Track of the Year: 'Difficult Times Come Over again No More'
Editor'southward Note: This article previously appeared in a unlike format as part of The Atlantic's Notes department, retired in 2021.
A reader, Rick Jones, writes:
This video of Stephen Foster'southward great song "Difficult Times Come up Once more No More" seems to tie together some of Notes' recent themes. It's a cover (the song was written in 1856) by the Familia McGarrigle (including a teenage Rufus and Martha) and it speaks to coming troubles and the need for perseverance that Fallows has been evoking in his writing.
If you take a version of "Hard Times" that particularly resonates with you and have a memory associated with it, please transport united states of america a note: hello@theatlantic.com. (The McGarrigle/Wainwright clan besides did a version of Stephen Foster's sunnier "Better Times Are Coming.") Update from a reader who flags a rendition of "Hard Times" from Mavis Staples:
From another reader, Peter:
What a dandy song, unfortunately, it seems timeless. I first heard information technology in 1981, sung by the outstanding Chapel Loma string band The Red Clay Ramblers. Their wonderful harmony singing frames the song with a warmth that counterbalances the bleakness of the lyrics you can hither them hither.
Some other reader recommends a version that isn't available on YouTube:
My favorite is somewhere in my library of Nib Frisell bootlegs, but it's something along these lines. I'yard fascinated by songs similar this that are just then one-time and remain in the repertoire. For case, "St. James Hospital" is based on "The Rake's Lament," an 18th century British naval song. It's also the parent of "Streets of Laredo," the Johnny Cash tune. That's basics!
One more reader, Sydney:
Greetings from just south of Raleigh, NC, as I read all the news I missed last nighttime because often, playing with babies beats knowing more details of terrorism. When I saw your post on "Difficult Times" I immediately thought of the Yo Yo Ma and James Taylor cover that I had on echo this time last year while waiting for morning sickness to magically disappear in the second trimester of a twin pregnancy, but instead got more pains and swelling. I resigned myself to only focusing on seeking the good in life, that hard times would pass.
Proud to say I've at present got two happy healthy baby girls, one of whom wants to keep me visitor at present. Proceed up the neat work.
The covers go along arriving from long-time readers, namely Barbara:
It has been then bully to see the McGarrigle thread spin into Stephen Foster state with "Hard Times Come Again No More." I like sentimental songs and patently have a high tolerance for desolation, peculiarly if rhyming lines are involved. I thought the song'south Wikipedia entry, describing information technology as a "parlor song," was a nice touch on that avoided the judgement implicit in "sentimental," even if the judgement is right on target.
The vocal is one of my favorites from Foster, who is one of my favorite composers. I learned to play some of his songs on the piano from a tattered re-create of a collection of his work. I learned a lot of other folk songs and sentimental favorites from an even more than tattered hardcover re-create of the Fireside Book of Folk Songs I even so have, although the book now begins halfway through the song "Cockles and Mussels" and ends partway through the index, with no hardcovers in sight. (I was able to get some other re-create of the volume, covers and all, when a family member passed away, but I still play from the spineless copy that opens apartment and stays open.)
I am not an accomplished pianist and I've grown increasingly rusty. Early in unproblematic school, I merely progressed partway through John Thompson'due south Modernistic Course for the Piano: The Second Grade Book: Something New Every Lesson. The "something new" that killed my progress was syncopation, in the form of dotted 8th notes in a version of James A. Bland'southward "Acquit Me Dorsum to Old Virginny." (I understood the mathematics simply fine, but my mind had decided on a rhythm that seemed pleasing to my fingers, and no amount of repetition and no lack of a gilded star got me to play the song correctly. After weeks of intractable stubbornness on my office and the part of the only pianoforte teacher in town, we parted means. I did take more than lessons in high schoolhouse when the wife of a new music teacher at the central school offered them. I explained my history, and we started out lessons with Bach. Information technology was more successful, but I stopped taking lessons when I left for higher.
