In terms of authenticity, Barker and Taylor said in there article, “Where did you Sleep Last Night?” posed the question of what is authentic, and pointed out Cobain’s desire for authenticity; “By almost any standards, Kurt Cobain’s version of “In the Pines” seems “authentic.”  There doesn’t seem to be anything “fake” here (Barker 21).”  About fifty years before, the Lomax brothers recorded and archived authentic African-American music back in a search for the purest forms of music of that type.  Cobain had the same desire, as mentioned by Barker and Taylor in their article; “Cobain was also searching for something “authentic” and pure, but he wasn’t necessarily looking for the roots of American music (Barker 22).Meanwhile, applying the same concept of “authenticity,” Bill Monroe’s recording can be seen as “fake” in Cobain’s eyes because his version was more commercialized.  Even though MTV was present when Cobain sang his version of “In the Pines,” he still did the song in an authentic way that can be compared to the original version by Leadbelly. 

    When Barker and Taylor meant “…savage simplicity (23)…” they meant being tied to the commercial world and the media.  Cobain was one example of someone who would not allow them to be bound to the commercial ideal, rather than Bill Monroe, who did when he did his version of “In the Pines” in the late fifties.  This concept of “savage simplicity” goes back to the forties when Leadbelly had to put up with the same ideal.  Bill Monroe’s recording, when listening to it, felt “acquired” rather than authentic because of where he recorded his music at the time, given the song information, at a studio.  To Cobain, the idea of being a role model for future generations was something to consider.  If he was constricted to the norms of the commercial world, Nirvana would not have been as popular as they were while they were at the height of their popularity, and Cobain would not have been a very good role model if the scenario came true.  Barker and Taylor wrote a similar thing on their article; “So for Cobain, as for most rock stars and fans today, real rock’n’roll must be shackled to the kind of primitivism that accompanied Leadbelly’s career, an idealization of “savage” simplicity.  If Cobain had broadcasted the facts of his own painful life in the wordy, sophisticated tradition of Loudon Wainwright III rather than the bare-bones tradition of Leadbelly, he would have been a role model for next to nobody (23).”  By looking at the quote, one could argue that the commercial world is manipulating what music come and goes and what the audiences hear or don’t get to hear.
   
 

While there are many differences in the songs, it is important to first note some similarities that both share. Both do not add any extra lyrics or personal notes between lines, and keep to the lyrics. Because of this, they both follow the same pattern for the verses, staying with the A and A’ forms. It is interesting to note that there seems to be no B form employed here, and it is up to the artists themselves to build up to the climax of the song where the man murders his wife, rather than relying on a shift in form at the chorus. Both also keep the instruments in the back at a relative minimum with Cash only relying on his guitar and Monroe with his banjo. 

Monroe does create some key differences in his rendition though. The song he creates has a very folksy atmosphere, with the quick and lively sound of the banjo to get a listener’s foot tapping along. He does an excellent judge of building up to the tension of the climatic killing through his progressively quicker singing. The banjo’s frantic pace conveys the insanity of this couple that has lost their senses causing a murder to occur. So despite the lively and seemingly friendly atmosphere, the song’s subject matter still ends in a tragedy and stays faithful to the original rendition.

In Johnny Cash’s version, the song takes on a different kind of feel. Cash plays the song much more mournfully, with his own deep voice detailing the sadness of the situation. The guitar is distinct in the background, but takes on a slow and even rhythm compared to the banjo’s quicker playing. It is interesting to hear that while Monroe relies on playing and singing quicker to build up to the climax of the killing, Cash seems to almost descend into the climax, making it that much more tragic when the murder occurs. His voice stands out here very clearly and frankly, which gave me the feeling that he was telling the story straightforwardly with a sense of coming to a realization of what he’s done. He also seemed to draw out certain syllables longer to add weight to his words and actions.

Despite their commercial nature, both songs rung out as authentic. “Whether or not it sounds foolish to you, he sings with absolute sincerity. I’ve heard his songs a hundred times, but I always get a thrill. To me his music is real music” (19 Barker and Taylor). Both artists, through their own unique ways, stick to the song’s lyrics and overall message.

It is amazing that just from listening on the surface, Johnny Cash and Bill Monroe and the Monroe Brothers are singing two very different versions of the same song. Looking at it a little close though, it turns out this is not the case. Both artists have managed to stay “authentic” by really approaching the song with their own styles while staying true to the lyrics and message of the original. Monroe utilized his banjo in such a way that built up tension at the climatic moment of the murder and lets it die down in the sorrow of the aftermath. Cash’s mournful and straight tone conveys the tragedy of the incident, with his even guitar gently ending the song in silence. 

