The Song of the Day is:
Pete Seeger – “(Oh My Darling) Clementine”
From the album American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1 (1957)
Ruby lips above the water,
Blowing bubbles soft and fine,
But alas, I was no swimmer,
So I lost my Clementine.
Oh my darling, oh my darling
Traditional – Percy Montrose
Oh my darling, Clementine
Thou art lost and gone forever,
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.
Today’s song selection is less about the artist than the actual song, a classic of the western and folk genres. I tried to find a major artist that we’ve not yet featured performing this song, but it didn’t work out like that so we’ve got Pete Seeger which is great – no slight against him. I wanted to play “Oh My Darling Clementine” since our little baby girl it’s been ferociously snacking on Clementine oranges, though I will take a certain amount of caution in dedicating it to her given it’s dark subject matter (Clementine is a coal miners daughter who falls into a into a small pond and, as Seeger so delicately puts it, becomes flower fertilizer). I was hoping to find some artist like cowboy harmonizers The Sons of Pioneers singing “Clementine”, but apparently they and their contemporaries don’t have a recorded version. The great Bobby Darin also has a great version but his is a swinging non-traditional crooner bop. Of course, the absolute most famous version of the song is by the well intentioned blue Hanna-Barbera cartoon dog Huckleberry Hound, who sang the chorus in nearly every one of his cartoons. However, I’ve not found a full version of the song by this anthropomorphic dog. Instead, we’ve assigned the task to Pete Seeger and he plays it excellently, accompanied by just a banjo. In a classical sense, Pete Seeger is among the very best American folk artists who performed much of this land’s most famous songs that have been passed down through the generations. For his work in continuing the oral (aural?) tradition, Seeger is much more of a true folk musician than, say, Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie who are more well known for his own compositions. In this sense, there truly is no equal to Seeger, who made folk music (and equal parts social activism) his life’s work. Professionally he performed, first with the Weavers and then solo, from 1939 to his death at age 94 in 2014. In fact, we are just a few days past what would have been his 102 birthday (he shares a May 3rd birthday with my wife – and she has a deep admiration and respect for this Seeger-Guthrie-Dylan folk triumvirate). Of course, it should be mentioned that Seeger did write a great number of songs as well, but his assemblage of interpretations might be slightly more impressive. The five-album series that this great Seeger interpretation hails from also features a wealth of great traditional folk songs that would be equally suited for young kids to listen to and learn from, including “John Henry”, “Oh Susanna”, and “Buffalo Gals”. “Clementine” likely dates back to the 1860’s, but was first compiled by Percy Montrose in 1884.
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