Record Album "Negro Prison Songs from the Mississippi State Penitentiary" circa 1968
01
Artifact Overview
Folklorist Alan Lomax, believing all people and cultures deserved equal respect, spent his career documenting remote musical traditions. This record's powerful songs, collected 1947-8 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, attest to the parallels between the Deep South's oppressive prison system--requiring arduous physical labor under constant threat of physical punishment--and the experiences of enslaved work groups on 19th-century plantations.
Artifact Details
Artifact
Phonograph record
Date Made
circa 1968
Subject Date
1947
Creator Notes
Originally recorded by Alan Lomax in 1947 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi, and published by Tradition in 1958. Reissued by Everest Records of Los Angeles, California, on the Tradition/Everest Label after 1966. Cover designed by Raphael Bogulslav.
Location
Not on exhibit to the public.
Object ID
2024.94.2
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Amber N. Mitchell.
Material
Vinyl
Cardboard
Plastic
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Yellow (Color)
Orange (Color)
Dimensions
Height: 12.375 in
Width: 12.125 in
Length: 0.063 in
Inscriptions
on Side 1 of record:
TRADITION / EVEREST / 10920 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, Calif. / SIDE 1 TR 1020 / NEGRO PRISON SONG / FROM THE / MISSISSIPPI STATE PENITENTIARY / 1. MURDER'S HOME 2. HO MORE, MY LAWD / 3. OLD ALABAMA 4. BLACK WOMAN / 5. JUMPIN' JUDY 6. WHOA BUCK / 7. PRETTIEST TRAIN 8. OLD DOLLAR MAMIE / 9. IT MAKES A LONG TIME MAN FEEL BAD
on Side 2 of record:
TRADITION / EVEREST / 10920 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, Calif. / SIDE 2 TR 1020 / NEGRO PRISON SONG / FROM THE / MISSISSIPPI STATE PENITENTIARY / 1. ROSIE 2. LEVEE CAMP HOLLER / 3. WHAT MAKES A WORK SONG LEADER? / 4. EARLY IN THE MORNIN' / 5. HOW I GOT IN THE PENITENTIARY / 6. TANGLE EYE BLUES 7. STACKERLEE / 8. PRISON BLUES
on front of record cover:
TRADITION / RECORDS / TLP 1020 / NEGRO PRISON SONGS / MISSISSIPPI STATE PENITENTIARY / work songs, blues recorded edited and annotated by / ALAN LOMAX / STEREO
on back of record cover:
NEGRO PRISON SONGS / from the MISSISSIPPI STATE PENITENTIARY / TLP 1020 / "...I ain't got long, I ain't got long / In this murd'er's home..." / -Mississippi Prison Song / These recordings were made in 1947 in the Mississippi / State Penitentiary at Parchman. The singers were all / Negro prisoners, who, according to the practice of Mis- / sissippi, were serving out their time by working on a huge / state cotton plantation in the fertile Yazoo Delta. [...] / Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1947 at the Mississippi / State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi. Jacket de- / sign by Raphael Boguslav. / TRADITION RECORDS / AN EVEREST RECORDS PRODUCTION | WRITE FOR FREE CATALOG | 10920 WILSHIRE BLVD., LOS ANGELES, CALIF. 90024
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