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54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
The 54th Massachusetts at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863
Active	March 13, 1863 to August 4, 1865
Allegiance	United States (Union)
Branch	Union Army
Type	Infantry
Size	1,100
Nickname	54th Massachusetts Regiment
Engagements	American Civil War Battle of Grimball's Landing Second Battle of Fort Wagner Battle of Olustee Battle of Honey Hill Battle of Boykin's Mill
Commanders
Colonel	Robert Gould Shaw
Colonel	Edward Needles Hallowell

The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was one of the first official black units in the United States during the Civil War. The 1st South Carolina Volunteers (Union) recruited from freed slaves, was the first Union Army regiment organized with African American soldiers in the Civil War, though many had fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 on both sides.

History[link]

Statue of Massachusetts Gov. John A. Andrew, who authorized the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

The regiment was authorized in March 1863 by the Governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew. Commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, it was commissioned after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton decided white officers would be in charge of all "colored" units. Colonel Shaw was hand picked by Governor John Andrew. Governor Andrew also selected Norwood Penrose "Pen" Hallowell as the unit's second in command, a rank of Lieutenant Colonel.^[1] Like many officers of regiments of African-American troops, both Shaw and Hallowell were promoted several grades, both being captains at the time. The rest of the officers were evaluated by Shaw and Hallowell. Many of these officers were of abolitionist families and several were chosen by Governor Andrew himself. Lt. Col. Norwood Hallowell was joined by his younger brother Edward Needles Hallowell who was eventually appointed major in the regiment and would later command it after Shaw's death. 24 of the 29 officers were veterans, but only six had been previously commissioned.

The soldiers were recruited by white abolitionists (including Shaw's parents). These recruiters included Lieutenant J. Appleton,^[2] also the first man commissioned in the regiment, whose recruiting efforts included posting a notice in the Boston Journal^[3] and holding a recruiting rally held in Joy Street Church and in which speakers Edward L. Pierce and Wendell Phillips encouraged free blacks to enlist for the regiment. This recruitment group was later known as "The Black Committee".

The 54th trained at Camp Meigs in Readville near Boston. While there they received considerable moral support from abolitionists in Massachusetts including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Material support included warm clothing items, battle flags and $500 contributed for the equipping and training of a regimental band.^[1] As it became evident that many more recruits were coming forward than were needed the medical exam for the 54th was described as "rigid and thorough" by the Massachusetts Surgeon-General. This resulted in what he described as the most "robust, strong and healthy set of men" ever mustered into service in the United States. Despite this, as was common in the Civil War, a few men died of disease prior to the 54th's departure from Camp Meigs.

By most accounts the 54th left Boston with very high morale. This was despite the fact that Jefferson Davis' proclamation of December 23, 1862 effectively put both African-American enlisted men and white officers under a death sentence if captured. The proclamation was affirmed by the Confederate Congress in January 1863 and turned both enlisted soldiers and their white officers over to the states from which the enlisted soldiers had been slaves. As most Southern states had enacted draconian measures for "servile insurrection" after Nat Turner's Rebellion the likely sentence was a capital one.^[4]

Although the 54th left Boston hoping to fight for the Union on May 28, 1863, it started off performing only manual labor. The regiment gained notoriety in a raid on the town of Darien, Georgia, after being ordered to loot and burn the town by Col. James Montgomery. However, the 54th's participation in this raid was minimal and reluctant and Colonel Shaw initially objected to what he called a "satanic action".

The regiment's first battlefield action took place in a skirmish with Confederate troops on James Island, South Carolina, on July 16. The regiment stopped a Confederate assault, losing 42 men in the process.

Depiction of the attack on Fort Wagner in the painting The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground

The regiment gained recognition on July 18, 1863, when it spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina. At this battle, Colonel Shaw was killed, along with 29 of his men. 24 more later died of wounds, 15 were captured, 52 were missing in action and never accounted for, and 149 were wounded.^[5] The total regimental casualties of 272 would be the highest total for the 54th in a single engagement during the war. Although Union forces were not able to take and hold the fort (despite taking a portion of the walls in the initial assault), the 54th was widely acclaimed for its valor during the battle, and the event helped encourage the further enlistment and mobilization of African-American troops, a key development that President Abraham Lincoln once noted as helping to secure the final victory. Decades later, Sergeant William Harvey Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor for grabbing the U.S. flag as the flag bearer fell, carrying the flag to the enemy ramparts and back, and saying "Boys, the old flag never touched the ground!" While other African-Americans had since been granted the award by the time it was presented to Carney, Carney's is the earliest action for which the Medal of Honor was awarded to an African-American.

The Battle of Olustee

Ironically, during the week leading up to the 54th's heroic sacrifice near Charleston, simmering racial strife climaxed in the New York Draft Riots. African-Americans on the city's waterfront and Lower East Side were beaten, tortured, and lynched by white mobs angered over conscription for the Union war effort. These mobs directed their animosity toward blacks because they felt the Civil War was caused by them. However, the bravery of the 54th would help to assuage anger of this kind.

Under the command of now-Colonel Edward Hallowell, the 54th fought a rear-guard action covering the Union retreat at the Battle of Olustee. As part of an all-black brigade under Col. Alfred S. Hartwell, they unsuccessfully attacked entrenched Confederate militia at the November 1864 Battle of Honey Hill. In mid-April 1865, they fought at the Battle of Boykin's Mill, a small affair in South Carolina that proved to be one of the last engagements of the war.

Pay controversy[link]

The enlisted men of the 54th were recruited on the promise of pay and allowances equal to their white counterparts. This was supposed to amount to subsistence and $13 a month. Instead African-American soldiers were paid $10 a month with $3 withheld for clothing, equaling $7 in the end of the month. (White troops had nothing withheld from their monthly pay for clothing.) Colonel Shaw and many others immediately began protesting the measure. Although the state of Massachusetts offered to make up the difference in pay, on principle, a regiment-wide boycott of the pay tables on paydays became the norm.

After Shaw's death at Fort Wagner, Colonel E. N. Hallowell took up the fight to get back full pay for the troops. His second in command, Lt. Col. Hooper, took command of the regiment on June 18, 1864 after Hallowell was granted permission to proceed North to press the claims of the regiment for equal pay in person. After nearly a month Colonel Hallowell returned on July 16. Finally the U.S. Congress took action and on September 28, 1864, the men of the 54th were paid from enlistment, most after 18 months of service.

