THREE SONGS, THREE SINGERS, THREE NATIONS

In three songs that seem to be written by no one, Greil Marcus shows, we discover not only three different ways of talking about the United States but three different nations within its formal boundaries.

Drawn from Marcus's 2013 Massey Lectures at Harvard, this new work by the acclaimed pop culture journalist, Greil Marcus, delves into three episodes in the history of American commonplace song: Bascom Lamar Lunsford's 1928 “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground,” Geeshie Wiley's 1930 “Last Kind Words Blues,” and Bob Dylan's 1964 “Ballad of Hollis Brown.” How each of these songs manages to convey the uncanny sense that it was written by no one illuminates different aspects of the commonplace song tradition. Some songs truly did come together over time without an identifiable author. Others draw melodies and motifs from obscure sources but, in the hands of a particular artist, take a final, indelible shape. And, as in the case of Dylan's “Hollis Brown,” there are songs that were written by a single author but that communicate as anonymous productions, as if they were folk songs passed down over many generations.

THREE SONGS, THREE SINGERS, THREE NATIONS
Amerika in drei Liedern
Deutsch von Fritz Schneider
[PB Wilhelm Fink 09/16]