Oh, Sultana

[dhanners623]

The explosion of the S.S. Sultana in April 1865 is the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history and its surprising how few people have heard about it. Indeed, at the time, the news was overshadowed by the killing of John Wilkes Booth the day before, and the nation was still reeling from Lincoln's assassination.

 

Awhile back I saw a show on PBS that dealt with the disaster and I decided to write a song about it. There was a lot of skullduggery involved. One of the boat's four boilers had been repaired a couple of days earlier. Instead of doing the more-involved (and more expensive) proper repair the boat's engineer said was needed, the captain ordered a faster, cheaper repair. The captain had wanted the quick repair so he could haul Federal prisoners paroled from the Confederate POW camps of Cahaba and Andersonville upriver to Cairo, IL. The Union quartermaster in Vicksburg offered the captain $4 per enlisted man and $10 per officer. And, naturally, Sultana's captain paid a kickback to the quartermaster, so 1,961 prisoners were herded aboard a steamboat built to hold 376. The decks sagged so much they had to be bolstered from below, and when the ship sailed, it rolled badly, which made the boiler issues even more dangerous.

 

If you weren't killed in the initial explosions or fire, then you had to take your chance in the Mississippi, which was cold and swollen from spring rains. Since many of the former prisoners were still weak from their incarceration, they lacked the strength to hold out for long in the river. Of the 2,155 people aboard, 1,192 died. Among the dead was the captain. Nobody was ever held accountable for the overloading, which contributed to the disaster and high death toll.

 

I've been toiling over a version of this song for a couple of years and pulled it out again last week to take another stab at it. I realized the story needed to be fleshed out, so I added a couple of verses and rewrote the others. Some other songwriters have taken a stab at the disaster, and I mean no offense but they sound like history lessons and/or morality tales. I wanted to tell the story from the viewpoint of a soldier from the 102nd Ohio Volunteers who was freed from Cahaba and just wanted to go home to his sweetheart. I figured he wouldn't know (or particularly care) about kickbacks or bad boiler repairs etc., so I kept the facts simple.

 

I finally came up with a melody last night that I like. My performance will get better with time (I hope) but here, without further ado, is "Oh, Sultana."

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjDyAkxhZU

[Lars68]

Great song, David. You are a fantastic storyteller!

 

Here is another song about the same disaster from one of my favorite bands, Son Volt.

However, I do like your melody better in this case :-)

 

 

Lars

[dhanners623]

Great song, David. You are a fantastic storyteller!

 

Here is another song about the same disaster from one of my favorite bands, Son Volt.

However, I do like your melody better in this case :-)

 

 

Lars

 

Yeah, I'm familiar with that one. Jay Farrar is a fine songwriter, but his lyrics on Sultana read like a Wikipedia entry. The song is an example of vibe (the droning piano, the plaintive fiddle) trying to mask the absence of any meaningful narrative. It sounds like a good song, but the lyrics are bland as a bank statement. I mean, my God, the boat exploded! Nearly 1,200 people died! If that's not gist for a dramatic story, I don't know what is.

 

Then again, Jay Farrar is famous and I'm not, so there's that....

[kidblast]

As Lars said, a great story told in lyrics. Nice job Dave, thanks for sharing with us.

[Lars68]

Yeah, I'm familiar with that one. Jay Farrar is a fine songwriter, but his lyrics on Sultana read like a Wikipedia entry. The song is an example of vibe (the droning piano, the plaintive fiddle) trying to mask the absence of any meaningful narrative. It sounds like a good song, but the lyrics are bland as a bank statement. I mean, my God, the boat exploded! Nearly 1,200 people died! If that's not gist for a dramatic story, I don't know what is.

 

Then again, Jay Farrar is famous and I'm not, so there's that....

 

I completely agree with you, although I think Jay Farrar is a fantastic writer, his version of the Sultana story is not one of his high points. I much prefer your take.

 

Your timing with this song and its topic is spot on for me. I just finished writing a song, which I posted in another thread yesterday, and I have now plans to write my next song on a very similar subject matter.

Yesterday it was one hundred years ago since the worst train accident happened in Sweden with lots of people killed. The original steam locomotive was badly destroyed, but has since been restored, and yesterday it travelled the same route again, timed so that it passed the spot of the accident EXACTLY to the minute one hundred years after the accident. I thought that could be good material for a song. You showed me how it is supposed to be done!

 

Lars

[dhanners623]

I completely agree with you, although I think Jay Farrar is a fantastic writer, his version of the Sultana story is not one of his high points. I much prefer your take.

 

Your timing with this song and its topic is spot on for me. I just finished writing a song, which I posted in another thread yesterday, and I have now plans to write my next song on a very similar subject matter.

