Date: Sat, 1 Jul 1995 10:27:12 GMT
From: Ben Taylor (bptaylor@LAGUNA.DEMON.CO.UK)
Subject: Down on Penney's/Ketty's/Maggie's farm in the country
In "No Direction Home" Robert Shelton writes (page 272):
``During 1961, Dylan used to sing 'Hard Times In The Country', a rural
protest song about the rough life of a tenant farmer with an
exploitative landlord. I traced that song to 'Penny's Farm', which
Pete Seeger recorded in 1950 on Folkways. Seeger's George Penny was as
mean a landlord as ever drew breath. After living with 'Hard Times' and
'Penny's Farm', Dylan gradually remade their words and melody
completely into 'Maggie's Farm'.''
One direct link between Penney's and Maggie's farm is:
Haven't old George Penney got a flatterin' mouth?
Move you to the country in a little log house,
Got no windows but the cracks in the wall,
|
\|/
V
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's pa no more.
[...]
His bedroom window
It is made out of bricks.
Given what Shelton writes above, are we to take it that "Hard Times In The
Country" differs significantly from "Penney's Farm"? Can anyone identify
the version of the song Dylan was most likely to have sung "during 1961"? As
far as I know, on record the closest we have to Dylan singing "Hard Times In
The Country" is "Hard Times In New York Town" but there is no mention in that
song of a tenant farmer with an exploitative landlord (literally that is).
And what about the influence which is usually cited for "Hard Times In New
York Town": "Hard Times In The Country Working On Ketty's Farm"
(Traditional)? Is this simply a variant of "Penney's Farm" (or vice versa)?
Does the lyric or melody provide greater insight with respect to Dylan's
reworking?
--
Down On Penney's Farm
/ Bentley Boys
(Traditional?)
Source: "The Folk Songs Of North America In The English Language" by Alan
Lomax, 1966 edition (first published 1960), Cassall, London. Song number
147, page 286.
[From: p. 287 of "Our Singing Country", Lomax (Macmillan, N.Y., 1941). As
sung by the Bentley Boys, Columbia 1556. For similar songs, see Greenway FF
216 and note on "Hard Times".]
Come you ladies and you gentlemen, and listen to my song,
I'll sing it to you right, but you may think it wrong,
May make you mad, but I mean no harm,
It's just about the renters on Penney's Farm.
Hard times in the country,
Down on Penney's farm.
You move out on Penney's farm,
Plant a little crop of 'baccer and a little crop of corn,
Come around to see you, gonna 'plit an' plot,
Get a chattel mortgage on ever'thin' you got.
Hard times in the country,
Down on Penney's farm.
Haven't old George Penney got a flatterin' mouth?
Move you to the country in a little log house,
Got no windows but the cracks in the wall,
He'll work you in the summer and starve you in the fall.
Hard times in the country,
Down on Penney's farm.
George Penney's renters comin' to town
With their hands in their pockets and their heads hangin' down,
Go in the store and the merchant will say,
'Your mortgage is due and I'm lookin' for my pay.'
Hard times in the country,
Down on Penney's farm.
Down in the pocket with a tremblin' hand,
'Can't pay you now, but I'll pay you when I can.'...
Then to the telephone, the merchant makes a call,
They'll put you on the chain-gang, can't pay at all.
Hard times in the country,
Down on Penney's farm.
--
Ben Taylor
--
Leeds, England
bptaylor@laguna.demon.co.uk - http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~n246543
Subject: Dylan & Anthology
From: DSmith9942 (dsmith9942@aol.com)
Date: 28 Aug 1997 23:28:58 GMT
The recent release of "Anthology of American Folk Music" on CD includes
"Supplemental Notes on the selections" by Jeff Place. Place's piece is based on
the original numerical listing of selections by Harry Smith. It is intended to
correct and update the original notes.
Here is the entry for selection #25:
"DOWN ON PENNY'S FARM"
The Bently Boys
JOHNSON CITY, TN: OCTOBER 23, 1929.
The identities of the banjo and guitar players are unknown.
The Bently Boys were possibly from North Carolina, but the producer of
their recording session, Frank Walker, did not remember much about them (M.
Seeger 1973: p.17). The memory of their song, "Penny's Farm," however, has
remained vital. Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers recorded it as
"Tanner's Farm," and Bob Dylan adapted it as "Maggie's Farm." The song is
about being a
sharecropper.
OTHER RECORDED VERSIONS AND RELATED
SONGS INCLUDE Folksong Revival: as Penny's Farm
by Fleming Brown MRW 1953a; Pete Constantini and Rob
Rosenthal FW 5287c; Pete Seeger SF 40018c; Happy and Artie
Traum RND 3007a; and as a related song, Maggie's Farm by Bob
Dylan COL2328c, COL 31120c, 34349c. Post Revival: as
Penny's Farm by Bob Bovee and Gail Heil MMC 9045d; as Tanner's
Farm by Mike Cross SGH 1001c. Country/String Band: as
Penny's Farm by The West Orrtanna String Band, RVH 924a; as On
Tanner's Farm by Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett BB 5565b.
Several things about this entry puzzled me:
1. It is one of the few (perhaps only) time(s) Jeff Place mentions an
adaptation of a song. Most of the listings are devoted to covers of the
songs. Sometimes the title will change. I am sure many lyrics were
changed or floated from song to song, but most of the more recent versions
listed are closely linked to the version found on the "Anthology." Place
seems determined to link "Maggie's Farm" to the "Anthology." There is, of
course, some justification for linking both "Penny's Farm" and "Tanner's
Farm" to "Maggie's Farm".
2. Why does Jeff Place ignore the more obvious link to Dylan's "Hard
Times In New York Town?" Dylan's version quotes the first two lines of the
Bently Boys version. The published version in "Lyrics" changes a later
line to "It's hard times in the CITY...", but on the official "Bootleg"
version Dylan even sings "It's hard times in the COUNTRY..." The tune and
phrasing seem very similar to my (untrained) ear.
3. Place mentions "Maggie's Farm" both in the paragraph about the song's
background and the discography-like passage that follows. Again an
attempt, IMHO, to establish a definitive link between Penny's and Maggie's
farms.
4. The final sentence is strange: "The song is about being a
sharecropper." Is this Place's way of saying even in the modern world most
of us are but sharecroppers for some huge corporation?
All of this came to my mind because of the recent and earlier discussions
on this list concerning the similarity of the names Magee and Maggie.
Magee's Farm, of course, being one of the more famous public appearances by
Dylan for the benefit of the Civil Rights movement. This connection
suggests the song is possibly about Dylan's decision to abandon the role of
an activist in the Civil Rights movement of the sixties. I am not implying
Dylan was no longer concerned about the Movement, but was weary of being
labeled as a spokesman for that and other political movements of the
sixties. Is Jeff Place trying to lead people away from that possible
explanation to an explanation of "Maggie's Farm" as simply another
statement about the exploitation of workers?
Any thoughts?
David B. Smith
DSmith9942@aol.com
"You're a man after my own heart, with a
razor."