Category: Collections

Another Dog In Outer Space Song

A few months ago Carrie wrote here about Goebbel Reeves’ “A Dog For Outer Space“, his ode to Laika, the dog who was launched into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957. It seems that Reeves’ hand-written lyrics don’t represent the only country song written about the canine cosmonaut, as we recently stumbled upon a song called “Sputnik Dog” in the Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs Picture Album, Hymn and Songbook (FL-417 in the SFC Song Folios Collection). Compared to Reeves’ tearjerker, the Flatt and Scruggs version of the Laika story (reproduced below) is a good deal more celebratory, though a little confused about the nature of  the dog’s journey and his prospects for a safe return:

Tuli Kupferberg, 1923-2010

We were saddened to hear this morning that poet/musician/activist Tuli Kupferberg, one of the founding members of the folk-rock band the Fugs, died yesterday in Manhattan. He was 86 years old.
The Fugs released their first album, The Village Fugs (later reissued as The Fugs First Album), on Broadside and Folkways records in 1965. Fellow poet and founding member Ed Sanders wrote in1993,

We came to the attention of Folkways owner Moe Asch through the good efforts of legendary artist, filmmaker, and musical anthropologist Harry Smith… To float the project past Mr. Asch, Harry told him we were the Fugs Jug Band.”

While the Fugs remained largely unknown to mainstream audiences, the band had a lasting influence on popular music, introducing the explicit profanity, sexual references, and leftist politics that would later become a staple of punk rock. Kupferberg wrote many of the band’s funniest and most politically cutting songs, including “Kill for Peace” and “CIA Man” (recently featured in the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers’ movie Burn After Reading).
The SFC’s  Broadside Collection contains many unreleased solo recordings Tuli Kupferberg made for Broadside in the 1970s, including the clip below, “Take-a-this-pizza”:
take-a-this-pizza
Clip from FT-9458 in the Broadside Collection.

Iry LeJeune Recordings Added to National Recording Registry

The Library of Congress has named two recordings by Cajun accordionist and singer Iry LeJeune to the National Recording Registry. “Evangeline Special” and “Love Bridge Waltz” were both recorded for Goldband Records in 1948 and the original master tapes are housed in the SFC’s Goldband Records Collection.
From  the Library of Congress press release:

“The post-World War II revival of traditional Cajun music began with accordionist Iry LeJeune’s first single, his influential recordings of “Evangeline Special” and “Love Bridge Waltz.” Le Jeune’s emotional and deeply personal style was immensely popular with Louisiana Cajuns returning home from the war, eager to hear their own music again. His recordings marked a distinct move away from the style influenced by Western Swing that had dominated commercial Cajun recordings for over a decade and a return to the older sound of Cajun music. This sound featured the accordion, prominently and unrestrained, and a blues-influenced singing in French. LeJeune is regarded as one of the best Cajun accordionists and singers of all time.”

Listen below to clips of both songs:
Evangeline Special clip
Love Bridge Waltz clip
Clips from SFC CD-713, The Legendary Iry Lejeune.

Photo of the Week: Marshall Claiborne

One-armed fiddler Marshall Claiborne of Hartsville, Tennessee, ca. 1926. Claiborne placed second in the 1926 old-time fiddlers’ contest at Nashville, utilizing an unusual technique of holding the bow between his knees and moving the fiddle against it with his left arm. Photo from the Guthrie T. Meade Collection.

Jimmy Dean's Breakfast, ca. 1957

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Jimmy Dean, the country singer behind the 1961 hit “Big Bad John” and host of the long-running country music showcase The Jimmy Dean Show (he’s pictured here with the show’s frequent guest muppet, Rowlf).

Jimmy Dean was perhaps best known to this generation as a sausage magnate, and it’s clear from this October 7, 1957 Columbia Records press bio that, even before he entered the sausage business, breakfast had always been a central element of his persona:

Possibly the earliest riser in Arlington, Virginia these mornings is a tall, lanky ex-Texan who gets up at 3:30 a.m, makes his own breakfast (a goulash involving a pint of cream, two eggs, some sugar and a dash of vanilla) and rides off to CBS’ Broadcast House Studios in Washington, D.C. to do “The Jimmy Dean Show”. The early riser — and high-rated star — is Jimmy Dean himself.”

(click to enlarge)

Press release from SFC’s Artist Name File Collection, picture of Dean with “Rowlf the Muppet Hound” from Thurston Moore’s 1965 book The Pictorial History of Country Music.

Bluegrass Throwdown

One of the great things about archives is that you can run across interesting information in places you’d never expect.  For example, the Mike Seeger tape logs in the Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (30025) are largely comprised of long lists of the song titles and performers which make up the track listings of his numerous field recordings.  But hidden among the pages and pages of track listings are occasional gems of personal musings, background stories, or random anecdotes like the following:

In August 1988, I spoke with Bud Reed about the Monroe Brothers engagement in the 1950s at the New River Ranch.  . . He said that they booked them separately for the same day, then somehow they sang together on stage. . . Bud said that some of the public attended because of the widely circulated folklore that they had fought and broken up – and that the big scar on Charlie’s neck was from a knife wound from Bill.  These people wanted to see them fight again. I’ve heard many such stories about these two.”

Listen below to a clip from the brothers’ (fratricide-free) collaboration that day:
Lonely Little Robin
The  entire concert is recorded on SFC field tape FT-12917.