Date: Nov, 17, 1958
Weeks: 1
Folk music is always tough for me to review. I like to focus on the music and overall sound that a pop song creates, consider how well the vocals match it, and then move on to nitpicking the lyrics with the premise that the writers didn't pay enough attention to them. But folk music is built the opposite way around. Folk music starts off with a story to tell in the lyrics, then somebody sings it, and then there's a few gently strummed guitars tacked on.
So I guess I'll start with those lyrics. This song tells the story of a man, Tom Dooley, who was convicted of killing his fiance, and was hanged for it. This is a true story, with some creative alterations, such as the fact that the man's name was actually Tom Dula, that I guess became a piece of North Carolina folklore, mostly because I guess there was some doubt about his actual guilt
I don't think the lyrics tell the story particularly well. They go straight from "stabbed her with my knife" to "Poor boy, you're bound to die." There's not a lot of explanation about his supposed motivation for the killing. There's a hint that a man named Grayson is responsible for catching him, but the song doesn't clarify who Grayson is or what he did. I thought he was the sheriff, but Wikipedia implies Grayson was a guy who gave Dooley a job while he was on the run, and then turned him in when he realized who he was. The song doesn't argue or even try to ask whether Dooley was innocent, but seems to lay out a case of sympathy for him anyway by saying "Poor boy you're bound to die" over and over again. So no, despite the spoken opening claiming the song "tells the story," I didn't feel any more educated about the events after listening to the song. Well, I suppose hearing the song drove me to learn more about the story behind them. So maybe it's a win for education after all.
The vocals are very nicely harmonized. The Kingston Trio gives an interesting performance that catches my attention. The performance they give may be a little too gentle, though. I suppose they are trying to treat their somber subject matter with appropriate reverence, and that's good. Their tone is appropriate. But that doesn't make it fun.
And yet the guitars are happy, strummy folk guitars. They don't quite have the same somber tone as the vocals. Mostly they're just quiet in place of being somber, but that's not quite the same. As with most folk music, the music doesn't evolve much throughout the course of the song, consisting of largely the same chords over and over until the lyrics are done. There's a little bit of a crescendo a couple times to make the music more interesting, but it's mostly too little, too late.
My verdict: Don't like it. It's pleasant enough, but the music isn't terribly interesting, and the story isn't well-told enough to make up for it.
Is a folk song the same as a ballad? I ask because ballads are truly supposed to tell stories, but this isn't called "The Ballad of Tom Dooley," and it may assume the listeners are already aware of the background information or the folklore regarding the incident. Folk songs often seem to assume a common cultural background that isn't necessarily explained. "Roll on, Columbia," for example, I would class as a folk song that assumes you know something about the Columbia River and Grand Coulee Dam already. Also, it assumes you know who Lewis and Clark are and what they did.
ReplyDeleteSo, anyway, I agree about the music and such, but I'm wondering if expecting it to tell a clear story isn't fair for the type of song it is.