1940s – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Bob Wills – Stay a Little Longer

We are going to switch gears today with some western swing. This is my first time featuring Bob Wills on the blog, and I figured it was about time. I’d heard his name for years and knew about his reputation as one of country music’s true pioneers, but I hadn’t spent much time with his music. This song changed that. The musicianship is outstanding, but it never feels like anyone is showing off. It just sounds like a group of great players having a good time. Sometimes that’s exactly what music is supposed to do. I was influenced by a fellow blogger’s song he wrote, and it had a swing to it.

Every now and then I like to step back and listen to one of the artists who helped shape modern American music. Bob Wills is one of those names. He’s remembered as the King of Western Swing, but his influence reached far beyond country music. His blend of country, jazz, blues, and swing inspired generations of musicians, from country stars to rock and roll artists. This is one of those recordings that reminds you just how much fun music can be.

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys first recorded this song in 1946, and it quickly became one of the band’s signature songs. The record captures everything that made western swing so popular: great fiddles, steel guitar, and tight musicianship. I also love the playful back-and-forth that always seemed to be part of a Bob Wills performance. One of his trademarks was calling out to the band during the song, adding little shouts of encouragement that made listeners feel like they were right there with them. He wanted everyone to join in the fun.

What has always impressed me about Bob Wills is the respect he earned from other musicians. Guitarists, fiddlers, steel players, and singers all seemed to admire him. His music crossed boundaries long before that became common. You can hear country, big band swing, blues, and even a little jazz all mixed together. That influence eventually found its way into artists like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, and even rock musicians who appreciated the freedom and musicianship of western swing.

Bob was a mentor to my father and gave him the fiddle he is playing in this picture. I still have it. Bob wanted my father to play with the Texas Playboys, but my mother, hearing the stories about the band on the road, said no way. So he joined the Light Crust Doughboys, and Johnny Gimble took the spot as second fiddle to Bob. The same stories about traveling happened in country music as well as rock music.

One thing I enjoy about writing this blog is discovering how these musical stories continue long after the records stop turning. Bob Wills’ early years with the Light Crust Doughboys helped shape the music he would later make famous with the Texas Playboys. Years later, one of my readers, Phil Strawn, shared that his father, Johnny Strawn, also played with the Light Crust Doughboys and even has a photograph of himself with Bob Wills with a fiddle Wills gave him. Moments like that remind me that music history isn’t just found in books. Sometimes it’s sitting in a family photo album, waiting for someone to share another piece of the story.

The Rolling Stones and Waylon Jennings doing their tribute to Bob Wills

Here is Waylon Jennings with the same song

Stay A Little Longer

Oh, gather ’round friends, why hurry
Let’s all stay a little longer

You ought to see my blue-eyed Sally
She lives a way down on Shinbone Alley
The number on the gate, the number on the door
And the next house over is the grocery store

Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer

Can’t go home if you’re going by the mill
‘Cause the bridge washed out at the bottom of the hill
Big creek’s up, and the big creek’s level
Plow my corn with a double shovel

Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer (yeah)

Sitting in the window, singing to my love
When slop bucket fell from the window up above
Mule and the grasshopper eating ice cream
Mule got sick and they laid him on the green

Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer

Grab your girl and pat her on the head
If she don’t like biscuits, feed her cornbread
The girls around big creek, about half grown
They jump on a man like a dog on a bone

Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer

SS Île de France: The Saint Bernard of the Seas

SS Île de France: The Saint Bernard of the Seas

Hope you are having a great Friday…SS Île de France: The Saint Bernard of the Seas – Old Steam Ships

Woody Guthrie – When That Great Ship Went Down

I was researching my post on the RMS Lusitania for my other blog (oldsteamships.blog) today, and I stumbled across this Woody Guthrie song. I had never heard it before, and I’m certainly not a Woody Guthrie expert. I know his more famous songs and his enormous influence on Bob Dylan and others, but somehow this song, sometimes listed simply as “The Great Ship,” had escaped me. The song is about the Lusitania, and hearing it while preparing a post about the ship made the two stories fit together naturally. He did conflate the Lusitania and Titanic in one line: “Felt the iceberg and shock.” No iceberg with the Lusitania, just a U-Boat and a torpedo.

