According to Pete Seeger, in his 1972 book of collected writings ,"The Incompleat Folksinger", some time after he had "written" as well as recorded and published this song (consisting largely of anonymously written couplets and quatrains that he had collected) a young man wrote to tell him that an elderly relative of his had written the original poem "My Get Up and Go" some 60 years earlier, and it had been published in a Kansas City newspaper at the time (and he enclosed a clipping to document it). That poem, the source of which Pete did not know, had been the impetus that got Pete to collect other related anonymous bits and pieces and gather them together into this song, for which he added a few lines of lyrics and wrote the melody.
However, the young man went on to add that "this relative doesn't think much of this folk music stuff, and would prefer to stay anonymous". So while we now know that the author of the lines that gave this song its title and chorus is "identifiable", his identity , in fact, remains unknown, and the song still remains a collection of "anonymous" verses that Pete has turned into a song. And it is a song which is, indeed, a genuine "folk song".
In the introduction to his songbook, "The Bells of Rhymney", wherein this song was published, Pete quotes himself from an earlier one of his many songbooks, telling the reader that when singing any of these songs the singer can "make it your own ... as little by little you change the tune in subtle ways, or add and subtract verses." Now, I've had that particular songbook for around 60 years now, and I've always taken those words to heart.
I do tend to change just about every song I sing, always bearing in mind a quote that Pete attributed to his own father, the folklorist, Charles Seeger, that "a folk song written down is like a photograph of a bird in flight:That bird looked different just before the photo was taken, and it will look different right after it's taken".
To that end, I have made a number of changes to this song, moving stanzas around, dropping one stanza entirely, and changing lyrics here and there, generally to create a bit of narrative thread - my usual reason for modifying songs. In this case I also updated the lyrics a bit to set the song in the present day. As well, I seem to have modified the melody in spots - or at least my chord changes are not always the same chords or in the same places, as those in the published version.
I decided to work up an arrangement of this song when I found myself whistling it a few days ago, knowing the melody was familiar, but not being able, at first, to identify it. When I finally managed to drag the identity of the song out of my memory, I thought "Hmmm, the contents of that song seem to resemble me more and more each day. Maybe I ought to sing it." And then I set to work well into that night coming up with a version of my own. I figured out a banjo part the next morning, and played it a bunch of times over the next couple of days, finally sitting down to record it on Sunday, and edit it on Monday, including adding subtitles of the lyrics.
This was played on my 1910 Fairbanks Banjo strung with synthetic gut strings tuned eAEAC# (which uses the same intervals between the notes as Open C tuning, but tuned down into the key of A). My playing here is mostly old-time thumb-lead two-finger picking, with hints of clawhammer technique showing up now and then. This was recorded in Montreal West, Québec, on 30 June 2024.
10 сен 2024
