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The Unfortunate Rake

The Unfortunate Rake (Folkways FS 3805)

The Unfortunate Rake (St. James Hospital)
A Study in the Evolution of a Ballad
Various Artists

Folkways Records FS 3805 (LP, USA, 1960);
Smithsonian Folkways FS3805 (CD/download, USA, 2007)

Edited by Kenneth S. Goldstein

Liner notes (PDF) at Smithsonian Global Sound

Musicians

see track list

Tracks

Side 1

  1. A.L. Lloyd: The Unfortunate Rake (2.59)
    from English Street Songs (Riverside RLP-12-614, 1956)
  2. Ewan MacColl: The Trooper Cut Down in His Prime (4.30)
    from Barrack-Room Ballads (Topic 10T26, 1958)
  3. Harry Cox: The Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime (1.57)
    from Field Trip—England, edited by Jean Ritchie (Folkways FW 8871, 1959)
  4. Willie Mathieson: Noo I’m a Young Man Cut Down in My Prime (2.17)
    recorded by Hamish Henderson on a field trip in February 1952
  5. Wade Hemsworth: The Bad Girl’s Lament (2.49)
    from Folk Songs of the Canadian North Woods (Folkways FW 6821, 1955)
  6. Hally Wood: One Morning in May (2.36)
    from O Lovely Appearance of Death (Elektra EKL-10)
  7. Mrs. Viola Penn: Bright Summer Morning (2.24)
    collected by Van Dam and T. Combs on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, in November 1953
  8. D.K. Wilgus: The Girl in the Dilger Case (1.08)
    text sung here collected by E.C. Perrow from Jack Sykes of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1915
  9. Bruce Buckley: The Cowboy’s Lament (2.39)
    version sung here collected by Vance Randolph from Jim Fitzhugh of Sylamore, Arkansas, in 1919
  10. Harry Jackson: The Streets of Laredo (4.59)
    from The Cowboy: His Songs, Ballads and Brag Talk (Folkways FH 5723, 1959)

Side 2

  1. Alan Lomax: St. James Hospital (3.33)
    collected by John and Alan Lomax from James (Iron Head) Baker at the Central State Farm, Sugarland, Texas, in 1934; recording from Texas Folksongs (Tradition TLP 1029, 1958)
  2. Dave Van Ronk: Gambler’s Blues (2.44)
    from Ballads, Blues, and a Spirtual (Folkways FS 3818, 1959)
  3. Guthrie Meade: I Once Was a Carman in the Big Mountain Con (1.12)
    text collected by Dr. Wayland D. Hand from Kyle Pugh in Butte, Montana, in 1945
  4. Rosalie Sorrels: The Lineman’s Hymn (1.49)
    from Folk Songs & Ballads of Idaho and Utah (Folkways FH 5343, 1961)
  5. Kenneth S. Goldstein: The Wild Lumberjack (1.51)
    text from Henry W. Shoemaker, Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1931)
  6. Jan Brunvand: A Sun Valley Song (1.28)
    from Indiana University Folklore Archives; learnt from a student at the University of Denver in 1950
  7. John Greenway: The Ballad of Bloody Thursday (3.44)
    from the People’s Songs Library and American Folksongs of Protest (Philadelphia, 1953)
  8. Bill Friedland: The Streets of Hamtramck (2.23)
    written by Kuppy Scott, inspired by the Dodge Pension Strike of 1949
  9. Pete Seeger: The Ballad of Sherman Wu (2.07)
    from Gazette (Folkways FN 2501, 1958)
  10. Roger Abrahams: The Professor’s Lament (3.25)
    from Western Folklore, Volume XVII, Number 3, July 1958