Week 13-14: Sea Shanties

Sea shanties are sailors songs that they sang while hard at work at sea.

When I think of sailors, I think of these musty colors, a raw canvas color, tans, browns, and muted blues and greens. These colors remind me of something used, something that has been worn down, but is still vibrant in its own way. Water damage, perhaps. I went for quite a literal translation of the sea shanties, as I do appreciate the structure of a ship on top of wild, uncontrollable and loose waters. As for the glass, I really enjoy the image of a ship in a bottle or a message in a bottle. These are both images that come to mind when I heard the songs. A ship in a bottle often contains the ship in its entirety, but I allowed the ship to extend past the glass because I feel as though such a powerful ship cannot be defined by physical limits.

Week 10: Woody Guthrie

I really admire Woody Guthrie's take on his music, and I believe there should be more people like him especially in the current music industry. A lot of songs nowadays focus on being thin, being perfect, being up to society's standards in appearance and materialism. These qualities are often impossible for the regular person. Songs often ask for girls to be looser, to not be a prude -- but if they're too slutty, that's also bad. Songs often asks guys to be this one dimensional masculine figure, getting all the girls and being fit. These are not realistic. These are not the things that are important in creating a healthy outlook on life. This over saturation of what we're supposed to be overpowers what we are actually like, which is why I really appreciate how Woody Guthrie words his sentiments:

"I hate a song that makes you think that you're not any good. I hate a song that makes you think you are just born to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are either too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down r songs that poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling."

"I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world...I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work."

"Woody, being an excellent journalist, described not a world as it might be but as it was." Woody was more of a realist than a dreamer, and I think that is part of his charm. His music and lyrics show people that it's totally fine for them to be struggling, to be living this truthful life. He does not put people down for what they're going through and he doesn't idealize a certain type of person. Everyone is equal and should have the opportunity to blossom in their own right.

For this week I chose Guthrie's This Land is Your Land. It was a song I grew up singing in elementary school, and I really liked the simple tune of the song. Since it was such an important song in my primary school days, I wanted to convey that simple, childlike sense into the artwork. I also wanted to show a sense of constancy/universality -- how although the buildings and areas of the world have their own quality, their own shape, they are all represented with the same thin black line. Through all the differences, we are all inherently of the same strokes, just in a different order.

Week 9: Leadbelly

There was a lot of information for this week in terms of reading and in terms of listening and video. However, all of this information gave me a deeper look into Leadbelly's life and how Lomax fit into that life. One part of the reading that stuck out to me was Alan's introduction into the song collecting line of work that his father was in. He realized that by collecting these songs, he wasn't just a folk song collector, but he was a messenger for the masses. He helped these tenant farmers (a great visual that was offered in Chapter 2: Road Scholars) communicate to the broader world. They were not longer the unheard majority, but they now had a voice. In this spirit, Alan didn't stop when he hit barriers. When he couldn't get into the first prison he wanted to visit to find songsters, he tried again and again. He wrote letters beforehand to guarantee prison entry, instead of being shut down when he got to the gate.

Huddie Ledbetter was described as the King of the 12 String; the name Leadbelly came from his life of toughness, his confidence, pride and intelligence. Just like Mississippi John Hurt, he learned instruments as a child. Similarly, he worked on farms and in the industry, doing odd jobs and performing here and there. However, Leadbelly wanted to get paroled to work for Lomax; Lomax was hesitant to take on a challenge such as Leadbelly, and he didn't have the means to help Leadbelly get out of jail.

The one part I didn't like about Leadbelly's story was how he was described in the media. They called him the "Murderous Minstrel" and he was skilled with the "knife and guitar." I did not appreciate these descriptions because it highlighted his past rather than what he was doing at the time. Sure, those headlines serve as a more hard-hitting story, but it sells Leadbelly short. People focus on the fact that he was a violent man, that he committed crimes, but that is not why people are fascinated by him -- they should be focusing more on his craft than the fact that he had been in jail. I suppose these are opinions of the modern time; Leadbelly seemed to be pleased by all the headlines.

