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And I'll walk the road again my boy. The Road Again if the weather be fair I'll call my hair and I'll walk the road again. Washington State University presents the wandering ballad singer Barry Tobin with songs that vividly describe the history and folklore of a pioneering country. And. We've sung songs that told how bad or how mean the women are. Another topic in balladry that takes up almost as much aural space as that of men as you might expect. However instead of showing how bad or how mean a man might be most ballads about men tell how brave they are. All this might add up to several things I suppose. Men are generally brave and women are usually mean by ballad listeners for private reasons prefer their heroes to be brave in their heroines to be underhanded. Well maybe the men made up most of the ballads and folk songs. In any case here's the story of a brave and restless man which comes from the country around chalice Idahoans long famous for loggers and rough and tough men.
It's the story of John Hardy. John are restless little and childless lowered you'd ought to seen John Hardy get to move. You'd ought to seen John Hardy. Well John I was in the bar room so drunk could not see a lot coming up and took him by the hand said Johnny come and get me Johnny come and go. Well John our pretty little woman she was on top.
With Johnny I'll be rude or rude. Well the night John was there a bus door. Then rode on our back road. Now I've been on and I've been to the way I've been. And I've been to the river bend. Here's one of the few ballads about men that tell of man's defeat at the hands of woman probably a woman
made up the song to get back at the men folk who maintain that their days work was harder than hers and that's when the couple agree to exchange tasks for one day in order to prove which one presumably the man does the most work in the course of a day. Evidently the controversy itself is one of the most ancient on record. This one comes to us by way of England. Equinox still swore by the green leaves on the tree that he knew more were going to be good in three more were going to be good in three if that be true the old woman said then that you must love you come to the work in the house and I love the blood work in the house and you must turn that crock of grain that I left in the frame and don't get the bat in the pot it will turn into flame flame don't you get that in the middle of you go into a flame. And you must lead that little baby who lives within the skies and on the bridge.
He would go to the bridge and you go to. So she takes the plowing the horse and goes on down the road and equinoctial tries to do the housework and of course the kid won't get dressed or when to turn left in the frame and he got the bat in the pot and it Aldrin into flame out in the pot and it all turned into a flame. He went to milk the cow hearing the lubber knows she gave him a dip on the lip in the blood run to his toe you get him on the lip and the blood run do is. Look to the west he saw the setting sun. He swore to himself it had been a long day and his wife too had been alone and. Then after a while he saw him sitting and she clapped her hands upon her sides and swore that she was glad glad or that she was going to.
Any one I kill swore by all the stars in heaven knew more were going to do in heaven who were going to die. Men of the various laboring occupations made up songs about their own heroes to show how tough the logger or the miner or the cowboy really was if given the chance to show it. Here's a modern cleaned up version of several logging camp songs which tells the tale of a logger who could withstand almost everything. As I sat down one evening with a smug up already in me these were to see that you are a logger and not just a common cause nobody there's none like him. If you had more whiskey.
Never with a mob of whores. It just came in with a hammer and bite size. My love to see on one freezing enough on which broke three vertebrae when we parted so hard that he broke my jaw. I could not do or God saw that log leaving sauntering through the snow. Going home word for word tried to freeze him at its level best. Hundred degrees below zero. But his vest.
Would prove clean through to China rose to the stars above a thousand degrees below zero. It froze my logger. Tried and tried to thaw him and Mr.. They made him do X to cut Douglas. And so I lost my lover and coffee. The town of Florence Idaho is now an almost deserted ghost town a remnant of the rough and ready gold rush and logging days of the early Northwest. But if Lawrence did nothing else for posterity it at least supplied us with the story of its Judge John Martin Duffy who gained fame at least in this folk song by handing down a handy decision one day in court.
Records aren't complete and not enough to indicate whether the incident really happened. The song was collected in southern Washington by Marion come. Old John who was a judge of the carton and US mom out of town in the west of though he knew nothing about rules of the law. Judge he was one of the best. One I had in the winter. Murder occurred in the blacksmith. The accused of the crime. We caught him red handed and gave him drive. But the verdict was a good time. Now he was the only good blacksmith we had and we wanted to spare him his life. So don't be stood up in the court like a lawyer and with these words. I am. It is Mr need in.
Any which we have to a Chinese laundryman everyone nor why not said the Boer blacksmith than kill a lot of them. The Cowboys had their share in the game of telling about brave men too. Here's a short fragment all that's left of an old monologue usually referred to by scholars as chock full of brag and fight. Most of them are longer than this but not all of them have this unexpected ending. I was I was around in scorpion do it on a cattle inspection. Who should I meet but hair trigger be. Right now bent bird action the lion he was riding at both speed was kicking up plenty after the bowie knife for a bit of a rattlesnake or upward. The Wildcat he carried under his arm to be loose and other a
monster for a charm was up by the barb wire chain. A six gun cocked in his right hand I thought the durn forward cracker but all I did was the bound of Giada back when I asked him where he's going what is where it was all about. He says tough guy just hit down and he's done run me out from. The next ballot is one which was sung with great relish by early Cowboys It tells of the green horn from the east who thinks he's tough enough to herd cows and we think the life of the cowboy is fun. Like modern education the song implies by contrast just how big and brave a cowboy has to be. Can one have some fun until I was done the rounds had begun. I'd tackle the catalogue. As my Foreman is here in a saloon is name is
Brown around. That's just the thing. As we rode out to the ranch next day Brown had me although his house was on it was no were Got All right. It's just like with that son of a gun he lie he certainly is gone. Sometimes the cattle would make a break and across the prairie they would just like it was for a snake it was not but sometimes they'd stumble and fall sometimes we couldn't come at all and we would buy like a cannon bone got in our way. When a great big setback Bakken patted him down with the
gunny sack that was when I got on him in the ground when a circle around me and I come down and I bust to the ground and I had a terrible. Rub down with an old guy on again. You're doing fine says Brown and tomorrow morning if you don't die I'll give you another horse to drive and I walk says I. Says Brown Yes back to a live travel of travel is why the world on our own. I've lived in the city I lived in town and I've got this much big boy a dry cow punching kiss your wife is on your life.
Then when your throat with a butcher knife or it's done. That's about it for this time of year again and I'll walk the road again my boy was rude again. If the weather be fair I'll calm my hair and. Listen again next week when very cold and a wandering ballad singer returns with more songs in balance. The reasoning was transcribed and was produced by the Radio TV services of Washington State University. This is the NASED Radio Network.
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Series
The wandering ballad singer
Episode
Tough men
Producing Organization
Washington State University
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-rv0d0q6x
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/500-rv0d0q6x).
Description
Episode Description
This program explores folk songs around the theme of "Tough Men."
Series Description
Folk music series hosted by musician Barre Toelken, who collects folk songs and has worked as a dance band musician, a Forest Service employee, and prospector.
Broadcast Date
1960-07-25
Topics
Music
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:14:40
Credits
Host: Toelken, Barre, 1935-
Producing Organization: Washington State University
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 60-33-9 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:14:30
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Citations
Chicago: “The wandering ballad singer; Tough men,” 1960-07-25, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-rv0d0q6x.
MLA: “The wandering ballad singer; Tough men.” 1960-07-25. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-rv0d0q6x>.
APA: The wandering ballad singer; Tough men. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-rv0d0q6x