@edgarblythe,
Love that one by Fats, edgar. Of course, we know what a reefer is.
A poem that tells a story. The poem was by Dr. Thomas Dunn, and the music by Nelson Kneass.
Someone is asking Ben Bolt if he remembered Alice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r82PphUU3NE&feature=related
I downloaded the lyrics, because I can't tell what they are just from listening
Don’t you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt,--
Sweet Alice whose hair was so brown,
Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile,
And trembled with fear at your frown?
In the old church-yard in the valley, Ben Bolt,
In a corner obscure and alone,
They have fitted a slab of the granite so gray,
And Alice lies under the stone.
Under the hickory tree, Ben Bolt,
Which stood at the foot of the hill,
Together we've lain in the noonday shade,
And listened to Appleton's mill.
The mill-wheel has fallen to pieces, Ben Bolt,
The rafters have tumbled in,
And a quiet which crawls round the walls as you gaze
Has followed the olden din.
Do you mind of the cabin of logs, Ben Bolt,
At the edge of the pathless wood,
And the button-ball tree with its motley limbs,
Which nigh by the doorstep stood?
The cabin to ruin has gone, Ben Bolt,
The tree you would seek for in vain;
And where once the lords of the forest waved
Are grass and golden grain.
And don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt,
With the master so cruel and grim,
And the shaded nook in the running brook
Where the children went to swim?
Grass grows on the master's grave, Ben Bolt,
The spring of the brook is dry,
And of all the boys who were schoolmates then
There are only you and I.
There is a change in the things I loved, Ben Bolt,
They have changed from the old to the new;
But I feel in the deeps of my spirit the truth,
There never was change in you.
Twelvemonths twenty have past, Ben Bolt,
Since first we were friends--yet I hail
Your presence as a blessing, your friendship a truth,
Ben Bolt of the salt-sea gale.
This not only tells a story but will make you laugh out loud:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQTisKNnV7U&feature=related
@plainoldme,
That was funny, POM. Just found out they are reviving Spartacus. He was a real person. This isn't exactly a song, but we can refer to it as stories told about history.
The real Spartacus was a freeborn provincial from Thrace, who may have served as an auxiliary in the Roman army in Macedonia. He deserted the army, was outlawed, captured, sold into slavery, and trained at the gladiatorial school of Lentulus Batiatus in Capua.
In 73 BC Spartacus escaped with 70 or 80 gladiators, seizing the knives in the cook's shop and a wagon full of weapons. They camped on Mount Vesuvius and were joined by other rural slaves, plundering and pillaging the region, although Spartacus apparently tried to restrain them. His chief aides were gladiators from Gaul, named Crixus and Oenomaus.
First, the original.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_C21N1UabM
I don't think Kirk Douglas has to worry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVtkFmZCCo8&feature=fvwp&NR=1
So that's Lucy Lawless. Oh well.
I watched Spartacus on TV a few months back. Thanks for filling in the historical, letty.
@edgarblythe,
Don't know Gunfighter's Music, edgar, but I enjoyed listening.
Put this one on the Canadian thread. First some information.
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.
The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow used dactylic hexameter, imitated from Greek and Latin classics, though the choice was criticized. It was published in 1847 and became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime. It remains one of his most popular and enduring works.
The poem had a powerful effect in defining both Acadian history and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth century. More recent scholarship has revealed the historical errors in the poem and the complexity of the Expulsion and those involved, which the poem ignores.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTZUTi6cwvo&feature=related
I may have done that one before, but it's worth another listen.
I think we have a had a post on Evangeline before, but I don't believe it is the same video. My memory is foggy, but this one really is worth hearing twice.
@edgarblythe,
I had forgotten On the Beach. Hmm, edgar, I thought the saying went "Rules are made because they're expected to be broken.."
I know Joan did this one, but look at the era of the real one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OORxUZP2Ez4
