Folk Heroes- Richard Arnold Beattie- Willis Allan Ramsey July 14, 2026

In cooperation with Sound Century Academy, the University of Colorado and The Harry Tuft Collection. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, you're listening to Folk Heroes. I'm Richard Beattie and welcome to the show. I just returned from Westcliff celebrating my 50th high school reunion at Connequat High School in Long Island. I have a memory to share with you about a folk hero in 1976, learning directly from Harry Chapin at the PAF Playhouse, an unforgettable experience. As many of you know, that Harry Chapin just about invented the story song. It was the absolute core of Harry's philosophy of songwriting. He famously viewed himself as a story writer who just happened to put his words to music. In 1976, Chapin was at the height of his storytelling powers, having already released masterclasses in narrative songwriting like Cats in the Cradle, Taxi, and W-O-L-D-D. I remember specifically how Harry used examples from Dylan and how character study was a core to his writing. In 1976, Dylan was fresh off releasing Blood on the Tracks and Desire, albums absolutely packed with character-driven story songs like Tangled Up in Blue and Hurricane. Chapin believed you couldn't have a story song without a fully realized human being at the center. He taught that a songwriter needs to know their character flaws, their character's history, and secret desires before they even write the first line, allowing the plot to grow naturally out of who the person is. At 17, I was the youngest person in the room, sitting alongside a diverse group of about 20 students whose ages stretched all the way up to 45. Looking around, I felt a mix of intimidation and excitement. But the moment Harry started talking about the character studies, the age gap vanished. Whether you were a teenager about to graduate from high school or a middle-aged adult navigating life, we were all there to learn the same magic trick, how to capture a human soul, using nothing but rhythm, rhyme, words, and a song. When my voice changed at 14, the roles changed too, pushing me away from the scripts of others and toward my own guitar. Writing songs became my new way of speaking. It was a new language, it was a new instrument. So at 17, sitting in that room of 20 people, I wasn't intimidated by the older adults. I had spent my entire life working alongside adults backstage. I was exactly where I belonged, ready to transition from interpreting characters to inventing them. On July 16th, 1981, Harry Chabin was killed, getting off the Long Island Expressway. He was heading to a concert in Westbury, New York. It was a benefit. This one's for me and my family. This one's for the other guy. A story song you can sing along. About the who, the what, where, and why. This one's for the sick and the hungry. This one's for the homeless guy. A story song you can hum along. About the who, what, where, and why. Harry was always in a hurry. Hanging on to the words of the song. Harry always worried about the hungry and walk my own. And he wrote it in a story. So Harry always in the story. Bringing life to the spirit of the soul. Harry always in a hurry to be sure that I would alone And he played it in a story song. This one's for me and my family. This one's for the other guy. The story song you can sing alone about the who the white where and why. This one's for my family. This one's for my friend. The story song you can sing alone about the who I where I and where sing that story song again. Harry was in a hurry getting off that was very Harry was a little bit worried trying to get home to his family. He lived his life not afraid to die. He lived his life with all together. And in the end, not afraid to be wrong. The testimony of the story. It was entitled Willow and Ramsey. And the Ballad of Spider John of Spider John Current. And it was a huge hit for America and the Captain and Tanil. He never had another album himself. He has uh written songs, he's still around from Austin, Texas. Here's a concert at the Denver Folklore Center, appropriately in 1972. Willis Alan Ramsey. Take it away, guys.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

All my life I've been a traveling man. All my life I've been a traveling man. I'm standing on and doing the best I can. Will I ship my trunk down to Tennessee? I ship my trunk down to Tennessee. It's hard to tell about a man like me. Well she passed me up soon, shooting like that. I'm scared to bother the round house and I'm scared to bother round house and She's got a police dog Well, his game is rambling when he gets the change. His game is rambling when he gets the change. He leaves mock on everybody's pain. Well I guess I'll travel. Ah, kiss up, travel and kiss a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