The Congressional bill authorized equal and full pay to those enlisted troops who were free men as of April 1864. Of course not all the troops qualified. Colonel Hallowell, a Quaker, rationalized that because he did not believe in slavery he could therefore have all the troops swear that they were free men. Before being given their back pay the entire regiment was administered what became known as "the Quaker oath."^{[citation needed]} Colonel Hallowell skillfully crafted the oath to say: “You do solemnly swear that on or before the 19th day of April 1864, no man had the right to demand unrequited labor of you so help you lord.”^{[citation needed]} Hallowell wrote a typo in his hand-written transcript of the oath and actually said "1861" while administering the oath.

Refusing their reduced pay became a point of honor for the men of the 54th. In fact, at the Battle of Olustee, when ordered forward to protect the retreat of the Union forces, the men moved forward shouting, "Massachusetts and Seven Dollars a Month!" Unknown to them, Congress had just voted to pay colored troops the same as white troops.

Legacy[link]

Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

The regiment was disbanded after the Civil War, but retains a strong legacy. A monument, constructed 1884–1898 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the Boston Common, is part of the Boston Black Heritage Trail. A famous composition by Charles Ives, "Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment", the opening movement of Three Places in New England, is based both on the monument and the regiment.

Colonel Shaw and his men also feature prominently in Robert Lowell's Civil War Centennial poem "For the Union Dead" (1964); Lowell invokes the realism of the Saint-Gaudens monument:

Two months after marching through Boston,

half the regiment was dead;

at the dedication,

William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.

Later he unflinchingly looks at Shaw's and his men's death:

Shaw's father wanted no monument

except the ditch,

where his son's body was thrown

and lost with his black solders.

Detail from Saint-Gauden's original tinted plaster model

A Union officer had asked the Confederates at Battery Wagner for the return of Shaw's body but was informed by the Confederate commander, Brigadier General Johnson Hagood, "We buried him with his black solders."^[6] Shaw's father wrote in response that he was proud that Robert, a fierce fighter for equality, had been buried in that manner.^[7] "We hold that a soldier's most appropriate burial-place is on the field where he has fallen".^{[citation needed]} As a recognition and honor, at the end of the Civil War, the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, and the 33rd Colored Regiment were mustered out at the Battery Wagner site of the mass burial of the 54th Massachusetts.

More recently, the story of the unit was depicted in the 1989 Academy Award winning film Glory starring Matthew Broderick as Shaw, Denzel Washington as Private Tripp, Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, Jihmi Kennedy and Andre Braugher. The film re-established the now-popular image of the combat role African-Americans played in the Civil War, and the unit, often represented in historical battle reenactments, now has the nickname The Glory Regiment.

Years after the film was made, it came to light that the word Glory was used by one of the men of the regiment. First Sergeant Robert John Simmons, of B Company, was a twenty-six year old Bermudian clerk, probably from St. George's, believed to have joined the 54th on 12 March 1863 (Many black and white Bermudians fought for the Union, mostly in the U.S. Navy.^[8])

Simmons was introduced to Frances George Shaw, father of Col. Shaw, by William Wells Brown, who described him as "a young man of more than ordinary abilities who had learned the science of war in the British Army". In his book, The Negro in the American Rebellion, Brown said that "Frances George Shaw remarked at the time that Simmons would make a 'valuable soldier'. Colonel Shaw also had a high opinion of him." Sgt. Simmons was mentioned in an 1863 article of the Weekly Columbus Enquirer, which described him as "a brave man and of good education. He was wounded and captured. Taken to Charleston, his bearing impressed even his captors. After suffering amputation of the arm, he died there." The newspaper also described him as saying that he fought "for glory": One of the negroes is a remarkably sprightly fellow from Bermuda where he was educated as a soldier. His position is that of an Orderly Sergeant, but he has lost an arm, and probably one leg will go.

A third of the 'glory' for which he says he came to fight, being thus amputated, he will in the future be a wiser man. The others are a mongrel set of trash and very fair representatives of the common type of free Northern negro." Simmons, who would be specially mentioned by Shaw's successor, Col. Hallowell, and who had been awarded a private medal, died in August 1863, following the attack on Fort Wagner.^[9][10]

2008 reactivation[link]

The unit was reactivated on November 21, 2008 to serve as the Massachusetts National Guard ceremonial unit to render military honors at funerals and state functions.^[11] The new unit is now known as the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment.

Footnotes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Cox, Clinton (2007). Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. Backinprint.com. ISBN 0-595-45116-0. 
• Duncan, Russell; Shaw, Robert (1999). Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-2174-5. 

External links[link]

• "Louisiana and Massachusetts - Abraham Lincoln and Freedom". The Lincoln Institute. 2008. http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=54&subjectID=3. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
• "Exhibit: 54th Mass Casualty List". National Archives and Records Administration. 1996. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/54thmass.html. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
• Written in Glory, Letters from the Soldiers and Officers of the 54th Massachusetts
• 54th Massachusetts at the Battle of Olustee
• Photograph of Sgt. Major Lewis Douglass
• Photograph of Charles Douglass

Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Suzanne Nadine Peck
Born	(1959-07-11) July 11, 1959 (age 52) Santa Monica, California, United States
Origin	New York City, United States
Genres	Alternative rock, folk rock
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1982–present
Labels	A&M Blue Note Amanuensis Productions
Website	www.suzannevega.com

Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.

Two of Vega's songs (both from her second album Solitude Standing, 1987) reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner". The latter was originally an a cappella version on Vega's album, which was then remade in 1990 as a dance track produced by the British dance production team DNA.

Early life[link]

Vega was born July 11, 1959 in Santa Monica, California.^[1] Her mother, Pat Vega, is a computer systems analyst of German-Swedish heritage. Her father, Richard Peck, is of Scottish-English-Irish origin. They divorced soon after her birth.^[2] Her stepfather, Ed Vega, also known as Edgardo Vega Yunque, was a writer and teacher from Puerto Rico.^[3]

When Vega was two and a half, the family moved to New York City. She grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side.^[4] At the age of nine she began to write poetry; she wrote her first song at age fourteen. Later she attended New York's prestigious High School of Performing Arts (now called LaGuardia High School). There she studied modern dance and graduated in 1977.

