Tom Dooley
[The Warners collected Tom Dooley from Frank Proffitt in 1938. Frank Warner recorded Proffitt's version for Elektra in 1952. Warner passed it to Alan Lomax who published it in Folk Song: USA. Proffitt's version eventually was recorded by The Kingston Trio, on Capitol, in 1958. This recording sold in excess of six million copies, topping the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is often credited with starting the "folk boom" of the late 1950s and 1960s. It only had three verses (and the chorus four times). This recording of the song has been inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress and been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
Proffitt regarded the song as his song, as he learned it from his father. The song was in oral tradition in the region since around 1866 when the murder happened and was recorded by Grayson and Whitter as "Tom Dula" in 1929.]
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Tom Dula
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas C. Dula
Born June 22, 1845(1845-06-22)[1][2]
Wilkes County, North Carolina
Died May 1, 1868(1868-05-01) (aged 22)
Iredell County, North Carolina
Cause of death hanging (capital punishment)
Other names Tom Dula aka "Tom Dooley"
Occupation farm hand, soldier
Known for Progenitor of the "Tom Dooley" folk song.
Thomas C. Dula (June 22, 1845 – May 1, 1868)[1][2] was a former Confederate soldier, who was tried, convicted, and hanged for the murder of his fiancée, Laura Foster. The trial and hanging received national publicity from newspapers such as The New York Times, thus turning Dula's story into a folk legend. While the murder happened in Wilkes County, North Carolina, the trial, conviction, and execution took place in Statesville, North Carolina. There was considerable controversy surrounding his conviction and execution. In subsequent years, a folk song was written (entitled “Tom Dooley”, based on the pronunciation in the local dialect), and many oral traditions were passed down, regarding the sensational occurrences surrounding the murder of Foster, and Dula's subsequent execution.[1][3] The Kingston Trio recorded a hit version of the murder ballad in 1958.[4]
Early life
Tom Dula was born to a poor Appalachian hill country family in Wilkes County, North Carolina[5], most likely the youngest of three brothers, with one younger sister, Eliza. The young Dula grew up, attended school, and "probably played with the female Fosters", Ann (later Melton), and Laura, her younger cousin.[6] As the children grew up, Tom and Ann apparently became intimate. Three months before his eighteenth birthday, on 15 March 1862, he joined the Confederate Army. Dula served as a private in Company K in the 42nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment until the war ended in 1865.[1] Surprisingly, there is some evidence that Dula was literate, as according to accounts at the time, he wrote a 15-page account of his life, as well as the note that exonerated Ann Melton. His literacy is highly unusual given his station in life, and the harsh poverty of his upbringing.[3]
Military serviceContrary to newspaper accounts at the time, Dula did not serve in Zebulon Vance's 26th North Carolina. This also puts the lie to the rumors that he “played the banjo” in the army band for the Colonel's benefit, or that he entertained Colonel Vance with his antics. These were often cited as the reason that the then-Governor Vance leapt so quickly to lead the defense of Dula during his trial. It seems more likely that Governor Vance simply believed in Dula's innocence or thought that defending a Confederate veteran in the high-profile case would be politically beneficial. Dula would not escape the war completely unscathed, as folklore, oral tradition, and a few modern writers have held. Instead he suffered various injuries throughout the course of the fighting. Each of his brothers died in the war, leaving Tom as his mother's “sole remaining boy”.[1]
The murder of Laura FosterUpon returning from the war, Dula discovered that Ann had married James Melton. Given his reputation as something of a libertine,[2][7] it did not take Dula long to take up with young Laura. She became pregnant shortly thereafter, and she and Dula decided to elope. On the night she was to meet Dula, about the 26th of May, 1866,[7] she left her home, never to be seen alive again.[1] While it is not known for certain what happened that evening, many of the stories that have grown out of the folklore of the time implicate Ann Melton in some way. Some believe that Ann may have murdered Laura Foster because she was still in love with Dula and was jealous that Laura was marrying him; others believe that perhaps Dula knew or suspected that Ann had murdered Foster, but because he still loved Ann he refused to implicate her after he was arrested and took the blame for the murder. In fact, it was Ann's word that led to the discovery of the girl's body. Foster had been stabbed multiple times with a large knife. The gruesome nature of the murder, combined with the fact that Laura Foster was pregnant when she was killed, captured the public's attention, and led to the enduring notoriety of the crime.[1]
The role of Dula in the slaying is unclear.[7] He fled shortly after her body was found– when he was declared a suspect– working for a time for Colonel James Grayson, in Watauga County,[2] before taking refuge across the state line in Trade, Tennessee. Grayson would enter folklore as a romantic rival of Dula's, but this was not true. It was simply an incorrect inference drawn from the lyrics of the song, and became more widespread as the facts of the case were largely forgotten.[7] Grayson did, however, help the Wilkes County posse bring Dula in, once his identity was discovered.[1]
TrialAfter Dula was arrested, former North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance represented him pro bono, and maintained Dula's innocence of the charges. He succeeded in having the trial moved from Wilkesboro to Statesville, as it was widely believed that Dula would not receive a fair trial in Wilkes County. Dula was convicted and, although he was given a new trial on appeal, he was convicted again. His supposed accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free and, on Dula's word, Melton was acquitted of the crime. As he stood on the gallows facing his death, he is reported to have said, “Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn’t harm a hair on the girl’s head”.[7] He was executed nearly two years after the murder of his fiancée, on 1 May 1868. His younger sister and her husband retrieved his body for burial after the execution.[1]
After the executionIn 2001, Tom Dula was "acquitted" of all charges after a petition was sent around Wilkes County and to the county seat. This action was unofficial and had no legal force.[7]
MythsSubsequently, much legend and folklore arose around the tragedy and the life of Tom Dula. Not the least of these tales has Dula surviving the war without a scratch, and Governor Zebulon Baird Vance making use of Dula’s supposed talents with a banjo for his own personal entertainment. Both Dula’s and Vance’s accounts, as well as Dula’s own military record, show this legend to be untrue; it persists nonetheless.
