This week’s songs from grammar school have turned out to be better than I had expected. And we are going to end by listening to perhaps the best: “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie.

He wrote the song in response to “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin. Guthrie apparently considered the song complacent. I’ve always found it somewhat nationalistic, although it does have the line “guide her” — something most Americans would think unnecessary. “This Land Is Your Land” is an obvious liberal anthem because it is aspirational.

But one verse of the song is generally removed, which makes it much more political. The original sixth verse is:

We didn’t sing that verse in public school.

I’m finally back home, so if you think my work has been slipping recently, I should be back up to my usual quality of work tomorrow. Today, we are going to listen to “On Top of Old Smoky.” This is another of those songs that were so well know that we had parodies of it. In fact, I remember singing “On Top of Spaghetti” in the third grade. According to Pete Seeger, parts of the song date back to the Elizabethan period, but that may be folklore. But there is no doubting that the song is old. Seeger seems to have been the first guy to nail down the version that we now know. Previous versions don’t sound much like it.

The song was made famous in 1951 with a recording by The Weavers. It’s well made. But it doesn’t exactly inspire me.

The “Caisson Song” was supposedly written in 1908, although the lyrics we all know come from 1918. That makes sense given that I always thought the song was from World War I. The truth is that I’ve never known what a caisson is. I just looked it up. It’s “a chest or wagon for holding or conveying ammunition.”

The song itself reminds me of myself playing with army men when I was a little boy. It’s such a sanitized vision of war. And it makes me wonder about having children sing it in school. It comes back to that usual notion that kids must be protected from sex, but war is just fine, even though sex is part of all lives and war is not.

I wish I could find some great version of the song. This is about as good as it gets. It is by Robert Weede created as part of the war effort during World War II.

Generally, when a song seems to make no sense whatsoever, it is a religious song. That is certainly the case with today’s song, “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain.” When I was a kid, I thought it very odd indeed. It is kind of tautology: she will come when she comes. But more than that, what really bothered me was how she could be riding six white horses. It was only later that I learned the line was, “She’ll be driving six white horses.” But I’ve always been bad about that kind of thing.

According to Wikipedia, it is about the second coming of Jesus. And the “she” is not a woman (Of course!) but the chariots that Jesus will be riding on. You have to remember that this next time he comes, he’s going to be pissed off — kicking ass and taking names.

This version is by country and rockabilly legend Ramblin’ Tommy Scott. It’s actually pretty damned fun. I especially like the woman on accordion. But I don’t know who she is.

Today, we listen to “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.” It’s a really old song — dating back to the 18th century. And as such, there are a lot of different versions of the lyrics. But the main lyrics are highly anthropomorphic. The gander is weeping. The goslings are mourning. And then there is this whole business of the goose dying in the mill pond standing on her head. I assume this means something, but I don’t know what it is.

The nice part of the song is how it is ultimately about a good economic relationship. Aunt Rhody is caring for the old gray goose and basically charging her in the form of her feathers. At least I think that’s how it works. I’m no farmer. But it’s more pleasant than the idea of fattening a pig to kill it. This, of course, is why smart pigs become sheep herders or befriend clever spiders.

I present the song performed by Jesse Ferguson. He’s one of these guys you’ve probably never heard of who is nonetheless an incredible talent. I will have to check out this music in more depth. He might be worth a week. Anyway, he has a gorgeous voice. Check him out:

Today we are going to listen to the song I most remember from grammar school: “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” It’s by the great songwriter George M Cohan for the musical, George Washington, Jr. That may explain why the song has stayed with me. It is quite a good tune. Just the same, I have long found the lyrics repugnant in its nationalism.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have nice aspects. I especially like the line, “And may never you boast or brag.” Just the same, this is the kind of mythology that exists today. Everywhere in the the USA, people are constantly chanting, “We’re number one!” Yet these same people would claim that we are a very humble country, just looking to lend a helping hand to the rest of the world. Not really.

Here is the Billy Murray version with the original lyric of “You’re a glad old rag”:

Well morning music fans, I have bad news for you! I came up with a theme for this week that is not going to generate a lot of great music. But I still think it is a good idea. What’s more, I’m out of town for five days, so I’m not going to have the amount of time that I normally give to these posts. On good days, I spend more time on this post than anything else. You’re welcome!

