Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

Buddy Miller’s Touchstone: “That’s How I Got to Memphis”

How I Got to Memphis

The first time I fell for Buddy Miller‘s music is when I heard his cover of Tom T. Hall’s “That’s How I Got to Memphis.” At the time, I’d borrowed Miller’s 1995 CD Your Love and Other Lies from my friend. Although I eventually came to love the entire album, it was “That’s How I Got to Memphis” that grabbed me on the first listen and never let me go.

I have followed Miller’s career since then, buying and enjoying all of his albums. If asked to name my favorite Buddy Miller album, it would be Cruel Moon (1999).

But asked me to name my favorite Buddy Miller recording, though, I would have to go past all of the wonderful original songs of his. And I’d name his cover of “That’s How I Got to Memphis.”

Buddy Miller’s Relationship With the Song

Considering how that song has remained a standout in Miller’s catalog for me, I was fascinated that the Tom T. Hall song means so much to him. In this video recorded at Tom T. Hall night at Music City Roots on November 16, 20111, Miller explains how the song is his favorite and how it has become his “touchstone.”

Miller has been playing the song since it came out.  And he has played it at every gig. Additionally, he played it the first time he met his wife, the singer-songwriter Julie Miller.

What Is the Meaning of the Song?

The title of “That’s How I Got to Memphis” gives you and idea about the question of the song (how did the singer get to Memphis?). But it is Tom T. Hall’s great storytelling ability that tells you just enough to answer the question and leaves just enough unclear, so that everyone may hear something different in the song.

In “That’s How I Got to Memphis,” the singer explains how he is seeking a lost love and how that journey brought him to Memphis. The song does not answer all of the questions, like why the woman went to Memphis, what kind of “trouble she’s in,” or the exact reason she left the singer. But the singer’s quest to find the answers to these questions allows the listener to fill in the blanks, even as the story breaks your heart.

The song is about life and loss. If the song were from the woman’s point of view, one might be tempted to categorize it as a song about a stalker, even as we wonder why she left and why she always threatened to go to Memphis. But because the song is in the voice of the broken-hearted man speaking to another person who may be a stranger or a friend, a great singer can remind you of the pain of losing something you once loved.

Or you may see the song as more about the journey of getting to another place. The beauty of Hall’s song is in the ambiguity, which leaves a lot to be revealed in the connection between the singer and the listener.

Other Versions of “That’s How I Got to Memphis”

Several other artists have covered the song, sometimes shortening the title to “How I Got to Memphis.” The song has been recorded and/or performed by artists such as Bobby Bare, Bill Haley and the Comets, Solomon Burke, Rosanne Cash and the Avett Brothers. More recently, Jeff Daniels sang the song on the series finale of HBO’s The Newsroom.

“That’s How I Got to Memphis” first appeared on Tom T. Hall’s 1969 album Ballad Of Forty Dollars & His Other Great Songs. Below is his version.

What is your favorite Buddy Miller song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Otis Redding: Soul Manifesto (Short Review)

    Otis Redding Box Set There is little reason not to own the Otis Redding box set Soul Manifesto: 1964-1970. The twelve-CD set set features eight studio and live records recorded during Reddings’ lifetime and four posthumous albums. The set features no extras beyond the music. But it comes to Redding, the music is enough.

    Albums in the Set

    Rhino released the set as part of its Original Album Series. The five studio albums released between 1964 and 1967 during Redding’s lifetime are: Pain in My Heart, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul, The Soul Album, Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, and King & Queen (a duet album with Carla Thomas). The classic live albums are Live in Europe and In Person at the Whisky a Go Go. And the four studio albums released between 1968 and 1970 after Redding’s death are: The Dock of the Bay, The Immortal Otis Redding, Love Man, and Tell the Truth.

    That is a lot of Otis Redding. Although Soul Manifesto was released in late 2015, it has taken me awhile to savor the music. Of course, the big question for music fans is whether or not they need all of these albums.

    Do Fans Need All of These Albums?

    The answer for most fans is yes. I already owned the outstanding three-CD set The Otis Redding Story (1989). A lot of fans may have the excellent 2-CD collection, Dreams to Remember: The Otis Redding Anthology (1998). A great 4-CD collection is Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding (1993). Unfortunately, the latter set seems to be out of print.

    Of course, there are some good single CD collections. So one may easily find a lot of the big songs, like “Shake,” “Respect,” “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song),” “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” “Mr. Pitiful,” and “Try a Little Tenderness.”

    But if you really love Otis Redding, there is never enough. Going back through the original albums collected in Soul Manifesto, one hears a special consistency in Redding’s career. There are no bad songs. Yes, you recognize some songs more than others, but each album is excellent in its own right.

