An Old, Sad Song
Dec. 23rd, 2022 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloStreets of Laredo is the cleaned-up, family-friendly version.
Most of the other variants make it plain- some with graphic detail- that the thing the protagonist is dying from is syphilis.
The protagonist is usually male, occasionally female. The song is variously entitled The Unfortunate Rake, The Unfortunate Lad, The Unfortunate Trooper, The Buck's Elegy and so on. My favourite title is Pills of White Mercury.
The earliest complete text is mid-19th century. A couple of verses are recorded in a late 18th century Irish source.
In one version the encounter between narrator and protagonist occurs in London's Covent Garden- placing it in the world of Hogarth's Rake's Progress and John Gay's Beggar's Opera- which feels exactly right.
Brendan Gleeson sings a version- a capella- in the final segment of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. He sings it with great sweetness.
From notes on the Gleeson version I learned that "The Lock" was the Victorian word for a hospital specialising in STDs. The first Lock- so called- was in Southwark.
There's a Caribbean Version called Bright Shining Morning which appears on one of Norma Waterson's albums. I think it may be my favourite. The text is a little garbled which introduces a pleasing note of weirdness and mystery.
There are those who think The St James Infirmary Blues is yet another variant. From John Gay's London to Louis Armstrong's New Orleans- that's quite a journey...
Most of the other variants make it plain- some with graphic detail- that the thing the protagonist is dying from is syphilis.
The protagonist is usually male, occasionally female. The song is variously entitled The Unfortunate Rake, The Unfortunate Lad, The Unfortunate Trooper, The Buck's Elegy and so on. My favourite title is Pills of White Mercury.
The earliest complete text is mid-19th century. A couple of verses are recorded in a late 18th century Irish source.
In one version the encounter between narrator and protagonist occurs in London's Covent Garden- placing it in the world of Hogarth's Rake's Progress and John Gay's Beggar's Opera- which feels exactly right.
Brendan Gleeson sings a version- a capella- in the final segment of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. He sings it with great sweetness.
From notes on the Gleeson version I learned that "The Lock" was the Victorian word for a hospital specialising in STDs. The first Lock- so called- was in Southwark.
There's a Caribbean Version called Bright Shining Morning which appears on one of Norma Waterson's albums. I think it may be my favourite. The text is a little garbled which introduces a pleasing note of weirdness and mystery.
There are those who think The St James Infirmary Blues is yet another variant. From John Gay's London to Louis Armstrong's New Orleans- that's quite a journey...
