The Lost Topic Tapes: Cowes Harbour 1957 is an album by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 folk musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer and performer.-Life and career:Elliot Charles Adnopoz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents in 1931. Elliott grew up inspired by the rodeos at Madison Square Garden, and wanted to be a cowboy...

, released in 2004. Elliott recorded a number of albums on the Topic

Topic Records

Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.-History:...

 label in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in the 1950s. The songs on this compilation are taken from rediscovered tapes found in the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

 in London. They were recorded on a yacht at Cowes Harbour

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

 in 1957. Several songs were issued in Britain on Jack Takes the Floor

Jack Takes the Floor

Jack Takes the Floor is an album by American folk musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott, released in Great Britain in 1958. The original release was a 10-inch LP.-Reissues:...

.

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, music critic Steve Leggett wrote the album "The sequence here is a fairly typical Elliott set of the time, made up of Guthrie tunes (including a fine version of "Tom Joad"), traditional American folk songs, and other pieces that fit his style... Things get a little affected when Elliott talks between songs, but when he sings, it all works, and his guitar playing is always simple, appropriate, and top-notch."

Track listing

All songs Traditional unless otherwise noted.

1. "Intro" – 0:48
2. "Hard Travelin'" (Woody Guthrie
   Woody Guthrie
   Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
   
   ) – 3:57
3. "Big Rock Candy Mountain
   Big Rock Candy Mountain
   Big Rock Candy Mountain, first recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928, is a song about a hobo's idea of paradise, a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne...
   
   " – 1:43
4. "Old Rattler" (J. K. Hunter) – 2:18
5. "Talking Columbia Blues" (Guthrie) – 3:06
6. "Streets of Laredo
   Streets of Laredo (song)
   "Streets of Laredo" , also known as the "Cowboy's Lament", is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying cowboy tells his story to a living one. Derived from the English folk song "The Unfortunate Lad", it has become a folk music standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted...
   
   " – 2:27
7. "Jack of Diamonds
   Jack of Diamonds (song)
   Jack of Diamonds is a traditional folk song. It is a Texas gambling song that was popularized by Blind Lemon Jefferson. It was sung by railroad men who had lost money playing Coon can. At least twelve white artists recorded the tune before World War II...
   
   " – 3:23
8. "Rusty Jiggs & Sandy Sam" – 2:54
9. "Tom Joad" (Guthrie) – 7:25
10. "Acres of Clams
    Old Settler's Song (Acres of Clams)
    "Old Settler's Song " is a Northwest United States folk song written by Francis D. Henry around 1874. The lyrics are sung to the tune "Old Rosin the Beau." The song also goes by the names "Acres of Clams", “Lay of the Old Settler,” “Old Settler’s Song,” while the melody is known as “Rosin the...
    
    " – 2:31
11. "Freight Train
    Freight Train (song)
    Freight Train is a song on the 1989 album by Nitro, O.F.R.. In the video for Freight Train, Michael Angelo Batio uses the one-of-a-kind quad guitar, which is a guitar with 4 necks. The top two necks have 7 strings and the bottom 2 have 6 strings. Unfortunately, that guitar was stolen after the...
    
    " (Elizabeth Cotten
    Elizabeth Cotten
    Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar , not re-strung for left-handed playing, essentially, holding a right-handed...
    
    ) – 1:13
12. "Chisholm Trail" – 1:57
13. "Crawdad Song" – 2:25
14. "Black Girl (aka In the Pines)" – 3:04
15. "Tom Dooley
    Tom Dooley (song)
    "Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio. This version was a multi-format hit, reaching #1 in Billboard, the...
    
    " – 2:16
16. "Rocky Mountain Belle" – 1:30

Personnel

• Ramblin' Jack Elliott
  Ramblin' Jack Elliott
  Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer and performer.-Life and career:Elliot Charles Adnopoz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents in 1931. Elliott grew up inspired by the rodeos at Madison Square Garden, and wanted to be a cowboy...
  
  – vocals, guitar

Production notes:

• Bruce Bromberg – project supervisor
• Larry Sloven – project supervisor
• Bob Stone – editing, remastering
• Richard Swettenham – engineer
• Bill Leader – assistant engineer
• Dick Reeves – graphic design
• Robert Wylie – liner notes

External links

• Ramblin' Jack Elliott Illustrated discography