The Foggy Dew
February 27, 2016 6:12 AM   Subscribe

Odetta sings The Foggy Dew
Odetta recorded a haunting version of ‘Foggy Dew’ for her third album My Eyes Have Seen (Vanguard records, 1959). Often referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”, the African-American Civil Rights activist, actress and singer’s debut album ‘Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues‘ was released on Tradition Records whose president and director was Paddy Clancy of the Clancy Brothers.

Via Come Here To Me, which also includes Paul Robeson, an African-American left-wing activist, actor and singer, singing Kevin Barry.
Luke Kelly's version is probably the one more people are familiar with. Odetta previously on Metafilter
posted by Fence (10 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Seems that folk singers "back then" loved to sing numbers that were from many trasitions, to show, I imagine, the universality of feelings, needs, abuses, dreams. Seeger and Robeson did Hebrew, Russian, and so too Guthrie.
Odetta's greatness for me is best represented in her SPIRITUAL TRILOGY
posted by Postroad at 6:24 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


By a total coincidence I listened to her beautiful Battle Hymn of the Republic earlier this morning.
posted by graymouser at 7:07 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Beautiful.
posted by Oyéah at 8:14 AM on February 27, 2016


I later learned that Odetta was friends with the Byrds. She used to dance at some of their first performances at Ciro's nightclub, and the Byrds' first tour vehicle was a car they bought from Odetta to play a gig in San Francisco.
posted by jonp72 at 9:07 AM on February 27, 2016 [3 favorites]


I have to say, I wasn't at all impressed by Odetta's version of The Foggy Dew which seems wan and limp compared to Luke Kelly's version, but those Lonnie Donegan covers of Kevin Barry and My Only Son Was Killed in Dublin were fantastic.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:47 AM on February 27, 2016


Possibly because I'm so familiar with Kelly's version, his does seem more "right" to me. But I thought Odetta's a very interesting take on it.
posted by Fence at 10:46 AM on February 27, 2016


I had the great good fortune about 40 years ago to see Odetta in the role of Beatrice in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds. Odetta/Beatrice is reminiscing about her father, a fruit and vegetable seller, and sings out, "Apples, pears, coo-cuummm-berrrs". I've forgotten nearly every single thing about the play and the other performances, but that will stay with me forever.
posted by angiep at 11:44 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


There was an ad that aired during the NFL playoffs this last season which used a marching band arrangement of this song as the soundbed, as though it were a triumphal fight song for a team. It was so weird and wrong.

The arrangement even retained the minor notes that give the song its force. Every time it aired I was distracted by the incompetence of the choice.

Yes, the physics of long range guns shelling civilian populations is the exact thing I want to be thinking of while I watch a fifty-yard pass attempt and hear it described as a "long bomb".
posted by mwhybark at 1:57 PM on February 27, 2016


Seems that folk singers "back then" loved to sing numbers that were from many trasitions, to show, I imagine, the universality of feelings, needs, abuses, dreams. Seeger and Robeson did Hebrew, Russian, and so too Guthrie.
That was actually kind of controversial. Ewan MacColl ran the Ballads and Blues Club, and he institutes something called "the Policy," which was that you could only sing songs that originated from your own culture. There was also a committee that ruled on questions of authenticity and gently reprimanded musicians who performed music in an inauthentic manner. Sounds like oodles of fun, no?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:24 PM on February 27, 2016


I don't think there was anything gentle about MacColl's reprimands. Apparently, he silenced a young singer who started to sing an American song, and threw another out for playing an early round-back Ovation guitar as it wasn't traditional enough. That kind of joy-killing folkie (male) purist lives on, unfortunately.

Odetta sure could sing, but why did she always sing so slowly? This is a straight 3 minute folker, but she stretches it to nearly six.
posted by scruss at 6:54 PM on February 27, 2016


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