Track of the Twelvemonth: 'Difficult Times Come Once more No More'
Editor's Notation: This article previously appeared in a dissimilar format as office of The Atlantic's Notes department, retired in 2021.
A reader, Rick Jones, writes:
This video of Stephen Foster'southward bully song "Hard Times Come up Again No More than" seems to tie together some of Notes' contempo themes. It'south a cover (the song was written in 1856) by the Familia McGarrigle (including a teenage Rufus and Martha) and it speaks to coming troubles and the need for perseverance that Fallows has been evoking in his writing.
If you take a version of "Difficult Times" that particularly resonates with you and have a retention associated with it, please send u.s. a annotation: hullo@theatlantic.com. (The McGarrigle/Wainwright clan also did a version of Stephen Foster's sunnier "Better Times Are Coming.") Update from a reader who flags a rendition of "Hard Times" from Mavis Staples:
From another reader, Peter:
What a great vocal, unfortunately, it seems timeless. I beginning heard it in 1981, sung by the outstanding Chapel Hill cord band The Red Clay Ramblers. Their wonderful harmony singing frames the vocal with a warmth that counterbalances the bleakness of the lyrics you tin here them here.
Some other reader recommends a version that isn't available on YouTube:
My favorite is somewhere in my library of Bill Frisell bootlegs, only it's something along these lines. I'm fascinated by songs like this that are just then quondam and remain in the repertoire. For example, "St. James Hospital" is based on "The Rake'due south Complaining," an 18th century British naval song. Information technology'south also the parent of "Streets of Laredo," the Johnny Greenbacks tune. That'south nuts!
One more reader, Sydney:
Greetings from only south of Raleigh, NC, as I read all the news I missed last night considering often, playing with babies beats knowing more details of terrorism. When I saw your post on "Hard Times" I immediately thought of the Yo Yo Ma and James Taylor cover that I had on echo this fourth dimension last yr while waiting for forenoon sickness to magically disappear in the second trimester of a twin pregnancy, but instead got more pains and swelling. I resigned myself to only focusing on seeking the good in life, that hard times would pass.
Proud to say I've now got two happy good for you baby girls, one of whom wants to go along me company now. Keep upward the not bad piece of work.
The covers keep arriving from long-time readers, namely Barbara:
It has been and so great to see the McGarrigle thread spin into Stephen Foster land with "Hard Times Come Again No More than." I similar sentimental songs and apparently have a high tolerance for pathos, especially if rhyming lines are involved. I thought the song'south Wikipedia entry, describing it as a "parlor vocal," was a nice touch that avoided the judgement implicit in "sentimental," even if the sentence is correct on target.
The song is one of my favorites from Foster, who is one of my favorite composers. I learned to play some of his songs on the piano from a tattered re-create of a drove of his work. I learned a lot of other folk songs and sentimental favorites from an even more tattered hardcover copy of the Fireside Book of Folk Songs I even so accept, although the book at present begins halfway through the song "Cockles and Mussels" and ends partway through the alphabetize, with no hardcovers in sight. (I was able to get another copy of the volume, covers and all, when a family unit member passed away, but I still play from the spineless copy that opens flat and stays open.)
I am not an accomplished pianist and I've grown increasingly rusty. Early in elementary schoolhouse, I just progressed partway through John Thompson'southward Modern Course for the Pianoforte: The Second Form Book: Something New Every Lesson. The "something new" that killed my progress was syncopation, in the form of dotted eighth notes in a version of James A. Bland's "Behave Me Back to Old Virginny." (I understood the mathematics but fine, but my listen had decided on a rhythm that seemed pleasing to my fingers, and no amount of repetition and no lack of a gilded star got me to play the vocal correctly. After weeks of intractable stubbornness on my part and the part of the only piano teacher in town, we parted means. I did take more lessons in high school when the married woman of a new music teacher at the central school offered them. I explained my history, and we started out lessons with Bach. It was more successful, but I stopped taking lessons when I left for college.