Career[link]

While majoring in English literature at Barnard College,^[5] she performed in small venues in Greenwich Village, where she was a regular contributor to Jack Hardy's Monday night songwriters' group at the Cornelia Street Cafe and had some of her first songs published on Fast Folk anthology albums.^[6] In 1984, she received a major label recording contract, making her one of the first Fast Folk artists to break out on a major label.

Vega's self-titled debut album was released in 1985 and was well-received by critics in the U.S.;^[4] it reached platinum status in the United Kingdom. Produced by Lenny Kaye and Steve Addabbo, the songs feature Vega's acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements. A video was released for the album's song "Marlene on the Wall", which went into MTV and VH1's rotations. During this period Vega also wrote lyrics for two songs on Songs from Liquid Days by composer Philip Glass.

Her next effort, Solitude Standing (1987), garnered critical and commercial success including the hit single "Luka", an international success. "Luka" is written about, and from the point of view of, an abused child—at the time an uncommon subject for a pop hit. While continuing a focus on Vega's acoustic guitar, the music is more strongly pop-oriented and features fuller arrangements. The a cappella "Tom's Diner" from this album was later a hit, remixed by two British dance producers under the name DNA, in 1990. The track was originally a bootleg, until Vega allowed DNA to release through her record company, and it became her all-time biggest hit.

Tom's Diner[link]

Tom's Restaurant, after which the song Tom's Diner was named

Vega's song "Tom's Diner" was used as the reference track in an early trial of the MP3 compression system, thus earning her the distinction of being named "The Mother of the MP3". Because it is an a cappella vocal with relatively little reverberation, it was used as the model for Karlheinz Brandenburg's sound compression algorithm.^[7] Brandenburg heard “Tom's Diner” on a radio playing the song and was excited and at first convinced it would be “nearly impossible to compress this warm a cappella voice.”

"Tom's Diner" takes place in Tom's Restaurant at 112th Street and Broadway in New York City. Exterior shots of the same restaurant appear in the television sitcom Seinfeld as Monk's, which is the eatery where Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer hang out. The DNA remix of the track was so popular that it inspired many cover versions—the best of which were eventually collected by Vega on an album titled Tom's Album.^[7] The remixed version of "Tom's Diner" was later sampled by hip hop artist Nikki D in her single "Daddy's Little Girl". Rapper Tupac Shakur sampled the track in "Dopefiend's Diner".

Luka[link]

On a 1987 Swedish television special, Vega said this about her song "Luka":

Also, in an ASCAP interview, she responded to a question about "Luka":

"Luka" was covered by The Lemonheads on the 1989 album Lick, shortly before the band was signed by Atlantic Records, and was a minor college-airplay hit.

1990s[link]

Vega's third album, Days of Open Hand (1990) continued in the style of her first two albums.

In 1992 she released the album 99.9F°. It consists of a mixture of folk music, dance beats and industrial music.

Her fifth album, Nine Objects of Desire, was released in 1996. The music varies between a frugal, simple style and the industrial production of 99.9F°. This album contains "Caramel", featured in the movie The Truth About Cats & Dogs and, later, the trailer for the movie Closer. A song not included on that album, "Woman on the Tier", was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Dead Man Walking.

In 1997 she took a singing part on the concept album Heaven and Hell, a musical interpretation of the Seven deadly sins by her colleague Joe Jackson, with whom she had already collaborated in 1986 on "Left of Center" from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack (with Vega singing and Jackson playing piano).

In 1999, Avon Books published Vega's book "The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings Of Suzanne Vega"; a volume of poems, lyrics, essays and journalistic pieces.

2000s[link]

On stage, 2008

September 2001 saw the release of a new album, Songs In Red and Gray. Three songs deal with Vega's divorce from first husband Mitchell Froom.

At the memorial concert for her brother Tim Vega in December 2002, she began as the long-term subject of a direct cinema documentary, Some Journey, by director Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films. This has not been completed.

In 2003, the twenty-one-song greatest hits compilation Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega was released. (The UK version of Retrospective included an eight-song bonus CD as well as a DVD containing twelve songs.) In the same year she was invited by Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, to play at the Century of Song concerts at the famed RuhrTriennale in Germany.

In 2003, she hosted the American Public Media radio series American Mavericks, about 20th century American composers, which received the prestigious Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.

On August 3, 2006, Vega became the first major recording artist to perform live in the Internet-based virtual world, Second Life. The event was hosted by John Hockenberry of public radio's The Infinite Mind.

On September 17, 2006, she performed in Central Park, as part of a benefit concert for The Save Darfur Coalition.^[10] During the concert she highlighted her support for Amnesty International, of which she has been a member since 1988.^{[11] [12]}

In early October 2006, Vega took part in the Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) in Olomouc, the Czech Republic, the oldest festival of documentary films in Europe, in which she appeared as a main guest. She was invited there as the subject of the documentary film by director Christopher Seufert, that had a test screening at the festival. At the end of the festival she performed her classical songs, and added one brand new piece called "New York Is a Woman".

Vega is also interviewed in the book Everything Is Just a Bet which was published in Czech in October 2006. The book contains twelve interview transcriptions from the talk show called Stage Talks that regularly runs in the Švandovo divadlo (Švandovo Theatre) in Prague. Vega introduced the book to the audience of the Švandovo divadlo (Švandovo Theatre), and together with some other Czech celebrities gave a signing session.

She signed a new recording contract with Blue Note Records in the spring of 2006, and released Beauty & Crime on July 17, 2007. The album was produced by Jimmy Hogarth, which won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Her contract was not renewed and she was dropped in June 2008.^[13]

In 2007, Vega followed the lead of numerous other mainstream artists and released her track "Pornographer's Dream" as podsafe. The song spent two weeks at #1 during 2007 and finished as the #11^[14] hit of the year on the PMC Top10's annual countdown. Vega joined the 10th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.^{[15] [16] [17]} She was also a judge for the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Independent Music Awards.^[18]

2010s[link]

A partial cover version of her song "Tom's Diner" is used to introduce the 2010 British movie 4.3.2.1, with its lyrics largely rewritten to echo the plot. This musical hybrid was released as "Keep Moving".

Vega is included in the Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse/David Lynch collaboration "Dark Night of the Soul". She wrote both melody and lyrics for her song, which is titled "The Man Who Played God", inspired by a biography of Pablo Picasso.