The melody and title have roots in an earlier folk ballad usually associated with the Titanic. William and Versey Smith recorded “When That Great Ship Went Down” in 1927, and versions of the song had circulated for years before that. Woody often worked in that folk tradition, taking familiar melodies and structures and reshaping them around another event. His version changes the ship and much of the story, turning an older disaster ballad into a remembrance of the Lusitania.

Guthrie sings the song from the viewpoint of someone aboard the sinking liner. He describes frightened passengers, mothers and children, the cold ocean mist, and a final kiss between two people who know they may not survive. Then he names the ship directly: the Lusitania, once famous throughout the world, was sunk on May 7, 1915. Guthrie does not fill the song with historical details. He makes it personal and lets the passengers tell the story. That is what makes it work.

Guthrie recorded the song during a group of sessions made for Moses Asch in 1944 with Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry. Those recordings were not originally arranged as conventional albums, which is one reason his catalog can be a little confusing. The performance later appeared on This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings, Volume 1, and another version was included in the 2012 Smithsonian Folkways collection Woody at 100. A home recording from around 1951 was also released much later as part of the archival Woody at Home collection.

When That Great Ship Went Down

Lusitania was her name
And great was her fame
And great was the shame
When this great ship went down

On the seventh day of May
In the nineteen fifteen
This good ship sailed high
And the good ship went down

I looked at my clock
Felt the iceberg and shock
Felt the whole ship a-rockin’
When this good ship went down

Lusitania was her name
And great was her fame
And great was her shame
When this good ship went down

That explosion aside
My face white with fright
I know that death was my plight
When this great ship went down

All my friends seemed numb to smile
I saw mother and child
I saw the cold waves run wild
When this great ship went down

I felt so sad to know
That this high leaping foam
Would now be my home
When this great ship went down

Told my sweetheart we’d kiss
Our last earthly kiss
In this cold ocean mist
When this great ship goes down

Lusitania was her name
And great was her fame
And great was her shame
When this good ship went down

Speak a prayer in my heart
For you souls of depart
You be torn not apart
When this great ship goes down

Lusitania was her name
And great was her fame
And great was the shame
When this good ship went down

Lusitania was her name
And great was her fame
And great was the shame
When this great ship went down

New Site: oldsteamships.com

I have been writing about the RMS Titanic on my blog, and I think it fits the pop culture theme I have, but I would like to write about the Olympic, Britannic, and other ships like the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and the RMS Empress of Ireland. But I thought it would work better in a separate blog. I won’t be posting a ton to it, but it will give me a place to write about them without disrupting the flow at powerpop.blog. If you are interested, come along, but I get it if you are not. That is why I’m making this blog. A release valve for me to explore this subject when I find something interesting. Thank you all for reading as always.

https://oldsteamships.blog

The Three Sisters

RMS Titanic – Charles Lightoller and “a bad omen.”

Charles Hebert Lightoller: Mr. Lightoller was born on March 30, 1874, in Chorley, Lancashire. This man lived a full life. He was stranded on a deserted island for 80 days, survived the sinking of the Titanic (while saving many lives), sunk a German U-boat in WW1, and did something at 66 years old that topped everything else. When I first read about Lightoller, I didn’t know what to think of him; he was strict on the women and children first policy. He interpreted it as women and children only on the Titanic. But in that situation, I can see why. This was standard practice at the time. Lifeboats were not seen as a way to save everyone. But as a way to ferry people from one ship to another. I would suggest watching a documentary or reading a book about this man.

He lived a life that almost reads like fiction. Before the RMS Titanic disaster ever happened, he had already been through shipwrecks and survival situations that would have broken most people. As a young sailor in the 1880s, he was aboard the ship Holt Hill when it caught fire in the Indian Ocean. Lightoller and others escaped in small boats and were stranded on a deserted island for 80 days, with little food or water, before being rescued. Years later, he joined the White Star Line and became Second Officer on the Titanic. On the night of April 14, 1912, he worked steadily as the ship sank, loading women and children into lifeboats and refusing to panic even as the decks tilted into the freezing Atlantic. When the water finally swept over the bridge, Lightoller was pulled under against a ventilator grate before a blast of air forced him back to the surface. He survived by climbing onto an overturned collapsible lifeboat with other men and was the highest-ranking officer to survive the sinking.

