Anthology of American Folk Music, Volume Two: Social Music

dem bones dem bones dem dry bones

old dog blue

I love "John the Revelator" too much to get all contrarian on it. "Indian War Whoop" is a hoot, though.

Georgia Stomp!

I always forget "John the Revelator" is on this volume; my first instinct was "Indian War Whoop" but JTR is a pinnacle of Western aesthetic achievement and can't be gainsaid. ZS, are we twins?

You could steal disc 3 from my box and I wouldn't complain too much; it's easily my least favorite. My vote goes to "Present Joys" which is the first time I heard shape note singing. It sounded like some sort of alien hybrid of the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz and LiLiPUT.

And "Judgement" sounds like it was recorded yesterday.

tossup:

Judgement
Moonshiner's Blues
In The Battlefield

no idea how to choose

this is my favorite set by a long shot.

In the spirit of fairness I'm going to put this on again before I vote, but my first thoughts are Old Dog Blue, Indian War Whoop and He's Got Better Things For You, but I love all the fiddle tunes too.

I voted for "Dry Bones" but once again, how to choose...

Who's Judith The Lion? Harry Smith pulled a neat trick sneaking Old Dog Blue in amongst the dance numbers, its one of the oddities of the anthology. My vote's for the perfect He Got Better Things For You.

^heh. I have a "sing & play along with the Anthology"-type book (from Oak Publications, maybe?) somewhere that has an abysmally wrong (yet somehow plausible) attempt at transcription of the lyrics to "John the Revelator". My fave mondegreen from this transcription: "Out of the flock, he said 'You are Jews'".

Oh my gosh I believe you must transcribe this entire lyrics.

You could steal disc 3 from my box and I wouldn't complain too much; it's easily my least favorite.

Yes for real, I could never warm to the zydeco trpped in a sleeping sock,

Dry Bones now and forever.

Yeah I also find the Zydeco extremely boring.

I have Folkways Bascom Lamar Lunsford CD and it is defs one of the best albums I own.

He is God-like.

Abbott did u ever get any Kelly Harrell CDs? He's so good. You have a world of fun ahead of u.

I never got Kelly Harrell CDs, no!

I bought Bascom at age 15 bcz I thought he looked (on the cover) like Bryant Gumbel, which made me think: "I need to buy this." And what a fortunate little event THAT was.

Tho I think if I was gonna grab another Anthology artist's album, it would be Buell Kazee.

You do have some Mississippi John Hurt, right Abbott?

yes I do!

YAY!

Well, Who's that a-writin'?
John the Revelator...
A book of the seven seals.

Well, whoa-ooa Babe
Thousand cried "A-holy, mountain of balsom,
"Son of our God, Daughter of Zion, Judah the Lion,
"The Redeemer said He bought us with the blood."

Well, John the Revelator, straight advocator,
Catch 'em on the battle of Zion,
Oh tell them the story, right in the glory of God,
Lord, to so love Him from high.

Well, Moses to Moses, watching the flock,
Saw the bush, where they had to stop.
God told Moses, pull off his shoes,
"Out of the flock, well you are Jews."

***

sadly, my recording of this song also featured these lyrics. Because I thought whatever came from Oak was Holy Writ.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

You people are crazy. Old Country Stomp rules!! But the big guns are all on disc 3.

If I had seen this poll before it closed, Dry Bones would have tied. But John the Revelator is a great song, too. The two of them together are the best set in the whole Anthology.

Apparently I had to stray from the albums proper when I downloaded and burned these 20 years ago, presumably because of time/space; my second CD leads with Mississippi John Hurt's "Frankie." Which is what I was going to vote for here--a song I had long before coming to the anthology--but I'll go with "Georgia Stomp" instead. I think that's the instrumental that most jumped out at me (made me think of Henry Flynt). For Vol. 1, "Frankie" vs. "The House Carpenter," pretty close.