The Unfortunate Rake is an album released by Folkways Records

Folkways Records

Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...

 in 1960, containing 20 different variations from the 'Rake

Rake (character)

A rake, short for rakehell, is a historic term applied to a man who is habituated to immoral conduct, frequently a heartless womanizer. Often a rake was a man who wasted his fortune on gambling, wine, women and song, incurring lavish debts in the process...

' cycle of ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s. The album contains the earliest known version of the song, a British folk song from the eighteenth century, and the variations that evolved from it, including the American standards St. James Infirmary Blues

St. James Infirmary Blues

"St. James Infirmary Blues" is based on an 18th century traditional English folk song of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose . Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.-Authorship and history:"St...

 and The Streets of Laredo. The album also contains songs written for humorous and political purposes, like The Ballad of Sherman Wu and The Professor's Lament.

Track listing

1. The Unfortunate Rake - A. L. Lloyd
   A. L. Lloyd
   Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....
   
    and Alf Edwards – 2:59
2. The Trooper Cut Down in His Prime - Ewan MacColl
   Ewan MacColl
   Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
   
    and Peggy Seeger
   Peggy Seeger
   Margaret "Peggy" Seeger is an American folksinger. She is also well known in Britain, where she lived for more than 30 years with her husband, singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl.- The first American period :...
   
    – 4:30
3. The Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime - Harry Cox
   Harry Cox
   Harry Fred Cox , was a Norfolk farmworker and one of the most important singers of traditional English music of the twentieth century, on account of his large repertoire and fine singing style....
   
    – 1:57
4. Noo I'm a Young Man Cut Down in My Prime - Willie Mathieson
   Willie Mathieson
   Willie Mathieson is a Scottish former professional footballer who played in the left-back position for Rangers, amongst other clubs. He was included in the Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame on February 5, 2007....
   
    – 2:17
5. The Bad Girl's Lament - Wade Hemsworth
   Wade Hemsworth
   Albert Wade Hemsworth was a Canadian folk singer and songwriter. Although he was not a prolific composer, having written only about 20 songs during his entire career, several of his songs — most notably "The Wild Goose", "The Black Fly Song" and "The Log Driver's Waltz" — are among the most...
   
    – 2:49
6. One Morning in May - Hally Wood
   Hally Wood
   Hally Wood was an American musician and singer.-Biography:Wood was born Harriet Elizabeth Wood in Washington, D.C., in 1922. She was the daughter of a U.S...
   
    – 2:36
7. Bright Summer Morning - Viola Penn – 2:24
8. The Girl in the Dilger Case - D. K. Wilgus – 1:08
9. The Cowboy's Lament - Bruce Buckley – 2:39
10. 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...
    
     - Harry Jackson
    Harry Jackson
    Harry Jackson was the first man to be convicted in the United Kingdom via fingerprint evidence.On June 27, 1902, a burglary occurred in a house in Denmark Hill, London, and some billiard balls were stolen. The investigating officer noticed a number of fingerprints on a freshly painted windowsill,...
    
     – 4:59
11. St. James Hospital
    St. James Infirmary Blues
    "St. James Infirmary Blues" is based on an 18th century traditional English folk song of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose . Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.-Authorship and history:"St...
    
     - Alan Lomax
    Alan Lomax
    Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
    
     – 3:33
12. Gambler's Blues - Dave Van Ronk
    Dave Van Ronk
    Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....
    
     – 2:44
13. I Once Was a Carman - I Once Was a Carman in the Big Mountain Con - Guthrie T. "Gus" Meade – 1:12
14. The Lineman's Hymn - Rosalie Sorrels
    Rosalie Sorrels
    Rosalie Sorrels is an American folk singer-songwriter who resides in the mountains near Boise, Idaho. She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals...
    
     – 1:49
15. The Wild Lumberjack - Kenneth S. Goldstein – 1:51
16. A Sun Valley Song - Jan Brunvand and Ellen Stekert – 1:28
17. The Ballad of Bloody Thursday - John Greenway
    John Greenway
    John Robert Greenway is a former British politician who sat as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Ryedale from 1987 until the constituency's abolition in 2010.-Early life:...
    
     – 3:44
18. Streets of Hamtramck - Bill Friedland, Mark Newman
    Mark Newman
    Mark Newman is a British physicist and Paul A. M. Dirac Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, as well as an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute...
    
    , and Morris Howarth – 2:23
19. The Ballad of Sherman Wu - Pete Seeger
    Pete Seeger
    Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
    
     – 2:07
20. The Professor's Lament - Roger Abrahams – 3:25

External links

• The Unfortunate Rake at Folkways