During World War I, he served in the Royal Navy and commanded torpedo boats and destroyers in dangerous waters. He fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 aboard HMS Garry, where his ship rammed and sank a German U-boat, an action that earned him recognition for bravery. Lightoller also took part in Atlantic convoy duty and anti-submarine patrols during the war.

Most people would have spent the rest of their lives talking about surviving the Titanic, fighting in WW1, and being shipwrecked, but Lightoller still had another chapter ahead of him. During World War II in 1940, when British troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, the British government called for civilian boats to help with the evacuation. Lightoller was 66 years old by then, old enough to stay safely at home, but instead he took his small motor yacht, the Sundowner, across the English Channel himself with his son and a young Sea Scout. German aircraft were attacking the beaches and the Channel was filled with burning ships and wreckage, but Lightoller pushed on anyway. The Sundowner was built to carry around 20 people comfortably, yet Lightoller brought back more than 120 exhausted British soldiers packed onto the little boat. He could easily have been killed during the crossing, but the same calmness he showed on Titanic appeared again at Dunkirk. He was shot at and bombed by German airplanes. It turned Charles Lightoller into one of the few men connected to two of the most famous sea stories of the 20th century.

He married in 1903 to Iowa Sylvania Zillah Hawley-Wilson, whom he was married to until he died in 1952. They had 5 children: Frederick Roger, Herbert Brian, Richard Trevor, Sylvia Mavis, and Claire Doreen. Roger was killed on March 9, 1945, near the end of the war; Herbert Brian was killed on September 4, 1939, near the start of the war.

His famous boat, the Sundowner, is being refurbished and saved. I want to thank Bruce Goodman for helping me with research about Charles Lightoller.

A Bad Omen

When RMS Titanic first pulled away from Southampton on April 10, 1912, thousands of people lined the docks to watch the biggest ship in the world begin her maiden voyage. As her massive propellers started turning, they created a strong suction in the harbor. Nearby was the smaller liner SS New York, tied up alongside the dock. The force from Titanic’s spinning propellers snapped New York’s mooring ropes and pulled the ship toward Titanic’s stern. For a few tense minutes, it looked like the two ships might collide before tugboats rushed in to push New York away. Titanic missed her by only a few feet. Many passengers and dock workers were shaken by what they had just seen.

Below is a picture taken on the Titanic which shows just how close the SS New York was to her.

Afterward, some people quietly called it a bad omen. In the early 1900s, sailors and passengers often believed strange accidents before a voyage meant trouble ahead. At the time, most people brushed it off as just the danger of handling a ship so large in a crowded harbor. But after the disaster, survivors and historians looked back on the near collision with SS New York as one of the eerie moments connected to Titanic’s short life. It is possible that even a moderate collision on April 10, 1912, could have changed history.

If you are wondering what the RMS stood for, it stands for Royal Mail Ship (or Royal Mail Steamer). It was a prestigious designation indicating that the vessel was contracted by the British government to transport mail for the Royal Mail Service

Below is an excellent video, but long on Charles Lightoller’s heroism at Dunkirk.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl …book review

Viktor E. Frankl: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way

A friend recommended this for me, and I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a true story about a Jewish doctor who was in concentration camps during WW2. This guy was something special. He flat-out refused to be labeled as a victim after it was over and up to his death. His Jewish peers didn’t always like this, but Frankl moved on with his life and used his experience in the concentration camps to help people and to write this book.

He purposely left out the more gruesome details of his experience. He said in the book that you can easily look that up if you want to hear those details. Don’t get me wrong, it was still some of the worst experiences that you can imagine. The book has me thinking about how to handle situations better. You can really learn a lot from this.

Frankl was a psychiatrist in Vienna before World War II, already developing ideas about meaning and purpose as central to human psychology. That work was interrupted when he and his family were deported to Nazi concentration camps, including the Auschwitz concentration camp and later the Dachau concentration camp. His parents, brother, and pregnant wife did not survive. Frankl spent years moving through camps, observing not just suffering, but how different people responded to it.

While imprisoned, Frankl began shaping what would later become his theory of logotherapy (a meaning-centered psychotherapy focused on helping individuals overcome distress by finding purpose in life, even amidst suffering), the idea that the primary human drive is not pleasure or power, but the search for meaning. He paid close attention to prisoners who maintained a sense of purpose, even in small ways, and noted how that often affected their ability to endure.