Vega is rerecording her back-catalogue,^[19] both for artistic and commercial (and control) reasons,^[20][21] in the Close-up series. Vol.1 (Love Songs) and Vol. 2 (People & Places) appeared in 2010 while Vol. 3 (States of Being) was released in July 2011 ^[22] and 4 (Songs of Family) is planned for the near future.

Vega sang lead vocals on the song "Now I Am an Arsonist" with singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton on his 2011 album, Artificial Heart.

Theater[link]

Vega co-wrote (with Duncan Sheik) a play “Carson McCullers Talks About Love”, about the life of the writer Carson McCullers. In the play, which premiered in 2011, Vega alternates between monologue and songs. ^[23][24][25]

Personal life[link]

On March 17, 1995, Vega married Mitchell Froom, a musician and a record producer (who played in and produced 99.9F° and Nine Objects of Desire). They have a daughter, Ruby Froom (born July 8, 1994). The band Soul Coughing's Ruby Vroom album was named after her, with Vega's approval, though she requested a slight change.^[7] Recently Ruby sang with her mother on a couple of occasions.^[26][27][28] Vega and Froom separated in 1998.

On February 11, 2006, Vega married Paul Mills, a lawyer and poet. They originally met each other at Folk City on West 4th Street when singer-songwriter Lucy Kaplansky, a friend of both, introduced them. In the words of her website, "The couple met at Folk City on West 4th Street in 1981. Mr. Mills proposed to Miss Vega in May, 1983, and she accepted his proposal on Christmas Day, 2005."^[29]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• ¹ Days of Open Hand made #2 in Norway albums chart
• ² Nine Objects of Desire made #20 in Finland, #23 in Switzerland, #39 in Sweden
• ³ Beauty & Crime made #9 in Estonia, #13 in Finland, #37 in Czech Republic, #49 in Poland, #74 in Italy
• Close-Up Vol. 2, People & Places Number 2 Top Purchased Album (Amazon.com) 11th October-13th October

Compilation albums[link]

• Tried & True: The Best of Suzanne Vega, 1998 – UK #46, AUS #96, GER #58
• Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega, 2003 – UK #27^[30]

Singles[link]

• "Rusted Pipe (DNA remix)", promotional, 1991
• "Caramel", 1996
• "Birth-day", promotional, 1997
• "World before Columbus", 1997
• "Headshots", promotional, 1997
• "Book & a Cover", 1998
• "Rosemary / Remember me", 1999
• "Widow's Walk", promotional, 2001
• "Last Year's Troubles", promotional, 2001
• "Penitent", promotional, 2001
• "(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May", promotional, 2002
• "Frank & Ava", promotional, 2007
• "Ludlow Street", promotional, 2007
• "Unbound", promotional, 2007
• "Pornographer's Dream", podsafe, 2007 – PMC #1

Other contributions[link]

• Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988) – "Stay Awake"
• One World One Voice (1990) – "One World, One Voice"
• Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead (1991) – "Cassidy" and "China Doll"
• DNA: Taste This (1992) – "Tom's Diner (DNA Remix)" and "Salt Water"
• Hector Zazou: Songs From the Cold Sea (1994) – "The Long Voyage" (with John Cale)
• Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume III (1994) - "Luka" (live version)^[34]
• Tower of Song (1995) – "Story of Isaac"
• Dead Man Walking soundtrack (1995) – "Woman on the Tier (I'll See You Through)"
• The Smithereens: Blown to Smithereens (1995) – "In a Lonely Place"
• Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro (1997) – "Buy and Sell"
• "Perfect Day"^{[disambiguation needed ]} (1997)
• Joe Jackson: Heaven & Hell (1997) – "Angel (Lust)"
• Mitchell Froom: Dopamine (1998) – "Dopamine"
• Celebrate the Season (1998) – "Coventry Carol"
• Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the 60's (1999) – "So Long, Marianne" (with John Cale)
• Dan Zanes: Rocket Ship Beach (2000) – "Erie Canal"
• Hear Music Volume 7: Waking (2002) – "Widow's Walk"
• 107.1 KGSR Radio Austin - Broadcasts Vol.10 (2002) – "Widow's Walk"
• WYEP Live and Direct: Volume 4 - On Air Performances (2002) – "(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May"
• Vigil (album) (2004) – "It Hit Home"
• WFUV: City Folk Live VII (2004) – "Penitent"
• The Acoustic Album (2006, Virgin) – "Marlene On the Wall"
• Dar Williams: Promised Land (2008) – "Go to the Woods"
• Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul (2009) – "The Man Who Played God"
• Pioneers for a Cure: Songs To Fight Cancer (2011) – "Streets of Laredo"

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (July 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Suzanne Vega

• Official website
• Suzanne Vega on A&M Records
• Suzanne Vega at the Internet Movie Database
• Suzanne Vega on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Suzanne Vega in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Suzanne Vega collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Suzanne Vega documentary clips
• Love Songs Review – Love Songs Review by SLUG Magazine
• Suzanne Vega recording of 'Streets of Laredo' for Pioneers For A Cure

Robert Gould Shaw
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, Volunteer Army of the United States in May, 1863
Born	(1837-10-10)October 10, 1837 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	July 18, 1863(1863-07-18) (aged 25) Morris Island, South Carolina
Allegiance	United States of America
Years of service	1861–1863
Rank	Colonel
Unit	7th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment 2nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
Commands held	54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
Battles/wars	American Civil War: Battle of Antietam Battle of Grimball's Landing Second Battle of Fort Wagner

Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837–July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. As Colonel, he commanded the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which entered the war in 1863. He was killed in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina.^{[citation needed]}

He is the principal subject of the 1989 film Glory, where he is portrayed by Matthew Broderick.