Anyway, I liked all the versions your readers provided; it was interesting to hear a range of interpretations. I like Emmylou Harris's operation of "Difficult Times Come up Once again No More." I don't know if the cut I listen to is online, but in this video from a concert, she says that "this is probably the oldest song in my repertoire."
The performance of "Difficult Times" I play most often is by Thomas Hampson, because I like to listen to the album in the car and am very fond of his "Cute Dreamer." (The album is American Dreamer: Songs of Stephen Foster, and performers include Jay Ungar on violin, Molly Stonemason on guitar, and David Alpher on piano.)
Unlike some other covers, Hampson's doesn't sound like he'south actually been through hard times. His performance instead fits the Wikipedia description; I imagine he sings the vocal simply every bit a admirer with a good vocalisation would have done years ago in some parlor, playing piano with more finesse than I have and trying to impress the guests at a party, particularly the woman he has his eye on. The rendition is smooth, and if you lot enjoy Hampson's vocalization, you lot may non realize how awful some parts of the lyrics are. The chorus is what makes the vocal great, not the verses.
Of all the versions, the Mavis Staples embrace is my new favorite.
Thanks everyone!
Here's a terminal update, from the reader who started this "Difficult Times" serial. Rick indicated in our email exchange that he was a long-time reader of The Dish, the blog I helped edit for seven years—three of which were at The Atlantic. If you lot ever followed the blog, Rick'due south retrospective here is poignant:
Well that post is having a pretty good run! I knew of some other versions (due east.1000.Taylor/Ma), simply many were new. The video I sent originally is not the best musical quality and it has a kind of awkward family Christmas carte du jour feel, which I thought fit the season equally well. Glad I could contribute.
A "View From Your Window" I just dug upward from the Dish email archives, taken by Rick in 2012 around 9pm in Sacramento
It would exist inaccurate to call me a Dish reader … Dish obsessive is more likely. I checked the site dozens of times a day, every twenty-four hour period. About a twelvemonth ago I fabricated a list of all the wonderful things that The Dish introduced to me and I began to weep halfway through, finally stopping later on a folio full. I defy anyone to notice me a site today with the depth, achieve, humor, and intellectual courage of The Dish. Where else could I find Wislawa Szymborska AND Dina Martina, Frederick Seidel AND Robert Earl Corking AND Jack Gilbert, Rod Dreher AND Jennifer Michael Hecht? Go alee, I'll wait for the answer.
I tin still recall exactly where and when I read the post from Andrew that you lot all were closing shop: January 28, 2015, 10AM PST, at a very Dishy location: Sacramento Convention Center, men's bathroom in the northwest corner, first stall in. (Yep I was lonely. Nevertheless oversharing, I know, but in the best Sully tradition). Reading that postal service felt like getting the news that a proficient friend was very ill.
I came to The Dish from an unlikely source: Kendall Harmon, who is the Canon Theologian of the Anglican diocese of Due south Carolina, and a robust opponent of gay union. In 2003, my Episcopal parish was in the midst of vehement itself apart afterward Gene Robinson's ordination and, bewildered, I was seeking dialogue and enlightenment. Kendall had a link to Andrew on his blog roll. Through those years of struggle in the church, Andrew was a bright light of courage, compassion, insight and sense of humor. I was finally received into the Catholic church on Easter Saturday 2006, and some of my discernment was informed by the idea that a church that could attend Andrew Sullivan was also a home for me.
The Dish was the greatest experience I had on the spider web and one of the greatest intellectual adventures of my life. Equally 1 of the essential parts in that, cheers from the bottom of my heart. If you e'er run across Andrew, Patrick, and the balance of the gang, let them know how much the blog meant to me. And should such a project always be attempted over again, please know that you take my intellectual, emotional, and financial support.
Cheers for listening, and take a blessed Christmas and Happy New year.
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