{"id":246,"date":"2016-02-19T07:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=246"},"modified":"2024-05-12T06:47:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T10:47:42","slug":"wreck-old-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/","title":{"rendered":"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wreck of the Old 97\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Od9bjDRY6ok?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I think I first heard this on a Pete Seeger record, but it could have been Cisco or any number of other people. Everybody knew it and sang it, because it was the first million-selling country hit, <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-252 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart.jpg?resize=142%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Vernon Dalhart\" width=\"142\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart.jpg?resize=142%2C300&amp;ssl=1 142w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart.jpg?w=150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 142px) 100vw, 142px\" \/>recorded by Vernon Dalhart for Victor records in 1924, and then for nine other labels in less than a year. The actual wreck happened on September 27th, 1903, and if you want to know more about it there&#8217;s a good article <a href=\"http:\/\/jimokane.blogspot.com\/2012\/09\/its-mighty-rough-road-from-lynchburg-to.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dalhart was an all-around professional record singer, based in New York and doing classical and pop as well as what was then called &#8220;hillbilly&#8221; music. He was a Texan originally, born Marion Try Slaughter&#8211;not a he-man name by modern standards, but John Wayne was also a Marion&#8211;and according to the ever-reliable Tony Russell, Victor&#8217;s Ralph Peer described him as &#8220;a professional substitute for a real hillbilly.&#8221; Hence I cannot help but feel a degree of kinship. Peer also said &#8220;He had the peculiar ability to adapt hillbilly music to suit the taste of the non-hillbilly population,&#8221; which potentially makes him the grandfather of Seeger, Dylan, and their myriad fellow travelers.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of which,\u00a0 I cannot sing this song without<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-255 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Bosses-Songbook.jpg?resize=200%2C264&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Bosses Songbook\" width=\"200\" height=\"264\" \/> being reminded of the parody Roy Berkeley wrote, published by Dave Van Ronk and Dick Ellington in <em>The Bosses Songbook<\/em> around 1958 or &#8217;59. Subtitled &#8220;Songs to Stifle the Flames of Discontent,&#8221; <em>The Bosses Songbook<\/em> was a small anarcho-Trostkyist publication mocking the Communist and Popular Front folksingers (to my amazement, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sds-1960s.org\/TheBossesSongbookPart1.pdf\">the 1959 second edition<\/a> is online), and included &#8220;Ballad of a Party Folksinger,&#8221; which began:<\/p>\n<p>They gave him his orders at Party headquarters<br \/>\nSaying, &#8220;Pete, you&#8217;re way behind the times.<br \/>\nThis is not &#8217;38, it is 1957,<br \/>\nThere&#8217;s a change in that old Party line.<\/p>\n<p>Van Ronk&#8217;s generation of New York folkies had a kind of Oedipal relationship to the Seeger generation &#8212; they were deeply indebted to Pete and Woody and Josh and Lead Belly and Alan Lomax, but also trying to make their own way, not only musically but politically and culturally. Part of that was a quest for &#8220;authenticity,&#8221; meaning that they were trying to sing and play like the real folks, not like all their peers who were learning folk music at lefty summer camps and singing &#8220;Wreck of the Old 97.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was lucky enough to come along after those battles had been fought, with access to all the great old rural music that got reissued by the purists in the 1950s and 1960s, but without a chip on my shoulder about Pete Seeger or Josh White. And then I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with Van Ronk, who appreciated the fact that &#8212; even though I&#8217;d come to him for blues &#8212; I had grown up on Pete&#8217;s music and knew songs like this. Not that he would have been caught dead singing this, but he felt that folksingers should know the canon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first million-selling country record, with a tip of the hat to Vernon Dalhart and Pete Seeger, and an inescapable memory of &#8220;The Bosses Songbook.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The first million-selling country record, with a tip of the hat to Vernon Dalhart and Pete Seeger, and an inescapable memory of &quot;The Bosses Songbook.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The first million-selling country record, with a tip of the hat to Vernon Dalhart and Pete Seeger, and an inescapable memory of &quot;The Bosses Songbook.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-19T12:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-12T10:47:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart-142x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\\\/Bosses Songbook)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-19T12:00:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-12T10:47:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":506,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Vernon-Dalhart-142x300.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/\",\"name\":\"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\\\/Bosses Songbook) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Vernon-Dalhart-142x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-19T12:00:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-12T10:47:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"The first million-selling country record, with a tip of the hat to Vernon Dalhart and Pete Seeger, and an inescapable memory of \\\"The Bosses Songbook.