Early life and career[link]

Shaw was born in Boston to a prominent abolitionist family. His parents were Francis George and Sarah Blake Sturgis Shaw. The family lived off an inheritance left by Shaw's merchant grandfather, also named Robert Gould Shaw (1776 – 1853). Shaw had four sisters: Anna, Josephine, Susannah and Ellen.^{[citation needed]}

He moved with his family to a large estate in West Roxbury, adjacent to Brook Farm when he was five. In his teens, Shaw spent some years studying and traveling in Switzerland, Italy, Hanover, Norway, and Sweden. His family moved to Staten Island, New York, settling there among a community of literati and abolitionists, while Shaw attended the lower division of St. John's College, the equivalent of high school in the institution that became Fordham University. From 1856 until 1859, Shaw attended Harvard University, where he was a member of the Porcellian Club, but he withdrew before graduating.^{[citation needed]} He was a member by primogeniture of the Society of the Cincinnati.^[1]

Civil war[link]

After Abraham Lincoln's election and the secession of several Southern states, Shaw joined the 7th New York Infantry Regiment and marched with it to the defense of Washington, D.C., in April 1861. The unit served only 30 days. In May 1861, Shaw joined the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry as second lieutenant. Shaw took part in the battles of Winchester, Cedar Mountain, and Antietam while with the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry.^{[citation needed]}

Shaw was approached by his father while in camp in late 1862 to take command of a new All-Black Regiment. At first he declined the offer, but after careful thought he accepted the position. Shaw's letters clearly state that he was dubious about a free black unit succeeding, but the dedication of his men deeply impressed him, and he grew to respect them as fine soldiers. On learning that black soldiers would receive less pay than white ones, he inspired his unit to conduct a boycott until this inequality was rectified. The enlisted men of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry (and the sister 55th) refused pay until Congress granted them full back pay at the white pay rate in August 1864.^{[citation needed]}

Shaw was promoted to major on March 31, 1863, and to colonel on April 17.^{[citation needed]}

Marriage[link]

On May 2, 1863, Shaw married Anna Kneeland Haggerty (1835–1907) in New York City. They decided to marry before the unit left Boston despite their parents' misgivings. They spent their brief honeymoon at the Haggerty farm in Lenox, Massachusetts.^{[citation needed]}

Letters[link]

Robert Shaw is well known for the over 200 letters he wrote to his family and friends during the Civil War.^{[citation needed]} They are currently located in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. Digital facsimiles of this collection are publicly available. The book, Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune, includes most of his letters and a brief biography of Shaw. Peter Burchard also used these letters as the basis for his book One Gallant Rush, which is one of the books upon which the film Glory was based.^{[citation needed]}

Death at the Battle of Fort Wagner[link]

The Storming of Fort Wagner

The 54th Regiment was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, to take part in the operations against the Confederates stationed there. On July 18, 1863, along with two brigades of white troops, the 54th assaulted Confederate Battery Wagner. As the unit hesitated in the face of fierce Confederate fire, Shaw led his men into battle by shouting, "Forward, Fifty-Fourth Forward!" He mounted a parapet and urged his men forward, but was shot through the heart and he died almost instantly. According to the color Sgt of the 54th Mass, he was shot and killed trying to lead the unit forward and fell on the outside of the fort.^{[citation needed]}

The victorious Confederates buried him in a mass grave with many of his men, an act they intended as an insult.^[2] Following the battle, commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood returned the bodies of the other Union officers who had died, but left Shaw's where it was. Hagood informed a captured Union surgeon that "had he been in command of white troops, I should have given him an honorable burial; as it is, I shall bury him in the common trench with the negroes that fell with him."^[3] Although efforts were made to recover Shaw's body (which had been stripped and robbed prior to burial), Shaw's father publicly proclaimed that he was proud to know that his son was interred with his troops, befitting his role as a soldier and a crusader for social justice.^[4] In a letter to the regimental surgeon, Lincoln Stone, Frank Shaw wrote:

"We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers....We can imagine no holier place than that in which he lies, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company. – what a body-guard he has!"^[5]

After Robert Shaw's death, his young wife, Annie, moved to Europe to live with her sister. She never remarried.^{[citation needed]}

Memorials[link]

Memorial to Shaw and the 54th Regiment at the National Gallery of Art

Entry for Shaw in Harvard University's Memorial Hall

Shaw memorial at Mount Auburn Cemetery

• In 1864, sculptor Edmonia Lewis created a bust of Shaw.
• The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White, was built in his memory on Beacon and Park streets in Boston in 1897.

"There they march, warm-blooded champions of a better day for man. There on horseback among them, in his very habit as he lived, sits the blue-eyed child of fortune, upon whose happy youth every divinity had smiled." — Oration by William James at the exercises in the Boston Music Hall, May 31, 1897, upon the unveiling of the Shaw Monument.^[1]

• Some drawings and plaster mock-ups also exist.^[6] A patinated plaster cast of a slightly different design for the Shaw Memorial is now on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..^[7]
• A monument to Shaw's memory was erected by his family in the plot at Moravian Cemetery in Staten Island, New York. An annual commemoration is held there on his birthday.
• Shaw was memorialized in the transept of Harvard University's Memorial Hall, which is dedicated to the students who perished in the American Civil War. Although he did not graduate, he is credited with the class of 1860.
• Elizabeth Gaskell was inspired by the life of Robert Gould Shaw to compose a text and poem in his honor, "Robert Gould Shaw", which appeared in Macmillan's Magazine (1864) and is available on The Gaskell Web.
• The story of Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts was dramatized in the 1989 film Glory, with Shaw portrayed by Matthew Broderick.
• Shaw, the 54th regiment, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' memorial are the subject of Charles Ives's piece Three Places in New England.
• The New England poet Robert Lowell referenced both Shaw and the Shaw Memorial in the poem "For the Union Dead" which Lowell published in his 1964 book of the same name.
• African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote a poem entitled "Robert Gould Shaw", in which he states: "Since thou and those who with thee died for right/Have died, the Present teaches, but in vain!"^[8]
• African-American poet Benjamin Griffith Brawley wrote a memorial poem entitled "My Hero"^[9] in praise of Robert Gould Shaw.
• The neighborhood of Shaw, Washington, DC, which grew out of freed slave encampments, bears his name.

Gallery[link]

• St GuadensShaw Mem.jpg
• ShawMemorial0.jpg
• ShawMemorial1.jpg
• ShawMemorial2.jpg
• ShawMemorial3.jpg
• ShawMemorial4.jpg

See also[link]

	United States Army portal
	American Civil War portal

• Ventfort Hall

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Dhalle, Kathy, A Biography of Robert Gould Shaw
• Foote, Lorien (2003). Seeking the One Great Remedy: Francis George Shaw and Nineteenth-century Reform. Ohio University Press. ISBN 0-8214-1499-2.
• Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry history

Further reading[link]

• Benson, Richard, Lay This Laurel : An album on the Saint-Gaudens memorial on Boston Common, honoring black and white men together, who served the Union cause with Robert Gould Shaw and died with him July 18, 1863, Eakins Press, 1973. ISBN 0-87130-036-2
• Duncan, Russell, ed., Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, University of Georgia Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8203-1459-5
• Duncan, Russell, Where Death and Glory Meet : Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, University of Georgia Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8203-2135-4
• Robert Lowell, For the Union Dead, Collected Poems, Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2003, ISBN 0-374-12617-8
• Burchard, Peter One Gallant Rush — Robert Gould Shaw & His Brave Black Regiment, St. Martin's Press, 1965. ISBN 0-312-03903-4
• Emilio, Luis F., A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts, 1863-1865, Da Capo Press, 1894. ISBN 0-306-80623-1
• The Master by Colm Toibin relates Wilkie James's (younger brother of Henry and William James ) participation as an officer in the regiment.

