Jimmie Driftwood . Tall Tales in Song . 1960 RCA Victor mono LP
C$
32
$
23
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
Jimmie Driftwood . Tall Tales in Song . 1960 RCA Victor mono LP
Jimmie Driftwood was almost an anachronism in the years he was at his commercial peak, from 1957 through 1961. A schoolteacher by training, he originally started writing songs as a way of helping his students learn about history, and subsequently composed (or collected and re-composed) over 5,000 songs, many of them dealing with some element of America's past and its history, telling old folk tales, or preserving some aspect of the daily lives of the people who sang them. Only one modern figure in folk music remotely approaches his contribution to American song and the popular understanding of its roots, and that is Lee Hays of the Weavers -- Driftwood was never the activist that Hays was, however, being more concerned with teaching than political causes and, thus, never engendered either the blacklisting or the subsequent canonization by the Left that Hays received. And Hays, for all of his leftist sympathies, was never invited to sing before Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on the occasion of the first visit of any Soviet leader to the United Nations, as Driftwood was.
In September of 1959, in the midst of the rock & roll era and the burgeoning boom in folk music, Driftwood had half a dozen of his songs somewhere on the American charts, pop or country. The best known of these was "The Battle of New Orleans," which managed to top both the country and pop charts in a version recorded by Johnny Horton, but also charting in September of 1959 were "Tennessee Stud," as recorded by country giant Eddy Arnold, Hawkshaw Hawkins' version of "Soldier's Joy," Johnny and Jack's "Sailor Man," Horton's recording of "Sal's Got a Sugar Lip," and Homer & Jethro's parody "The Battle of Kookamonga." Moreso than Hays, Pete Seeger, or Woody Guthrie, Driftwood helped pull together elements of folk, pop, and country music and gave the mass public some sense of the history of all of it in the bargain.
Driftwood's recording career ended in 1961, but his six albums for RCA remain a compelling country-folk legacy. Artists from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen can trace some elements of their repertory and success to his unique brand of songwriting, and even '80s roots-rock outfits like the Del Lords have performed his songs with the kind of fervor that most acts usually reserve for songs by Dylan and Guthrie. Driftwood died on July 12, 1998, in Fayetteville Arkansas; he was 91. (AMG)
Artist:
Driftwood, Jimmie
Title:
Tall Tales in Song
Label:
RCA Victor LPM-2228
Made in:
made in Canada 1960
Vinyl (visually graded):
Near Mint
Jacket Condition:
neatly taped top seam, slight corner wear, sticker tear in top right
Side 1 ...
Side 2 ...
- Big John Davy
- Fi Di Diddle Um A-Dazey
- On Top of Pikes Peak
- Big Hoss
- Tucumcari
- The Song of Creation
- Big River Man
- Banjer Pickin' Man
- The Shanty in the Holler
- The Battle of San Juan Hill
- St. Brendon's Isle (The World's Largest Fish)
- He Had a Long Chain On
price rating
