Written by Charles Mingus
O: Charles Mingus 1955 on Debut records
I found a nice story about the evaluation of this song so here is the The world of Robert
The links on the page are sometimes gone.
Here is more music (found more recordings than mentioned on the world of Robert site.)
I tried something new here. Let me know please if it doesn't work. Click on the link and you can download and play the songs.You can play the song by clicking on the pictures.
Traditional
O: Charles Joseph Finger (Alan Lomax recording)
I found a recording from Richard Maitland, also an Alan Lomax recording, but from may 1939.
You can find the recording of Maitland on this album:
I searched for the origin of"The Amsterdam Maid" but it's difficult to say.
Some people think the song "The Amsterdam Maid" comes from Thomas Heywood's The Tragedy of the Rape of Lucrece (1608). But others say it does'nt.
The song is inspired by other songs like "The Jolly Beggar" and "Go no more a roving" but only a few lines.
Some people think the song is from the 1800's. Maybe sometime the origin will be found.
Here some things i found on the net:
At Folklorist:
“A-Rovin'”
Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1917
Keywords:bawdy, disease, sailor, warning, whore
Found in: Britain(England) US(MA,NE,So,SW) Australia
Description
In this cautionary tale, a sailor meets an Amsterdam maid, fondles portions of her body progressively, has sex with her, and catches the pox. She leaves him after he has spent all his money.
Notes
This is a partial formula song in that the sailor begins at the knee, moves up to the thigh, and then to the "snatch." See "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" ("I Put My Hand") for extended treatment of this formula. - EC
Some similar lines are found in Thomas Heywood's "The Rape of Lucrece" (c. 1607), and Shay traces this piece back to that time, but Doerflinger states that they are not the same song.
The version collected by Meredith from Wally Marshall has an unusual ending; when the singer places his hand upon the girl's breast, she breaks wind, seemingly causing him to abandon the venture. - RBW
At chivalry.com:
Background notes
"A-Rovin" is a capstan sea shanty, and according to Hugill (in Shanties of the Seven Seas) is often sung too fast by modern singers. When sung as a capstan shanty, the words "A-rovin, a-rovin" were timed to fit the downward movement of a four-foot-diameter pumpwheel. This song appears to be fairly old, possibly Elizabethan. Versions have been found in Dutch, Flemish and French as well as English.
The chorus was very often sung as either "I'll" or "We'll" -- we'll seems to be more like the original, as capstan work was usually done by more than one man. Other alternative words are "roamin'" for "rovin", "false maid" for "fair maid", and "overt'row" or "downfall" for "ruin."
Some recordings:
1939-may - A-roving - Richard Maitland
1942 - A-Roving - Stanley Slade
1943 - Amsterdam Maid - Priority Ramblers
1949 - A Roving Maid of Amsterdam - Alfred Newman
1952 - A-Roving - Harry Belafonte
1956 - Maid Of Amsterdam (1956) - Paul Clayton
1957-1958 - The Amsterdam Maid (I'll Go No More a Roving) - Ewan Maccoll
1958 - Plymouth Town - Oscar Brand
1961 - With You Fair Maid - Brothers Four
1978 - The maid from Amsterdam - King's Galliard
1996 - Amsterdam Maid - Priority Ramblers
1996 - Maid Of Amsterdam - The Corries
2007 - Maid Of Amsterdam - Whiskey Bards
2013 - Maid Of Amsterdam - Nils Brown
Words and music: J.B. Karnes-Ernest Rippetoe
O: Howard Seratt
A few weeks ago Carlene Carter released her latest album "Carter Girl. On that album she is singing songs written by members of the total Carter Family. But "Troublesome Waters" isn't written by a member of the Carter Family.
When Johnny Cash recorded it in 1964 he said Maybelle and Esra Carter and Dixie Deen wrote it, but that was not true. He could have known, because he probably knew the song from the Sun recording studio.
Here the Story from 706 UNION AVENUE.nl:
STUDIO SESSION FOR HOWARD SERATT
AT THE MEMPHIS RECORDING SERVICE FOR SUN RECORDS 1954
SUN RECORDING STUDIO
706 UNION AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE LATE 1953
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - SAM C. PHILLIPS
Despite Sam Phillips' affection for Seratt, there is not a
single artifact in the Sun files to suggest that he was ever there. The tapes
were probably recorded over when funds fell short. The session details were
never entered in the log book and the record itself is obscenely rare. This
side, while surprisingly melodic for its simple chord structure, does not have
quite the same impact as ''Troublesome Waters''. Somehow the simplicity in
Seratt's style is less in evidence here. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful
recording. Even on another label or in another era, this would be a standard.
Seratt or Phillips titled the song. It was a J.B. Coats hymn originally titled
after the first line, ''In All My Sin There Was Not One Who Cared'', and first
published in another 1940 songster ''Old Camp Meeting Songs''.