Anyhow, I liked all the versions your readers provided; it was interesting to hear a range of interpretations. I similar Emmylou Harris's performance of "Hard Times Come Once again No More than." I don't know if the cut I listen to is online, but in this video from a concert, she says that "this is probably the oldest song in my repertoire."
The functioning of "Hard Times" I play most often is by Thomas Hampson, considering I like to listen to the album in the car and am very fond of his "Beautiful Dreamer." (The album is American Dreamer: Songs of Stephen Foster, and performers include Jay Ungar on violin, Molly Mason on guitar, and David Alpher on pianoforte.)
Unlike some other covers, Hampson's doesn't sound like he's really been through difficult times. His functioning instead fits the Wikipedia description; I imagine he sings the song just as a gentleman with a skillful voice would take washed years ago in some parlor, playing piano with more finesse than I take and trying to impress the guests at a party, particularly the woman he has his center on. The rendition is smooth, and if you enjoy Hampson's voice, you may non realize how awful some parts of the lyrics are. The chorus is what makes the vocal neat, not the verses.
Of all the versions, the Mavis Staples cover is my new favorite.
Thanks everyone!
Here'southward a terminal update, from the reader who started this "Difficult Times" series. Rick indicated in our e-mail substitution that he was a long-time reader of The Dish, the blog I helped edit for seven years—three of which were at The Atlantic. If yous e'er followed the blog, Rick'south retrospective here is poignant:
Well that mail service is having a pretty good run! I knew of some other versions (e.g.Taylor/Ma), merely many were new. The video I sent originally is not the best musical quality and it has a kind of awkward family unit Christmas card feel, which I idea fit the season as well. Glad I could contribute.
A "View From Your Window" I just dug up from the Dish email athenaeum, taken past Rick in 2012 around 9pm in Sacramento
It would be inaccurate to call me a Dish reader … Dish obsessive is more likely. I checked the site dozens of times a 24-hour interval, every day. About a twelvemonth ago I made a list of all the wonderful things that The Dish introduced to me and I began to weep halfway through, finally stopping after a folio full. I defy anyone to find me a site today with the depth, reach, sense of humour, and intellectual courage of The Dish. Where else could I detect Wislawa Szymborska AND Dina Martina, Frederick Seidel AND Robert Earl Keen AND Jack Gilbert, Rod Dreher AND Jennifer Michael Hecht? Go ahead, I'll await for the answer.
I tin still recollect exactly where and when I read the mail from Andrew that you all were closing shop: January 28, 2015, 10AM PST, at a very Dishy location: Sacramento Convention Eye, men'southward bathroom in the northwest corner, first stall in. (Yes I was alone. Still oversharing, I know, but in the best Sully tradition). Reading that mail felt like getting the news that a good friend was very ill.
I came to The Dish from an unlikely source: Kendall Harmon, who is the Canon Theologian of the Anglican diocese of South Carolina, and a robust opponent of gay marriage. In 2003, my Episcopal parish was in the midst of tearing itself apart after Gene Robinson's ordination and, bewildered, I was seeking dialogue and enlightenment. Kendall had a link to Andrew on his blog whorl. Through those years of struggle in the church, Andrew was a bright light of courage, compassion, insight and humor. I was finally received into the Cosmic church building on Easter Saturday 2006, and some of my discernment was informed by the thought that a church that could attend Andrew Sullivan was also a home for me.
The Dish was the greatest feel I had on the spider web and i of the greatest intellectual adventures of my life. Equally one of the essential parts in that, cheers from the bottom of my centre. If you lot ever come across Andrew, Patrick, and the residual of the gang, allow them know how much the blog meant to me. And should such a projection ever be attempted again, delight know that yous have my intellectual, emotional, and fiscal back up.
Thanks for listening, and take a blest Christmas and Happy New year's day.
0 Response to "Hard Times Come Again No More Release Date"
Post a Comment