice and snow A land that Nature loves so much-She stays the whole year 'round- I'd trade a royal palace for a shack on Puget Sound Chorus 2 There's Chimacum and Steilaccom where spouts the goeduck The singing Stillaguamish and the swirling skookumchuck And Moclips and Copalis where razor clams abound -A little piece of heaven is a shack on Puger Sound Note, I did my best to note this exactly as Ivar published it, tho I was tempted to put in some puncuation. Also, for those of us natives who grew up with these local names, we just know how to pronounce the names right. For years I've suggested to the various Governors that we deny a Washington State driver license to anyone that cannot pronounce these names correctly ... no Governor has ever answered my letters ... sigh! CHEERS and ENJOY, Bob Nelson (Mary Garvy, if this doesn't drive you out of the closet I don't know what will). |
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07 Jan 02 - 06:44 PM (#622955) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen The Stillaguamish, by the way, is called the "Stilly" by locals, and it's the source of "Stilly River Sage"'s Mudcat name. For those who were wondering. (Such as myself, until I remembered the name of the river!) One of the best Washington-place-name-pronunciation stories I've heard was told by Fred Small. He wrote a wonderful song called "Jimmy Come Lately", about a nationally-ranked college basketball coach who retired to become a school bus driver in Sequim, on the Olympic Peninsula. Fred said that he had to rewrite the entire chorus when he found out that Sequim was actually pronounced "Skwim"! (The song is based on a real person, and if anyone knows his name I'd be much obliged if you'd tell me.) Aloha, Mark |
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07 Jan 02 - 07:31 PM (#622989) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Mark ... from my hiking days in the Olympics, I remember a "Jimmy Come Lately Road." Does that play in the song you mention? CHEERS, Bob |
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07 Jan 02 - 10:12 PM (#623086) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Don Firth A tourist from Back East is driving around in southwest Washington State, gets off Interstate 5, and manages to get himself totally lost. He sees a little one-pump gas station and general store and he decides he'd better ask directions. He goes into the store and an old fellow is sitting on a stool behind the counter. The conversation proceeds thus:-- "What city or town will I come to if I stay on this road?" the man asks. "Skamokawa," the store proprietor answers. "What was the last town, back there, down the road?" "Cathlamet." "Hmm. By the way, what county are we in?" "Wahkiakum." He leaves the general store and gets back in the car. "Where are we?" his wife asks. "I have no idea," the man answers. "The fellow in the store doesn't speak English." Don Firth |
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07 Jan 02 - 10:16 PM (#623088) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Right you are, Bob! I posted the words to the song on this thread and the little wings are there indicating it's been harvested for the next edition of the DT. The chorus goes And it's Jimmy Come Lately to Lost Mountain Road The fog on the bay will be clearin' And I'm crossing Dean Creek with a thirty-kid load And I'd rather be nowhere but here Aloha, Mark |
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07 Jan 02 - 10:18 PM (#623090) Subject: Lyr Add: SOCIAL DECLINE From: Deckman As long as I've quoted one song from Ivar Hauglunds small book "The Ivar Book of Ballads," I'll go ahead and quote something more. Ivar was an extremly complex and PRIVATE person. I have heard tales, and seen some pictures, that show Ivar, during the late 1940's hanging out with Woody Gutherie and with Burl Ives. Yet when I asked him about these times, he closed up like a clam (sorry about that). Yet I KNOW that there was a lot of rebel in his soul. As one evidence, look at the two added verses to his anthem, "Acres of Clams." These verses were added under the heading of "Social Decline." Some say that country's improvin', And boast of it's commerce and trade, But measured by social enjoyment, I find it has sadly decayed. In pioneer days on the s-o-u-n-d When pee-pul had little to wear And sub-sisted on clams th' year 'round We'd a hearty good fellowship there- At our gath'rin's for pastorial pleasure Dance, picnic or social knockdown, One man wuz as good as another-r-r- No kind of dis-tinc-tion wuz shown. But now when I go to a pa-a-a-r-t-y The pee-pul around me seem fr-o-o-o-ze, They dare not be social and hearty Fer fear they may soil their store clothes It doesn't take much imagination to read these verses and hear the rebel voice coming through. I tried several times over the years to get to know him better, but I never succeeded, and I don't know anyone who really did. He was a successful business man, self made, and he damned well kept to himself. But, on the few occasions he opened up, he was a real Northwest treasure. CHEERS, Bob |