01 - "I MUST BE SAVED" - S.E.S.A.C. - 2:55
Composer: - J.B. Coats
Publisher: - Sesac
Matrix number: - U 53X
Recorded: - Late 1953
Released: - February 20, 1954
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 78/45rpm standard single
SUN 198-B mono
I MUST BE SAVED / TROUBLESOME WATERS
Reissued: - 1994 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD
15801 DI-2-18 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 1
One of the joys of being the sole proprietor of a record
company is that one can issue titles that are commercial suicide but
nevertheless deserve to be issued. Surely Sam Phillips could not have held out
great hopes for this title but its overarching simplicity is so moving that it
cried out for release. Even after the passage of 30 years, Phillips remembered
Seratt, ''Oh that man. I never heard a person, no matter what field of music,
could sing as beautifully. The honesty! The integrity The communication! He had
such an unpretentious quality. It had a depth of beauty about it in its
simplicity. Oh God Almighty, that was a sad thing because I could have recorded
him 'ad infinitum' and never got tired'', told Sam.
The assumption underlying a lifetime pact with Sun, however,
was that Seratt would have to switch to secular music and perhaps that would
have been self-defeating because it is Seratt's faith, expressed in the
understated gentleness of his style, that makes this performance outstanding.
The hymn was an obscure one, Published in 1940 by Stamps-Baxter in a songster
called ''Golden Key'' (another minor classic, ''Gathering Flowers For The
Master's Bouquet'', first saw light-of-day there, too). The words were by Mrs.
Karnes and the music by Ernest Rippetoe. Ten years later, Johnny Cash recorded
it, crediting it to his mother-in-law, Maybelle Carter, her husband, Ezra, and
their house-guest, Dixie Deen (the soon-to-be wife of Tom T. Hall). It's
entirely possible that Cash remembered Seratt's record or remembered the song
from the original hymnal. Flatt and Scruggs recorded it two years after Johnny
Cash, similarly crediting the Carters and their housequest.
02 - "TROUBLESOME WATERS" - S.E.S.A.C. - 3:03
Composer: - J.B. Karnes-Ernest Rippetoe
Publisher: - Sesac - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - U 51
Recorded: - Late 1953
Released: - February 20, 1954
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 78/45rpm standard single
SUN 198-A mono
TROUBLESOME WATERS / I MUST BE SAVED
Reissued: - 1994 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD
15801 DI-2-17 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 1
Stunningly simple and beautiful record. It barely sold out
its first scant pressing. And then Seratt and his acoustic guitar and harmonica
were gone. Wheelchair and all. Back to Arkansas and the St. Francis Church in
Blytheville, and then on to California.
From a forum 2 years ago:
The words to "Troublesome Waters" were by my grandmother MRS J. B.
Karnes and published in the Stamp-Baxter Gospel songbook "Golden Key" in
1940. She also wrote "An Empty Mansion." The Maybell Carter version was
ripped off from the songbook and some minor changes were made for the
1964 Johnny Cash album "I Walk The Line." Flatt and Scruggs also
recorded the song in 1996. but the 1940 book is proof that both of these
artist stold the song and gave credit to those who did not deserve it.
The first known recording was in 1954 by Howard Seratt at Sun Records,
where Johnny Cash was also a recording artist. He might have gotten the
song there and to avoid paying royalties, named his in'laws as the
authors. A previous post said Ernest Rippetoe wrote the song, but he
wrote the music, so that post had the 2 names backwards. My aunt has all
of the documentation and is considering a lawsuit in order to set the
record straight.
I don't know how it ended.
Other recordings i found:
1954 - Troublesome Waters - Howard Seratt
1964 - Troublesome Waters - Johnny Cash
1966 - Troublesome Waters - Flatt & Scruggs
1972 - Troublesome Waters - Hopson Family
1980 - Troublesome Waters - Ralph Stanley
1993 - Troublesome Waters - Iris DeMent
2003 - Troublesome waters - Richard Hawley
2006 - Troublesome Water - Sean Keane
2014 - Troublesome Waters (feat. Willie Nelson) - Carlene Carter
Music: Mart Fryberg
Text: Teo von Donop - Peter Kirsten
O: Die Dorfmusik Paul Godwin, Erwin Hartung on Grammophon
Pink Martini and the von Trapp Family recorded this song on their 2014 album
"Dream a little Dream". A surprising album with folksongs from different countries.
Die Dorfmusik was written for the movie "Wenn Am Sonntagabend die Dorfmusik Spielt" 1933.
There was a remake of the movie in 1953.
So, we'll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.
Recordings i found.