After being freed in 1945, Frankl returned to Vienna. Within about nine days, he dictated the manuscript that would become Man’s Search for Meaning. The original German title was …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen (“…Nevertheless Say Yes to Life”). It was first published in 1946, initially with modest expectations, as one of many postwar accounts of camp life.

The book is split into two parts. The first is a direct account of life in the camps, not focused on historical detail, but on the psychological experience of prisoners. The second part introduces logotherapy in a structured way, explaining how meaning can be found through work, love, or even suffering itself.

Over time, the book found a much wider audience, especially after English translations began circulating in the 1950s. It stood apart from other Holocaust memoirs because it wasn’t just what they went through. It was an attempt to answer a larger question: how can people continue when everything is taken from them?

By the late 20th century, it became one of the most widely read books in psychology and personal development, selling millions of copies. It continues to be used in therapy, education, and leadership discussions as something tested under extreme conditions.

He wrote it as someone who lived through what he was trying to understand and thankfully passed it to us. If you even think you are having a bad day, it could probably always be worse.

Free PDF Version of the Book!

FULL AUDIO BOOK on YouTube Below!

Viktor Frankl on his time in Auschwitz, Kaufering, Nazi-concentration camps

Max’s Drive-In Movie – The Devil and Daniel Webster

I was instantly hooked on this 1941 movie on my first viewing. I love the Faust story in all of its versions. One of my favorite old movies. I do like fantasy movies, and this one doesn’t need spinning heads or big special effects.

They do a great job retelling the old story. It opens with Jabez Stone, his wife Mary Stone, and his Mom in an old farmhouse. Everything that can go wrong… does for Jabez. He is a struggling New Hampshire farmer who, in a moment of pure desperation, blurts out that he’d sell his soul for a little luck. He then meets “Scratch” (The Devil) inside his barn, and then is one of the many talked into a deal for his soul. The cast assembled for this movie is perfect. Not a bad performance in the movie. Edward Arnold is convincing as the popular congressman and senator, Daniel Webster. The 1940s had some of the best character actors of any era. Walter Huston as the Devil was played chillingly and brilliantly.

Huston doesn’t enter with flames and fury; he strolls in like a salesman who knows he’s got exactly what you want. Suddenly, Jabez has prosperity and a dangerous new confidence. What makes the movie work, even now, is the blend of Americana and an eerie atmosphere. Bernard Herrmann’s musical score, which won an Oscar, shifts from fiddle hoedowns to otherworldly sounds without missing a beat. The cinematography focuses on contrasts that make every room feel haunted.

Also known as “All That Money Can Buy” it was released in 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures.

Not trying to give much away, but it comes down to a battle between Daniel Webster and the Devil over Jabez’s soul. The jury is the jury of the dammed. The movie is definitely worth watching.

The movie was based on a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét.

“You shouldn’t like music that was made before you were born”

I thought I would do something different today. I was reminded of this by the phrase, “it was before my time.” Movies and music fall into this category. I do know people who will not watch movies made “before their time.” I don’t think many of my readers would agree to this statement, but who knows?

I had a co-worker in the early 2000s (Sam) tell me that I shouldn’t like music that was before my time because it was unnatural (yes, he said that). I was first kinda of amused and shocked. I like Sam a lot, and we would talk a lot; he is a smart fellow. However, on this point, I didn’t understand. Why? Is there some unwritten law that I can’t like 1950s or 1960s music up to 1967, when I was born? That cut off some of the best music of the 20th century and beyond.

He grew up in the 80s, as I did, and was probably around 5 or so years younger than me. I’ve seen other people act the same way. If it were before they were born, then they would not give it a second listen. If a movie is black and white, they act as if they are near a radiation leak!

I think the subject centered around how I loved 50s and 60s music and The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, and The Kinks. He said I should be listening to music from my teenage years (well, I WAS…60s music was my soundtrack growing up), but I DID listen to the top 40 when I was a teenager, which, to me, didn’t live up to those bands to any degree or form. Maybe it wasn’t fair to compare Men Without Hats to those 1960s bands. It was hard to stomach some of the ’80s for me, but not all. Now I’m busy catching up on music I missed that wasn’t on Top 40 radio at the time. I did find an oasis in the 80s, alternative music like The Replacements and REM…and the classic bands.

