Rail of the Yr: 'Hard Times Come Over again No More'
Editor's Note: This article previously appeared in a unlike format as part of The Atlantic's Notes section, retired in 2021.
A reader, Rick Jones, writes:
This video of Stephen Foster'south great song "Hard Times Come Again No More" seems to tie together some of Notes' contempo themes. It'southward a cover (the vocal was written in 1856) by the Familia McGarrigle (including a teenage Rufus and Martha) and information technology speaks to coming troubles and the demand for perseverance that Fallows has been evoking in his writing.
If yous have a version of "Difficult Times" that specially resonates with you and accept a memory associated with it, delight send usa a annotation: hello@theatlantic.com. (The McGarrigle/Wainwright clan too did a version of Stephen Foster's sunnier "Better Times Are Coming.") Update from a reader who flags a rendition of "Hard Times" from Mavis Staples:
From another reader, Peter:
What a great song, unfortunately, information technology seems timeless. I beginning heard it in 1981, sung past the outstanding Chapel Colina string ring The Red Dirt Ramblers. Their wonderful harmony singing frames the vocal with a warmth that counterbalances the bleakness of the lyrics you can here them hither.
Another reader recommends a version that isn't bachelor on YouTube:
My favorite is somewhere in my library of Pecker Frisell bootlegs, simply information technology's something along these lines. I'chiliad fascinated by songs like this that are just so old and remain in the repertoire. For example, "St. James Infirmary" is based on "The Rake's Lament," an 18th century British naval song. It'south also the parent of "Streets of Laredo," the Johnny Cash tune. That's nuts!
One more than reader, Sydney:
Greetings from just due south of Raleigh, NC, equally I read all the news I missed concluding nighttime because often, playing with babies beats knowing more details of terrorism. When I saw your post on "Hard Times" I immediately thought of the Yo Yo Ma and James Taylor cover that I had on echo this time final twelvemonth while waiting for morning sickness to magically disappear in the second trimester of a twin pregnancy, merely instead got more pains and swelling. I resigned myself to only focusing on seeking the good in life, that hard times would pass.
Proud to say I've now got two happy healthy baby girls, one of whom wants to keep me company now. Proceed upward the swell piece of work.
The covers keep arriving from long-time readers, namely Barbara:
It has been so great to run into the McGarrigle thread spin into Stephen Foster land with "Hard Times Come Again No More than." I similar sentimental songs and plainly take a high tolerance for pathos, especially if rhyming lines are involved. I idea the song's Wikipedia entry, describing it equally a "parlor song," was a nice touch that avoided the judgement implicit in "sentimental," fifty-fifty if the judgement is right on target.
The vocal is one of my favorites from Foster, who is one of my favorite composers. I learned to play some of his songs on the piano from a tattered copy of a drove of his work. I learned a lot of other folk songs and sentimental favorites from an even more than tattered hardcover re-create of the Fireside Book of Folk Songs I still accept, although the book at present begins halfway through the vocal "Cockles and Mussels" and ends partway through the index, with no hardcovers in sight. (I was able to become some other copy of the book, covers and all, when a family unit fellow member passed away, just I still play from the spineless re-create that opens flat and stays open.)
I am non an accomplished pianist and I've grown increasingly rusty. Early in elementary school, I only progressed partway through John Thompson's Modern Grade for the Piano: The Second Grade Book: Something New Every Lesson. The "something new" that killed my progress was syncopation, in the form of dotted 8th notes in a version of James A. Banal'due south "Conduct Me Back to Old Virginny." (I understood the mathematics simply fine, just my listen had decided on a rhythm that seemed pleasing to my fingers, and no corporeality of repetition and no lack of a gold star got me to play the vocal correctly. Afterwards weeks of intractable stubbornness on my part and the part of the merely piano teacher in town, we parted ways. I did have more lessons in loftier schoolhouse when the wife of a new music teacher at the primal school offered them. I explained my history, and we started out lessons with Bach. Information technology was more successful, only I stopped taking lessons when I left for college.
