I've always enjoyed the simple old western/cowboy songs like "Home on the Range," but I never have heard "Home" sung the way this guy did it way back in 1946 when I was a first grader. I'm pretty sure I didn't hear it then or I'd have remembered it.
(1947 photo, William Gottlieb)
Hearing this now, in the present, I felt a little like the speaker in John Keats' lyric poem, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," where he describes his amazement at reading the Chapman translation of the great Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
| Then felt I like some watcher of the skies | |
| When a new planet swims into his ken... |
It may be a little over the top and some will be dismayed that I compare my reaction to a Frank Sinatra song to Keats' response to a famous translation of Homer. But listen carefully to Sinatra's rendition of this song and I think you'll agree that it's pretty amazing. Young "Blue Eyes" was at the top of his form.
And here's another nice one, The Sons of the Pioneers with "Montana." The lyric speaks of the bond that can grow between a man and his home state. People these days are much more mobile and cynical about such things, but there are still some of us around who feel those "ties that bind."
Well... betraying my ignorance... I never knew there was a second verse to "Home." You're right: Sinatra did a superb job with the song. As for "Montana"... I note that all the visuals in the vid are from Western Montana. The eastern part of the state... where I spent a year, three days, eight hours and ten minutes... is as desolate and featureless as anywhere in America. But "desolate" has a beauty all its own, I suppose. Why else would I still be where I am? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI haven't been up to Montana yet, but it's on my bucket list. As for NM, at least along the Eastern part of I40 as we drove through, it is a bit desolate at first but it kinda grew on me. And Santa Fe where we spent about a week, is a beautiful place, even if the "trees" look like shrubs. But it's in the North Central part, isn't it?
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