On the other hand, in the Kossoy Sisters’ recording of the song, we can see that they sang in another person’s perspective which shows that they do not necessary understand everything that is going on because they are not able to connect with it. They are women and the song was sung to a woman so it is quite difficult for them to cope with the situation if they are not the one who is facing it. My point is proven when the song goes, “Crying “Oh Willy!” don’t murder me”. The speaker here is clearly speaking to a man and not a woman. Now that we know this, we can understand why they sang in a fast-paced way. They do not feel the misery and pain that Johnny Cash feels so they sang in a faster and more energetic way which shows the audience no authenticity. In result, Johnny Cash’s recording is more realistic than the one recorded by the Kossoy Sisters’.

The demand for a particular song has to do with authenticity and how real it is. In other words, whether or not a song will attract people to listen to it depends a lot on how real the song is in the eyes of the media. Johnny Cash’s version of the song sticks out more to the audience because his message was more clear especially because of the fact that he himself was the victim so he is able to express that feeling out to the public a little bit better then the Kossoy Sisters’ could have done just because they did not experience it like Cash did. We can now conclude that this is an example of folk music because it was transmitted down from person to person. That is why we see multiple versions of the same song.

The rendition performed by the Monroe Brothers features multiple vocal tracks as well as multiple guitar tracks.  The layers of audio create a lively melody, which highly contrasts the lyrics of the song.  These speak of a man killing a woman because she would not marry him.  Clearly it’s a pretty bleak story, and yet the music is far from dark.

The Johnny Cash cover, however, has a single vocal track and a single guitar track.  Cash’s guitar is done in the piedmont style and although it is still a bouncy tune, the speed and style in which it is played makes for a more somber sound.  This combined with Cash’s deep, almost haunting voice mirrors the elements of the lyrics.  They begin merrily but digress into a dark tale of murder.  Although they depict a bleak story, they are told plainly, without any point of specific emphasis on the gore of the story.  This raises the question of authenticity.   Did Johnny Cash choose to play the song the way that he did so that the story would have a more appropriate sense of regret, to sound more authentic? 

Upon examining the lyrics between the two versions I noticed several differences.  During the chorus, the Monroe Brothers sing the line “In my home we’ll happy be”, whereas Cash replaces that line with “In no others arms entwined”.  The latter gives a more intense sense of possession and ownership than the first.  Again we see a divergence in lyrics at the point in the song when the murder is being committed.  The Monroe Brothers version tells a quick bit about “her” getting led to the riverbank and pushed in the water and drowning.  Meanwhile, Johnny Cash describes the act of plunging a knife into her chest as she begs for mercy, which is, of course, denied.  Then he takes her body to dump in the river where he watches it float down.  He clearly chose to include slightly more morbid details, giving the story a different kind of meaning. 

Once again the lyrics appear to differ at the end of the song.  The last stanza from the Monroe Brothers features the sheriff who comes along to straighten everything out and arrest the narrator of the song, neatly tying up the end of the story.  After that there is one more repetition of the chorus, which is followed by a cheery guitar solo of sorts.  But Johnny Cash leaves out the verse with the sheriff entirely.  After he says a few remorseful lines about killing the girl he loved, he repeats the chorus once more and ends it saying the last line slower than unusual with one final slow strum of the guitar.

Such small differences as these prove to majorly affect the mood of the song.  While the Monroe Brothers rendition sounds almost like a cautionary tale, Johnny Cash tells a horror story of his greatest regret.  Why these artists chose to represent different aspects of the song is hard to say.  But both made it their own by excluding some parts, while including others.  This presents entirely different emotional qualities from of what is, essentially, the same song.  Multiple variations of the same song like this one is a classic example of what happens in folk music.  When the song has been passed through oral tradition it tends to become interpreted by different artists to mean a variety things.  As each musician covers an already existing song, they alter it slightly, presenting the aspects that they identify with.  By doing so, the practice of oral tradition is perpetuated in which a single song carries on many different meanings.

            Something that really caught my attention was the lack of fills needed in Cash’s rendition. He sang through each verse and repeated to the chorus at times, but did not have a break for instrumental fill in comparison to Monroe’s version. In Monroe’s version there were instrumental fills before each verse. The fills give the song an opportunity to unfold the melodic lines. I think the reason Cash did not choose to do the same was because he had a different take on what part of the song should be emphasized. In Cash’s version, it sounded as if he was trying to let the lyrics speak for themselves and produce the song’s melody by just reading themselves out. He phrases certain lines by alternating the volume in which each phrase is being sung. His crescendos and decrescendos allow the lyrics to have shape, and therefore shape the melody.

