Sherlock The Music Historian

On of my band mates brought us a song that he thought was a Civil War ballad, and we all loved the song and he sang it really well, and it was easy to play, so we rehearsed it and did in our mini-gig at Boulevard Music last Sunday night. The second fiddle player who is not on the video posted to this blog was in the audience (she didn't end up playing with us because she hadn't rehearsed with us and was nervous about playing songs she hadn't practiced). She noticed that the song was inaccurate. That Sherman never marched from Memphis to the sea. It was from Atlanta to the sea and he never made it to Tennessee at all. I jokingly said it was probably written by a couple of New York boys who had never been outside the city. There is a little town between Atlanta and Savannah named Nashville. Perhaps the songwriter walked through there and got mixed up about what state he was in. So I decided to investigate: (Isn't the internet a wonderful place?)

Geld-Udell Music Corporation in 1959, and Geld-Udell Productions in 1962

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1122364/bio

They did some of the music in Shenandoah the Jimmy Stewart Movie and later did a Tony award Musical on Broadway by the same name, but this song isn't in the musical version. It may be in the movie, but you'll have to rent to movie to see. (If it's in a Jimmy Stewart movie, it has to be authentic.) You can't get a movie version of the soundtrack- just the musical version. They were Hyland's producers so they probably just handed him the song. They really were New York City boys who probably had no idea where Tennessee was,

I'M AFRAID TO GO HOME
(Gary Geld / Peter Udell)
Recorded by: Brian Hyland - 1964
Cliff Richard - 1964
Gene Pitney - 1966
I'm afraid to go home
I'm afraid to go home
Worries on my mind
Afraid of what I'll findWill my fam'ly be gone
I'm afraid to go home
Back to Tennessee
Afraid of what I'll seeAs I walk down this dusty road
Got a heart with a heavy load
Ain't a thing that's the same
So much sorrow and pain
Headin' home in a single file
Ev'ry inch is a quarter mile
Ain't heard nobody sing
Ain't seen one livin' thing
Someone's waitin' for me
Honey sweet as can be
Wanta hold her tight


Lord, make her be alright


Maybe 'round the next bend
All the ashes will end
Valleys will be green
Stead of what I'm seein'


I'm afraid for the scrubby pines
All the sweet honeysuckle vines
I'm afraid for my home
For the fields that I roamed


Kick along down a homeward road
And your heart's gotta take a load
I'm afraid to go home
I'm afraid to go home


Sherman's been in my town
Burned it all to the ground
Now there's not a tree
'Tween Memphis and the sea
Now there's not a tree
'Tween Memphis and the sea


There is a Oconee Forest east of Atlanta. You could throw that up there instead of Tennesse and just change 
Memphis at the end to Atlanta and you're fine.


The stuff the leaks into our childhood brains from the media really does make the context into historical reality. If 
its in a movie it must be real. Like all those westerns that were shot out where there wasn't enough water to have a cattle ranch or a town or any industry to speak of. Or the authentic folk songs of the like of the Kingston Trio who rewrote almost everything they sang and recorded. 


Brian Hyland brought us Itsy Bitsy Yellow Bikini.