“On Cold North Ave” by D.T. Huber. Recorded 10/16/20 in Baltimore, MD.
Lyrics:
On Cold North Ave
It’s a weary hour before the dawn and blood is frozen to the sidewalk Your children hurry down the ally-way As a purple fog paints the night The gun shots are still ringing in my ears Our dignity has been gone for years You are lonely now, I am lonely too They all see us from a different point of view On cold North ave The sins you know we have on cold North ave
Another poor boy dead and gone Bullets grazed his yearning heart He may have stolen from someone But now we all have blood on our hands With arms like ice and eyes of stone He had almost made it home There is a dark river that runs under here clouded with blood, chilled by all our fears on cold North Ave the visions you know we have on cold North ave
Down the road the seeds are planted The empty lot returned to an ancient field These walls are canvases for the sounds of truth But they fall silent in the darkness We struggle to build a life We mustn’t be hustled by strife I hear music playing, will I find you there smoking a cigarette in your rocking chair on cold North ave the sins you know we have On cold North Ave
Live well but be drunken Do not be a slave to time The bitter night is breathing the ghosts of a long lost prime I wonder how much more it will take for these shackles to break I’m sorry for all I’ve done to you Don’t do nothing I wouldn’t do on cold North ave the soul you know we have on cold North ave
This version of “Alberta” is modeled after “Alberta #1” from Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait album released in 1970. “Alberta” was a popular folk-revival tune of 1960’s. Most likely Dylan remembered hearing this one from folk singer Bob Gibson or possibly from Odetta’s version entitled, “Roberta.” One can trace the roots of the song back to the times when steamboats carried people and goods along the Ohio River. The lyrics and melody were originally written down by Kentucky folksong collector Mary Wheeler in her book, Steamboatin’ Days: Folk Songs of the River Packet Era in 1944. In the book Wheeler mentions that she recorded the song from a gentleman by the name of Gabriel “Uncle Gabe” Hester.
The Partisan is a song of defiance and hope. Leonard Cohen recorded it for his 1969 album, Songs from a Room. He apparently learned it in the 1950’s at summer camps. It was originally titled ”La Complainte du partisan” and was written in 1943 by Russian born cabaret singer Anna Marly and French resistance leader Emmanuel d’Astier de la Vigerie. Marly sang it and other songs on the BBC’s French service, through which she and her songs were an inspiration to the Resistance. The song was translated into English by Hy Zaret, an American Tin Pan Ally composer. Cohen used Zaret’s translation for his version of the song. One interesting change that Zaret made in translating the song is in the final stanza:
“The wind, the wind is blowing/through the graves, the wind is blowing/Freedom soon will come/and we’ll come from the shadows”
It was originally:
“the wind is blowing on the graves/Freedom will come back/everyone will forget us/we will return to the shadows”
One cannot help but be reminded of our current predicament where health care workers are putting their lives on the line to fight an invisible enemy, and when this pandemic is under control we will go on forgetting that they are still there saving lives everyday.
Here is the translation of the French stanzas:
Les Allemands étaient chez moi (The Germans were at my home) ils m’ont dit “Résigne-toi” (They said, “Surrender,”) mais je n’ai pas pu (this I could not do) j’ai repris mon arme (I took my weapon again)
J’ai changé cent fois de nom (I have changed names a hundred times) j’ai perdu femme et enfants (I have lost wife and children) mais j’ai tant d’amis (But I have so many friends) j’ai la France entière (I have all of France)
Un vieil homme dans un grenier (An old man, in an attic) pour la nuit nous a cachés (Hid us for the night) les Allemands l’ont pris (The Germans captured him) il est mort sans surprise (He died without surprise)
In these quarantine times it’s fun to sing songs about the ramblin’ life. This song was written by Ray Pennington in 1967 and performed mostly by Waylon Jennings.