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07 Jan 02 - 10:53 PM (#623106) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Mark ... I brought up your posting of a couple of years ago regarding the ex coach who now drives bus on the "Jimmy-Come-Lately-Road. Sorry I can't help you with the particuliars of that song, but this might help: to get to "Jimmy-Come-Lately-Road, go EXACTLY 1.2 miles past the sign that says "Gairdner." Turn left at the D.O.T. sand dump and hang on. You go uphill and wind around for about 3 miles, then you start down, and I do mean DOWN. It's a one way suicide run. At the top of the hill, with all the single lane switchbacks, you blow your horn three times. Then you get out of your rig and listen for five minutes. If no one blows their horn back, you go for it! Down you go. If you meet another rig coming up, all you can do is slow down as much as possible and then jump ... true! I have fished steelhead on the Dungeness River below this spot, and you wouldn't believe the number of broken and rusted rigs laying down there. I have always found bears there looking for a meal ... true. I better get off here before Maggie accuses me of a thread creep ... or just being a creep! CHEERS, Bob |
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07 Jan 02 - 11:47 PM (#623135) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Bob, I'm the last person to worry about "thread creep!" I'm a Dwyer, remember? Be glad I'm not twisting all of these topics around in order to get some crafty puns out of them! My mom had a story about the name of the town Pysht--she said that the town was initially named Psyche but that the locals pronounced all of the letters--then gradually changed the spelling to reflect their pronunciation. Mom's father (Joe Husby) wrote a twice-weekly column called The Sage of the Stilly for many years for the Arlington and Everett papers. He grew up in the area around Arlington and Sylvana, speaking Norwegian until he went to school. When Mom died she made sure she left me all of her journal entries, and was hopeful that I'd get some of them published. I have in mind, one of these days, collecting some of my grandfather's essays (we have yellowed clippings of some of them) and Mom's, and mine, and to add some photos from my years of mountaineering, and see if someplace will publish it. I've had a couple of editors express interest. Now ask me again about thread creep! Maggie |
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08 Jan 02 - 03:26 AM (#623206) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Amergin I have been following this interesting thread...wonderful! wish I had something to add...besides the appreciation I feel for the lot of you...adding colour to the PNW.... |
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08 Jan 02 - 01:20 PM (#623481) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Over on the thread about throwing fish in the Pike Street Market I made a remark (when we reached the topic of lutefisk, which was not thrown around the market!) that my cousin Charles had the best lutefisk stories around. Bob PM'ed me this morning to ask if the Charles Raymond Husby obit in the paper is my cousin--I'm sad to say it is. And that obit says nothing about what a colorful, warm character he was. Consider how polite and friendly but reserved a bunch of Norwegians are in a room of a wedding or funeral reception, then consider the family member who, whether with a little wine under his belt, or just his general gregariousness, can set the whole room to laughing by telling really funny jokes (often with himself as victim of his own humor). I remember seeing people looking a little worried when Charles started, but I never heard him say anything that justified those worried looks. He will be missed. (We used to tease Dad, at our peril, that he was probably Norwegian also, and not just Irish, since the Vikings had spent a lot of time in Norway. That really ticked him off!) Maggie
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08 Jan 02 - 08:20 PM (#623808) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage I didn't mean to stop the thread in its tracks with that news. Charles was 78, lived what can be termed a "good life," and died peacefully in his sleep. What more could one ask for? I thought perhaps Deckman might find a good lutefisk song in that apparently bottomless paper database he's working from at home. Or maybe it's time to see if I can find a Stan Boreson tape around here. If anyone intentionally sang about lutefisk, it could be he. Or Ivar. Anything in that fifty-cent book that might suit, Bob? Maggie |
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08 Jan 02 - 09:02 PM (#623836) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Hmmmm .... "a good lutefiske song" ... that MIGHT be a challenge! I've 'gotta go sell a deck tonight, but I'll be back on my puter in a few hours. (Hmmm ... a good lutefiske song ... just what I need ... another damned challenge) ((Hmmm) me |
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08 Jan 02 - 09:34 PM (#623855) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo Don, sorry, I've been away from the Web for a couple days and just saw your note about the Geoduck Song. I'm familiar with the one in Linda Allen's Washington songbook, but the one I was asking about is a different one, which Deckman had posted in this thread. That is, I'm pretty sure it's a different one. The one in Linda's book is not set to a frontier dirge as I recall it. ;-) Deckman, the Carlton Fitchett "As Happy as a Butter Clam" song (which is also, incidentally, in Linda's book, which is where I first encountered it) is on my website, with MIDI, in both English and Esperanto. Go to my Song Index and scroll down looking for "Ode to Puget Sound" (or maybe "Puget Sound, Ode to", I forget...) Liland |
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08 Jan 02 - 09:47 PM (#623863) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo http://www.geocities.com/lilandr/seatlo/muziko/Pugxetio1.html (Odo al Puĝetio) is the Esperanto version. Liland |