External links[link]

•  "Shaw, Robert Gould". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 
• Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Robert Gould Shaw,” a poem.
• Colonel Robert Gould Shaw: 54th Massachusetts Regiment (video)
• NHD Robert Gould Shaw - National History Day (video)

Robert Gould (1660? – 1708/1709) was a significant voice in Restoration poetry in England.

The title page to Love Given O'er.

He was born in the lower classes and orphaned when he was thirteen. It is possible that he had a sister, but her name and fate are unknown. Gould entered into domestic service. His first employer is unknown, but hints in his poetry indicate that it was a lady and that his job was as a footman. By the age of twenty, however, he had entered the employ of Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset. Dorset was known for his libertine lifestyle and his patronage of the arts, and Gould possibly learned to read and write and was afforded books to read while in Dorset's employ. He appears to have moved to the pantry side of domestic service.

Poetry[link]

Gould began his poetic career with a number of odes to peers, and his odes to ladies are particularly stylized and idealistic. In the seventeenth century, a writer of an ode could expect remuneration, either in the form of a gift or, at the least, a higher fee from the bookseller in anticipation of sales to the flattered subject's supporters and family. Gould did sell his odes, but he appears to have made very little by them. In 1683, however, Gould changed employers and made a name for himself as an author by writing Love Given O'er: Or a Satyr on the Inconstancy of Woman. The poem was at least partially an imitation of Juvenal, but it pursued its theme of misogyny with a fury and detail even Juvenal would not have dared.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Love Given O'er

It featured nearly pornographic detail. For example, Gould complains of the lust of women thus, <poem> "And now, if so much to the World’s reveal’d, Reflect on the vast store that lies conceal’d. How, oft, into their Closets^[1] they retire, Where flaming Dil– does inflame desire,^[2] And gentle Lap-d--s feed the am’rous fire.^[3] How curst is Man! when Brutes his Rivals prove, Ev’n in the sacred business of his Love! Unless Religion pious thoughts instil Shew me the Woman that would not be ill, If she, conveniently, cou’d have her will?" (lines 114-123)

</poem>

These lines are less scathing than the repetition of the anecdote of the Ephesian lady (from Juvenal) who would meet her lovers at her husband's tomb, the statement that women envy the greatness of Eve's sin, and that a prostitute is far better than a wife, since she only damns the soul, while a wife will damn the soul and destroy all happiness. The poem is a merging of many tropes that were well established attacks on womankind before Gould, and the poem is programmatic in that it takes up the pride, then inconstancy, then lust of women (exactly as its title dictates). However, there is a remarkable amount of invention and specificity in each section, and those topoi he adapts from Classical and other poetry are always given a Restoration application. The particular vehemence in these scourges, along with the relentless pacing of the critique, make the poem stand out in its age and as an epitome of misogyny.

The poem sold extremely well and prompted a verse epistle battle from pretended "Sylvia"s ("Sylvia" having spurned the poet, he vows to be quit of love) who would offer to defend women from Gould's cruelty and pretended "answers" from the author of Love Given O'er (even though few of the "Sylvia" poems were by women, and only one of the "answer" poems was by Gould (a year after the publication of the Love Given O'er)) (Sloan). Gould enjoyed a high profile, and in the same year, 1683, Gould was employed by James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon.

If Abingdon was not the one who encouraged the poem's composition, he at least enjoyed having the celebrated poet in his household. At around this time, Gould also became a friend of Fleetwood Sheppard's, who appeared to treat the poet with great generosity. The next poems from Gould continued the misogyny of Love Given O'er (e.g. A Satyr on Wooing, Epistle to One Made Unhappy in Marriage, A Scourge for Ill Wives, inter al.) and attempted to broaden out the satire into an attack on human vanity in particular and mankind in general. Gould's A Satyr on Mankind was, in its own day, noted for its excellence, and Alexander Pope paraphrases it. Additionally, Jonathan Swift uses some of the same satirical figures, and it is likely that both authors had read Gould in the 1709 version of his poems. Also in 1683 (on June 17), Gould married Martha Roderick, and the two would later have a daughter named Hannah. Between 1683 and 1689, Gould produced a number of satires, some of them providing unique insight into the English Restoration. Satyr Upon the Play-House (1688), for example, attacked the parentage and pretense of Elizabeth Barry and Thomas Betterton, as well as the dissipate, drunken, whoring patrons of the theater. It records the life of London around Covent Garden, complete with demobbed soldiers, thieves, prostitutes, and the nobility who only cover their filth in gold, cosmetics, and perfumes. He also produced a few topical satires, such as To Julian, Secretary of the Muses, which attacks an anonymous lampoon author and gives specific detail about the personalities and personages of some of the dramatists of the day. He even wrote a poem in honor of a retarded villager of Lavington before, two years later, writing a violent attack on the stupidity and obdurancy of all the "simple folk" of the country.

By 1689, Gould had been employed by Abingdon on his estates in West Lavington, Wiltshire in some capacity other than as a domestic. In that year, Gould published Poems, Mostly Satyrs. The book was a last-chance effort at financial independence for Gould, and it appears to have succeeded. Gould left domestic service and, with the help of Abingdon, became a teacher full time in West Lavington. However, the year after the publication of Poems, Gould engaged in a bitter exchange with the Poet Laureate, John Dryden. Gould was infuriated by Dryden's change of religion, and his Jack Squab (a reference to the Laureate being paid with food as well as brandy) was one of the most vicious (and uncharacteristically crude, for Gould) attacks made on Dryden. The poem is only attributed to Gould on slim evidence, as there are figures of speech and metaphors in it that closely resemble those employed by Gould in The Play-House, but it was not collected into his later Works (1709) and is unusually directed at a single public figure (where Gould's previous habit had been to attack a sin and provide numerous examples of it rather than to devote a whole poem to the viciousness of a single person).