I still want to find other music and movies I like. Why would age have any effect on the music, whether we like it or not? That doesn’t mean I don’t like new music. I have posted newer bands here before who have just released albums. If it’s good, it doesn’t matter what era it came from, at least not to me. Christian, Graham, and Lisa all posted some newer songs that I liked. With movies, yes, I find some I like. I just saw Weapons and loved it, plus there are others.

I’m not putting people down at all who think like that. Hey, if that is what they believe, more power to them. I never believed in criticizing people for their opinions, music, or otherwise. Whatever blows their hair back.

Anyway, what do you think?

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Magic 8 Ball

I was told as a kid that a Magic 8 Ball could predict the future. I bought it hook line and sinker…I was also told by my older sister (8 years older) that snakes bite the second person in a line while I was merrily leading the way hiking in the woods as a 5-year-old…so I caught on pretty quick after I stepped on a snake…didn’t get bit though…but I never let her forget it.

I bugged my mom till she got me the mysterious Magic 8 Ball. I was amazed at this toy…well it wasn’t a toy to me. I thought this was great. So being 5-6 years old I thought I would put it to use… Oh, Magic 8 Ball should I color in the encyclopedias with my crayons? I shook it up and waited for the triangle to give me the answer… “signs point to yes”…those signs must have pointed in a different direction than my Mom… she wasn’t a fan of the Magic 8 ball after that.

Abe Bookman invented the Magic 8 Ball, a fortune-telling toy currently manufactured by Mattel.

During World War II, a man named Alfred Carter in Cincinnati created a tube-like fortune-telling toy. To help him he got his brother-in-law to help…that would be Abe Bookman. they created a 7″ tube device with glass on both ends with a pair of floating dice with responses. It was sold as the “Syco-Seer: The Miracle Home Fortune Teller.” Their company was called Alabe Crafts.

Carter died in 1948 and Bookman revised it into a crystal ball but it still didn’t sell really well. Then the Brunswick Billiards company commissioned Bookman to make them one shaped like an 8 ball as a promotional giveaway.

After the giveaway was finished Bookman kept producing them shaped like an 8 ball.

The Magic 8 Ball that we have known since then has contained a 20-sided polygon inside a hollow plastic ball, floating in a liquid-filled, 3-inch diameter tube. The liquid largely consists of dark blue ink and alcohol. The predictions, yes, no, or non-committal, appear on each triangular face of the polygon.

Bookman marketed it as a conversation piece, a paperweight and then a toy.

Ideal Toys bought Alabe Crafts in 1971. Next, Tyco Toys bought the ball in ’87. Mattel owns it today and sells one million units a year.

Here are the magical statements of the Magic 8 Ball

As I see it, yes
Ask again later
Better not tell you now
Cannot predict now
Concentrate and ask again
Don’t count on it
It is certain
It is decidedly so
Most likely
My reply is no
My sources say no
Outlook good
Outlook not so good
Reply hazy, try again
Signs point to yes
Very doubtful
Without a doubt
Yes
Yes, definitely
You may rely on it.

Orioles – What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

This song is such a pleasure to listen to. The great voice and the sparse accompaniment are great. This was released back in 1950. It was written by Frank Loesser in 1947 and was originally intended as a standalone song, not tied to Christmas or New Year’s traditions. I have heard this song a few times around this time of year. It was released back in 1949 and peaked at

They have since been known as “The Original Kings of Harmony.” They were a successful R&B vocal group that pioneered the evolution of doo-wop music. Their first major hit, “It’s Too Soon to Know,” in 1948, is considered one of the first R&B chart-topping singles and is often regarded as a doo-wop song. The term doo-wop didn’t appear until 1961 when the Marcels covered Blue Moon. Their biggest hit was Crying In The Chapel released in 1953. To see more of the history of doo-wop…check out my friend Randy’s post on doo-wop.

The Orioles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. I’ve listened to several of their songs and heard gospel, pop, R&B, and what would be called doo-wop years later. There have been 343 different versions of this song according to secondhandsongs.com. The first recording was by Kay Kyser and His Orchestra – Vocal Chorus by Harry Babbitt and The Campus Kids in 1947.