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09 Jan 02 - 12:11 AM (#623910) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Maggie, I've perused Ivar's book carefully and can find no mention of anything resembling Lutefiske ... I remember that he DID have certain standards! I actually have just come across an early mention of Ivar Hauglund that lends more credence to his first hand collecting of songs from the early days in Seattle. Here is a direct quote from Winifred I. Knox's thesis, presented to the Juilliard school of Music, 1945: "... Much credit is given to Ivar Haglund for the following songs. Ivar has been in and around the waterfront of Seattle for many years gathering stories and songs of Puget Sound. The songs included here were gathered when we poked around the fishing boats the other side of Railroad Avenue, and the skidroad section of lower Seattle." (note ... the "other side of Railroad Avenue" is where the viaduct is now. The "lower section of Seattle" refers to the skidroad area, where all the 'low life' folks lived, fishermen, stevedores, working men. It's where I loved to hang out when I was a kritter. It is also EXACTLY where Ivar placed his first, and most successful restaurant. CHEERS, Bob |
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09 Jan 02 - 06:01 PM (#624358) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Bob, We lived in West Seattle prior to our move to Everett in 1965. I remember driving in downtown Seattle past Harbor Island (is there still a humongous Sears store down there?) and past the Pioneer Square area. Anytime we were near First Avenue Mom would always caution us to "Lock your doors!" Maggie
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15 Jan 02 - 10:58 PM (#628784) Subject: Lyr Add: WHAT IS A PUGET SOUNDER From: Deckman I've been cleaning out some files lately and I came across this Northwest song. It was written in 1965 by someone I know well. Here's the song WHAT IS A PUGET SOUNDER What is a Puget Sounder, I'll tell you if I can, He's a rugged individual, a special breed of man He doesn't shave, his clothes are old. He lives down by the beach Where all of God's gifts to man are there within his reach What is a Puget Sounder, I'll see if I can tell, His feelings run as deep as the sound, and move with every swell, He lives within an old log house and hears the waves at night, And wakens every morning to food within his sight What is a Puget Sounder, he's a man who who knows his land, He knows where to hunt the geoduck and where to shoot the clam, He's eaten kelp and seaweed, though usually in jest, For when it comes to eating, he loves his salmon best. What is a Puget Sounder, just 'list while I do boast, He knows his fish food from the sea, and how to catch the most, He knows how to catch the Humpies, the King and Silver too, And how to polish his dinner off, with a plate of fish-head stew. What is a Puget Sounder, I do believe I know, For I was raised upon the Sound, within the sight of snow, To me, it's more than the water, the rain, the fog, the clams, But the people and the country that make me a happy man What is a Puget Sounder, there's nothing more to say, He's the strangest individual that's ever come your way, You'll never be able to change him, to move him from the sound, For he knows he's got the very best, that ever can be found |
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16 Jan 02 - 12:40 AM (#628814) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo And that person you know well is named? And the tune is more or less like? Liland |
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16 Jan 02 - 03:12 AM (#628852) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Hmmm...I can guess who the person is...read between the lines, Liland! And Maggie, I've heard that the old Sears store is now the warehouse for one of those big online retailers (just like Amazon.com is housed in the old Public Health Service Hospital on Beacon Hill, where I worked after it became Pacific Medical Center). I'm not sure which dotcom bought the Sears building, but I'm sure somebody does. And that Sears building, with its big tower, was a twin of the one on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia, a few blocks from where my mom grew up. There, aren't you glad you know all that? Aloha, Mark |
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16 Jan 02 - 09:35 AM (#628934) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Yes, I confess I am the guilty party the wrote "The Puget Sounder." I write very few songs, and those badly. Also, with the laws regarding public decency I have to be very careful on where I sing them. Bob Nelson |
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16 Jan 02 - 06:58 PM (#629314) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Not bad at all, Bob...any chance of putting the melody into MIDI or Noteworthy Composer or ABC format so those of us homesick for the Northwest can sing it? Aloha, Mark |
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16 Jan 02 - 07:08 PM (#629324) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo Yeah, Mark, I thought that was probably the culprit ;-)... My guess is the old Sears bldg is (at least mostly) now not exactly a dotcom but Office Depot or something along those lines' warehouse. However, I am of a generation for which it well ne'er be aught but Sears. Liland PS Yeah, Bob, we want music! Preferably MIDI or NWC, as I'm still not proficient in ABC (though I have the system saved somewhere and can muddle through if absolutely necessary). |
