Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 1975. American terrorism of the 1970s.
The Weather Underground bombed the State Department building in Washington, D.C.
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Bob Dylan's 115th Dream (Take 2, Complete)
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Friday, January 16, 1925. Leadbelly released from prison and some Italians got to vote a lot.
Huddie Ledbetter, aka "Lead Belly", was granted a full pardon by Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff Neff for having served the minimum seven years of his prison sentence for the 1918 killing of Will Stafford, a relative of his, in a fight over a woman.
It was a least his second period of incarceration, with his first being in 1915 for carrying a handgun, something that would not be a crime now.
While in prison for homicide, he'd be stubbled in the neck by another inmate, resulting in a permanent scar.
The pardon came about due to Ledbetter writing the Governor and seeking the same, and the Governor visiting him more than once in prison.
Ledbetter would return to prison in 1930 for attempted homicide and 1939 for assault.
Perhaps not a pacific man, he was the greatest American folk musician and one of the greatest blue musicians of all time. He was personally responsible for the survival of the twelve string guitar. He was principally a bluesman, but the blues had not quite stabilized into its form at the time, and not all of his music fits the genera. Indeed, this so much the case that at least one of his songs that is typically preformed as a blue piece, The Midnight Special, was not performed quite that way by Leadbelly. He became known to the general public due to John Lomax's recordings of him in 1933, at which time he was again in prison.
Leadbelly was born in Louisiana in 1888 or 1889, and died of Lou Gehrigs disease in 1946 at age 61 or 62. He took to music early and learned to paly the mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, Jew’s harp, piano, and organ, with his principal instructor's being his uncles, Bob and Terrell Ledbetter.
His songs are widely preformed to this day, and once were part of the American music canon taught to school children. Interestingly enough, he's associated with the first recorded use of the word "woke", in a spoken item after a song in which he stated; "So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open."
Italy passed a bill giving double votes to academians, professors, those with diplomas, knights, military officers, those with any military decorations, officeholders, certain business personnel, all those paying a direct tax of 100 lira or more, and fathers of at least five children, triple votes to members of the royal family, members of high nobility, cardinals, highly decorated war veterans, high officeholders, or anyone who met three conditions for double votes.
Last edition:
Thursday, January 15, 1925. Trotsky gets canned, Ross addresses the legislature.
Sunday, November 3, 2024
The Carter Family - Can't Feel at Home
Monday, September 30, 2024
Kris Kristofferson - Vietnam Blues (1993)
Monday, July 29, 2024
Monday, July 29, 1974. Philadelphia Eleven and Alpha Group.
Episcopal Bishops Robert L. DeWitt, Bishop of Pennsylvania; Daniel Corrigan, Suffragan Bishop of Colorado; and Edward R. Welles II, the retired Bishop of West Missouri., ordained elevent female Episcopal deacons as priests, sparking a crisis in the Episcopal Church. The acts were declared valid but irregular by the Episcopal Church.
The act was pioneering as the direction became that of the Episcopal Church and much, but not all, of the Anglican Communion thereafter. It also had the result of causing it to be increasingly impossible for the overall Anglican Communion to reunite with the Catholic Church, which does not recognize the ordainment of women and of course which generally holds that Anglican holy orders are invalid, although there are exceptions we won't deal with here for individual priests and circumstances. The validity of Anglican holy orders has been a major topic in the Anglican Communion.
It's worth noting that Christian churches in general were becoming increasingly liberal in the wake of the 1960s, although that wasn't universally true. It was relatively noticeable in the Episcopal Church which had always been one of the most influential in the United States and one of the largest of the "mainline" Protestant churches. The Episcopal Church had been particularly associated with wealth and establishment in the US and remained so for much of the 20th Century, but starting at some point after this it began a dramatic decline and no longer holds the status it once did. The Anglican Communion itself has globally been in a condition of strife as conservative elements, with a heavy African representation, have been opposed by developments such as this within it.
The mysterious Alpha Group within the KGB Special Forces was created by Yuri Andropov.
Saturday, July 27, 1974. Articles of Impeachment.
Thursday, June 20, 2024
"And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checks They say 'America First,' but they mean 'America Next!' "
And I'm gonna tell you workers, 'fore you cash in your checksThey say "America First, " but they mean "America Next!"In Washington, Washington
Thursday, January 25, 2024
In Memoriam. Melanie Safka, 1947-2024
She performed at Woodstock, still so young that her mother went with her.
What Have They Done to My Song Ma is one I recall from my childhood for some reason, dimly recalling that my mother liked it.
Monday, June 19, 2023
Tuesday, June 19, 1923. the Little Old Log Cabin.
John Carson
"Fiddlin" John Carson recorded "The Little Old Log Cabin" in the Lane in what is now inaccurately regarded as the first "country" music recording. The flipside was "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going To Crow."It was "country", but not in the country pop or modern C&W understanding, but rather in the "Hill Billy" music understanding of the word. That type of music, often highly evolved, is still within the "country" genre, but much, indeed most, of modern C&W music is as much related to pop music than anything else.
