Discovering Alan Lomax via the song “Flower” by Moby
Who would have thought, someone posting a video of Moby’s, “Flower” in reference to a workout would have sent me on hours’ worth of research, visiting the online Library Of Congress and being introduced to the history of Alan Lomax, a man who I think is going to become a bit of an inspiration to me? Wow, I love a knowledge adventure that takes me down the rabbit hole of the internet and my self-discovery. Here’s how it happened…
First, I love music, so, many times when someone shares a video link to a song, I have to check it out.
In the case of “Flower” by Moby, I recognized the tune immediately but not from this version.
For me, there are haunting melodies in my memory
(old folk songs, I can thank my family for the music passed down and many nights of watching PBS documentaries),
that when triggered by other current music
(often because the current song was sampled from old folk music),
I find myself desperately wanting to hear the original version that resonates in my memory.
Unfortunately, I usually don’t know who the original version was done by or even what is different about the lyrics or melody, which makes it a long process of searching for what I thought I was looking for. Why I use the term, what I thought I was looking for, is in this case with Looking for the origin song of “Flower” I was looking for,” Bring Sally Up,” which as it turns out, aren’t even the right lyrics. Although in my defense, by the confusing searches suggestions, I was not the only one to do this. For those of you reading this that are saying in your head or out loud, well duh of course it is, “Green Sally, Up,” thumbs up and gold sticky star for you, Sorry, I had to learn that the long way around, like I do most things in life.
Now, that I am on track with actually knowing the lyrics to the song that I am looking for, which makes it a lot easier, here comes what I thought was going to be the easy part, look up the song to find the one that sounded right to me. I was so wrong! As it turns out, it was not easy because Moby’s version has drowned out older versions, in the ocean of internet info. After, quiet some time, of listening to several versions, one of which, I would ground my children for playing, L I finally stumbled across the one I was looking for (the sound I remembered) and what also seems to be the oldest recording publicly available. Cool, I should be happy and done now and moving along with my day, right?
Umm, wrong….
Now, my curiosity has gotten the better of me, when in this recording several names pop up, Mattie Garder, Mary Gardner, Jesse Lee Pratcher. Now, I really want to see if there are any other recordings by them. They really spark my interest for several reasons; first, the love of new music second, they are African American woman singing cultural music with a deep and tumultuous history and lastly, because I have recently moved to Mississippi which is the birthplace of American music, no not because of Elvis… ;) Ya Gotta sing the blues, baby.
Unfortunately, in the land of internet info, these human beings either do not exist or are buried within millions of pages, UHG… But, thatjust makes me even more determined, to right what I feel is the injustice of these woman not being given enough credit for their contribution. So, now, it is ON internet! I will find at least some information about these people, you will not thwart me! Yes, I know the internet is not against me it is just stored information but if you have ever tried and failed or had intense difficulty trying to find information on the internet, I am sure that you to have felt like it was out to get you; If not try it sometime, delusions of persecution can really help with productivity at times. J
Anyway, back to the main focus, if there is one, which has changed since the beginning of this journey. Well, I just had to go about finding these woman’s history another way. The other name attached to, “Green Sally, Up” is Alan Lomax, who turns out, was this really interesting man who traveled the world, especially the southern states of the US in the late 1950’s recording the folk music, photographing and documenting culture that was not yet widely known, as it would be in the next decade of civil rights movements. Incidentally, this is how I ended up on the Library of congress web site because there is this very interesting book and lecture by Tom Piazza about Alan Lomax which is featured there, though I found it through the World News website. So, now I have gotten this really neat introduction to Alan Lomax who was a significant part of documenting American music and an interesting character to boot but I still don’t know much about Mattie Garder, Mary Gardner, Jesse Lee Pratcher I am hoping as I dig more through Alan Lomax’s work I will find more information, I am really hoping to find photographs of them.
To sum up why I find this so interesting, is one song, one random post on a social website, led me to a man with so many of my common interests such as; music, American music, Mississippi, photography, writing, documentary, history, dance, and so many more things that I look forward to learning.
Isn’t life’s twist and turns, amazing!
I will leave you with a list of links, if you would like to share in what I have discovered today. Obviously, there is a bunch more information out there. Have some fun, jam to a fun groove and soak up some knowledge.
Where it started
The original one I remembered
Mattie Garder, Mary Gardner, Jesse Lee Pratcher - Green Sally, Up
A black children's singing game performed by a group of women in Como, Miss. Moby sampled this song for his song Flower.
Some extra links
Info about the Album, “Green Sally, Up” was on
I‘ll Be So Glad When the Sun Goes Down Alan Lomax’s “Southern Journey” 1959 – 1960
http://www.culturalequity.org/ce_images/features/globaljukebox/IllBeGladOneSheet.pdf
Found more information while searching Jesse Lee Pratche Como, Ms.
Peace, Love and Happiness,
Jen
PS Please feel free to correct my spelling and grammar mistakes, I love not having to pay an editor. J