Yesterday it was one hundred years ago since the worst train accident happened in Sweden with lots of people killed. The original steam locomotive was badly destroyed, but has since been restored, and yesterday it travelled the same route again, timed so that it passed the spot of the accident EXACTLY to the minute one hundred years after the accident. I thought that could be good material for a song. You showed me how it is supposed to be done!

 

Lars

 

Sounds like a great subject for a song. Just keep it human....

[uncle fester]

really good stuff, great song, great story. Really like your rhythm line you've got going. I commend you on your topic, it's good for folks to remember things.

[Buc McMaster]

Well damn. I've been contemplating writing a lyric on this incident for a couple years now, have some preliminary notes in a folder here somewhere. Already got a couple tunes on the Civil War......a subject that holds a lot of interest for me. I'll give this a listen this evening, Dave.....I'm sure it's well done......

[jvi]

perhaps dropping the oh in the title would be worth consideration,reminds me of oh suzanna, or crackers,- good work in an age old tradition however so kudos to you

[dhanners623]

perhaps dropping the oh in the title would be worth consideration,reminds me of oh suzanna, or crackers,- good work in an age old tradition however so kudos to you

 

Thanks. I understand your point, but I stuck the word "Oh" in the title and chorus to give it an archaic feel and to evoke thoughts of "Oh! Susannah." Also, I wanted to differentiate it from the Son Volt song mentioned above.

[BoSoxBiker]

Nicely done and nice song.

 

I like your idea for using the "Oh" in the title. It put me in the right century before the page finished loading.

 

I enjoy the discussion on lyric styles of this subject matter. It's tough to write songs on history - events or people. One great example that came to mind right away was that classic Gordon Lightfoot hit from the 70's.

I think it's a great study in lyrical story telling.

 

On your song, which I need to listen too again, the twist of a soldier telling the listener to tell his love walking in lavender of his plight and demise is nifty. Sort of fits in with the era and puts another very human touch on the whole subject. It should be interesting to see this one evolve.

 

There's a lot of pre-AM Gold Al Stewart that is history-based and interesting a couple songs at a time, which is sort of an oxymoron.

 

Anyway, very nicely done and written, again.

[dhanners623]

Nicely done and nice song.

 

I like your idea for using the "Oh" in the title. It put me in the right century before the page finished loading.

 

I enjoy the discussion on lyric styles of this subject matter. It's tough to write songs on history - events or people. One great example that came to mind right away was that classic Gordon Lightfoot hit from the 70's.

I think it's a great study in lyrical story telling.

 

On your song, which I need to listen too again, the twist of a soldier telling the listener to tell his love walking in lavender of his plight and demise is nifty. Sort of fits in with the era and puts another very human touch on the whole subject. It should be interesting to see this one evolve.

 

There's a lot of pre-AM Gold Al Stewart that is history-based and interesting a couple songs at a time, which is sort of an oxymoron.

 

Anyway, very nicely done and written, again.

 

Thanks. Always loved Al Stewart. Great songwriter. I was constantly going to the encyclopedia (I'm old enough to remember World Book Encyclopedias...) to look up the subjects of his songs. I read an interview with him once in which he said he often wrote a couple of different sets of lyrics -- on completely different subjects -- for each melody. Then when he'd get into the studio, he's pick which one was best and go with it. Makes me wonder how much unpublished stuff he has.

[BoSoxBiker]

Thanks. Always loved Al Stewart. Great songwriter. I was constantly going to the encyclopedia (I'm old enough to remember World Book Encyclopedias...) to look up the subjects of his songs. I read an interview with him once in which he said he often wrote a couple of different sets of lyrics -- on completely different subjects -- for each melody. Then when he'd get into the studio, he's pick which one was best and go with it. Makes me wonder how much unpublished stuff he has.

I'm embarrassed to say that I never knew any of this about Al Stewart until getting lost on a YouTube excursion about a year or so ago. Better late than never? I found him to be quite adept at knowing when to drag out a phrase to allow the listener time for the "whoa!!!!" moment. Give us time to digest and then on to the next point.

 

1959 World Book in the bookcase as a kid for as long as I remember.

[MissouriPicker]

Interesting song, Dave. A good and needs-to-be-told story. I enjoy the way you perform your music. Easy-to-listen-to.......The plight of American Civil War captives is something very few people have ever paid attention to. I've read about the tragedy, but always kind of thought it was just part of the climate at the time that created Andersonville and some of the other sites used as prisons: something to be expected in the war. Tragically, neither side really gave-a-damn about the other side, especially when there was money involved...........One-hundred-fifty years later and not much has changed.

[Jinder]

What a great song! Oddly enough I was reading about the Sultana disaster last year and thinking it would be a great topic for a song. You did a much better job than I could have done though. Magic stuff.