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Josh White, St. James Infirmary, 1964 The blacklisting efforts of Appleton’s infa- its minor key. Scores of musicians have mous rotten scoundrel, Joe McCarthy. recorded some version of St. James over © May 2011 by We also were not aware that White the years. The most well known ver- Peter© 2012 Berryman by ArchivedPeter at louandpeter.comBerryman toured despite increasing physical prob- sion, for good reason, was recorded in Archived at louandpeter.com lems, and died only five years after this 1928 (!) by Louis Armstrong. But Josh Josh White, St. James Infirmary, 1964 concert, in September 1969. White is the man who really brought it to us that afternoon, in a spellbinding The Madison Public Library website Josh White had a unique and compli- rendition, highlighting its beautiful (and maybe all such sites) provides ac- cated life, which took him from travel- weirdness. cess to thousands of online newspaper ing with country blues street musicians archives around the world to anyone as an impoverished boy to eventually If you want a new way to feel the deep with a card. This came in handy lately. appearing on Broadway. Though he strangeness of this song, have a look at considered himself primarily an enter- the 1933 Betty Boop cartoon Snow I've mentioned before that my music tainer, he was legendary as a political White, produced by Max Fleischer, fea- partner Lou and my guitar-playing pal artist and activist. He worked in film, turing Cab Calloway singing a wild in- Paul attended a Josh White concert in including playing himself in the great terpretation of it. The vocal begins a bit Oshkosh in the mid sixties. Interested Surrealist Hans Richter’s film, Dreams after the four minute mark, and it’s there in pinning down the date and venue of that Money Can Buy (1947). White be- that the crazy backgrounds begin to the show, I found articles in the archives came close friends with enthusiastic fans scroll by behind the transmogrifying of the Appleton Post-Crescent and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and clown, Koko, who is ostensibly singing Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. It turns was the first African American per- the song. It's a Surrealist wonder. This out that White gave two concerts on former to give a command performance entire cartoon, all seven minutes of it, Sunday, September 27th, 1964, in the at the White House. The Roosevelts are mostly drawn by the great animator Lourdes High School Gymnasium in the godparents of Josh’s son Josh White Roland C. Crandall, is archived at the Oshkosh. One show was at 3:30 and the Jr., who is continuing in the tradition free site, archive.org. Here’s the URL: other at 7:30. We went to the 3:30 show. with his own stellar career as, in his own words, a “Folk/blues, pop, (and) jazz, archive.org/details/bb_snow_white The three of us were Appleton High vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, actor, School Juniors at the time, goofing with adult and children's concert performer Based on a centuries old folk song, St. the prospect of forming a folk music and recording artist, teacher and social James Infirmary blues contains this band. I can’t remember if I had already activist.” sad, inexplicable, evocative verse: bought my 12-string Harmony guitar or if I was still playing my baritone uke, Incidentally, on Monday, November I went down to St. James Infirmary, but Lou was pretty good on the banjo 16th, fewer than two months after the Saw my baby there, already, having learned from Pete incredible Josh White (Sr.) concert, Pete Stretched out on a long white table, Seeger’s How to Play the 5-String Seeger came to the Lawrence College So cold, so sweet, so fair. Banjo book, and Paul was able to strum Chapel in Appleton. I didn’t think I Let her go, let her go, God bless her, chords on his Gibson LG-2 guitar. could become more of a folk music fan, Wherever she may be, Oshkosh is only 20 miles from Appleton, but I was wrong. I remember the She can look this wide world over, and though I don’t think we owned re- goosebumps. Come to think of it, that But she'll never find a man like me. cordings by Josh White yet, we were may have been the night I decided to certainly familiar with the man, prob- buy the used 12-string, which I own to As Sarah Vowell says in an ingenious ably via my older brother Jeff’s Sing this day. I should point out that we were essay about the song in the online maga- Out! magazines. Lou still remembers hopelessly behind the times as usual, as zine Salon, “Listening to good music is the dress she wore, and I remember the the Beatles had already been on the like watching a quiz show without cue first song on the program: the amazing Sullivan show way back in February of cards -- the fun is in knowing that you St. James Infirmary Blues, often also 1964, and indeed, September 1964 was might not ever figure it out.” known as just St. James Infirmary. the month the TV show Hootenanny ENDED its controversial run, which had Thanks Josh White for the life-changing Josh White was born in 1914 so he was begun in April of 1963. Michael Cooney concert, and thanks to him and all oth- 50 by the time we saw him. In my has told me that when he heard the ers who over hundreds of years have geezerhood, of course, 50 seems awfully Beatles on the radio for the first time that helped keep the St. James Infirmary young, but at the time I was 16 and Josh year, he knew that the big folk craze was song in the mix. White seemed a wise old sage, blowing over. And that’s the year Lou and I the three of our minds with his music, a jumped in with all four work boots. www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/ few years before blowing one’s mind was www.salon.com/1999/10/06/onesong/ archive.org/details/bb_snow_white an official concept. I doubt we had So. The St. James Infirmary Blues. Appleton Post-Crescent much of an idea that Josh White’s ca- What a song. It reminds me of Mack Oshkosh Daily Northwestern reer had been almost destroyed by the the Knife, with its theme of death and WZ July 2012 .
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