@edgarblythe,
I know and really like that song, edgar(just as I like the Kingston Trio) but I wondered if there were such a man, so once again I did a search.
For many musicians, it is the song that they learn first. It has been sung around countless campfires; the soundtrack to marshmallows roasting on fallen branches.
But many are oblivious to the man behind the legend--or even that there was a man to begin with. It is the (mostly) true story of love, lust, jealousy, and the hanging of a possibly innocent man.
Seeing Latin George and his son Rhys, brought to mind the many books I read about knights and their conquests. One story was of St. George and the Dragon. Just found out that in the U.K. they have a St. George's Day.
ToTo believes in him as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qptnUuQ_-X8
Oops, missed your contribution C.S. back later to acknowledge
Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio. This version was a multi-format hit, reaching #1 in Billboard, the Billboard R&B listing, and appearing in the Cashbox country music top 20.
It was selected as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc.
In the documentary Appalachian Journey (1991), folklorist Alan Lomax describes Frank Proffitt as the "original source" for the song. Since the song predates Frank Proffitt's early version, it appears that Lomax means that Proffitt's version is the one that has become most well known to us because the Kingston Trio derived their interpretation from it. Certainly, there is at least one earlier known recording, by Grayson and Whitter made in 1929, approximately 10 years before Proffitt cut his own recording.[1]
Impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula (Dooley), Laura Foster's lover and probable fiancé, was convicted of her murder and hanged 1 May 1868.[2] Foster was stabbed to death with a large knife; the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.
Dula had a second lover, Anne Melton. It was her comments that led to the discovery of Foster's body, but Melton was acquitted in a separate trial based on Dula's word. Dula's enigmatic statement on the gallows that he had not harmed Foster but still deserved his punishment led to press speculation that Melton was the actual killer and that Dula simply covered for her. Melton, who had once expressed jealousy of Dula's purported plans to marry Foster, died insane a few years after the homicide. Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times, and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and hanging were given widespread national publicity. A local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy after the hanging.[1]
A man named "Grayson," mentioned in the song as pivotal in Dula's downfall, has sometimes been characterized as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff who captured him and presided over his hanging. Some variant lyrics of the song portray Grayson in that light, and the spoken introduction to the Kingston Trio version did the same. Col. James Grayson was actually a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion and was using a false name. Grayson did help North Carolinians capture Dula and was involved in returning him to North Carolina, but otherwise played no role in the case.[1]
Dula was tried in Statesville, because it was believed he could not get a fair trial in Wilkes County. He was given a new trial on appeal but he was again convicted, and hanged on 1 May 1868. His alleged accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free. On the gallows, Dula reportedly stated, "Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn't harm a hair on the girl's head."[1]
Dula's last name was pronounced "Dooley," leading to some confusion in spelling over the years. (The pronunciation of a final "a" like "y" is an old feature in Appalachian speech, as in the term "Grand Ole Opry").[2] The confusion was probably compounded by the fact that Dr. Tom Dooley, an American physician known for international humanitarian work, was at the height of his fame in 1958, when the Kingston Trio version became a major hit.
The doleful ballad was probably first sung shortly after the execution and is still commonly sung in North Carolina.[1]
Michael Landon, Little Joe Cartwright, played Tom Dooley in a film.
C.S. first I want to thank you for that great song by Van Morrison. Love that guy and in addition to your Domino, here is a tribute to the man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVOsTPI9Noc
Wow! Thanks for that great info on Tom Dooley. Had no idea that there was a movie about him. Sorta reminds me of That's the Night That the Lights went out in Georgia.
I like the Van Morrison songs. Did I mention the St George video. Enjoyed it too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrlAe77m4yQ
This is a very unusual video and song, letty. Your poem of the black rose set me to recalling Duma's novel of The Black Tulip. I searched it. My search came to a halt when I found this Russian song.
@edgarblythe,
Wow! that Black Tulip by Russian pilots in the war zone was eerie, edgar.
Well, guess we're on the discovery channel today, folks. Love it!
I thought that I knew most all of Dumas stuff. Obviously not.
The Black Tulip, a novel set in Holland in the 16th century, tells the story of how Cornelius van Baerle, a tulip fancier who was wrongfully accused of treason and imprisoned for life, found his true love in the midst of so much adversity.
Watched the Michael Landon trailer, too.
Yikes! Look what else I discovered!
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi497354009/
Ignore the shrimp on the Barbie
Another eerie discovery.
That looks to be a good movie. Did you notice Jack Hawkins always shows up in that kind of film? I always look forward to people like him.
Well, if there can be black roses and tulips, why not carnations?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vBKQKV1snE
@edgarblythe,
That was great, edgar. Wonder if that guy was Japanese or Chinese? Wish they would indicate such as they used to do.
Ah, with Father's Day Coming up, and remembering how much Bud loved Ray Brown, let's hear one by him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bJu2owDM2E&feature=related
I know Black Orpheus. Pretty good version, I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbYjZbGHbhM
Xavier Cugat
Misirlou
@edgarblythe,
Wow, I had forgotten how great Xavier Cugat was, edgar. Love Misirlou, buddy. Didn't he do "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"? I know Nat did.
From Charo to Xavier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeoCrvSCiV4&feature=related
I had almost forgotten how great those performers were, Texas.
Can't have Xavier without Charro.
Well, at least we had Paris and London with us today. Where did Texas go?
"..a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke..." Rudyard Kipling.
My goodnight songs.
First Nat. This guy is awesome. He sang in many languages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBmZ1pgYdcc
Now a little jazz from Bill Evans, with lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uab6fBd6xIU
And when I hear you call so softly to me,
I don't hear a call at all, I hear a rhapsody.
And when your sparkling eyes are smiling at me,
Then soft through the starlit skies, I hear a rhapsody
My days are so blue when you're away,
My heart longs for you, so won't you stay?
My darling, hold me tight and whisper to me
Then soft through the starry night I hear a rhapsody
Goodnight, world.
From Letty with love
Nat Cole and Bill Evans do a fine job, in their own ways, letty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3_S-YaRLa8&feature=related
Good morning wa2k radio. It's Junteenth. So let's celebrate. My song is not related to my greeting.
On this date in:
1586 English colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America.
1862 Slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories.
1903 Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig was born in New York City.
1910 Father's Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, Wash.
1917 During World War I, King George V changed the British royal family's German-sounding surname, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor.
1934 The Federal Communications Commission was created.
1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y. They had been convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
1961 The Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland's constitution requiring state officeholders to profess a belief in God.
1987 The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creation science as well.
1999 Britain's Prince Edward married commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones in Windsor, England.
2000 The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, barred officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games.
2007 A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, killing at least 87 people.
2008 Democrat Barack Obama announced he would bypass public financing for the presidential election, even though Republican John McCain was accepting it.