Carson would record off and on until 1935. He died in 1949 at age 81, spending his final years as an elevator operator.
The US and the UK came to an agreement on the UK's war debt.
Sunday, June 18, 2023
La Golondrina
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Saturday, January 7, 2023
House of the Rising Sun Deconstructed. Anything seem a little odd?
Most of us know the song, House of the Rising Sun. Probably most people who think of it, when they do, think of the version by Eric Burdon and the Animals.
It's a great song.
Anything ever seem a little off about it, however?
The song is about a house of prostitution, which most people familiar with the song are aware of. As Burdon sings it, the lyrics are:
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans
Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's all drunk
Oh mother, tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain
Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one
Now, it is a great song. And I like this version of it, which was released in 1964.
The interesting thing, however, is that song from a male point of view, which it is, it's sort of way ahead of its time. Not that it isn't relevant, it's just a point of view that I can't think of any other song from the mid to late 20th Century expressing that view. Basically, the protagonist is confessing that he's a sex addict and addicted to frequenting the prostitutes of The House Of The Rising Sun.
The song wasn't written by Eric Burdon, or any of his band. They were covering a song, which many are unaware of, that had already had a successful recording run when sung by Woodie Guthrie and Hudey Ledbetter (Leadbelly). Indeed, I thought Leadbelly had written the wrong, but I was in error on that.
The Guthrie version, from 1941, has the following lyrics:
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new bluejeans
My father was a gamblin' man
Down in New Orleans
Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and trunk
And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk
Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House Of The Rising Sun
Well, I got one foot on the platform
The other foot on the train
I'm goin' back to New Orleans
To wear that ball and chain
Well, there is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one
Identical. What about Leadbelly? Well, he recorded it twice, first in 1944, which had these lyrics:
There is a house in New Orleans
You call the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many a poor soul
And me, oh God, I'm one
If I'd listened to what mama said
I'd be at home today
Being so young and foolish, poor girl
I let a gambler lead me astray
My mother she's a tailor
Sews those new blue jeans
My sweetheart, he's a drunkard, Lord God
He drinks down in New Orleans
He fills his glasses to the brim
Passes them around
The only pleasure that he gets out of life
Is a hoboin' from town to town
The only thing a drunkard needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk
The only time that he's half satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk
Go and tell my baby sister
Never do like I have done
Shun that house down in New Orleans
That they call that Rising Sun.
It's one foot on the platform,
One foot on the train.
I'm going back down to New Orleans
To wear my ball and my chain
My life is almost over
My race is almost run
Going back down to New Orleans
To that house of the Rising Sun
Oh, now wait a moment, that's a lot different. In this version, which is earlier, the protagonist, while sung through Leadbelly's male voice, is a girl entrapped in prostitution. Frankly, the song makes a lot more sense all the way around.
Leadbelly's 1947 version of The House of the Rising Sun.
In the second recording, which is the one people normally here, Leadbelly had followed Guthrie's lead, and the protagonist was male.
The first one presents a really grim warning. The girl who is the subject of the song has obviously left the house, and now is returning? Why? Well, contrary to the way prostitution is portrayed in film, her reputation would have been completely ruined and by this point that probably would have been her only option to try to make enough money to stay alive. Not only that, she's noting that she's expecting an early death.
More on that in a moment.
Leadbelly, it should be noted, didn't get around to recording until very near the end of his life. He died in 1949, and was first recorded in 1933. He was born in 1888 and was preforming professionally by 1903. Indeed, at first he preformed in Shreveport audiences in St. Paul's Bottoms, its red-light district, with his career interrupted by stints in jail, which are referenced in some of his most famous songs. He was in fact discovered, and truly was a great musical talent, by Alan Lomax while serving a prison stint.
Leadbelly preformed so early that some have speculated to what degree he was an indeterminable influence on the blues. He definitely was, but he also was unique in that he played a twelve-string guitar, very unusual for bluesmen, and his songs were always in the blues format but in sometimes in a near blues, ten bar, format. Indeed, some of those were converted to eight bar blues formats by later recording artists, probably basically by accident.
Anyhow, Leadbelly's songs often had a really old origin. This seems to be one. And the fact that the first version he recorded was sung from a female point of view is telling. Taht's probably how he learned it.
How early is that version?
Well, the song first makes its appearance by reference in 1905. By that time, it was being sung by miners in Appalachia, which means that one of the references doesn't quite fit unless the song had really travelled in the South. I.e., a song about somebody in New Orleans is out of regional context. The first printed version of the lyrics appear in 1925, with this:
There is a house in New Orleans,
it's called the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many poor girl
Great God, and I for one.
Just like Leadbelly had it.
The first recorded version came in 1933, later than I would have supposed, but still pretty early in the recording industry. It was by Applachain artist Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster. Ashley claimed to have learned it from his grandfather, which pushes the song back to the mid 19th Century. Ashley's version has a male protagonist:
There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
Where many poor boys to destruction has gone
And me, oh God, are one.