            I believe that both versions display their own take of authenticity. Monroe displays authenticity by limiting his instrumentation, and grammar/slang to those of early American Folk. However, Cash displays authenticity by restricting the instrumentation to a solo instrument, played in a similar style to American Folk. It is very apparent that times have changed based on what the artists have put out. Most artists cater to popular demand, so their music reflects that of the audience. Billy Monroe probably came from an era where artists make music to make music. The lyrics of the song very well portray a story of some sort, and contain the sounds of classic Folk. It seems that since this version had more instrumental fills than the other, the audience appreciated tap-able melodies rather than lyrical meaning. The audience of Cash’s time, however, differs in that Cash takes a more slower approach to the song and tries to bring out it’s initial feel of eeriness. He accomplishes this by extending lines and bringing out certain words of the lyrics to put a stress on the words between the lines.

            This particular song has a huge dividing boundary in that its lyrics do not match the feel of the melody. In general, it has a fairly bouncy, upbeat tune as the melodic line, but a dark and murder-filled tale behind the lyrics. This generalization is perfectly portrayed by the rendition by Billy Monroe in that even the perky yodels aid to keep the mood light, despite the words being yodeled out. However in Cash’s, he tries to bring down the mood by toning down the melody by providing only one source of melody, and taking out the yodel effect and replacing it with a more sorrowful extensive hum. With that, the vision of rural America can apply to the older version of the song in that the audience seemed to enjoy the lively like melody paired with the dark lyrics. Johnny Cash’s version opens up that once seen vision of rural America by trying to emit a different kind of reaction throughout the new audience. 

The version that is sung by Bill Monroe and the Monroe Brothers capture that aspect of folk music in their rendition of this song. With their harmonious lyrics that follow repetitive melody throughout the song, and their fast tempo, it could be construed as a song that is simply telling a story about something that occurred while taking walk by the riverbank. Also because there is no change in tempo, or pitch when they begin to describe how he murders his lover by drowning her in the river after he asks her to marry him, and she refuses; it could be argued that the only reason she is drowned is because she simply said “no”. It seems as if there is no emotion being transferred from the musician to the listeners, and in doing so makes the song itself sound lifeless and boring.

Johnny Cash’s rendition of this song takes a complete different approach. First he sings the song solo, with the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar to make it seem more personal. He too uses the same repetitive melody throughout the song, using the pattern of A, B, A’, B. He too uses a very slow melodic tempo, but this tempo matches the acoustic guitar with the message that he is trying to convey. The overall tone of this version, one that is dark and somewhat eerie, suggests that something dark is going to occur. While as in the Monroe version it was almost cheerful in the beginning, completely throwing you off from thinking that anything

One of the main differences between these two renditions of the song “On the Banks of the Ohio” is the way in which the lovers are murdered.

In the Bill Monroe version, he simply drowns her in the river, not very symbolic in any way; he just seems to do it out of anger because she wouldn’t agree to be his wife. No emotion being showed, just the two voices in harmony talking about how he simply drowned this potential wife to be in the river. This again shows in no way that the man drowning his lover is sad, or that he even cares about what he just did. This is an example of how the majority of folk music is portrayed, that the tone of the music does not match the lyrics that are being sung.

Whereas in the version sung by Johnny Cash, the way that his true love is murdered is symbolic in the way that he plunges a knife into her breast, this could be argued that he plunged a knife into her breast because that is near the location of her heart, representing the fact that if she is not going to be married to him that he is going to take her heart from her as a symbol making the death in this version filled with more meaning than just drowning her like in the Bill Monroe version. Therefore the pain is more predominant and the darkness comes through the Johnny Cash version of this song with more of a punch than the Bill Monroe. This is another way these two versions are different, the fact that the death is more full of meaning in the Johnny Cash version showing that he is trying to convey to his listener that what he is doing has an underlying meaning. That he is doing more than just killing her, he is taking away her ability to love anyone else by stabbing her in the heart.

These are the main differences between two versions of the same song. As you can see, though they share the same title, and events, there are many different interpretations that can be drawn from these two very different and inventively unique artists.  