After 1692 and the second edition of Poems, mostly Satyrs, Gould did not publish again until his death (excepting The Rival Sisters, see below). Having left the household of a peer and having left London, Gould had few occasions for urbane satires. However, the profession of school master apparently left the author with time for revision, for during the two decades that followed, he revised and edited and supplemented his poems extensively. In 1709, Martha Gould, Robert's wife, had Works of Robert Gould published. Robert Gould himself died in January 1709 (1708 in the Old Style), before the volume's publication. However, the text of the Works has high authority, and every element of the volume appears to have been carefully set by the author. The Satyr on Mankind and Satyr on the Play House, in particular, were vastly rewritten.

As a tragedian[link]

Gould also wrote tragedy. His first tragedy, Innocence Distress'd, was never performed. He took it to the United Company soon after writing it, in 1689. Thomas Betterton was the de facto manager of the theater, and Elizabeth Barry was one of the star actresses. Whether Gould had offended them prior to Satyr on the Play House or not, the two stars would not give him any aid after it. In October 1695, Gould's second tragedy, The Rival Sisters, was performed at Drury Lane, even though, again, Betterton and Barry opposed it. (By that time, Gould says in the introduction to the 1709 Works, Betterton had forgiven him, but Barry remained obstinate. Therefore, in the 1709 Works, Gould adds another section of the Satyr on the Play House just for Barry and lessens the invective against Betterton.) The tragedy had music by Henry Purcell, and it was a moderate success by the standards of that troubled year. (See Restoration drama for more on the crises of 1695.)

Style and literary importance[link]

In content, Gould was a sincere, harsh Royalist. In his satires, the families and ancestors of living noblemen are ridiculed viciously, if they took the Cromwellian side in the English Civil War. Additionally, Gould not only asserts Church of England positions, but he has nothing but vitriol for radical Protestants, from Richard Baxter to George Fox onward. His attacks on ladies and lords show all the marks of estrangement. They are attacked for being less than they would appear. Gould appeared to believe that the nobility should be, in fact, better than the general run of mankind. It is the lie that enrages him most, with betrayal being next in his catalog of sins to lash.

Stylistically, Robert Gould's poetry looks forward somewhat to the poetry of the 1710s. He was the friend of John Oldham, and there is some similarity in poetic forms. He was also a friend of Fleetwood Shepheard, addressing several poems to him. Shepheard was a confidante to Matthew Prior and Thomas Rymer, and Shepheard gave both financial aid to Gould and personal friendship (Sloan). He wrote almost exclusively in closed heroic couplets. Other than Dryden, whose poetic output was lowering, few poets of the 1680s are well preserved, and Gould occupies an interesting position. He is a generation younger than the primary Restoration wits (Dryden, Rochester, Buckingham) and younger even than Aphra Behn. His is the first Restoration generation, and he had only stories about the Interregnum. He is additionally unique in the literature of the Restoration in being a servant who composed poetry. While the Restoration had many figures who rose from common, or even poor, families, Gould used his writing to win his independence in the most literal way. His pen earned him a profession other than servitude and enabled him to escape a menial life, and, at the same time, allowed him to treat wealthy and established figures on an even footing.

Although Gould was apparently well known to his own and the next two generations of poets, his reputation was virtually erased in the nineteenth century. By the 1730s, when Alexander Pope began to reject the "licentious" Restoration poets and other "Tory" writers gradually distanced themselves from the Cavalier wits, Gould's works fell out of publication and public consciousness. Because his satires are sexually frank and exceptionally vicious, he was wholly unacceptable to the Victorian era critics who attempted literary histories and were responsible for the twentieth century's canon formation in literature. At the end of the twentiethth century, his name was revived as an example solely of "subliterary misogyny" by feminist literary critics such as Felicity Nussbaum, whose The Brink of All We Hate held out Gould's most scabrous satires (and almost exclusively Love Given O'er and the passage quoted above) as typical of an unpreserved tradition of misogyny. There remains one biography of Gould (by Eugene Sloan) and no contemporary edition of his works.

References[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Robert Gould

• Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. vol. 23, 75-6. London: Oxford UP, 2004.
• Nussbaum, Felicity A. The Brink of All We Hate: English Satires on Women 1660 - 1750. Lexington: U Kentucky P, 1984.
• Sloane, Eugene H. Robert Gould: seventeenth century satirist. Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania Press, 1940.

Works[link]

• Robert Gould, The Corruption of the Times by Money (London: Matthew Wotton, 1693).

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

John Prine
John Prine at MerleFest, Wilkesboro N.C. (2006)
Background information
Born	(1946-10-10) October 10, 1946 (age 65)
Origin	Maywood, Illinois, United States
Genres	Country Folk Progressive bluegrass
Occupations	Singer-songwriter Guitarist
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Years active	1971–present
Labels	Atlantic, Asylum, Oh Boy, Rhino
Associated acts	Steve Goodman
Website	www.johnprine.net

John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.

Biography[link]

Prine is the son of William Prine and Verna Hamm. Prine started playing guitar at age 14, taught by his brother, David.^[1] Prine attended Proviso East High School, and was a member on the school's gymnastic team. He was a postman for five years and served in the Army during the Vietnam War era, serving in Germany, before beginning his musical career in Chicago.

In the late 1960s, while Prine was delivering mail in Maywood, Illinois, he began to sing at open mic evenings at the Fifth Peg on Armitage Avenue. Prine was initially a spectator, reluctant to perform, but eventually did so in response to a "You think you can do better?" comment made to him by another performer. Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert heard him there and wrote the first review Prine ever received, calling him a great songwriter.^[2] He became a central figure in the Chicago Folk Revival, which also included such singer-songwriters as Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, Jim Post and Fred Holstein. Joined by such established musicians as Jethro Burns and Bob Gibson, Prine performed frequently at such clubs as the Earl of Old Town, the Quiet Knight, Somebody Else's Troubles, The 5th Peg, and the Bulls.

John Prine is currently living in Nashville with his third wife, Fiona Whelan. They have three children, stepson Jody Whelan, Tommy and Jack. Prine has a second residence in Pinellas County, Florida.

