Greil Marcus coined the term “The Old, Weird America” to describe what Bob Dylan and The Band evoked in “The Basement Tapes.” The legacy of Harry Smith’s “Anthology of American Folk Music” lives on.
Hawlin Alley on a dark and drizzly night
Billy Lyons and Stack-A-Lee had one terrible fight
All about that John B. Stetson Hat.
Long ago, I pledged my allegiance to “The Old, Weird America.” My beloved Frontier Partisan stories are a part of its heritage. So is the music I love.
The phrase “The Old, Weird America,” comes from the rock critic Greil Marcus, who used it to describe the treasures to be found in the Anthology of American Folk Music edited by Harry Smith. Smith gathered recordings made in the 1920s and 1930s and put them together for release in 1952. These country, blues and folk songs evoked a different and, well, weirder, America than the one that was evolving in the post-World War II era. And for some wayward young people who were not so sure the American Dream they were being sold was one they wanted to buy, the Anthology was both a bracing shot of raw white lightning and a rich vein of ore to plunder.
The America of the Anthology is a world of snake-handlin’ men and violent misfits; suicides and spike-drivin’ heroes. Bluesmen and bandits. Adulterers and the women who shoot them. Men who walk through life with a red right hand. Stuff you find in Cormac McCarthy or Joe R. Lansdale novels. Though the recordings were made in the early 20th Century, many of the songs have roots that trace back across years and continents. Yes, Robert E. Howard, you who knew The Old, Weird America in your bones — “how long the old ballads lingered.”
John Hardy was a desperate little man
He carried two guns every day
He shot a man on the West Virginia line
And you ought to see John Hardy getting away
It is impossible to overestimate the impact the Anthology had on American music. It launched the Folk Revival of the late 1950s-early 1960s and its echoes continue today. Right here in my home town we have a 20-year-old folk festival that exists because Harry Smith put together all these old recordings and gave them to the world.
The Anthology wasn’t the only relic of The Old Weird America that left an indelible mark on the musical landscape. There was also “Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers.” That record album sailed across the Atlantic and lit a fire under Eric Clapton and Keith Richards and who knows how many other kids with guitars, and it caused an explosion.
I went to the crossroad
Fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroad
Fell down on my knees
Asked the Lord above “Have mercy, now
Save poor Bob, if you please
A soul sold to the devil, a fast life ended by poisoned whiskey at the hands of a jealous husband (or a jealous lover) leaving poor Bob on his hands and knees barking like a dog — you don’t get more wild and weird than that. That hellhound-driven guitar and that haunted, keening wail… that’s rock-n-roll.
I got to keep movin’, I’ve got to keep movin’
Blues fallin’ down like hail, blues fallin’ down like hailUmm mmm mmm mmm
Blues fallin’ down like hail, blues fallin’ down like hailAnd the days keeps on worryin’ me,
There’s a hellhound on my trail,
Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail
Tom Russell (Rose of Roscrae is TOWA) , Dave Alvin, Los Lobos, Otis Taylor, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Slaid Cleaves, The White Buffalo — they’re all progeny of the Anthology, all torchbearers of The Old, Weird America. Listen to the soundtrack music from “The Walking Dead” or Season 1 of “True Detective” and you’ll hear The Old, Weird America. Oh, there’s plenty of folks — musicians, songwriters, music lovers and storytellers who have pledged their allegiance…
Marcus was talking about Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes when he coined the phrase. He described Dylan’s work fooling around with The Band as a kind of dialogue bounced off the characters and creatures of the Anthology — “palavers with a community of ghosts.” And, he insisted, “these ghosts were not abstractions. As native sons and daughters they were a community.”
“Palavers with a community of ghosts…”
I cannot express how much I love that. It describes exactly what I’m doing here. My ghosts are native sons and daughters, too. And — I assure you — they ain’t abstractions. I spend my days in a palaver with that community and spill it out right here.
Consumerism, political correctness, media pandering to soccer mom sensibilities, the atrocious flattening of pop music … all have done their best to turn The Old, Weird America into the Land of the Bland. But The Old, Weird America is strong. It’s still lurking there, down at a crossroads somewhere off the interstate and away from the shopping malls, ready to tap you on the shoulder and lure you in to its mysterious, dangerous and exhilarating embrace.
