Comments on: Twenty nine links of chain around my feet

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:22:45 +0000

Well thank you! I’ve been kind of obsessed with the Smithsonian Folkways ‘Classic Railroad Songs’ album for the last few months and it got me thinking of this HMHB song.

I wasn’t aware of the pedantry/glaring error rules, but I’ve got the gist now. Great site here!

By: Chris The Siteowner

Chris The Siteowner — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 11:30:03 +0000

Indeed, please accept a nomination for the least pedantic correction of the month. Nice one.

By: Vendor of Quack Nostrums

Vendor of Quack Nostrums — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 11:02:50 +0000

I cannot believe that nobody has picked that up in a year and a half! It is clearly 21 years that is sung. That is not so much pedantry Keith as spotting a glaring error.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:53:06 +0000

This is so pedantic, but it’s “twenty one years on the RC Mountain Line”, not “twenty”.

By: R Wenner

R Wenner — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:21:10 +0000

This song, entitled “It takes a worried man” was covered and popularized by the Kingston Trio in the 1950′s or early 60′s. Look them up and see if their lyrics to this song are posted, and you can perhaps demystify the line you find puzzling.

By: Charles Exford

Charles Exford — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:02:34 +0000

RC may just be Railroad Company.

I would love to know more about the origins of the song way back before the Carter Family. The numerical pattern of the verses hints that maybe it was a much longer slave labour & then convict labour song, with a lot more verses counting down through numbers. If anyone finds anything to expand upon the hint at the bottom of this page, for example, that it has ‘born from the African experience in America’, please post :
http://www.oldtownschool.org/resourcecenter/songnotes_W.html

Meanwhile Chris you’ll be delighted to know I just added 2 much-needed apostrophes to the brief Biscuit reference on the “Worried Man Blues” Wikipedia page.