Same Old Man - Holy Modal Rounders - April 23, 2012

Way way back in art school, this super nice guy whose name I can`t remember, gave me a tape with Screamin`Jay Hawkins on one side and The Holy Modal Rounders on the other.  The tape had been dubbed multiple times and sounded like shit but I loved it - both sides - and played it to death.  When I started playing accordion and singing songs, my take on Black-Eyed Suzy a la The Holy Modal Rounders was one of the first songs I learned. I went on to record it with my first band, The Dogbreath Brothers Black-Eyed Suzy - Dogbreath Brothers and we also had other HMR tunes in our repertoire:  Mole In The Ground, Cuckoo, and Flop Eared Mule.  Man, was I ever surprised when I heard the "real" Flop Eared Mule played by a bunch of virutosos. HMR completely deconstruct it so ignoramuses like me can play it when they're drunk on Tullamore Dew. 

This song, Same Old Man, has slowly and steadily worked its way under my skin and I took the time to learn it last summer.  There is a profundity to the simple poetry of the lyrics that reaches beyond its literal boundaries, while the melody is primal.  It is the HMR version of the traditional song The Old Man At The Mill, and as Steve Weber is credited for the arrangement, I imagine he wrote the lyrics that differ from the original.   

The album(s) pictured above are the only ones that I am familiar with.  These guys, Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, had a tumultuous and turbulent career and put out a lot of crazed, joyous, psychedelic folk music.  There were many breakups, reunions, and offshoots along the way and there was a lot of drugs.  If you want to find out about the Holy Modal Rounders without reading a sanitary Wikipedia summary of their career, check out this rambling, very colourful interview with Peter Stampfel 

http://www.furious.com/perfect/stampfel.html

Here's me playing Same Old Man

 I just came across this and I urge you to watch and listen to it!  Karen Dalton was part of the folk revival in the early 60's and was associated with the Holy Modal Rounders, Bob Dylan, and others.  While you can find many versions of the traditional Old Man At The Mill on youtube, this is the HMR version.  It is quite haunting.

Same Old Man - (Traditional arranged by S. Weber)

It`s the same old man sittin` at the mill

mill turns round of its own free will

yes I`m certainly glad to be home

New York city can carry on alone

My mind is failing, my body grows weak

my lips won't form the words to speak

I'm floatin away on a boatful of pain

you'll hear my sad cry but won't see me again

It's the same old lady hanging out her wash

now she's wearing a Macintosh

she's hangin' out her hose in the middle of the rain

I thought New York City had gone insane

Hey little leaf lyin' on the ground

now you're turnin' slightly brown

why don't you hop back on to that tree

and turn the colour green the way you oughta be

***************************************

Here's the lyrics of a traditional version of The Old Man At The Mill

Same old man working at the mill

the mill turns around of its own free will

hand in the hopper and the other in the sack

ladies step forward and the gents fall back

Up said the raven as she flew

if I were a young man I'd have two

one to fetch and the other to sow

and I'd have a little string for my bow bow bow

Down sat at owl and he said all quiet

lonesome day and a lonesome night

thought I head a pretty girl say

court all night and sleep all day

My old man is from Kalamazoo

He don't give no "yes I do"

first to the left and then to the right

This old mill grinds day and night.

PLUS a killer live version of The Dillards performing it