The wandering ballad singer Wide world singers
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And I will walk again along again
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the weather be fair I'll call my hair and long moved to
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Washington State University presents a wandering ballad singer Barry took in
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with songs that vividly describe the history and folklore of a pioneering country.
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And along the road.
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Up to this point we've been talking mostly about American and British folk songs and ballads. Other countries have their
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own folk songs naturally and I've asked my wife Nico and Deepak Chopra from India to help in singing
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some songs from around the world. Even if you can't understand the words you'll be able to catch the feeling and part of the
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meaning of the songs anyway. Folk music is just one of the many ways we can jump across these
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accidental barriers of national background. The first song is a little ting cording song
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full of fun from India and Pakistan. There are a couple of words here that you just can't miss.
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Sunday on a
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Sunday on
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our
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Sunday
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Sunday I'm in a John Johnson.
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The next one makes us cheat a little since it's really an American song but it's sung all over the world wherever
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Americans have gone because it's easy to sing and easy to learn.
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This is one of the simplest folk songs we have and one of the saddest at least for young listeners.
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Oh.
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Come on. My
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daughters know not my
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daughters my dark power
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goal is me
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is me.
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There is me as my man.
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Grown.
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For many years to come and tourists who remember the short beautiful song from Japan. It's
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not really a sad one but there is something of the traditional Japanese wistfulness in it. Seen it
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described as a common but striking one. The cherry blossoms.
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Thought someone
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out.
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Here's a song we learned from a Danish exchange student and with His help we've painfully wrenched
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the Danish words into an awkward English translation and we've got nothing but the story in the tone. It's an
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age old situation but a novel solution.
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Once the farmer.
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Has a.
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Beer.
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Again I.
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Am
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a farmer.
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Let's not.
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Here's a reworking of an old Hawaiian folk song. Essentially the story tells of a faithful but for second
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girl calling to her lover to come back. We learn this one from KO I
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used to sing it and dance at the same time but we've had a hard enough time just with the words so you'll have to
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supply your own dance.
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Was.
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Was.
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Lucky.
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I was lucky
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was
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lucky I
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was.
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We like to end with a song made up and sung by the followers of Mahatma Gandhi. This is a folk song in
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that it has several versions but primarily it's a hymn in praise of the god
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Vishnu and most of the words are actually names of the various incarnations of this deity who is
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the preserver in the Hindu Trinity. During the time of stress
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preceding the partition of India this became one of Gandhi's favorite hymns and a verse was
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inserted to pray for Hindu and Muslim unity. This verse says essentially
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Who is Allah and who is Ram implying that all men call on the same God but use different names for him
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at the huge prayer meetings in those days Ghandi would sing the lead part in the crowd often thousands of
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people would join in on the response. This is something like it would have sounded. But on a much smaller scale.
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But
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my dear I'll be
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honest.
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But you do see
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downtown areas here dotted around the area
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to see.
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But you
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know I'm here.
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I'll be in the city.
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But.
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And
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that's all the time we have for folk songs from around the world.
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Best regards from the Wide World Singers Mico deep Bach and myself
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and I'll walk the road again my boy walk the road again
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if the weather be fair I'll call my hair and walk
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and.
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Listen again next week when Barry talk and a wandering ballad singer returns with more songs and
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ballads The preceding was transcribed and was produced by the Radio TV services of
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Washington State University.
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This is the end E.B. Radio Network and
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oh. Yeah.
🔍
This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.