Casey Jones
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 11:22 PM The song “Casey Jones” by John Hurt alludes to the plantation life of the slaves. Referring to Casey Jones as a engineer suggest the singer’s sympathizes for the slave’s strenuous job and pertaining to the slave’s work as intricate as an engineer’s job connotes that slaves aren’t treated equality even though they work harder than professional engineers. The comparison of the engineer and Casey is sympathetic to the slaves and the singer presents the life struggles that slaves go through and the environment’s influence in their behavior. Casey’s wife wanting pension after Casey’s death suggest that people in this time of who are struggling, have little money to go on and Casey’s death becomes a positive event for Casey’s wife and kids. But the song suggests that the slaves aren’t naturally obsessed with money but their attitudes are the products of the environment that enslaves them. Also the multiple fathers of the wife’s children suggest that people die everyday in the plantation or factories and the widow must move on to the next man that will help her support her children.
The dominant instrument of the song is the guitar. The chorus of the song is instrumental and although there’s a lyrical chorus, the musical chorus dominates the song. The musical chorus is appropriate for the song so that listeners are able to grasp the atmosphere and lifestyle of the plantations. I feel that at the end of hard work’s day, slaves just play instruments to release stress and not adding excessive words to the rhythm is more efficient to relieve the slaves’ minds and hearts. The melody is consistent and it’s the same rhythm through out the song. The singer’s voice hits a high pitch at the beginning of the sentence then hits another high pitch the end of a sentence. The high pitches create a different tune to the song; it’s melodious and the song has an upbeat sound to the ear that encourages slaves to dance to the song.
Maria Mebana
Reader Comments (5)
Hello Maria, thanks for being among the first to post to the discussion site!
These are interesting perspectives, a little unlike what I've heard before. Can you offer me a sense of what words, specifically, and what aspects of the lyrics, led you to interpret "Casey Jones" as a slave narrative? If your interpretation is just a hunch, or a personal feeling, it's best not to state it quite in the strong, factual way that you've indicated it here, as though this has always been the song's meaning. On the other hand, if this is a common interpretation, please let us know some written sources where we can read further to know the historical evidence for it. (Probably, though, it's best to stick to your own interpretation, and state it in that tone.)
Also, which recording are you interpeting? The discussion assignment requires you to choose one, or two at most. Each of the recordings of this song has a potentially different meaning.
The lyrical differences between the several versions of “Casey Jones” are due to artistic intent by the performers and a product of the environment that they were written in. Lucas Oliver (link:http://tinyurl.com/yk8h4qs) discusses how the Grateful Dead’s version of the song “takes the music of a classic American psychedelic rock band and uses the traditional lyrics as a metaphor to some of their own inside drug problems.” The lyrical retooling of the song to fit the Grateful Dead’s purpose is both understandable and to our own benefit (if lyrical and musical styles had not changed, you’d know Def Leppard as Def Mozart) because it gives us a deeper pool of analysis into the changes and developments of popular music. Lucas Oliver also points out how “the idea of ‘authenticity’ is practiced through a completely different style, and different meaning.” The notion of authenticity is really ambiguous when evaluating Mississippi John Hurt and The Grateful Dead; they’re both undoubtedly “authentic” yet they are separated by 42 years and different in almost every way. The different identities of each Casey Jones, one of an admirable railcar man and another of a cocaine abusing person pushing the limit, define authenticity to a different audience and with a different intent.
The lyrical address and relation of the singer to Casey Jones also changes between Mississippi John Hurt and the Grateful Dead. In Mississippi John Hurt’s version we hear of Casey Jones as a folk hero who died admirably and lives in the psyche of American heroes (this may sound overly dramatic, but this is to characterize that type of folk hero). The Grateful Dead completely alter that relationship and talk about Casey Jones in a more descriptive and foreboding manner. Taylor Fridrich (link: http://tinyurl.com/tayfri)
analyzes the way Jerry Garcia’s delivery as intending to be “talking directly to Casey Jones, Warning him, and trying to grab his attention with intensified volume and instrumentals.” This a really good point, and draw upon the difference in relationship that the performer has to the subject their focusing on.
For your essays, look to draw comparisons of lyrical content in relation to the song as a whole, and maybe the historical context it is in or the particular performer. Look at how the song promotes a message, or and ideal, and think about how that may have changed or stayed the same over the course of history. As you can all imagine, “popular” in popular culture is built upon what preceded it adapted to a particular context, and these songs are no different.
this is the lyrics to the song i was listening to:
casey jones was a brave engineer
he told his firemen to not to fear
says all i want my water and my coal
look out the window see me drive wheel roll
early one morning came a shower of rain
round the curve i seen a passenger train
in the cabin was casey jones
he's a noble engineer man but he's dead gone
caseys wife she got the news
she was sittin on the bedside she was lacin up her dress
said go away children and hold your breath
your gonna draw a pension after your daddys dead
children children get your hat
mama mama what you mean by that
get your hat put on your head
go down in town see if your dady's dead
mama mama oh how can it be
my daddy got killed on the old ic
hush you mouth i said and hold your breath
youre gonna draw a pension after daddys dead
casey said before he died
fixed the blinds so that boys cant ride
if they ride let em ride the rod
trust they lives in the hands of god
repeat first verse
I has a hunch that casey jones was a railroad worker. i didn't get the idea from another source, from listening to the song while reading the lyrics, it sounded like Casey jones was railroad worker who died so now his wife will get money from his death. and since we were discussing African diaspora, i thought this song refers to the hardships of African slaves in plantation, factories, etc.
"I feel that at the end of hard work’s day, slaves just play instruments to release stress and not adding excessive words to the rhythm is more efficient to relieve the slaves’ minds and hearts."
This is good insight. They let the beat/rythme speak for itself, instead of words. This is key because the change in tune recognizes that the theme of the song is changing. It can go from upbeat to mellow by the change in sound.
I like how you used the melody to decipher certain parts of the song, and after I read this I got the same feelings as you did. I also felt that the song was about a slave since during those times most of the songs were about the hardships faced by the African Americans.