It peaked at #9 on the Billboard R&B Charts in 1949.

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve

Maybe it’s much too early in the gameOh, but I thought I’d ask you just the sameWhat are you doing New Year’sNew Year’s Eve?

Wonder whose arms are holding you so tightWhen it’s exactly twelve o’clock at nightWelcoming in the New YearNew Year’s Eve

Maybe I’m crazy to supposeI’d ever be the one you choseOut of a thousand invitationsYou received

Well, but just in case I stand one little chanceHere comes the jackpot question in advanceWhat are you doing New Year’sNew Year’s Eve?

Maybe I’m crazy to supposeI’d ever be the one that you choseOut of a thousand invitationsYou received

Well, but just in case I stand one little chanceHere comes the jackpot question in advanceWhat are you doing New Year’sNew Year’s Eve?

…

It’s A Wonderful Life

In baseball, you have a closer. A pitcher that comes in the 9th inning and nails it down for his team. This is the Christmas closer. If someone said you can only watch one Christmas movie every year, this one would be it. It’s very close to a long Twilight Zone. I have seen this movie more times than any other, hands down.

This weekend I plan to watch it. I would like to know how many times I’ve seen this movie. I would guess…30+ times now that I think about it. The movie was based on Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story The Greatest Gift, which he self-published as a Christmas card after failing to sell it to a publisher.

The film was initially a box-office disappointment and contributed to the financial struggles of Frank Capra’s Liberty Films. He and Samuel J. Briskin founded Liberty Films in 1945. The movie is now huge but it took years before it really set in pop culture. For years, the film’s copyright lapsed into the public domain, which allowed TV stations to air it frequently, helping it gain its spot in popular culture.

I didn’t watch this great movie until the late 80s. All it took was one time and I haven’t missed a year of watching it. I don’t tear up very easily..but it never fails at the end of the movie when Zuzu says… Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings…it gets me every time. This movie was released in 1946.

Poor George Bailey. All he wanted to do was travel and get out of Bedford Falls to see the world. Every single time he gets close…so close that it hurts…something happens and George ends up doing the right thing.

Bedford Falls needs George Bailey…every town needs a George Bailey but many end up with only a Mr. Potter. There is one thing about this movie which was unusual. Mr. Potter was never punished for what he did…which drew criticism at the time but it was more in line with reality to me. Potter was never won over by the Christmas spirit and I think that helps the movie.

This is a Christmas movie but really only the last part of the movie is about Christmas. It is a movie for any time not just for December. I was thinking of names for our unborn child and couldn’t think of one…I was watching this movie in November of 1999 and it hit me…Bailey…so the movie means more than some movies do.

Donna Reed played Mary Hatch Bailey to perfection. The role was offered to others as well like Olivia de Havilland, Ginger Rogers, and Jean Arthur. I would have been interested to see Jean Arthur in that role. I’m a huge fan of her and Capra used her in some great films but I can’t ever complain about Donna Reed.

Here is a small summary from IMDB…don’t read it…watch the movie instead. If you haven’t seen it…give it a shot…whether it is Christmas or July.

George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint, Mr. Potter, from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George’s modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George’s Uncle Billy loses the business’s $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George, with the promise of earning his wings. He shows George what things would have been like if he had never been born.

…

Billy Bragg and Wilco – At My Window Sad and Lonely

Since I did the Car Songs post and obbverse recommended Black Nova, I’ve been listening to Wilco much more. I first heard of Wilco when I heard the song “Secret of The Sea” which was on the album Mermaid Avenue Volume II. This song was on the first volume.

Mermaid Avenue was a collaborative album by the band Wilco and the British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg. It features previously unpublished lyrics by the legendary folk musician Woody Guthrie. The album was released in 1998 and is named after the street in Coney Island, New York, where Guthrie lived. There were 3 albums in all.

I can’t imagine the pressure Bragg and Wilco felt doing this. Having the legendary Woody Guthrie lyrics in front of you and writing melodies around them. They brought in a new generation of fans to Woody Guthrie. In this song, Jeff Tweedy wrote the music around Guthrie’s lyrics. Many of these lyrics were written in the 1930s – 1940s and finished in 1997.