    You know a lot of the hits, but the twelve CDs give you the chance to listen to Otis Redding fresh, hearing songs that you never heard before in the order they were released. You get to start with “Pain in My Heart” opening his first album and then go though both hits and lesser-known songs. You get his first posthumous album with “Dock of the Bay,” which still leaves us pondering what more Redding would have accomplished had he not died in a plane crash at the age of 26.

    No Extras In This Set

    Of course, it would be great if the albums featured extras or included special liner notes. Some fans may want to wait and hope for more re-releases of the individual albums with extras.

    For example, Rhino already released a special edition of Redding’s classic third album Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965). The collector’s edition of Otis Blue not only includes the original album in both mono and stereo. And it also includes rarities, alternate mixes, and live versions of the album tracks. Pitchfork gave a glowing review to that special edition.

    Two Big Reasons to Get Soul Manifesto

    There are two reasons, though, one might still want to buy the bare-bones Soul Manifesto: 1964-1970 and get all the albums in one place as they were released. First, the price is great. You may buy Soul Manifesto and get all twelve Otis Redding CDs for around $50 on places like Amazon (the mp3 version is more expensive, so get the CDs and burn them).

    The second reason to get Soul Manifesto? It is a ton of great music by one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.

    What is your favorite Otis Redding album or song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Yankee Doodle George M. Cohen & “Over There”

    George M. Cohen Probably the most famous Fourth of July movie is Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney as George M. Cohen. It is a spectacular and fun bio-pic about the famous entertainer and songwriter. And Cagney gives one of his greatest performances while also capture much about the sound and dance of the real Cohen.

    Cohen famously sang about being “born on the Fourth of July,” although he actually was born on July 3, 1878 in Providence, Rhode Island. As portrayed in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cohen began with his career in vaudeville with his parents and sister in an act known as “The Four Cohans.”

    In the early 1900s, he was one of the biggest things on Broadway, creating and producing successful musicals. He wrote many of the classic songs we still hear today like “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “Yankee Doddle Boy,” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”

    “Over There”

    In Yankee Doodle Dandy, we see Cagney as Cohen creating another one of Cohen’s classic’s, “Over There.” As portrayed in the clip, Cohen wrote the song in 1917 when the United States entered World War I.

    If you wonder what the real George M. Cohen danced and sounded like, Cagney gives a good sense in the film. But a surviving movie clip of Cohen shows him singing and dancing in blackface in The Phantom President (1932).

    Also, one may hear the real George M. Cohen in the clip below. He is introduced at around the one-minute mark.  Then, he sings “Over There.”

    “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and Death

    Yankee Doodle Dandy was released on May 29, 1942, and the film went on to receive several Academy Awards. Among the awards, Cagney won the Oscar for Best Actor.

    Cohen reportedly originally wanted Fred Astaire to play him. But he lived to see Yankee Doodle Dandy released with Cagney in the lead role.

    Cohen died on November 5, 1942 not long after the movie’s release.  He passed away at the age of 64 at his apartment at 993 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

    After Cohen died, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a telegram to Cohen’s wife Agnes Mary Nolan Cohan.  In it, he concluded, “He will be mourned by millions whose lives were brightened and whose burdens were eased by his genius as a fun maker and as a dispeller of gloom.”

    What better way to be remembered than as a “fun maker” and “dispeller of gloom”?

    Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, and check out our previous post on Fourth of July Songs.

    Photo via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Mississippi John Hurt: “Lonesome Valley”

    John Hurt Lonesome Valley Mississippi John Hurt was reportedly born in Carroll County, Mississippi on July 3, 1893.  But some sources, including his gravestone, say his date of birth is March 8, 1892.

    Born in the nineteenth century less than thirty years after the end of the Civil War, Hurt lived to see the start of the Civil Rights movement, giving us some fantastic music along the way.

    Hurt first recorded in the late 1920s, but his music found no audience. And then the record company went out of business during The Great Depression. So, Hurt returned to work as a sharecropper in Avalon, Mississippi.

    But new fans discovered Hurt when his recordings of “Frankie” and “Spike Driver Blues” appeared in Harry Smith’s collection The Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952. And in 1963, music collector Tom Hoskins found Hurt based on Hurt’s song “Avalon,” which referred to his hometown.

    Hoskins convinced Hurt to return to performing. Hurt’s performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival helped re-launch his career. He performed across the country, appeared on television, and recorded new albums.

    Hurt’s musical style crossed different genres, including blues and folk. He played his guitar with a unique syncopated fingerpicking style that he taught himself.