  Along with the lyrics of both of these songs being grammatically diverse, the two versions of the same story are a little different.  In Bill Monroe’s version, the narrator takes his love on a walk in the opening verse, where he talks about discussing their wedding day with her.  This is followed with him taking her down to the banks of the Ohio River, proceeding to drown her all of the sudden, and then watching her body float along the water.  The third verse entails the narrator thinking about what he has just done and telling the listener that he just killed the love his life because she wouldn’t marry him.  Finally, the fourth verse discusses the sheriff knocking on the narrator’s door and telling him that he’s going to pay for what he has done.

  Johnny Cash’s version goes a little differently.  The first verse is pretty much the same as Monroe’s with the narrator taking his love for a walk.  In the second verse, though, the narrator actually asks the woman whom he loves so much to marry him.  She didn’t really say anything, but instead just turned away in silence, showing that she didn’t want to accept his proposal.  This verse is followed by the narrator stabbing her in the breast with a knife and killing her.  In the fifth verse, he drags her by her hair and throws her into the Ohio River, watching her drift down it.  The last verse is with the narrator crying out to God about killing the girl he loved because she refused to marry him.  Cash’s lyrics are a lot more darker and sadder than Monroe’s, by going into more detail about how he killed this woman.

  In addition to using different versions and lyrics in their songs, Monroe and Cash use different methods of singing the song.  Bill Monroe and the Monroe Brothers use an acoustic guitar and what I can only describe as a mandolin, to play their version.  Their song is fast-paced and upbeat, with at least two singers singing a bluegrass style, making the listener almost want to dance or tap his or her feet.  The fact that their song is a lot faster and happy makes the song not seem so bad, even though it’s discussing a very sad event.  

  Johnny Cash just uses his acoustic guitar to play his version, with no help from any back-up singers or band members.  The fact that he only uses his guitar, and stays with the same riff the entire time, makes the song way more slower-paced and softer compared to Monroe’s version, and exemplifies more of a country music kind of style.  In addition, the way he sings is a lot more monotonous than Monroe and his band.  This method of staying consistently slow and unchanging helps Cash’s version seem a lot more depressing and sad, especially in conjunction with his darker lyrics that make this somber song even sadder, which makes the listener want to cry before he or she would possibly get up to dance to this song.   

Olivia Newton John also sings the same song as the Kossoy Sisters but she sings it a little different from the Kossoy Sisters. John’s version of the song is sung through a woman’s perspective. John’s version of “On the Banks of Ohio” sounds sad too. Through out the song she has the same consistent tone but in some parts of the song you can really hear the heartache that she is portraying. For example when she sings the line, “I cried, “My God, what have I done?”” you can really hear the emphasis of how said she sounds. Another factor that makes the song sound sad are the background singers singing the very low pitches.

I believe that another reason why Olivia Newton John made changes to the song is so she can be seen as an authentic artist. As we know being authentic means to be the true source or origin of a trend. Even though she didn’t write the song, she made those changes to the song because she wanted to give the illusion that she was an authentic artist. John’s version of the song is different from the Kossoy Sisters and the other artists that has sang that song because her version is sung through a women’s point of view, while the other artists sang the song through a man’s point of view. Also John’s version has more of a pop vibe to it, while the others ones sounded a little bit similar to each other.

Olivia Newton John and the Kossoy Sisters both sing “On the Banks of Ohio” in different ways. The songs are different because the Kossoy Sisters sing their song through a man’s perspective and Olivia Newton John’s version is sung through a woman’s perspective. Singing the song through different views makes a big difference in how the over all sound of the song is. I think this is true because Olivia Newton John’s version of “On the Banks of Ohio” is sung through a women’s perspective, so it sounds sadder than the song sung by the Kossoy Sisters which is sung through a man’s perspective. I think that the male version sounds less sad because as we have come to know that men are suppose to be masculine and not show any vulnerability. So even though the people that are singing the song “On the Banks of Ohio” are women, they still have to sing the song as though they are men that are tough. As for the female version of the song, you can hear the heartache of a loss love because females are supposedly known to be emotional and feel sad in sad situations. So with the loss of someone she loves she feels sad and shows it more when she sings the song. An example of how the songs are different can be seen in the lyrics of the two versions of “On the Banks of Ohio”. In the female version, Olivia Newton John sings, “I cried, “My God, what have I done?””, while in the male version, the Kossoy Sisters sing, “Thinking of the deed I done.” These two lines are completely different from one another because in the female version you can hear how sad the women is, while in the male version you can only kind of sense his sadness.