I was remembering back to grammar school where once a week we would all sing songs out of these textbooks. I remember the songs being mostly from wars, but it turns out that a lot of them are explicitly religious too. And so I’m going to start with one of those, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” This is a song so well known to young people that it has a standard parody, “My eyes have seen the coming of the burning of the school; we have tortured all the teachers, we have broken all the rules.” Now rather than have you listen to some terrible rendition of the song, I encourage you to click over to This American Life and listen to Sarah Vowell’s history of the song, Teacher Hit Me With A Ruler. I would embed it here, but it isn’t working on my computer.

Since we can’t have Vowell, we might as well have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform it. It is surprisingly good. I’m not that into this kind of thing, but there is no doubt that it works.

We get to the end of our week of my boss’ selections. Unlike similar weeks, I think this one has worked really well. The music has been great. It makes we want to check out more of this kind of music. That’s especially true of the music of the Sahara. But we are going to stay in Asia for the last day. In this particular case, we are listening to Yat-Kha from Tuva — pretty much Mongolia.

It does a lot of different music. In general, it is pretty west-friendly. But the vocals are very much throat singing. I think it works pretty well, but it still bugs me. This is “Coming Buddha” from their 2003 album, tuva.rock.

My boss has ripped us out of the American continent and transported us to Asia — specifically to Mongolia. And things change in a big way. I’m not that fond of throat singing, but today’s music really is different. This is Altan Urag — according to Wikipedia, they are a Mongolian folk rock band. What does that mean? Well, you’ll just have to listen because I am in no position to explain.

You might want to check out the song Blue Mark to get more of an idea of the throat singing in a very modern context. But I’ve chosen an instrumental piece, RaaKH II. Both are from their album, Made in Altan Urag. I’m better able to analyze western music. But even when I can’t analyze, I can still tell quality work. Anyway, this one has a beat and you can dance to it.

Fasten your seat belts, because we have to take a quick detour to the United States. I said that my boss was interesting, not consistent. So we are out of the Sahara and into the mid-west with Abigail Washburn. She is a noted banjo player and singer. And Toni sent along the follow link to a live performance by Sparrow Quartet of “Kangding Qingge” (Old-Timey Dance Party) from their 2008 album, Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet. It’s a great song and Washburn is wonderful and all but…

It should be really clear listening to this that Washburn is not the star of this band. The real star in the Sparrow Quartet is Béla Fleck. In fact, he is so great that I really think I’m going to have to do a week of his music sometime soon. But for now, let’s enjoy this beautiful piece of music. It really is lowly.

Today, we move just east of Mali to Niger with the great singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bombino. He’s more in my comfort range regarding artists because he exists in the context that I know of the music profession. He writes pretty much all his own songs. And the songs are very western in their structure. But it still sounds very different from anything I’ve ever heard before.

Here he is performing for NPR in what looks like a tiny radio station somewhere. The people playing with him seem to change in each performance I see. But they are all very good. I think it is always easy for people to think this kind of relaxed, assured music is easy to play, but it isn’t; it is absolutely the hardest thing in the world. And they really let Bombino fly off with some exceptional guitar solos. Here we have three songs off his 2013 album, Nomad. They are “Tamiditine” (My Darling), “Her Tenere” (In the Desert), and “Imuhar” (Freeman).

Afterword

If you like this music, check out this entire performance, Live From Breakglass.

Back to Mali with us! Today, we listen to Amadou & Mariam. My boss wrote to me, “My first thought about them was that they must be the coolest people on earth — black glasses and just bobbing their head’s around and singing like they can’t see anything. Then I later read that they are blind. Makes sense!” In fact, the two did meet at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind. They married when they were in the 20s, and are known as “The blind couple from Mali.”

Today, we are going to listen to a stripped down version of their song “Wily Kataso” off their album, Folila. I have to say, that I much prefer the album track. But I like to feature live performances if at all possible. What I don’t like here is Bagayoko’s guitar work, although he’s great at the end. Regardless, it’s the vocals that really carry it. (But I recommend clicking over the album track.)