Note, this one has a blunter warning than any others with a male protagonist. The male vocalist hasn't gone to "ruin", but to "destruction".
Hmmmm. . . . so was it a male or female song?
My guess is that it was originally a female one, but because of its compelling popularity, it's been switched back and forth from its near onset.
So, was there a House of the Rising Sun that induced poor girls into lives, and probably shortened ones, of prostitution?
Nobody really knows for sure, but applying Yeoman's Eighth Law of History, as we should, would suggest it's likely. That law, as you'll recall, stated the following:
In cultures that write things down, the concept that myths, which were primarily related by word of mouth, have any basis in reality seems to come as a shock. But they normally do.
While that eight law mostly referred to old myths, it applies to more recent ones as well, as the basic principle is the same. The song clearly came out of Louisiana, and it traveled the South pretty extensively while persistently retaining its references to a House of the Rising Sun. There likely was such a place in Louisiana, or at the chances that there was are pretty good.
Indeed, a whole series of theories hold that it was on Conti Street in the French Quarter or on Ursulines Street or on St. Louis Street. In 2016 however, the New Orleans Times Picayune ran an article about an advertisement they'd found in which a hotelier was advertising the Mechanics Hotel, just outside of town, and with obviously pretty good rooming accommodations, which was noted to have formerly been "the old establishment of the Rising Sun".
Hmmm. . . .
The owners of the Mechanics Hotel wanted his potential guests to note that the hotel had a variety of rooms and offered a variety of services and accommodations, none of which included prostitution. The prior role of the Rising Sun wasn't mentioned, just that the Mechanics Hotel was where it formerly was, or rather that it was being rebranded. Perhaps it was also being repurposed. If so, that advertisement would have served two purposes, one being "don't stay away if you would have avoided the old Rising Sun", and the second being "don't come around if you are expecting the old services of the Rising Sun".
That advertisement, by the way, ran in 1828, which would mean that the song would have to have dated back to at least that approximate time.
So, what's the moral of the song? It clearly has one.
The basic warning is against living a life of depravity, that's clear enough. More than that, it was a direct warning about living a life of sexual depravity. Further, it warns the audience that the vocalist can't get out of it, now that the protagonist is in it, even though it would see, that the protagonist has tried. In the male variant sung by Guthrie, and in the female variant sung by Leadbelly, the protagonist informs the audience that the subject is at a railroad station with one foot on the platform, and one on the train, and is going back to New Orleans "to wear that ball and train". That tells us that the male protagonist is going back to New Orleans where he intends, seemingly against his will, to resume visiting the House of the Rising Sun. In the female protagonist version, she's going back to be a prostitute.
The female version is even grimmer. In that version, not only does the lyrics indicate that the subject is a slave to the situation, she's a different sort. Her slavery, in essence, is implied to be economic. Her reputation is ruined and she can't do anything else at this point. Moreover, she knows that she's going to die young, either at the hands of one of her clients, or more likely through disease.
Which takes us to this. That in fact was then and is now the thing that kills prostitutes early. It's odd how in Western movies like Lonesome Dove or Open Range this is ignored. Prostitutes were nearly guaranteed to get a venereal disease at the time, and it was probably going to kill them. Regular clients were likely to get a "social disease" as well, and the number of men who came down with one even where they were not regular customers, but who had made a visit a few, or perhaps even one, times were likely to as well.
Indeed, it wasn't really until after World War Two that it was the case that VD could really be effectively treated. . Nearly all of the treatments before then were ineffective to varying degrees. But that's not the last of it. Girls who fell into prostitution didn't simply think it an economic option, but were often victims of what was termed "white slavery". Kidnapped and drugged, or kept against their will in some fashion, sometimes by force, sometimes by addition. This is also still the case.
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Waiting For A Train
Monday, November 21, 2022
Monday, January 31, 2022
Spotify don't need him around anyhow*
I don't think Joe Rogan should be posting crap about COVID 19 on Spotify, but I have to be somewhat amused by Neil Young's actions and what has followed, including Joni Mitchell following in his wake. I suspect it's largely:
Boomers: What's Spotify?
Generation Jones: Oh, thank goodness, at last we don't have to hear Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. . . any chance James Taylor will pull his music too?
Millennials, Gen X, and Gen Y: Neil who?
Footnotes:
*Apologies to Lynryd Skynyrd whose anthem Sweet Home Alabama contained these lyrics, regarding Neil Young:
Well I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well I heard ol' Neil put her down
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around anyhow.
FWIW, I like the ballad Sweet Home Alabama, and Neil Young actually acknowledged that he himself thought he'd gone too far with his song Southern Man, but Neil was on the right side of history on that one for sure, and he probably is here too. I can't actually imagine Sweet Home Alabama being released today, and like most songs, probably nobody really pays very much attention to its lyrics.