1955 - So we'll go no more a roving - Richard Dyer-Bennet
1964 - So We'll Go No More A-Roving - Joan Baez
1983 - So We'll Go No More A-Roving - John Williams
1998 - We'll Go No More A-Roving - Jean Redpath
2004 - Go No More A-Roving - Leonard Cohen
2006 - We'll go no more a-roving - Kris Delmhorst
2010 - So We'll Go No More A-Roving - Susan McKeown
2012 - So We'll Go No More A Roving - LiTTLe MACHiNe
There are some connections with songs like "The Jolly Beggar"and "The Maid of Amsterdam,". But that are only a few words and the tunes are totally different.
Written by : Doug Sahm
O: Sir Doug & The Texas Tornados (Edsel)
Spring 1976 Sugar Hill Recording Studio, 5626 Brock St.,
Houston, TX – Doug Sahm aka Sir Doug and Texas Tornados (Doug Sahm
[vcl/gt/fiddle/piano], Attwood G. Allen [vcl/rh gt], Uncle Mickey Moody [ac
gt], Harry Hess [slide gt/steel], Jack barber [bass], Steve Rains [drums],
Augie Meyers [piano/Vox/organ]. Producer: Huey P. Meaux)
From: the unofficial uncle tupelo archives
Give Back the Key to My Heart (Doug Sahm)
Doug Sahm has often been listed by Uncle Tupelo (and Brian Henneman) as one of their biggest influences. Before his death in 1999, his recording and performing career spanned almost 40 years, as a solo act and in the Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornadoes. He played country, blues, Tex Mex, rock and whatever else suited his fancy. Jeff mentioned a few times in the early '90s that they had thought about organizing a Doug Sahm tribute record, but unfortunately it never came to be; after his death, Brian Henneman and the Bottle Rockets did record an album of Sahm's songs called, appropriately enough, Songs of Sahm. There are a couple of "best of" collections out there, including an excellent one on Mercury titled The Best of Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet (Mercury 846-586-2). "Give Back the Key to My Heart" isn't on those compilations, and can only be found on his 1976 album Texas Rock for Country Rollers which was re-issued on CD by Demon/Edsel in 1997 (EDCD 535). Doug played and sang on UT's version on Anodyne.
But Doug Sahm recorded the song in 2001 for the album "Get a life".
Recordings i found:
1976 - Give Back The Key To My Heart - Sir Doug & The Texas Tornados
1993 - Give Back the Key to my Heart - Uncle Tupelo
1998 - Give Back the Key to my Heart - Doug Sahm
2002 - Give Back the Key to my Heart - Lisa Miller
2008 - Give Back the Key to my Heart - Dwight Yoakam
Written by Sarah Ogan Gunning
O: Sarah Ogan Gunning
From a forum:
Sarah Garland Gunning (later Sarah Ogan Gunning) was the tenth of 11
children in a Kentucky mining family, at a time when miners were paid
less than a dollar and a half for a ten-hour day and worked in appalling
conditions. Her father, Jim Garland, was blacklisted as he represented
the miners in their fight for better wages, forcing him to use aliases
in order go work in the mines. In 1931, a group of Northerners called
the Dreiser Committee came to Kentucky to investigate atrocities
committed against the miners, and brought their plight to national
attention.
Sarah was married with a coalmine worker.
Sarah Garland and her sister, Molly (later known as
Aunt Molly Jackson) wrote and sang songs in support of the struggle at
labor rallies. They were taken to New York by members of the Dreiser
Committee to help raise money for the miners' cause. Sarah, who was
suffering from brown lung disease met folk singers like Woody Guthrie,
Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, who went on to record her songs. After
successful treatment for tuberculosis treatment she retired from
performing, but returned in the '60s to perform at several major folk
festivals. Her half brother, Jim Garland, wrote I Don't Want Your
Millions, Mister.
This
song, written in 1937, is typical of her work. It has been recorded by
Uncle Tupelo, who sings it from the perspective of a coal miner, rather
than a coal miner's wife as in the original version, and also by Mike
Seeger.
1937 - Come All You Coal Miners - Sarah Ogan Gunning
1965 - Come All You Coal Miners - Mike Seeger
1992 - Coalminers - Uncle Tupelo
Written by: Auguste de Pradines (Later on Belafonte LP: Irving Burgie and William Attaway)
O: Jazz Majestic Orchestra on Folkways.
A traditional Haitian lullaby about a girl who comes to live
with a family to help with chores but can’t cook or clean well enough to stay .
. . or at least that’s what it is on the surface. People in Haiti in the early
20th century understood the song as a thinly veiled rallying cry against the
U.S. occupation.
Ik vond een opname van Koilen van het Jewish Orchestra. Deze is opgenomen in april 1919.
De opname van Mishka Ziganoff is van oktober 1919. Ook aan de Columbia labelnummers is te zien dat de opname van het Jewish Orchstra ouder is.
Abe Schwartz's Orchestra is hetzelfde orkest dan het Jewisch Orchestra. Ik vond een label met hetzelde nr.