All I hear is my A-string. I'll do you a song from World War II. Uh always in wars, in wartime, we've had music, you know, uh, that comes out of the war era. Like in the Civil War, they had all these real sad songs about Union soldiers having to leave home and everything. Then the World War I, they had some marching tunes, and in World War II, they had all these sort of drunk USO club type songs, you know. Bunch of bunch of soldiers sitting around Dana Andrews type guys, you know. This one starts off, gotta kind of picture it in your mind. One of our planes was missing. It was two hours overdue. One of our planes was missing with all its gallant crew. Radio sets was humming while we waited for a word. And then a noise broke through the humming, and this is what we heard.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

And a prayer. Come in on a wing, and a prayer. With a one for the gone, we can still carry on. Come in, on the wing, and a prayer. What about the show? What a fight. Oh the night. Now we sing as we limp through the air. Look below, there's a field over there. Without one more, we can still carry on a men in on a way and a prayer. Come in in on a wing and a prayer. Come in in on a wing and a prayer. With a boat crew on board, and I trust in the Lord. We're coming in on the wing and a prayer.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Went to a radio show. In the studio in this radio up there, you know, FM, that kind of thing. All these people sitting around. Among them was Joseph Spence, who uh I never met before. I was sort of flabbergasted to meet him. If you're real fortunate in life, you may get to meet him someday. He's a guitar player from the Bahamas down in Nassau, he lives. And he's about oh, about 60 or 70 years old. Plays every kind of music in the world on a guitar. He plays Bach and jazz. Plays a little calypso and and uh Christmas music. Plays everything in the key of D. Like that. Doesn't play in C or E. Told me he just got tired of those keys 20 years ago or so and left off playing in them. It's true. He says down in Nassau they got uh a lot of guitar players just like here, you know, hanging around wanting to learn whatever you got, you know. And they come over to his house. He sits out in the porch, his little grandchildren kind of dance around out in front of his house. He plays these little ditties, you know, dance type tune. People come down the street, they listen for a while, they get excited. He takes them in the house, sells them some rum or whatever he's got, you know. That's how he makes his living pretty much. We had a cassette tape going. He told me he played one tune that none of those people can play along with him on, you know. He learns music by by intuition. He'll look at a can't read music, he'll look at a book and judge by the way the notes go across the page, how the melody is, you see. It's true. I played this little one he showed me while we were sitting around. I was down in uh Tennessee not long ago. Went to visit sleepy John Estee who lives over in Brownsville. He's very poor, he's about he's in his 70s too. He's sort of an old-timer blues player and uh wrote great old blues songs we all know and love. And uh he was telling me he he lives in a little house that would fit in this room. Got no floor, got no electricity. He plays electric guitar, though. So when he wants to play, he goes next door, and neighbor lets him plug in, see. And uh he gets along pretty good. He's his wife's about 25, and he's got a coup about five kids, about 15 cousins. And uh he says down in Brownsville, there's about three stores. There's a laundromat and a general store, and then there's this liquor store run by Mr. P. V, this white man who's been there ever so long. And John says that uh you clean up at home. And act right, go down and act right, play Mr. P. V a tune, he'll give you something to drink. So you won't have to, you know, go into Memphis or something to get what you need.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Wash my clothes, hang them by the fire. Get up in the morning, get thirty dry. Well I'm gonna win to the bed and make me a bad. See you go with some clean up and get on sometime. You can clean up at home. If you clean up at home, you can go to the bed and make me a damn. Say go away, son, clean up and get all some time. Clean up at home. Nah, clean up at home. If you clean up, Let me Mr. Pabby get acquainted with you and you all have to go. You all have to go. You can get what you want your stomach. All you got to do is get the help you want to sell. Nah, you all have to go. You can get what you want. Play for the color. Nah, play for the white. All you gotta do is have a cut nice and clean the pedal. Clean the pedal. If you clean the pedal, play the pickle. Give it a pen home and be thirteen home.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Now, whenever you find a man that loves every woman he sees, there's always some kind of woman putting him up a tree. Now that kind of man he ain't got much sense as a mew. You know every woman don't love you. They just play you for food. Now, whenever you marry the wrong kind of woman, and you get why you can't agree, you just as well to get your hair and let that woman be. But man oughta make good husband and quit tryna lead a fast life gone about dressing up other women and won't put clothes on his own way. His name all over the lane. Rainy night down in the engine house, sleeping just as a mouth. Man come along, chased aside in the rain. Was that the village of any man? We pass the time away in some good warm place. Man come along and we give him a little rain. Was that a vigilante? Tell me why does a village lany? Tell me why does a village many man carry that sod off gunner in his hand? Would he shoot his brother and sister down? Have you seen that vision man? Have you seen that vision man? I've been hearing his name all over the line.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