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Vernon-Dalhart.jpg?fit=150%2C318&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/01\\\/Vernon-Dalhart.jpg?fit=150%2C318&ssl=1\",\"width\":150,\"height\":318},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wreck-old-97\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\\\/Bosses Songbook)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"The first million-selling country record, with a tip of the hat to Vernon Dalhart and Pete Seeger, and an inescapable memory of \"The Bosses Songbook.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"The first million-selling country record, with a tip of the hat to Vernon Dalhart and Pete Seeger, and an inescapable memory of \"The Bosses Songbook.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2016-02-19T12:00:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-12T10:47:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart-142x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook)","datePublished":"2016-02-19T12:00:36+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-12T10:47:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/"},"wordCount":506,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart-142x300.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/","name":"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart-142x300.jpg","datePublished":"2016-02-19T12:00:36+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-12T10:47:42+00:00","description":"The first million-selling country record, with a tip of the hat to Vernon Dalhart and Pete Seeger, and an inescapable memory of \"The Bosses Songbook.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart.jpg?fit=150%2C318&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Vernon-Dalhart.jpg?fit=150%2C318&ssl=1","width":150,"height":318},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wreck-old-97\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wreck of the Old 97 (Vernon Dalhart\/Bosses Songbook)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":682,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/born-10000-years-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":0},"title":"I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago (Doc Watson)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A bit of 19th century comical historical braggadocio, learned from the first Doc Watson album.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Doc Watson","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Doc-Watson-300x299.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":717,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/trouble-in-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":1},"title":"Trouble In Mind (Richard M. Jones)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Another song that was pretty much ubiquitous -- by the time I noticed, I had it on albums by Cisco Houston, Otis Spann, and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Jones, St","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Jones-St-235x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/pallet-on-your-floor-aint-no-telling\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":2},"title":"Pallet on Your Floor (Ain&#8217;t No Telling)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"December 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I learned a version of this song from a Cisco Houston record--he was one of my first heroes, and I learned pretty much all the songs on that record--but once I heard Mississippi John Hurt do it, I switched over to his version. (The same thing happened with Woody Guthrie's\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/pallet-on-your-floor-aint-no-telling\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2742,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/last-truck-drivin-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":3},"title":"World&#8217;s Last Truck Drivin&#8217; Man (Shel Silverstein)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure how or when I first became aware of Shel Silverstein, but I'd already heard a bunch of his songs. \"Cover of the Rolling Stone\" was all over the radio when I was in high school, and of course I'd heard \"Boy Named Sue,\" and at some point\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Shel-Silverstein-in-cowboy-hat-264x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3094,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/tennessee-birdwalk\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":4},"title":"Tennessee Birdwalk (Blanchard &#038; Morgan)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"September 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the pleasures of touring across country was country radio. This was back in the days before national networks had taken over, and you still had local stations playing mixes of current hits and oldies, varying from region to region. The Boston area station was pretty lame, so it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/jack_blanchard_misty_morgan-tennessee_bird_walk_s_4-298x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1593,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/georgie-and-the-irt\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":5},"title":"Georgie and the IRT (Lawrence Block)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A bit of Newyorkiana from Dave Van Ronk's second album and the nimble pen of his friend Lawrence Block. Now well known as a mystery\/thriller\/private eye writer, Block was then churning out naughty novels at a terrific pace under numerous pseudonyms, many of them set in the Greenwich Village Bohemian\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Pads-are-for-Passion-177x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5220,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/5220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}