Dick Sandvik says
Well done, James! I wasn’t familiar with Griel Marcus’ phrase, but it is perfect. The timing for reading your article is fortuitous — I’m about a third of the way through “Dylan Goes Electric”, which has a similar theme. As a child of the Great Folk Revival (or Scare), that book is fascinating. It traces the various streams that fed Mr. Dyland — Delta Blues, old English Ballads, Woody Guthrie “originals” (he “borrowed” many of his melodies), Elvis and Buddy Holly in a very detailed history of Americana and “Old Weird America”. I shall be sharing this issue with many of my music buddies…..most of who fall on the “pop” side of the American scale, to the disgust of the purists! The Kingston Trio, Brothers Four, Ian & Sylvia and numerous others propelled many of us to pick up a guitar or banjo and join in the celebration of our musical heritage.
Dick
JimC says
Good to hear from my partner in crime!
Don’t know if you had time to watch the videos — they’re worthwhile. The “Basement Tapes” footage of Dylan getting booed and called Judas is astonishing. It explains something that always bugged me about him — his contempt for his audience. Kinda easy to see where that came from.
I’ve never been inclined to disparage the more anodyne Folk Boom versions of the TOWA material — The Kingston Trio, etc. are a gateway drug. A lot of people got hooked there and then went looking for the harder stuff. It’s pretty cool that they inspired so many. The time has passed so quick; the years all run together now. Did you pick up that guitar yesterday — or was it 50 years ago?
Dick Sandvik says
It was actually 58 years ago, inspired by Duane Eddy and the Trio. Should be a hell of a lot better at pickin’ it than I am, but wow — so many years of pleasure and friendship based on music. Still listen to “These Friends of Mine” on occasion, because it is such a wonderful scrapbook for me of my music and musical compadres — of which you are a key padre!
john maddox roberts says
My wife, Beth Van Over, was a professional folksinger in the glory days. She was backstage with Pete Seeger and his wife at Newport ’65 when Dylan went onstage with his electric guitar.
Yet another book to recommend: “Mystery Train” by Greil Marcus. He devotes an entire chapter to “Stagger Lee” in its many manifestations. A must-read for aficionados of the truly sordid roots of rock n’ roll, back when it was good.
For me, the rawest expression of the era and milieu is Link Wray’s “Rumble.” It didn’t need words to be the baddest tune of the early rock era.
JimC says
What an extraordinary piece of cultural history to witness. Does she still play?
I’ve never read Mystery Train — another for the giant stack…
john maddox roberts says
She still plays occasionally, but she stopped touring in the late 70s. There’s a picture of her in Shelton & Gahr’s “Faces of American Folk Music.” She’s from the Appalachians and didn’t know what she sang was folk music until Theodore Bikel and some others told her. Her cousin, Jean Ritchie, got her a Newport grant to go back home and record the old-timers who were fast dying off in the early 60s. She still has the only recordings of some of them.
JimC says
I’d LOVE to hear her music.
Paul McNamee says
The blues are my wheelhouse. I could go on and on. Let’s start with Robert Johnson. Yes, his impact was huge. Not just the music, but the myth. He is a one-stop shopping for the blues. But Johnson himself was a musician and showman and he pulled together many influences of different blues styles. If anyone is interested in the stuff Johnson worked with, I can’t recommend ‘The Roots of Robert Johnson’ enough. http://www.amazon.com/Back-Crossroads-Roots-Robert-Johnson/dp/B00011V81I/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1438795890&sr=1-1&keywords=roots+of+robert+johnson
Ironically, I think the most haunting blues voice ever was Willie Johnson – which is ironic because he as a man of God and his lyrics were usually spiritual. The man sounded like he gargled lye.
Blind Willie Johnson – In My Time Of Dying / Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5HaHVKRouo
Speaking of blues voices, I am always amazed when I read about Howlin’ Wolf. Most people associate him with Muddy Waters and Chicago blues – rightly so. But, Wolf was old enough to be with the original generation of bluesmen. Charley Patton and Son House played with him, taught him. For years Wolf traveled the South like all the others. It is a shame no one recorded him until he went electric later when he settled in Memphis and then Chicago. There are a few, rare later-life tracks where he plays solo. But I can only imagine what he must have sounded like, raw, guitar only, with the power of a young man in his enormous body. How the field recordings missed him I’ll never know.
Yeah, I guess in this area, I pavaler with ghosts, too. The darker and deeper the blues, the more the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
JimC says
Great stuff Paul. I completely relate to your last line.
john maddox roberts says
I just ran a search on Google Images for Beth. If you do the same, in the fifth row down there’s a black-and-white photo by David Gahr of Beth, Jean Ritchie and Roscoe Holcomb on stage at Newport ’65. It’s from Getty Archives and unfortunately their watermark obscures much of Beth’s lovely face. I’ve emailed Gahr’s website to see if I can get copies of the other pics he took of her, both onstage and off.
JimC says
Cool! Will check it out.