before I look on mudcat, I have some questions which may or may not be answered: The Birmingham jail is a reference I don't understand!
Are the references to "roses" and "violets" connected to the children rhyme: Violets are blue, Roses are red?
The castle reference seems European or Western-centric...who added this lyric? What is its history?
Mudcat findings:
There's a WWII version (I guess the melody of this song very flexible and conveys a feeling of comfort and home so easily adapted into funny songs)
Down in Ruhr Valley, valley so low,
Some chairborne bastard, says we must go.
Flak loves big bombers, fighters do too.
P-51 boys, whe-ere are you?
Write me a letter, send it to me,
Send it in care of, Stalag Luft III.
So I couldn't find anything relating to "roses are red..." on mudcat, but I looked on straight dope, a myth debunking site, and it claimed that the construction of "roses are red and violets are blue," comes from Down in the Valley.
Looking on mudcat, I realize how many different versions of this song there are; especially with lyrics. "Birmingham Jail" is most prominently sung by Leadbelly but there are earlier versions with Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton.
I think this begs the question that was posed in the email--what is authenticity? Even in this songs history (and others too), authorship is often disputed, especially for these tunes that have been floating in the public for a long time before anyone got a pen and jot it down. Authentic as a result is just the simple act of singing the song with word that you personally charge with the emotional intention. We can be singing authentically in class, or in jail!
Incidentally...my first exposure to Down in the Valley was a movie starring my favorite actor Ed Norton. In Down in the Valley, he has delusions that he is a cowboy and falls in love with a teenager. The valley he refers to is the San Fernando Valley, home of the insufferable Valley girls.
Funny, hopefully relavent quote from the movie: "I've tried living down in the valley again, really tried this time. Walked up and down it looking for one open face, but most people I've meet hardly seem like human beings to me anymore."
looking for other versions, I really like this one
ReplyDelete(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJGuaNbXJ4); it's refreshing because a woman sings it and is later joined by the man.
I also like the Stir Crazy version of the song, from an 80's comedy by a character in jail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Ae9gLm2Qo).
I think this song works best as a sparse tune, like in a JAIL! without the cluttering of accompaniment.
This article is kinda academic but interesting because it talks about how the song became part of our culture and other international cultures. Folk songs really have this power of transmission and transcendence of time.
this is the paper: http://www.kwf.org/kurt-weill/weill-works/378-down-in-the-valley-an-appreciation.html
ReplyDelete