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16 Jan 02 - 07:58 PM (#629353) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Ya Ya Ya ... that's all you guys ever do ... complain about my inability to post music. Actually, I've been trying to download the information so I can post stuff. I'm 'gonna need help with it. Maybe I'll wait and contact Joe Offer when he returns from never-never land. CHEERS, Bob |
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16 Jan 02 - 10:32 PM (#629419) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Bob, give Noteworthy Composer a try. It takes a little getting used to, but once you're up and running it's pretty easy to make a lead sheet. There's a free version to play with; if you register, you get a printed manual and unlimited use. You can also save your NWC file as a MIDI for sending to others. It's even possible to play a song with a MIDI-connected keyboard and have NWC turn it into dots. A friend of mine gave me a copy of PrintMusic to try (that's the "Chevrolet" version of Finale, which is one of the "Cadillac" music printing programs--they also have Finale NotePad, which is sort of a Yugo). I actually find NWC easier to use for my limited needs. Try it, you might like it! Download it here. Aloha, Mark |
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16 Jan 02 - 11:01 PM (#629432) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Thanks for the update on the Sears building. Interesting that it matches the Philly building. I suppose they just transported the design and plan out to Seattle. I wonder if anyone else has a matching store? Like the old dime stores--anyone remember Newberry? (Was that J.J. Newberry or something?) They all had the two flights of stairs going down to the basement? But this is thread creep. . . (The most exciting trip to that Sears was when I was about six and my sister and I got our first Barbie dolls. That was back in the days when one Barbie doll was all you generally had). I'll have to pay attention to all of the discussion on how to play or record music for use in places like Mudcat--because I have so much of Dad's, some of it already on tape, some of it notations on paper. When I get moved this spring all of that stuff comes out of storage--and then the fun begins! I would like to be able to answer some of these questions based on Dad's work, about versions and words, and I also would like to make this collection available through some university library or folklore society or museum. Maggie |
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16 Jan 02 - 11:05 PM (#629437) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Amergin I remember jj newberry's they just closed their store in portland a few years ago.... |
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17 Jan 02 - 12:37 AM (#629489) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Oops, booboo alert! The link above, which didn't work, was actually for PrintMusic, not Noteworthy Composer. You can find Noteworthy Composer here. And I also wondered, Maggie, how many other buildings like that Sears built in the -- what? -- 1920s? 30s? I'm sure it would be easy enough to find out somewhere on the Web, but I still have some semblance of a life... Aloha, Mark |
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17 Jan 02 - 12:48 AM (#629497) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo The Smith Tower, on the other hand, remains a one-of-a-kind treasure. (And one that, incidentally, Ivar Haglund once owned.) You younger 'uns may be astonished to know that when I was your age or younger, the Smith Tower (which you can hardly even see nowadays unless you're on the west sidewalk of Second Avenue) was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. This was back before they built the EMP ;-)... Liland |
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17 Jan 02 - 12:58 AM (#629509) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen So if the Smith Building had housed insurance offices, it could have been called "Ivar's Acres of Claims"? OUCH!!! Stop hitting me with that geoduck! I was only trying to resurrect the spirit of John Dwyer...and thus once again get this thread back on track. (Which is a hopeless, and, in fact, unnecessary task. But I needed an excuse.) Aloha, Mark |
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17 Jan 02 - 01:01 AM (#629511) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Smith Tower, I meant. It wasn't named for the cough drop guys, was it? They looked like they could have been in the Denny Party. Aloha, Mark (OK, I'll stop now.) |
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17 Jan 02 - 01:15 AM (#629519) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo Chinese Room at Smith Tower Photo Page No, it was named for an Eastern Capitalist, Lyman, according to the HistoryLink page. Wish I knew what the dead photo was supposed to show. For the non-Seattleites in the audience, in the photo that is there in the HistoryLink page, the Smith Tower is the pointy-headed little white skyscraper at the far right. Liland |
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17 Jan 02 - 02:31 AM (#629532) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman Liland ... you are completly correct ... that's your award for today. I also was raised, as I assume you were, in the Seattle area. And well I remember my first trip to the top of the Smith tower. Do you remember the brass bars on the elevator ... and the uniformed elevator operator? (theres gotta' be a song here somewhere). CHEERS, Bob |
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17 Jan 02 - 02:27 PM (#629787) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: GUEST Only a friend of John Dwyer's could assume that slipping in a pun is the way to put a thread "back on track!" Converting this from an aligned thread to a clam track. |
