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| Enola Gay on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (Photo: Simon Meeds) |
Since the session fell on VJ-Day and the previous week's session should have marked the 80th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Colin announced an impromptu, naturally optional, war and anti-war theme, which he kicked off with The sun is burning (Ian Campbell).
Stuart and Carrie gave us two songs in duet: I'll tell me Ma (roud 2649) and Bonnie light horseman (roud 1185).
Simon returned to the anti-war theme with There but for fortune (Phil Ochs) and Rob sang his topical update of Jordan Is A Hard Road To Travel (roud 12153 - Dan Emmett) which he calls The other side of Jordan (Rob Winder).
Denny gave us The shores of old Blighty (Graeme Miles). Her friend and recent dragon recruit, Helen, contributed The rose (Amanda McBroom).
Bob brought along Call me the breeze (J J Cale) while Sue finished the first rotation with Lead Belly's Cotton fields (* roud 11662) - hands up who thought it was a Beach Boys original.
In researching this report I found that Lead Belly travelled with Blind Lemon Jefferson before his (Huddie's) first spell in prison. He was influenced by Jefferson's departures from the blues style which was being established, leading no doubt to his own near-rock'n'roll style of folk before the term was even invented.
I mention this because later in the session Bob sang Jefferson's See that my grave is kept clean (roud 7382). Bob hinted that Jefferson's later years were a mystery. It seems that's not quite true, but that is some uncertainty around his death. According to Wikipedia: "Jefferson died in Chicago at 10:00 a.m. on December 19, 1929, of what his death certificate said was 'probably acute myocarditis'. For many years, rumors circulated that a jealous lover had poisoned his coffee, but a more likely explanation is that he died of a heart attack after becoming disoriented during a snowstorm. Some have said that he died of a heart attack after being attacked by a dog in the middle of the night. In his 1983 book Tolbert's Texas, Frank X. Tolbert claims that he was killed while being robbed of a large royalty payment by a guide escorting him to Chicago Union Station to catch a train home to Texas. Paramount Records paid for the return of his body to Texas by train, accompanied by the pianist William Ezell.
"Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery (later Wortham Black Cemetery) in Wortham, Freestone County, Texas. His grave was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas historical marker was erected in the general area of his plot; however, the precise location of the grave is still unknown. By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, and a new granite headstone was erected in 1997. The inscription reads: 'Lord, it's one kind favor I'll ask of you, see that my grave is kept clean.' In 2007, the cemetery's name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery, and his grave-site is kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham."
Bob said that See that my grave is kept clean was his second most miserable song. We didn't find out what this blues-man's most miserable song was called, but Colin gave him a good run for his money with a theme-appropriate song which gave me a bit of a run-around. No doubt the song is quite well known, but my search for the words came up with the song's origins as a poem written by Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet and called Kız Çocuğu (The girl child). In English translation the poem is called Hiroshima child. Joan Baez sings it in the original Turkish here, but Colin sang it as I come and stand at every door (*).
With all that story I will quickly run through the other songs which are new to the Dragon database:
- Stuart - Katie Cruel (* roud 1645), a version of The lightbob's lassie.
- Carrie - Drafted (* Andrew Latimer, Susan Hoover)
- Stuart - Running from home (* Bert Jansch)
- Rob - The gallant frigate Amphitrite (* roud 301)
- Rob - The maid and the palmer (* roud 2335, child 21)
- Helen - Have you ever seen the rain? (* John Fogerty)
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 9 of whom 9 performed)
In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and any songs not included in the "a selection" playlist are marked with a hash (#).