Anyway, I liked all the versions your readers provided; it was interesting to hear a range of interpretations. I like Emmylou Harris'due south performance of "Hard Times Come Again No More." I don't know if the cut I listen to is online, but in this video from a concert, she says that "this is probably the oldest song in my repertoire."
The performance of "Hard Times" I play well-nigh often is by Thomas Hampson, because I like to heed to the album in the auto and am very fond of his "Beautiful Dreamer." (The album is American Dreamer: Songs of Stephen Foster, and performers include Jay Ungar on violin, Molly Mason on guitar, and David Alpher on piano.)
Unlike some other covers, Hampson'south doesn't sound like he's actually been through hard times. His performance instead fits the Wikipedia description; I imagine he sings the song only as a gentleman with a good phonation would have done years ago in some parlor, playing pianoforte with more finesse than I have and trying to impress the guests at a political party, particularly the woman he has his middle on. The rendition is smooth, and if you lot enjoy Hampson'south phonation, you may not realize how awful some parts of the lyrics are. The chorus is what makes the song neat, not the verses.
Of all the versions, the Mavis Staples cover is my new favorite.
Thanks everyone!
Here's a last update, from the reader who started this "Difficult Times" series. Rick indicated in our email exchange that he was a long-time reader of The Dish, the blog I helped edit for seven years—three of which were at The Atlantic. If you ever followed the blog, Rick'south retrospective here is poignant:
Well that mail is having a pretty good run! I knew of some other versions (e.1000.Taylor/Ma), but many were new. The video I sent originally is non the all-time musical quality and it has a kind of awkward family Christmas card experience, which I idea fit the season as well. Glad I could contribute.
A "View From Your Window" I only dug up from the Dish email athenaeum, taken by Rick in 2012 around 9pm in Sacramento
It would be inaccurate to telephone call me a Dish reader … Dish obsessive is more than probable. I checked the site dozens of times a solar day, every day. About a year agone I fabricated a list of all the wonderful things that The Dish introduced to me and I began to weep halfway through, finally stopping after a folio full. I defy anyone to find me a site today with the depth, reach, humor, and intellectual courage of The Dish. Where else could I discover Wislawa Szymborska AND Dina Martina, Frederick Seidel AND Robert Earl Great AND Jack Gilbert, Rod Dreher AND Jennifer Michael Hecht? Go alee, I'll wait for the answer.
I tin can still retrieve exactly where and when I read the post from Andrew that yous all were closing shop: Jan 28, 2015, 10AM PST, at a very Dishy location: Sacramento Convention Center, men'due south bathroom in the northwest corner, first stall in. (Yes I was lone. Still oversharing, I know, but in the best Sully tradition). Reading that post felt like getting the news that a good friend was very ill.
I came to The Dish from an unlikely source: Kendall Harmon, who is the Canon Theologian of the Anglican diocese of South Carolina, and a robust opponent of gay marriage. In 2003, my Episcopal parish was in the midst of violent itself apart after Factor Robinson's ordination and, bewildered, I was seeking dialogue and enlightenment. Kendall had a link to Andrew on his blog roll. Through those years of struggle in the church building, Andrew was a bright lite of courage, pity, insight and humor. I was finally received into the Catholic church on Easter Sat 2006, and some of my discernment was informed by the idea that a church that could nourish Andrew Sullivan was as well a dwelling for me.
The Dish was the greatest experience I had on the spider web and ane of the greatest intellectual adventures of my life. Equally one of the essential parts in that, thank you from the lesser of my eye. If you lot ever see Andrew, Patrick, and the rest of the gang, permit them know how much the blog meant to me. And should such a project ever exist attempted again, delight know that you have my intellectual, emotional, and financial support.
Thanks for listening, and take a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year.
0 Response to "Maples Hard Times Come Again No More"
Postar um comentário