The project was started by Woody Guthrie’s daughter, Nora Guthrie, who wanted to breathe new life into her father’s huge collection of unpublished lyrics. She invited Billy Bragg to set the lyrics to music, and Bragg, in turn, invited Wilco to join the project. They did a fantastic job on these albums.

The album was well-received by critics, who praised Bragg and Wilco for their ability to honor Guthrie’s legacy while bringing his lyrics into a modern musical context. Mermaid Avenue was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

The album peaked at #34 in the UK and #90 on the Billboard 100 in 1998.

Billy Bragg: I hate to draw comparisons, but it’s what Dylan and the Band were doing in the Basement Tapes. They took those old folk songs, that had deep roots, and they messed around with them and made a great record. We were able to apply that same idea to these songs, although we were perhaps more radical, because we had the whole history of rock music between when Woody wrote the songs, and us, whereas Dylan was quite early on in that tradition. That’s the trick with these Woody Guthrie compilations, is not to be too reverent to the material. Don’t worry about Woody’s words – they’re going to work. Bring yourself in – do what you think he would do. Do what you think you should do. Meet him half way.

There’s a hundred different ways to write a song. And every way is the right way, as long as you end up with a song. Some of those songs that Woody wrote, who knows what tunes he had for them? Maybe we were miles off, maybe we were close, I don’t know. But ultimately it’s what the guy was saying that matters – not the way he was saying it. And what he was saying is preserved. We were fortunate enough to put a frame around his artistic endeavors.

At My Window Sad and Lonely

At my window sad and lonelyOft times do I think of theeSad and lonely and I wonderDo you ever think of me?

Every day is sad and lonelyAnd every night is sad and blueDo you ever think of me, my darlingAs you sail that ocean blue?

At my window, sad and lonelyI stand and look across the seaAnd I, sad and lonely wonderDo you ever think of me?

Will you find another sweetheartIn some far and distant land?Sad and lonely now I wonderIf our boat will ever land

Ships may ply the stormy oceansAnd planes may fly the stormy skyI’m sad and lonely but rememberOh, I will love you ’til I die

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T-Bone Walker – T Bone Shuffle

I’ve heard his name most of my life but never heard him. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve been hearing going over his catalog. T-Bone Walker singing T-Bone Shuffle is so smooth. He has a blues and jazz thing going on and it’s hard to beat. It was released in 1949. He wrote the song and it’s been covered 42 times by The Robert Cray Band to Jools Holland.

T-Bone Walker (Aaron Thibeaux Walker) in Linden, Texas, Walker grew up in a musical family and began performing in his teens. He was influenced by Blind Lemon Jefferson, whom he often played with. Walker’s parents were musical and encouraged him to play. He could play several instruments including guitar, piano, and banjo.

In 1929, Walker made his recording debut under the name “Oak Cliff T-Bone,” recording Wichita Falls Blues and Trinity River Blues. He is credited with being one of the first musicians to use the electric guitar as a lead instrument. His 1942 recording of Mean Old World featured his pioneering electric guitar work.

1971, he won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording for his album Good Feelin’. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He passed away in 1975 following a stroke.

I added a bonus pick today…Two Bones and a Pick was recorded in 1955 and released as part of the T-Bone Blues album in 1959.

T-Bone Shuffle

Let your hair down babyLet’s have a natural ballLet your hair down babyLet’s have a natural ballCause when you’re not happyIt ain’t no fun at all

You can’t take it with youThat’s one thing for sureYou can’t take it with you babyThat’s one thing for sureThere’s nothing wrong with ya babyThat a good T-Bone shuffle can’t cure

Have fun while ya canFate’s an awful thingHave fun while ya canFate’s an awful thingYou can’t tell what might happenThat’s why I love to sing

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Lightnin’ Hopkins – Shotgun Blues

You know I’m gonna shoot my woman
Cause she’s foolin’ around with too many men

Before I start this I want to thank Randy from Mostly Music Covers. While writing this up the song title I had was “Bring Me My Shotgun” but I couldn’t find the album it was on. I’m a babe in the woods with blues…so I asked Randy and Shotgun Blues was recorded in 1948. As far as I can tell he did re-record many of his songs and this one around 1960. I’ll include the earlier version of Shotgun Blues and the 1960 version named Bring Me My Shotgun..at least for this post. He would change up the lyrics in some versions. What made it confusing was that he changed the way he did the vocals a little as well… again thank you, Randy.

