Saturday is here y’all-
We are off to another foggy start here and much of the mid Michigan area has some amount of fog, even my brain 😂
I felt like I didn’t sleep worth a damn but my Fitbit app is trying to tell me different. Sometimes I think it is full of 💩
Still waiting for some rain here.
More house cleaning on tap for today too.
Hope your weekend is more exciting than mine 😃
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okay who wants a fucking great country-ish song about the 401 highway, apparently the busiest highway in both canada and the US and an absolute nightmare to drive on?
(because I didn't think I needed this but apparently really do, and it has single-digit likes on youtube, so I figure it can stand to be seen by more people.)
this guy has minimal online presence and only two songs actually for sale anywhere but @darkfinch managed to find this, which has some info and songs on it.
and now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go relisten, because this song goes hard and is quite happily stuck in my head <3
~
lyrics:
this is a long highway
and it might take a day
to drive from detroit back to montreal
where the big rigs roll
down through ontario
and cars go speeds they should never go (never go, never go)
take a look ahead
flashing lights of red
another crash out on the blacktop run
on the news it says
another driver's dead
that brings the toll this month to twenty one (twenty one, twenty one)
I took a ride today
out on the king's highway
from montreal to toronto bay
justice will have its day
with your life you'll pay
better pay heed, so the people say
keep your hands at ten and two
do what you have to do
keep them there until the drive is done
or you may walk this road
a lost and lonely soul
another death out on the 401
just between you and I
how can you justify
the life you took with the pedal down (pedal down, pedal down)
the ghosts they roam the road
looking for their home
and if they spoke you never hear the sound (sound, sound)
I took a ride today
out on the king's highway
from montreal to toronto bay
justice will have its day
with your life you'll pay
better pay heed, so the people say
keep your hands at ten and two
do what you have to do
keep them there until the drive is done
or you may walk this road
a lost and lonely soul
another death out on the 401
another death out on the 401
~
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Song of The Day/history of cotton eyed joe
do you want the history of a folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown
"Cotton Eyed Joe"
Terry Callier, 1963
As a disclaimer, "Cotton Eyed Joe" is my least favorite American folk song and I'm going to talk about why, and I'm going to talk about why Terry Callier's version is subversive and good.
The Earliest date we have for the song's origins is from 1882 when it was Published in "Diddie, Dumps, and Tot, or, Plantation child-life" by Louise Clark-Pyrnelle. This book is a nostalgic recollection of her childhood as a plantation owner's daughter. She reminisces fondly about slavery, missing the old plantation days. Honestly, some of the quotes within this book are beyond parody, in one sentence she says "... My little book does not pretend to be any defense of slavery" and in the next sentence when referring to the morality of slavery she writes, "there are many pros and cons to that subject", later at the end of the chapter she laments about the forever lost emotional connection between the Masters children and the enslaved people. hate this woman and her little book.
It is also important to note that this book goes out of its way to caricature black people, throughout the book she exaggerates accents and dialects to dehumanize them. This is a recurring theme in early publications of this song.
Another early publication of the song comes from Dorothy Scarborough in "On the Trail of negro folk-songs" 1925 who got it from her sister who also learned it on a plantation, in Texas. She writes "This is an authentic slavery-time song" This book, if you can believe it, is remarkably racist and dismissive of black music, even as a more "progressive" songbook of black folk songs.
In 1922, the song's history was documented a bit more extensively by Thomas W. Talley in his book "Negro folk rhymes". He writes that it has "deep roots in black traditional lore". Thomas W. Talley was also just a cool guy in general, this book is one of the first compilations of African American folk songs, and it has been a pioneering book in its field. Even today, this book is still one of the best sources for the history of African American folk songs.
So, this is a black song. This was a black song whose first wave of popularization was through the caricature of black people to be amusing for white folks. Let's move on to its second wave of popularization.
The song was first recorded in 1927 by "Dykes Magic City Trio" (all white band) then about a week later by Fiddlin' John Carson (white performer) then in 1928 by Pope's Arkansas Mountanaineers (all white band) then in 1929 by Carter Brothers and Son (all white band) and then it wasn't really recorded for a while because of the great depression and the war but the times it was recorded, it was by white people. We know this because it was mostly recorded by John Lomax and despite documenting southern folk songs, he almost went out of his way to avoid recording black people singing them. Then, in 1941, it was recorded by Burl Ives (painfully white).also covered by a few white country singers like Adolph hofner bob willis but I think you get the point. It wasn't until later that year that it would be recorded by a black person, performed by josh white in 1944-45, who covered it as a lullaby.
However, it wouldn't be until the 90s, during its 3rd wave of popularization that it became its most grotesque. "cotton eye joe" was recorded and released by Swedish Eurodance band Rednex in 1995 as a, to paraphrase reviews, 'Way to make fun of backwater southerners'. This song became incredibly popular throughout Europe and in the USA as well, charting as a number-one song in several countries, sometimes for weeks. Not only is this song incredibly classist, it is, whether by omission or deliberately, fundamentally racist, adding to the whitewashing of black folk and minstrelsy of black people. The attitude and humor derived from the Swedish version are the same as the version in 1882 when it was a "classic slave song".
So, why is Terry Callier's version important, why talk about it? Terry Callier's version is the first version of the song that I have heard and it is not a comedy. It isn't meant to be funny. It slows the melody down and draws attention to itself. It's almost a ballad, showcasing Joe as a tragic but mysterious hero, maybe a love song. His voice is angelic as well. Terry Callier once again, subverts expectations and creates something beautiful out of a song that has been so whitewashed and appropriated that no one remembers its tragic origins.
Thomas W. Talley
some other versions by black folks
Josh white 1944-46
Nina simone 1959
The Ebony Hillbillies 2004
Leon bibb 1962
Ella Jenkins 1960
Josh White Jr 1964
Queen Ida 1985
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Grey Monday -
See that little strip? Well, that’s all the color you’re gonna get this morning. 😂
We got rain yesterday evening but it was barely enough to get the road wet. It looks like it’s going to be cloudy all day. We are finally done with those hot daytime temperatures.
Happy Monday! Yeah, I know Mondays suck for some of you. 😐
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