Recordings[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2010)

In 1971 Prine's self-titled debut album was released. He and friend Steve Goodman had each been active in the Chicago folk scene before being "discovered" by Kris Kristofferson (Kristofferson remarked that Prine wrote songs so good that "we'll have to break his thumbs"). The album included his signature songs "Illegal Smile," "Sam Stone," and the folk and country standards "Angel from Montgomery" and "Paradise." The album also included "Hello In There", a song about aging that was later covered by numerous artists and "Far From Me," a lonely waltz about lost love for a waitress that Prine later said was his favorite of all his songs. The album received many positive reviews, and some hailed Prine as "the next Dylan." Bob Dylan himself appeared unannounced at one of Prine's first New York City club appearances, anonymously backing him on harmonica.

Prine's second album, Diamonds In The Rough, was a surprise for many after the critical success of his first LP; it was an uncommercial, stripped-down affair that reflected Prine's fondness for bluegrass music and features songs reminiscent of Hank Williams's work as Luke The Drifter. Highlights include the allegorical "The Great Compromise," which features a recitation and addresses the Vietnam War, and the touching ballad "Souvenirs," which Prine later recorded with Goodman.

Later albums include Sweet Revenge (1973), containing such fan favorites as "Dear Abby," "Grandpa Was A Carpenter," and "Christmas In Prison", and Common Sense (1975), with "Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard". The latter album was Prine's first to be charted in the US Top 100 by Billboard, reflecting growing commercial success. It was produced by Steve Cropper. Many veteran Prine fans view the release of 1978's Bruised Orange as a creative highpoint. The Steve Goodman-produced album gave listeners songs such as "The Hobo Song," "Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone," and the title track showing that he could capture the human condition as easily as writing politically inspired anthems.

In 1974, singer David Allan Coe achieved considerable success on the country charts with "You Never Even Called Me By My Name", co-written by Prine and Goodman. The song good-naturedly spoofed stereotypical country music lyrics. Prine refused to take a songwriter's credit and the tune went to Goodman, although Goodman bought Prine a jukebox as a gift from his publishing royalties.

The 1979 album Pink Cadillac features two songs produced by legendary Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, who by this time rarely did any studio work. The first song, "Saigon," is about a Vietnam vet traumatized by the war ("The static in my attic's gettin' ready to blow"). During the recording, one of the guitar amps blew up (which is evident on the album track). The other song Phillips produced is "How Lucky," about Prine's hometown.

Prine continued writing and recording albums throughout the 1980s and formed his own record label, Oh Boy Records. His songs continued to be covered by other artists; the country supergroup The Highwaymen recorded "The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over," which had been written by Prine and Goodman. Steve Goodman died of leukemia in 1984 and Prine continues to perform many of Goodman's songs in concert to this day, such as "My Old Man."

In 1991, Prine released the Grammy Award-winning The Missing Years, his first collaboration with producer and Heartbreakers bassist Howie Epstein. The title song records Prine's humorous take on what Jesus did in the unrecorded years between his childhood and ministry. In 1995, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings was released, another collaboration with Epstein. Prine followed in 1999 with In Spite of Ourselves, which was unusual for him in that it contained only one original song—the rest were covers of classic country songs—and all were duets with well-known female country vocalists, including Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane, and Iris DeMent (whom Prine appeared with on the Letterman Show & referred to as his "favorite girl singers".)

In 2001 John co-starred in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Daddy & Them (Alvin Montgomery), and "In Spite of Ourselves" can be heard as the end credits roll .

Cancer[link]

In early 1998, Prine was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer on the right side of his neck. He had surgery to remove the diseased tissue and was left with a substantial loss of tissue. This was followed by six weeks of radiation therapy.^[3] The surgery altered his vocals, and has added a "gravel" tone to his voice.^[4][5]

Awards and influence[link]

In 2003, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for songwriting by the UK's BBC Radio 2 and that same year was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The following year saw his song "Sam Stone" covered by Laura Cantrell for the Future Soundtrack for America compilation.

Prine has taken his place as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. In 2009, Bob Dylan told the Huffington Post that Prine was one of his favourite writers, stating "Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about "Sam Stone," the soldier junkie daddy, and "Donald and Lydia," where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that."^[6] In Johnny Cash's autobiography Cash, he admitted "I don't listen to music much at the farm, unless I'm going into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I'll put on something by the writers I've admired and used for years (Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Guy Clark, and the late Steve Goodman are my Big Four)..."^[7] When asked by Word Magazine in 2008 if he heard Pink Floyd's influence in newer British bands like Radiohead, Roger Waters replied "I don't really listen to Radiohead. I listened to the albums and they just didn't move me in the way, say, John Prine does. His is just extra-ordinarily eloquent music—and he lives on that plane with Neil Young and Lennon."^[8] Prine received the Artist of the Year award at the Americana Music Awards on September 9, 2005. The award was accepted in his name by awards host and long-time friend Billy Bob Thornton.

Recent years[link]

Prine recorded a version of Stephen Foster's "Old Kentucky Home" in 2004 for the compilation album Beautiful Dreamer, which won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2005.

In 2005, Prine released his first all-new offering since Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, the album Fair & Square, which tended toward a more laid-back, acoustic approach than, for example, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings. The album contains songs such as "Safety Joe," about a man who has never taken any risks in his life, and also "Some Humans Ain't Human," Prine's protest piece on the album, which talks about the ugly side of human nature and includes a quick shot at President George W. Bush. Fair & Square won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. The album contains original songs plus two covers: A.P. Carter's "Bear Creek Blues" and Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons."

2010 kicked off with a flurry of Prine activity, as he stopped by The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV in January to perform three of his most popular recordings: "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness," "Souvenirs," & "Paradise." Later in May Prine appeared on Late Show With David Letterman, performing "All The Best" with Jim James of the band My Morning Jacket.

On July 3, 2010, Prine appeared at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, broadcast on American Public Media's A Prairie Home Companion, playing several of his songs.^[9]

On September 30, 2011, Prine played a thirteen song set on the main Banjo Stage at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco, California.

Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows[link]

On June 22, 2010 Oh Boy Records released a tribute album titled "Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: The Songs of John Prine". The album features members of the modern folk revival including My Morning Jacket, The Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lambchop, Josh Ritter, Drive-By Truckers, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins, Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg, Justin Townes Earle, Those Darlins, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.^[10]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Guest singles[link]