The WELL: deadsongs.vue.221: Wharf Rat

#55: Bryan Miller (bamfinney1) Fri 11 May 07 14:36

Fri, 11 May 2007 14:36:00 PDT

There are some interesting parallels between Wharf Rat and the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. [Read entire topic]

#54: Bryan Miller (bamfinney1) Mon 7 May 07 17:55

Mon, 07 May 2007 17:55:00 PDT

But Pearly believed "them" about old Rat not getting very far in life ("come to no good"). She was right apparently. Old Rat thinks, or wants to bleieve that Pearly's been true. Sometimes our only comfort in life is a fable we fabricate, even slightly knowing that we've fabricated it. We still like to "hope against hope." Rat is hoping agaisnt hope that Pearly is true to him. The singer graciously agrees to bolster old Rat's faith in this life.

It's a lesson song to me in some ways. What I say to someone may help their faith or squash it. I think this song gives us a beautiful example of helping others faith in this life, believing the solid good against the possible bad.

This Wharf Rat's faith and hope is so restored by Jerry just spending a "some time" to hear his story (someone took the time to care) that old Rat sings out in drunken happy fury, "I'll get up and fly away!" Oh, yes, narrator would say. "You'll fly alright. You'll forget this old wharf, your "true" gal, and all those folk that bad talked you. You'll fly alright. And while you're up there soaring, you might even meet a few happy folk that left their own wharfs long ago to do some flying of their own.

I kinda see the narrator adopting this old guy into a freedom of sorts. And Old Rat's muse? You're right on. We let her down sometimes, but she knows us and she smiles over us, just waiting for our wings to get the slightest hint of breeze, and she blows us right into the sky! Wooosh! [Read entire topic]

#53: gravity and gluttony (comet) Sat 5 May 07 21:36

Sat, 05 May 2007 21:36:00 PDT

I hear Pearly as a woman. And not just a woman but his love, his muse, who in his misery he complains has forsaken him. In this hearing the song works beautifully on a universal level. It's not about any one person let alone a prohibitionist named Purly but about all of us some of the time letting down our muse. [Read entire topic]

#52: Bryan Miller (bamfinney1) Sat 5 May 07 05:42

Sat, 05 May 2007 05:42:00 PDT

"I know she's been I'm sure she's been true to you..."

This is kind.

He could've said, "That old witch?! Now way! She didn't even believe in you!" [Read entire topic]

#51: David Dodd (ddodd) Tue 2 May 06 08:31

Tue, 02 May 2006 08:31:00 PDT

Posted to Deadsongs.vue by David Dodd on behalf of Dave Kristof <david.kristof@charter.net>

In the Annotated "Wharf Rat," a Mr. Walt K wrote in about "Purly Baker," head of the Anti-Saloon league from 1903 to the early 1920's. You [i.e. David Dodd] responded by agreeing with his reference, but then said, "In the song, of course, Pearly Baker, with the different spelling, becomes a woman. But the reference has interesting implications for the song's meaning-which, of course, I leave up to you."

Rather than assume Hunter made Pearly Baker a woman, I read the poem as the narrator mistaking August West's statements . . .

My name is August West and I love my Pearly Baker best more than my wine ....more than My wine more than my maker though he's no friend of mine

Here, rather than assume "he's no friend of mine" applies to "my maker," I'd argue it applies to Pearly Baker . . . August says I love Pearly Baker better than wine or God, but Pearly's no friend of mine. West knows who the Rev Baker is; and the next verse I think supports this interpretation (of he's no friend of mine):

Everyone said I'd come to no good I knew I would Pearly believed them

August is complaining here that everyone said the booze would do him in; he didn't agree, but Pearly (Rev. Baker - the prohibitionist) agreed with the assessment that booze is bad.

Later, we read this:

Pearly's been true true to me, true to my dying day he said I said to him: I'm sure she's been I said to him: I'm sure she's been true to you

August says that Pearly (Rev Baker, the prohibitionist) was correct (i.e. booze did me in.) The Narrator (not the author) misinterprets this, assuming Purly is a woman who wronged West, and responds with what he believes is sympathy, "I'm sure she's been true to you."

What do you think?

