Runway of the Twelvemonth: 'Hard Times Come Again No More'
Editor's Note: This commodity previously appeared in a different format as function of The Atlantic's Notes section, retired in 2021.
A reader, Rick Jones, writes:
This video of Stephen Foster'southward groovy song "Hard Times Come up Again No More" seems to tie together some of Notes' recent themes. It'south 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 yous have a version of "Difficult Times" that particularly resonates with you lot and have a memory associated with information technology, please send us a note: hello@theatlantic.com. (The McGarrigle/Wainwright clan also 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 nifty song, unfortunately, it seems timeless. I beginning heard information technology in 1981, sung by the outstanding Chapel Loma string band The Carmine Clay Ramblers. Their wonderful harmony singing frames the song with a warmth that counterbalances the bleakness of the lyrics you can here them hither.
Some other reader recommends a version that isn't bachelor on YouTube:
My favorite is somewhere in my library of Beak Frisell bootlegs, but it's something along these lines. I'm fascinated by songs like this that are just then old and remain in the repertoire. For example, "St. James Infirmary" is based on "The Rake's Complaining," an 18th century British naval song. It'southward also the parent of "Streets of Laredo," the Johnny Cash melody. That's nuts!
One more reader, Sydney:
Greetings from just southward of Raleigh, NC, every bit I read all the news I missed last night because often, playing with babies beats knowing more details of terrorism. When I saw your post on "Hard Times" I immediately thought of the Yo Yo Ma and James Taylor embrace that I had on repeat this time concluding year while waiting for morning sickness to magically disappear in the second trimester of a twin pregnancy, but instead got more than pains and swelling. I resigned myself to only focusing on seeking the good in life, that difficult times would laissez passer.
Proud to say I've now got 2 happy healthy baby girls, ane of whom wants to keep me visitor now. Keep up the corking work.
The covers keep arriving from long-fourth dimension readers, namely Barbara:
Information technology has been so smashing to see the McGarrigle thread spin into Stephen Foster land with "Hard Times Come up Once again No More." I like sentimental songs and plain have a high tolerance for pathos, peculiarly if rhyming lines are involved. I thought the song's Wikipedia entry, describing it as a "parlor song," was a overnice touch on that avoided the sentence implicit in "sentimental," even if the judgement is correct on target.
The song is ane of my favorites from Foster, who is ane of my favorite composers. I learned to play some of his songs on the pianoforte from a tattered copy of a collection of his piece of work. I learned a lot of other folk songs and sentimental favorites from an fifty-fifty more tattered hardcover copy of the Fireside Book of Folk Songs I still 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 become another copy of the book, covers and all, when a family member passed away, just I withal play from the spineless copy that opens apartment and stays open up.)
I am not an achieved pianist and I've grown increasingly rusty. Early in elementary school, I merely progressed partway through John Thompson's Modern Course for the Piano: The 2nd Grade Book: Something New Every Lesson. The "something new" that killed my progress was syncopation, in the form of dotted eighth notes in a version of James A. Bland's "Comport Me Back to Old Virginny." (I understood the mathematics only fine, but my listen 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 vocal correctly. After weeks of intractable stubbornness on my part and the function of the only piano instructor in town, we parted ways. I did take more lessons in high school 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, only I stopped taking lessons when I left for college.
Anyhow, I liked all the versions your readers provided; it was interesting to hear a range of interpretations. I like Emmylou Harris's performance of "Hard Times Come up 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 "Difficult Times" I play most oft is by Thomas Hampson, because I like to listen to the anthology in the motorcar 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 piano.)
Dissimilar some other covers, Hampson'south doesn't sound like he'southward really been through hard times. His functioning instead fits the Wikipedia description; I imagine he sings the vocal just equally a gentleman with a skillful voice would have done years agone in some parlor, playing pianoforte with more finesse than I accept and trying to impress the guests at a political party, peculiarly the woman he has his eye on. The rendition is smooth, and if yous enjoy Hampson's voice, y'all may not realize how awful some parts of the lyrics are. The chorus is what makes the song slap-up, not the verses.
Of all the versions, the Mavis Staples comprehend is my new favorite.
Cheers everyone!
Hither's a last update, from the reader who started this "Hard Times" series. Rick indicated in our email substitution that he was a long-fourth dimension reader of The Dish, the web log I helped edit for vii years—three of which were at The Atlantic. If you ever followed the web log, Rick's retrospective here is poignant:
Well that post is having a pretty good run! I knew of another versions (due east.g.Taylor/Ma), but many were new. The video I sent originally is not the best musical quality and information technology has a kind of awkward family Christmas card feel, which I thought fit the season as well. Glad I could contribute.
A "View From Your Window" I just dug upwards from the Dish electronic mail athenaeum, taken past Rick in 2012 around 9pm in Sacramento
Information technology would be inaccurate to telephone call me a Dish reader … Dish obsessive is more likely. I checked the site dozens of times a day, every twenty-four hours. Virtually a yr ago I made a listing of all the wonderful things that The Dish introduced to me and I began to cry halfway through, finally stopping later a page full. I defy anyone to find me a site today with the depth, reach, humor, and intellectual courage of The Dish. Where else could I find Wislawa Szymborska AND Dina Martina, Frederick Seidel AND Robert Earl Keen AND Jack Gilbert, Rod Dreher AND Jennifer Michael Hecht? Become ahead, I'll look for the answer.
I tin can still retrieve exactly where and when I read the post from Andrew that you all were closing shop: January 28, 2015, 10AM PST, at a very Dishy location: Sacramento Convention Middle, men's bathroom in the northwest corner, starting time stall in. (Yep I was alone. Still oversharing, I know, but in the best Sully tradition). Reading that post 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 subsequently Factor Robinson'south ordination and, bewildered, I was seeking dialogue and enlightenment. Kendall had a link to Andrew on his blog roll. Through those years of struggle in the church, Andrew was a bright light of backbone, compassion, insight and humor. I was finally received into the Catholic church building on Easter Saturday 2006, and some of my discernment was informed by the idea that a church that could nourish Andrew Sullivan was as well a home for me.
The Dish was the greatest experience I had on the spider web and one of the greatest intellectual adventures of my life. As ane of the essential parts in that, thank y'all from the bottom of my center. If y'all ever see Andrew, Patrick, and the rest of the gang, allow them know how much the weblog meant to me. And should such a projection always be attempted over again, please know that you accept my intellectual, emotional, and financial support.
Thanks for listening, and take a blest Christmas and Happy New year's day.
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