De opname van Gus Goldstein zou wel eens de eerste opname met tekst kunnen zijn. Deze werd opgenomen in november 1920. Ruben Shapiro en Abe Schwartz worden op een paar sites als arrangeur en tekstschrijver genoemd. Dat zou kunnen voor de uitvoering van Gus Goldstein. De song is nl. in 1918 geregistreerd door Emerson Phonograph.
Maar dan wordt je helemaal in de war gebracht door:
Hierdoor lijkt het alsof Doina van Henry A. Russotto de oorspronkelijke melodie is. Helaas is mijn kennis van de muziek te gering om dit te kunnen beoordelen.
Dit het origineel van Bella Ciao, een Italiaans lied.
The song was performed by Diana Jones on 30 april 2007.
In 2008 Joan Baez recorded it for her album: Day after Tomorrow
Diana Jones recorded it in 2009 on the album: Better Times Will Come
Nice words have aready written so i copied
From the blogsite: "The Victor Mourning Blog"
"Henry Russell was born in 1885 in Hamilton, a town near Glasgow in
the west central lowlands of Scotland. He worked as a miner in Scotland
before emigrating to the U.S. with his pregnant wife, Mary, and their
two young children. They moved to Monongalia County, West Virginia,
where Henry found work at the Federal No. 3 coalmine in Everettville.
Henry Russell
The day of April 30, 1927 probably began like just any other workday
for the miners of the Federal No. 3. But the day came to a sudden end
for 111 of the miners when a massive explosion ripped through the mine,
killing most of them instantly. Only nine miners working that day
survived. Several men survived the initial blast, trapped hundreds of
feet underground for several hours before succumbing to gas fumes. Among
them was Henry Russell. Russell gathered pieces of coal and scraps of paper torn from cement
sacks, and began to write notes to his wife. The notes, which he placed
carefully in his lunch box, were found along with the bodies of Henry
and his coworkers and passed along to Russell’s widow, Mary. Their
daughter, Marguerite, was just six years old when her father died. Now
in her 90s, she still has her father’s handwritten notes.
One of Henry Russell's handwritten notes
In 2006, songwriter Diana Jones accepted the challenge to write a song
to help raise awareness for a memorial to the miners of the Federal No. 3
mine. Inspired by Henry Russell’s notes, she set them to music and
created the intensely moving song “Henry Russell’s Last Words.”
On April 30, 2011, 84 years to the day after the disaster, the
memorial was dedicated in the town of Everettville in memory of 149 coal
miners who lost their lives in accidents there during the years the
mine operated, 1918 to 1951. The memorial, which stands on a hillside
overlooking the former Federal No. 3 Mine, is a 7.5-ton stone inscribed
with the names of the miners, many of whom lie buried in unmarked
paupers’ graves." Lynne Adele
Written by: Thomas P. Westendorf
O: Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands - as Last Gold Dollar on Columbia
The chorus of "Gold Watch and Chain" is based on the Reuben's Train
songs that include Nine Hundred Miles. The verses are based on the 1879
Westendorf song, "Is There No Kiss For Me Tonight, Love."
From Traditional Ballad Index
Gold Watch and Chain (I)
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells girl that he would pawn his gold watch and chain, his ring, and his heart if she would love him again. He demands that she give back the gifts he's given her, including a lock of hair and a picture, and laments her unfaithfulness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal floatingverses gift
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):DT, GOLDWTCH
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Gold Watch and Chain" (Victor 23821, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-7354, c. 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Gold Watch and Chain" (on NLCR13, NLCREP2)
Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands, "Last Gold Dollar" (Columbia 15564-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on LostProv1)
Some recordings.
1929 - Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands - Last Gold Dollar
1933 - The Carter Family - Gold Watch And Chain
1964 - Alice Stuart - I'll Pawn You My Gold Watch and Chain
1964 - The New Lost City Ramblers - Gold Watch And Chain
1965 - Kathy & Carol - Gold Watch And Chain
1979 - Grandpa Jones - Gold Watch and Chain
1980 - Emmylou Harris - Gold Watch And Chain
1996 - Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Last Gold Dollar; The
1998 - Ralph Stanley & Friends - Gold Watch And Chain
2003 - Bill Clifton - Gold Watch And Chain
2003 - Eddie And Martha Adcock - Gold Watch And Chain
2003 - Kim Wallach - Gold Watch and Chain
2004 - Anita Carter (& Jerry Hensley) - Gold Watch and Chain
2004 - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band With Kris Kristofferson - Gold Watch and Chain
2006 - Garrison Keillor & Mery Streep - Gold Watch & Chain in movie A Prairie Home Companion
2014 - Carlene Carter - Gold Watch And Chain
Here some music:
Click on "share"and you can download.
Here some video's: by Maybelle Carter, Emmylou Harris, Doug Dillard Band, Steve Earle.
