SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2025
One way we Blues have lost votes: In the face of our failing nation's ongoing "American carnage," we've been thinking—and thinking and thinking—about a certain old song.
We refer to the old American song, Lady of Carlisle. For the record, this old American song got its start in the British Isles.
We've also been thinking of the mysterious female character in that song—the "fair lady" who is said to have behaved in this peculiar way reported below.
Two brave soldiers have approached her, seeking her hand in marriage. This fair lady responds to them in this antique way:
Lady of Carlisle
[...]
[Verse 4]
Then up spoke this fair young lady
Saying "I can be but one man's bride.
But if you'll come back tomorrow morning
On this case we will decide."
[Verse 5]
She ordered her a span of horses
A span of horses at her command
And down the road these three did travel
'Til they come to the lions' den.
[Verse 6]
There she stopped and there she halted
These two soldiers stood gazin' 'round
And for the space of half an hour
That young lady lay speechless on the ground.
[Verse 7]
And when she did recover
Threw her fan down in the lions' den
Saying "Which of you to gain a lady
Will return her fan again?"
So behaved this fair young lady in this antique song. After lapsing into a trance, she defines a dangerous courtship test.
(For the resolution of that test, see below.)
We first heard the song, as performed by the late Mike Seeger (Pete Seeger's younger half-brother), when we were mere juniors in high school. We heard the song when we purchased the Folkways album, The New Lost City Ramblers Vol. 3, the same album which contained the old (fully) American song, The Baltimore Fire.
In part, we've been thinking about the Lady of Carlisle because of A Complete Unknown, the new film which treats Bob Dylan's arrival, as an extremely young man, on the Greenwich Village folk music scene in 1961.
We haven't seen it yet. We had plans to do so this week, but a vicious attack of the labyrinthitis brought those plans to an end.
Personally, we have a hard time believing that A Complete Unknown could possibly be good. (We're prepared to be surprised.) But there's one scene which surely won't be included in the film—that's the scene where the extremely young Dylan decided that he was going to have to start writing his own songs.
Dylan's describes the moment in his 2004 memoir, Chronicles Volume One. The moment involves Mike Seeger, who—though a young man himself at the time—was already a widely admired part of the burgeoning American traditional music scene.
Dylan describes the experience which led him to conclude that he had to become a song writer. He says he saw Seeger performing traditional songs in various high-end loft parties in Greenwich Village, and he says he concluded that he would never be able to perform such songs as well as Seeger could.
For the record, Dylan's debut album for Columbia was built upon his own remarkable performance abilities. But in his memoir, Dylan goes on and on, at substantial length, about the greatness he saw in Seeger's performances.
He says he knew that he'd never be able to perform those old American songs well as Mike Seeger already could:
"The thought occurred to me that maybe I'd have to write my own folk songs, the ones that Mike didn't know," Dylan writes (page 71). "That was a startling thought."
Has there ever been a greater tribune from one performer to another? A year or two later, Seeger—then 30 years old—recorded Lady of Carlisle on NLCR Volume 3.
(You may not hear what Dylan heard. But you can hear that performance here.)
Has there ever been a greater tribute? In part, we've been thinking about Seeger's performance of Lady of Carlisle because of all the recent talk about the young Dylan's emergence.
That said, we've also been thinking about this antique song because of its ancient sexual politics. Also, because it may help illustrate one of the three million ways those of us in Blue America may have lost votes in last year's election—may have helped earn our way out.
We always admired Mike Seeger as a performer. We did so for various reasons, many of which Dylan describes in the effusive praise for Seeger presented in his memoir.
That said, we also admired Seeger for what we'd call his sexual politics as a singer—specifically, for the way he would sing the women's parts in the old story-songs he would sing.
He always sang the women's parts with full respect. He would adopt no silly falsetto. No parodic performance occurred.
On Lady of Carlisle, you can hear him sing the part of that "fair young lady" with complete and total respect. We've always admired Seeger for that form of sexual politics.
We've been thinking about that old song because of the talk about Dylan. We've also been thinking about Lady of Carlisle because of what we read when the New York Times interviewed a dozen men—four of them Democrats—who voted for Candidate Trump this past year.
(For more about those interviews, see Thursday afternoon's report.)
The antique song, Lady of Carlisle, involve an antique form of gender politics. We ourselves wouldn't favor that form of courtship or gender relations, but—for better or worse—that antique form of sexual politics is deeply bred in the bone.
To our ear, a longing for that form of politics is stated at various times in the interviews with those twelve men. We ourselves don't share the feelings to which these voters give voice, but many other people do.
Those ancient behaviors are bred in the bone! But over here in Blue America, many elements of our coalition have aggressively jumped far ahead in matters of this kind.
(At the present time, this would also involve the way trans issues are sometimes treated by Blues.)
We Blues! We can sometimes seem to be very sure of our own moral greatness. We name-call those who haven't arrived at the same point of moral greatness that we ourselves have often only recently reached.
Along the way, we may be shedding votes. All too often, this is the business we Blues have chosen as we've earned our way out.
We've never favored the sexual politics lurking in that old song. That said, the longings in question are often deeply bred in the bone, for men and women alike.
Those of us in Blue America are playing with fire when we name-call such people. That said, we're often inclined to assert our moral greatness. All too often, this may be accompanied by a lack of perfect political smarts.
For inquiring minds only: What's the historical background to that old British/American song? (Where in the world do those lions come from?) You can start reading here.
To hear Mike Seeger sing the part of that fair lady, you can just click this. According to Dylan's account, when Dylan heard Seeger singing this way, Dylan judged that he himself would have to be moving on.
He would have to write his own songs, the ones Mike didn't yet know.
[Verse 10]Down in the lions' den he boldly enteredThe lions being both wild and fierceHe marched around and in among themSafely returned her fan again.[Verse 11]And when she saw her true lover comin'Seeing no harm had been done to himShe threw herself against his bosomSaying "Here is the prize that you have won."