I’m sitting with headphones on listening to Lightnin’ Hopkins and it’s like he is in the room with me. I’ve never posted anything about him before but I wanted to clear that up today.

He was born in Texas and He grew up in a musical family and learned the blues from his older cousin, country blues legend Blind Lemon Jefferson. Jefferson and Hopkins started to play together at church gatherings. Hopkins started performing in the 1920s and 1930s in the local Texas blues scene. By the mid-30s Hopkins was sent to a prison farm but the reason is unknown. He described working on a road gang and being shackled to his bunk at night.

In the mid-1940s he was teamed with a Houston piano player named Wilson “Thunder” Smith. They were known as Thunder an’ Lightnin’ and they had a local hit named Katie May with Aladdin Records. Hopkins would record with many different labels throughout the rest of his life. The Folk-Blues revival was stirring in 1959, and Folkways producer Sam Charters persuaded Lightning (with the help of a bottle of gin!) to record 10 tracks in the shabby room where he had been living in Houston. I have one of them below called “Hopkins Sky Hop.” Bring Me My Shotgun was released in 1960.

He started to get popular, especially with the British white soon-to-be musicians. He worked the College and club circuit, toured Europe with the Folk/Blues Festival, and starred at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. He found an appreciative new audience of rock fans who heard this great guitarist who lived the blues.

He later headlined over the Jefferson Airplane and he played with the Grateful Dead a few times. He recorded dozens of albums through the 60s and 70s. He finally left us in 1982.

Bring Me My Shotgun

Woah, go bring me my shotgun
Oh I’m gonna start shootin’ again
Go bring me my shotgun
You know I just got to start shootin’ again
You know I’m gonna shoot my woman
Cause she’s foolin’ around with too many men

Yes bring me my shotgun
Yes man and a pocket full of shells
Yes go bring me my shotgun
Yes man and a pocket full of shells
Yeah you know I’m gonna kill that woman
I’m gonna throw her in that old deep dug well
Hide her from everybody they won’t know where she at

That woman said Lightnin’ you can’t shoot me
She said now you is dead of tryin’
I don’t take a day off for nobody
She said Lightnin’ you can’t shoot me
She said yes and you dare to try
I said the only reason I don’t shoot you little woman
My double barrel shotgun, it just won’t fire

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The The – I Saw The Light

I wanted to post the Hank version anyway but I remember this version from a few years ago and I had to include that one as well. We are combining them today.

The Hillbilly Shakespeare Hank Williams wrote this song. When Williams moved to MGM Records in 1947 the hits started to come but this wasn’t one of them. It’s hard to believe this was not a hit. It’s a strong spiritual song that will stay with me until I die. The song started to get more popular after its initial release in 1948 and eventually, Williams would close shows with it.

Williams based the song on Albert E. Brumley Jr‘s song He Set Me Free. It’s close in melody but Hank made it a standard. Williams’s version is more universal. For me, it’s one of the best songs ever written. Williams wrote I Saw the Light on the way back from a dance in Fort Deposit, Alabama. Hank was out of it and sleeping in the car. His mother Lily said ‘Hank, wake up, we’re nearly home. I just saw the light.” He wrote the song right after she said that.

The The released their Hanky Panky album in 1995. The entire album featured Hank Williams cover songs. It was at first meant to be an EP of various artists doing the covers but then they decided just to go with the album by just them. They didn’t want to just copy the songs…they wanted to get the spirit of them in their own way. The album peaked at #28 on the UK album charts in 1995.

The song peaked at #31 in the UK.

Here is another song off of the Hanky Panky album…Your Cheating Heart.

I Saw The Light

I wandered so aimless, life filled with sinI wouldn’t let my dear Savior inThen Jesus came like a stranger in the nightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the lightNo more darkness, no more nightNow I’m so happy, no sorrow in sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

Just like a blind man, I wandered alongWorries and fears I claimed for my ownThen like the blind man that God gave back his sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the lightNo more darkness, no more nightNow I’m so happy, no sorrow in sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I was a fool to wander and strayFor straight is the gate and narrow’s the wayNow I have traded the wrong for the rightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the lightNo more darkness, no more nightNow I’m so happy, no sorrow in sightPraise the Lord, I saw the light

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