    Below is a fantastic 1965 recording of Mississippi John Hurt singing “Lonesome Valley” on folksinger Pete Seeger’s TV program, Rainbow Quest.

    Hurt got to enjoy his new success for a handful of years, dying in November 2, 1966. But, man, we are lucky he found his way back from obscurity.

    A number of collections collect his music from both eras of his career. One of my favorites is the 2-CD set that collects his 1960s recordings, The Complete Studio Recordings Mississippi John Hurt.

    What is your favorite Mississippi John Hurt song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Missing Marine From the Iwo Jima Flag Photo

    Iwo Jima Photo Marines

    The New York Times recently reported that an internal Marine Corps investigation concluded that for more than 70 years it had wrongly identified one of the men in one of the most famous American photos. The Marines found that a private first class, Harold Schultz, was one of the six men in the iconic photo of the flag being raised over Iwo Jima during World War II.

    Joe Rosenthal took the Pulitzer-Prize winning photo on February 23, 1945.  For years it was thought that one of the men in the photo was a Navy hospital corpsman named John Bradley. But the recent inquiry, which included careful study of the uniforms in the photo, concluded that Schultz was in the photo, not Bradley. (Below is a brief video showing the famous raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.)

    The Marines opened the investigation in response to questions raised by producers working on the documentary, The Unknown Flag Raisers of Iwo Jima. The production company, Lucky 8 TV took their evidence to the chief historian of the Marines, Charles Neimeyer, leading to the appointment of a panel to investigate the issue. The film is being shown on the Smithsonian Channel.

    Harold Schultz

    There is something sad about the news that connects together Bradley and Schultz. As for Harold Schultz, he did not live to see the news, having died in 1995 at age 70.

    The day after the photo was taken, Schultz was wounded and sent home. He lived in Los Angeles as a mail sorter, marrying for the first time at the age of 60. He married a neighbor, although they never moved in together and he rarely discussed his time in the military.

    Schultz, however, did know he was in the photo. He just did not talk about it. His stepdaughter Dezreen MacDowell said that one night during dinner, he did mention that he was one of the flag raisers. When she told him he was a hero, he responded, “No, I was a Marine.”

    MacDowell said he never talked about it again. She explained, “He was a very self-effacing Midwestern person.” She was happy to hear he would finally be getting the recognition: “He was a kind and gentle man.”

    Schultz’s story seems both happy and sad. He finally got the recognition, but he did not live to see it. Then again, it appears he did not seek any recognition for his part in the photo.

    John Bradley

    John Bradley’s story, and how it affects his child, has a tragic quality too. Along with Ron Powers, Bradley’s son James Bradley wrote a best-selling book, Flags of Our Fathers (2000). The book told the story of the men who raised the Iwo Jima flag, including Bradley’s father.

    After the battle, John Bradley participated in war bond drives with other survivors who raised the flag, Ira Hayes and Rene Gagnon. Bradley also played himself in the 1949 movie Sands of Iwo Jima, which starred John Wayne.

    John died in 1994, but his son James Bradley learned about the investigation while it was going on. And he came to conclude that his father had participated in an earlier flag-raising and mistakenly thought he was in the famous photo.

    John Bradley never heard that he was not in the photo. But I feel bad for his son, who invested so much into believing his father was in the photo. He seemed accepting of the new discovery, although he did not participate in the documentary or the New York Times story.

    Flags of Our Fathers

    Clint Eastwood directed the movie version of Bradley’s book, Flags of Our Fathers (2006). Below is the trailer.

    My favorite scene in the movie involves John “Doc” Bradley (played by Ryan Phillippe) near the end of the film. On his deathbed, John tells his son James about how he and other Marines went swimming after the battle and the famous photo.

    The movie then shows the Marines on the beach.  They are laughing and jumping in the water. They were humans.

    It is a beautiful scene, humanizing the soldiers we so often think of as something like superheroes. And the scene may remind one of how our parents and grandparents were once young men and women. No matter what they accomplished, they once were young and like their children, just having some fun on the beach.

    Two Different Kinds of Heroes

    I hope James Bradley is not too disappointed upon learning his father was not in the photo as portrayed in his book and in the film. All of the soldiers at Iwo Jima were doing something special for their country, for their families, and for their buddies.

    As for Schultz, he stands in stark contrast to our current fame-seeking fads. Here was a man who was part of something pretty cool. And he not only never Tweeted or or put it in Facebook, he barely mentioned it to those he loved. And so a man in one of the most famous photographs of all time was someone who would never have taken a selfie.

    Leave your two cents in the comments. Stamp photo via public domain.

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