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Michael Part 5: The Cover

To wrap things up, here's a cover of "Michael, Row The Boat Ashore," happily done by the Beach Boys:

Michael Part 4: The Label

(image provided by discogs.com)

United Artists Media was a subsidiary of United Artists, the film studio. It was first organized to release the soundtracks of movies, but quickly made the transition to pop and rock music. In fact, this same year, they released the soundtrack to Exodus, which won an Academy Award for best music.

The label had a lot of money to throw into promoting artists. They took out full page ads in Billboard Magazine to promote the Highwaymen, the same kind of promotion that was common for media related to movies. Although the quality of recording and production may not have been the highest, the level of music marketing put forth by the label was extraordinary.

UAR was eventually the label for Johnny Rivers, Ike & Tina Turner, Whitesnake, and the Electric Light Orchestra, among many others. The last album they ever released was, fittingly, the soundtrack for Karate Kid Part II.

Michael Part 3: The Spiritual

(image courtesy of unc.edu)

There are books written about books on the topic of the Negro Spiritual and its influence on American Music, so I won't even attempt to rehash all of that information, except to say that the Call and Response element so common in Gospel and in early Rock and Roll is indebted to the Spiritual, more than any other genre. What strikes me, though, is the connection that the Spirituals made with Folk music in the '60s. 

Take this song, for example. The text of the song is about death, and passing over to the other side. Michael, the archangel, in this context acts as Anubis of the Egyptian mythology or Hermes of the Greeks, being the agent who ushers souls into the afterlife. The song is a prayer that Michael will come quickly and take away the tortured souls, the broken slaves who felt they must surely already be in hell, and take them on to Paradise.

For whatever reason, the lyrics of this song stuck with the grassroots sensibilities of the Folk artists. Although I don't have any research to back this up, I can only imagine that their connection with this song was similar to the connection with so many others, a connection to the longing for change. Whereas the slaves sought freedom through death, the Folk artist sought change through a return to the simple sensibilities and organic lifestyle that their fathers and grandfathers had clung to. With the space-age looming overhead, singing about rowing a boat ashore felt safe.

Then, of course, the poignancy of the song was lost, to some extent. It became a pop icon, a slow dance tune, something to pay a nickel in a jukebox to hear. The cry of the oppressed was lost, and the echoes gave rhythm for the teenagers of 1961 to dance to.

Michael Part 2: The Singer(s)

(image courtesy of wesfiles.wesleyan.edu)

Coming straight out of the frat scene at Wesleyan University, The Highwaymen didn't make sense to the record industry. Their first album was released in 1960 and did very poorly, considered by most a failure. There was one song that didn't make it on to the original album, though, that the label decided to release in '61 as a single, "Michael." That song touched a nerve with America, and it drove The Highwaymen to incomprehensible super-stardom.

The Highwaymen first started playing together in college, and they fell in love with the old spiritual, "Michael, Row The Boat Ashore" performed by Pete Seeger at an all school assembly. When they decided to seek out a manager, and then a label, they recorded "Michael" with their own panache and confused the musical elite. (Seriously, starting a single with a recorder solo? Who does that?)

Their dizzying success was helped largely by an inexplicable ban on the song by the Irish Republic. As usual, when a song is banned, everybody wants to know why, and the single flew off the shelves. (I still haven't found out why it was banned, so anyone with insight can let me know.)

The Highwaymen did appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Tonight Show, then dissolved in 1964. They are back together now, touring and, one can only assume, rowing many boats ashore.

Michael Part 1: The Song

This week, I'm going to be looking at "Michael" by The Highwaymen, Number 3 on the Top One Hundred list for 1961. Here's the song:

I Fall To Pieces Part 5: The Cover

To wrap things up, here's a cover of I Fall To Pieces, done by Garbage.