Dave [Read entire topic]

#50: Lightning in a Box (unkljohn) Sat 29 Apr 06 16:59

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:59:00 PDT

I came across this today while I was searching for something else.

The Wharf Rat By Fitz-James O'Brien

I. The wharf is silent and black, and motionless lie the the ships; The ebb-tide sucks at the piles with its cold and slimy lips; And down through the tortuous lane a sailor comes singing along, And a girl in the Gallipagos isles is the burden of his song.

II. Behind the white cotton bales a figure is crouching low; It listens with eager ears, as the straggling footsteps go. It follows the singing sailor, Stealing upon his track, And when he reaches the river-side, the wharf rat's at his back.

III. A man is missing next day, and a paragraph tells the fact; But the way he went, or the road he took, will never, never be be tracked! For the lips of the tide are dumb, and it keeps such secrets well, And the fate of the singing sailor boy the wharf rat alone can tell. [Read entire topic]

#49: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Wed 23 Jun 04 05:40

Wed, 23 Jun 2004 05:40:00 PDT

The release date of the movie is interesting as well. [Read entire topic]

#48: David Dodd (ddodd) Tue 22 Jun 04 14:03

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 14:03:00 PDT

Wow! That's fabulous! I remember seeing The Skin Game at a movie theater in Reno while my parents were gambling, and thinking it was the funniest movie I ever saw. I'm wondering now if the character has that name--time to go check IMDB. [Read entire topic]

#47: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Mon 21 Jun 04 13:14

Mon, 21 Jun 2004 13:14:00 PDT

Eddie Free Joe <mz> found this fantastic reference and posted in the Media Mentions board:

Historical Plaque Dedicated

In 1837 a runaway slave named Augustus West arrived in the Greenfield area and along with local farmer Alexander Beatty, authored a story that has become a part of both the area's and the nation's history. To raise money to purchase his own land, West and Beatty devised a scheme to travel back south, sell West back into slavery, help him escape and then split the profits. On at least three documented occasions the two employed this money making scam and their story became the basis for a 1971 Hollywood film, The Skin Game, starring James Gardner and Louis Gossett, Jr.

West used his profits to purchase land near the intersection of Bonner and Barrett Roads in Fayette County. Some distance from the road he built a "mansion" and the dirt road leading up to his front door became known as Abolition Lane.

In the years that followed, at least twelve cabins were constructed on West's land and these became temporary residences for other runaway slaves who needed a place to live and work as they stole their way further north to freedom.

Some of these folks chose to remain in the area thus adding the very familiar surnames of Ford, Rickman, Cannon and others to our community's list of historical families. According to a descendent of August West, Joyce Saulsberry-Dennis (jsd9angel@aol.com), the Cannon family married into the West family and today it is the Cannons who remain Greenfield's connection to this part of our history.

Much of what we know today about the property of August West came as the result of the work of Washington Court House history teacher, Paul LaRue and many of his students. For a number of years LaRue and his students have been conducting archeological surveys of the property and tracing the involvement of it and other properties in the area's Underground Railroad activities. They have also been successful in getting the federal government involved and an even more in-depth study is underway.

In 2003 the Ohio Bicentennial Committee was looking for twenty instances of Ohio's involvement in the Underground Railroad to honor with an official historical marker. The story and efforts of August West was chosen to be honored and with the coordination of the Greenfield Historical Society and the City of Greenfield, a site next to the Chapel in the Greenfield Cemetery was selected.

On Saturday, December 20, 2003 members of the community, the historical society and the Cannon family met to unveil and dedicate the marker honoring August West. Following the unveiling a ceremony was held at the Traveler's Rest where Judge James Cannon, Paul LaRue, Jim Beatty and Mayor Lanny Bryant thanked all those involved in making this acknowledgement and dedication a reality.

The site is http://www.highland-ohio.com/august%20west%20dedication.htm [Read entire topic]

#46: Alex Allan (alexallan) Sat 8 May 04 02:55

Sat, 08 May 2004 02:55:00 PDT

Some of the discrepancies are typos that we're trying to correct. But the more interesting ones are ambiguities/second thoughts/variations etc. [Read entire topic]