Saturday, April 05, 2014
a book for sinners
♫ ♪ Books, books, books! Sing a song of books ♪ ♫... What's better than books, especially on a rainy day indoors with a warm woodstove and a nearby rocking chair. Here is one, another from the group of books I've amassed over the years about American vernacular music. I bought this for four bucks at a library sale ten years ago. The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg (Harcourt, Brace 1927):
I love the dedication page. I love it so much I will quote it in its entirety, with its small caps and all:
Dedicated
TO THOSE UNKNOWN SINGERS - WHO MADE SONGS -
OUT OF LOVE, FUN, GRIEF - AND TO THOSE MANY
OTHER SINGERS - WHO KEPT THOSE SONGS AS LIVING
THINGS OF THE HEART AND MIND - OUT OF LOVE,
FUN, GRIEF
It's like one of his poems. The apologia page is also wonderful. So why not quote that too, it its glory:
Apologia
I APOLOGIZE FOR THE IMPERFECTIONS IN THIS WORK. I BELIEVE
NO ONE ELSE IS NOW, OR EVER WILL BE, SO DEEPLY AWARE AND
SO THOROUGHLY AND WIDELY CONSCIOUS OF THE IMPERFECTIONS
IN THESE PAGES. I SHOULD LIKE TO HAVE TAKEN TEN, TWENTY,
THIRTY YEARS MORE IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME.
MANY CONSIDERATIONS WHICH HAVE GOVERNED THE SELEC-
TION OF MATERIAL, AND THE METHODS OF PRESENTATION, ARE
NOT WORTH SETTING FORTH IN A FOREWORD, DECLARATION, OR
ARGUMENT; THEY WOULD HAVE VALUE CHIEFLY AND ONLY TO
THOSE WHO ALREADY UNDERSTAND SOMEWHAT THE LABYRINTHS,
TWISTED PATHWAYS, AND ROADS OF LIFE, OUT OF WHICH
THIS BOOK ISSUES.
THE BOOK WAS BEGUN IN DEPTHS OF HUMILITY, AND ENDED
LIKEWISE WITH THE MURMUR, "GOD BE MERCIFUL, TO ME, A
SINNER." IT IS A BOOK FOR SINNERS, AND FOR LOVERS OF HUMAN-
ITY. I APOLOGIZE TO THEM FOR THE SINS OF THE BOOK AND THAT
IT LOVES MUCH BUT NOT ENOUGH.
CARL SANDBURG
Chicago, 1927
Of course in the book itself, the margins of these lovely chunky blocks of small caps are perfectly centered and justified on both sides by the able typesetter. Which I am not, and which distresses me. But I digress. Sandburg gives us, in this book, nearly five hundred pages of lyrics, music, and commentary, roughly organized by theme and region, including Dramas and Portraits, Minstrel Songs, Tarnished Love Tales or Colonial and Revolutionary Antiquities, Pioneer Memories, Hobo Songs, The Big Brutal City, Prison and Jail Songs, Blues, Mellows, and Ballets, The Great Open Spaces, Mexican Border Songs, Southern Mountains, Picnic and Hayrack Follies, Close Harmony, and Darn Fool Ditties, Railroad and Work Gangs, Lumberjacks, Loggers, Shantyboys, Sailorman, Five Wars, Lovely People, Road to Heaven, etc. Many classics are here, in interesting versions, with extra verses.
Of course in the book itself, the margins of these lovely chunky blocks of small caps are perfectly centered and justified on both sides by the able typesetter. Which I am not, and which distresses me. But I digress. Sandburg gives us, in this book, nearly five hundred pages of lyrics, music, and commentary, roughly organized by theme and region, including Dramas and Portraits, Minstrel Songs, Tarnished Love Tales or Colonial and Revolutionary Antiquities, Pioneer Memories, Hobo Songs, The Big Brutal City, Prison and Jail Songs, Blues, Mellows, and Ballets, The Great Open Spaces, Mexican Border Songs, Southern Mountains, Picnic and Hayrack Follies, Close Harmony, and Darn Fool Ditties, Railroad and Work Gangs, Lumberjacks, Loggers, Shantyboys, Sailorman, Five Wars, Lovely People, Road to Heaven, etc. Many classics are here, in interesting versions, with extra verses.
Sandburg's short introductions to many of the songs contain some real pearls. For example, before the ballad "Willy the Weeper," about a chimney-sweeper dope fiend (p.204):
"The lines 'Teet tee dee dee dee dee,' are lingering and dreamy, supposed to indicate regions where the alphabet is not wanted."
Or this, from the standard "Foggy, Foggy Dew" (p.14):
"Observers as diverse as Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, Arthur T. Vance and D.W. Griffith say this song is a a great condensed novel of real life. After hearing it sung with a guitar at Schlogl's one evening in Chicago, D.W. Griffith telegraphed two days later from New York to Lloyd Lewis in Chicago, 'Send verses Foggy Dew stop tune haunts me but am not sure of words stop please do this as I am haunted by the song.'"
Haunting, yes. Good music really gets under our skin and stays there. One more quote from Sandburg (I love so much of his poetry, and it is a pleasure to hear his voice speaking about music too), from his notes to "The Frozen Girl" (p.58):
"An old ballad is often like an old silver dagger or an old brass pistol; it is rusty, or greenish; it is ominous with ancient fates still operating today."
One interesting thing about reading these books of songs right through as if they were regular books - the same songs appear in them in many versions, with often wildly divergent verses, yet they remain the same songs. I read the version of "A Pretty Fair Maid" on pages 68-69 and was surprised to see that this song was about a sailor returning home, because the lyrics I already knew were about a soldier. Tim O'Brien sings and plays my favorite version.
If people are enjoying seeing and hearing about these music books, I will continue for a while. Lots still on the bookshelves here that I haven't yet mentioned.