Lyrics:

Yonder comes Miss Rosie. How in the world do you know?
Well, I know her by the apron and the dress she wore.
Umbrella on her shoulder, piece of paper in her hand,
Well, I'm callin' that Captain, "Turn a-loose my man."

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me.
Oh let the Midnight Special shine her ever-lovin' light on me.

When you gets up in the morning, when that big bell ring.
You go marching to the table, you meet the same old thing.
Knife and fork are on the table, ain't nothing in my pan.
And if you say a thing about it, you have a trouble with the man.

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me.
Oh let the Midnight Special shine her ever-lovin' light on me.

If you ever go to Houston, boy, you better walk right,
And you better not squabble and you better not fight.
Benson Crocker will arrest you, Jimmy Boone will take you down.
You can bet your bottom dollar that you're penitentary bound.

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me.
Oh let the Midnight Special shine her ever-lovin' light on me.

Well, jumping Little Judy, she was a mighty fine girl.
She brought jumping to this whole round world.
Well, she brought it in the morning just a while before day.
Well, she brought me the news that my wife was dead.
That started me to grieving, whooping, hollering, and crying.
And I began to worry about my very long time.

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me.
Oh let the Midnight Special shine her ever-lovin' light on me.

For this week's project, I decided on Midnight Special. I believe the song refers to a passenger train. This passenger train is a symbol of the hope for escape -- when a train passes by, it may spark the thought of it as a way to go home. In the song, every day is the same: everything is in the same place, same routine, no food in the pan. But he can't complain about it, or there would be consequences. It's a life of following the rules, where the law stares a man down to be on his best behavior. I liked the reference to Jumping (little) Judy in the song -- how she gave sad news; she is also an "evil" character in Leadbelly's "Jumpin' Judy," where she treats him bad as well.

I enjoy the lyric "Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me/Oh let the Midnight Special shine her ever-lovin' light on me." It suggests an imagery of a train passing by. That light is consistently there; reliable at a certain time -- "ever-lovin'" light, particularly. Light is also a symbol of hope, the future, something good. Light gives brightness to the dark, hope in a sad place.

Week 8: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music

I found this week's reading very interesting -- reading the summaries about each song's lyrics was the most entertaining of the read. My favorite one is probably "Gaudy woman lures child from playfellows; stabs him as victim dictates message to parents" because it is so bizarre. It's such a strange idea when condensed into short clauses, but it probably holds a heavier emotion or message when listening to the entirety of the song. Another one that caught my attention was "Father finds daughter's body with note attached when railroad boy mistreats her." Again, it is so strange, but this one in particular sounds like the beginning of a crime or revenge-driven film. This plays well into a ballad; telling a story through music.
Many of the songs address the sins of women and suggest their tragic deaths, many of which were not their fault, but they were mistreated by their significant other. Most, if not all, of the songs have sad outcomes: losing life, farm, crops, love, jobs; with themes of regret or deception. I thought it quite strange that there are songs about unemployment, deaths of presidents and politics. Nowadays, there aren't songs like these -- so reading even the summaries about these songs was strange.

Fifty Miles of Elbow Room
By Rev. F.W. McGee
Lots of room for you and me on the other side.
Starts and ends with a chorus. Congregational style singing; voices overpower the piano, violin and clapping; lyrics hard to understand from the main duet; layered and free singing.

Fishing Blues
By Henry Thomas
Can catch more fish than you; going fishing.
Solo singer; features some type of woodwind instrument; quick upbeat tempo.
Discography: Texas Worried Blues: Completed Recorded Works 1927-1929

Spike Driver Blues
By Mississippi John Hurt
John Henry was a steel driver; he's gone.
Light guitar; ends abruptly.
Discography: Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 OKeh Recordings