He went down to Trinidad and uh met with the people down there, had a meeting, had some kind of conference, concluded some oil deal, I guess, or something. And uh everybody in Trinidad was tremendously excited, you know, because they'd never been a president, paid any attention to him ever before or since. And uh so they were honored and they they turned out a big thing and had a party. At that time there were all these calypso writers in Trinidad who wrote current event music, kind of like they um guys with names like uh Lord Invader and and uh Sir Lancelot, you know, and they wrote tunes about whatever was going on on the radio. Ben Crosby was big, they wrote a song about him, the Mills brothers, and they wrote one about J. Edgar Hoover. G-Man Hoover, kind of a funny little song.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

And then this guy, Attila the Hun, wrote this piece about Roosevelt Called Roosevelt and Trinidad When Roosevelt came to the land of the hummingbird, shouts of welcome were hurt. When Roosevelt came to the land of the humming bird, shouts of welcome were hurt. Visit to our island is bound to be an epoch in local history, definitely mocking the new era, keeping Trinidad and America, and for this great man jubilation was evinced by the entire population. Friendship for the USA was shown, and from his house the stars and the stripes were flown. The state threw open the gates to the president of these United States. In fact, everybody was glad to welcome Roosevelt to Trinidad. With his charming ingenuity personality, and his wonderful urbanity. No wonder everybody was glad to welcome Roosevelt to Trinidad. Now we understand that the president had just been on a visit to Brazil and the Argentine. Mr. Codel Hall and attendance, they took part in a peace conference to stop war and atrocity, make the world safe for democracy. The greatest event in the sanctuary, in the interest of suffering humanity, this one again.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

He was in the Hyenas Port compound, you know, where all the Kennedys live. Visiting with the family. The weekend that they got the news that Kennedy was shot, he was right there. He sat down and wrote this tune.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

And he's gone home. Humbling up from Rise. Why horses and cars on a road. I think Mr. Kennedy's got a right. To his long wide road. And he's gone home. Come back home. There's a great big mystery. And it sure is worrying me. It's Diddy What Diddy. It's Diddy What Diddy. I wish somebody would tell me what Diddy What did it mean? I went out and walked around. Somebody yelled, now look who's in town, Mr. Diddy, what did it? I wish somebody would tell me what Diddy Wah did it mean. Some little girl about both before. Say, come on, Papa and give me some more. Yo, Diddy What Diddy. Yo, Diddy What Diddy I wish somebody would tell me. Diddy what did it mean? I went to church, put my head on the seat. Lady sit down and said, Daddy, you should Mr. Diddy What Diddy. Mr. Diddy What did I wish somebody would tell me what diddy water did it mean? Then I got put out of church calls to talk about Diddy What did he do? Mr. Diddy What did he wish somebody would tell me what did he wad did he mean? Jesus on a mainland Tell him what you want you can call him a pet, tell him what you want. If you want a nisk dump, tell him what you won't if you want a nest king dump, tell him what you won't, then you can call him a pen, tell him what you won't if you're sick and you can't get well, tell him what you want if you're sick and you can't get well, tell him what you want, if you're sick and you can't get well, tell him what you want, and you can call him up and tell him what you want, it's a song of Maine, tell him what you want, it's a song of Maine, tell him what you want, it's a song of Maine, tell him what you want, and you can call him up and tell him what you want. Take a rain roll. It is with you.