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17 Jan 02 - 05:18 PM (#629940) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage Oops. That was me on netscape without a cookie. Maggie |
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17 Jan 02 - 06:21 PM (#629998) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: artbrooks Yeah, I remember that it was named after a typewriter manufacturer (anybody still OWN a typewriter?). I recall when our office moved into the "new" Federal Building at 2nd and Madison. I resolved to get into Human Resources (then called "Personnel") since the Personnel Officer had a corner office on the 13th floor with a beautiful view of Elliot Bay. That was before they built at least one additional row of high-rises between that building and the water. And Starbucks was a little hole in the wall on Marion just below 1st that sold only solid coffee. No lattes in sight. |
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30 Jan 02 - 03:54 AM (#638539) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Haruo An acquaintance on Ishmail, the Melville email list, just supplied me with a link to the Sedro-Woolley poem I cited early on in this thread. Here it is. He says he's going to ask local musicians if there's a tune for it. Liland |
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30 Jan 02 - 09:37 AM (#638626) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Deckman That's a fine poem. I'm not aware of a melody for it tho. Thanks for posting it. CHEERS, Bob |
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30 Jan 02 - 10:23 AM (#638651) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Stilly River Sage I agree, very nice poem. I like the dimensions of the salmon (!). And as someone who was "local" for many years, because the Sedro Woolley post office serves much of Skagit County east of Mt. Vernon and serves a big chunk of Whatcom County (at the south end of Lake Whatcom) and along Hwy 9 possibly as far north as Acme), I, like many neighbors, would talk in casual conversation about going down to Sedro, dropping the Woolley. (Take a breath, and don't try to diagram that sentence). I'll have to look through Dad's papers to see if he ever did anything with that poem. It sure looks like something he would have fiddled with tune-wise. He did write songs about the area, including the "Blue Canyon Mining Disaster." And there's one about the little ferry that used to run up and down the lake--I don't remember the name of that one right off of the top of my head. Maggie
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06 Oct 02 - 07:00 PM (#797905) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW) From: Mark Cohen Refresh. The school bus thread led me to look for the words to Fred Small's song about Sequim, which led me to this thread, which I think is worth bringing back. Aloha, Mark |
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01 Nov 14 - 10:52 PM (#3673764) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest From: Stewart At long last, here it is Ballad of the Merry Ferry – words by Emma Rounds ("Rainbow in the Sky", ed. by Louis Utermeyer, Harcourt Brace, Inc. New York, NY, 1935); music by John Dwyer (1978). From "The Rainy Day Songbook" by Linda Allen Sing hey, and sing ho, and sing down-a-down-derry, Oh, what is so merry as missing a ferry? A nice wintry morning so jolly and freezing, A dear little cold keeps you coughing and sneezing, And everyone mirthful and happy and gay, As we all watch the ferry go puffing away. Sing hey, and sing ho, and sing down-a-down-derry Oh what is so merry as missing a ferry! Cheers, S. in Seattle and this is a great thread to refresh! |
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02 Nov 14 - 07:42 AM (#3673832) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest From: Stilly River Sage [slaps forehead] Odd to realize that it took all of this time to put up the lyrics. I should have done it in the first post. SRS |
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02 Nov 14 - 03:13 PM (#3673937) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest From: Stewart And here is the Ballad of the Merry Ferry as sung by John Dwyer, who put the poem by Emma Rounds to music in 1978. I just got the sound clip from Bob (Deckman) Nelson - recorded at a Seattle hoot in 1978. And a couple other of John Dwyer's Pacific Northwest songs sung by John Dwyer (also recorded at the same hoot in 1978). Notice to Mariners San Juan Pig More Pacific Northwest songs are on the PNW Folklore Society web site here. In the next issue of the NW HOOT - at the end of November - Bob Nelson will have an article about John Dwyer - SEATTLE FOLKSINGERS, THOSE WHO LED THE WAY. Cheers, S. in Seattle |
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02 Nov 14 - 04:28 PM (#3673954) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest From: Deckman Good job Stew ... thanks ... bob |
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03 Nov 14 - 12:12 AM (#3674031) Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest From: Stilly River Sage He put that to music way before 1978, it was probably his earliest marriage of poetry and music. I remember riding the Fauntleroy ferry in Seattle over to Vashon Island prior to 1965. We were singing it back then in the family station wagon. Probably at the top of our lungs. It was on a similar ferry ride when my sister, four years younger, spotted a deckhand working the lines and asked if he was a "dirty little cabin boy." Hilarity ensued! :) SRS |