A popular myth holds that while Dula was fighting in Virginia, Ann – apparently despairing of ever seeing Tom again – met and married an older farmer, James Melton. In reality, Ann married James Melton in 1859, three years before Tom left for the war, though it's unclear whether or not that actually changed the nature of the relationship between Tom and Ann.[8]
In popular cultureA local poet named Thomas Land wrote a song about the tragedy shortly after Dula was hanged. This, combined with the widespread publicity the trial received, further cemented Dula’s place in North Carolina legend. The song written by Land is still sung today throughout North Carolina.
Several recordings were made of the song in the twentieth century, with the first in 1929 by a group called “Grayson and Whitter”.[8][9][10][11] The most popular version was recorded by The Kingston Trio in 1958.[4] It sold over 6 million copies, is widely credited with starting the “folk boom” of this time period, and was named by the Grammy Foundation as one of the Songs of the Century.[8]
The Trio's song was covered in Great Britain by Lonnie Donegan later in 1958.
In 1959, Michael Landon was given the role of Dula in the movie The Legend of Tom Dooley.[12] The movie was not based on the facts of Dula’s life, except in the very loosest sense, and neither was it based on any traditional Tom Dula legends. It was rather a fictional treatment inspired by the lyrics of the song.
Also in 1959, Stonewall Jackson's U.S. country music and Billboard hit song Waterloo makes reference to Tom Dooley in the final verse.
The members of Macabre, known for their death metal style also put out an album of acoustic folk songs, among them is a song entitled Tom Dooley, about his death.
References1.^ a b c d e f g h i West, John Foster. The Ballad of Tom Dula: The Documented Story Behind the Murder of Laura Foster. Parkway Publishers. ISBN 1887905553.
2.^ a b c d "Wilkes Co. Chamber of Commerce: History of Tom Dula". Wilkes Co. Chamber of Commerce. http://www.wilkesnc.org/history/tomdula/. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
3.^ a b West, John Foster. Lift up Your Head, Tom Dooley: The True Story of the Appalachian Murder That Inspired One of America's Most Popular Ballads. Asheboro, North Carolina: Down Home Press. ISBN 1878086200.
4.^ a b The Kingston Trio (album) at Allmusic
5.^ Sharyn McCrumb (2007-01-01). "Tom Dooley: Bound to Die". Blue Ridge Country. http://www.blueridgecountry.com/archive/tom-dooley.html. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
6.^ Bill Cissna (2006-09-13). "North Carolina hills hold tale of Tom Dooley". The Atlanta-Journal Constitution. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/travel/southeast/nc_stories/2006/09/12/0913dooley.html. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
7.^ a b c d e f Lundin, Leigh (2010-02-21). "Who Killed Laura Foster?". Tom Dula. Criminal Brief. http://criminalbrief.com/?p=11062.
8.^ a b c Lopresti, Rob (2010-01-17). "Boy Kills Girl". Tom Dooley. Criminal Brief. http://www.criminalbrief.com/?p=11015. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
9.^ ed. John & Alan Lomax, ed (1947). Folk Song USA: The 111 Best American Ballads. Duell, Sloan and Pearce. ISBN B000I6X8DC.
10.^ "G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter". Our Musical Heritage– Biographies. Bristol, Tn: Birthplace of Country Music Alliance. 2007-09-30. http://www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/node/207http://www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/node/207.
11.^ "Grayson & Whitter". Artist Biography. CMT. 2009-10-18. http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/grayson_whitter/bio.jhtml. Retrieved 2010-02-23.
12.^ The Legend of Tom Dooley at the Internet Movie Database; retrieved on 2007-10-19
External links American Civil War portal
Finding Tom Dula's and Laura Foster's resting places
Tom Dooley - The Story Behind the Ballad by Karen Wheeling Reynolds ISBN 978-0-9846398-0-9
Tom Dooley: a Wilkes County Legend, a Play
Tom Dula's story on archive of Wilkes Chamber of Commerce website
Tom Dula's gravestone images
North Carolina Historical Marker
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Tom Dooley (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"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 Billboard R&B listing, and appearing in the Cashbox country music top 20. It fits within the wider genre of Appalachian 'sweetheart murder ballad' songs such as 'Down in the Willow Garden' and 'Rose Connelly', but 'Tom Dooley' is based on a real event.
The song was selected as one of the Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc.
In the documentary Appalachian Journey (1991), folklorist Alan Lomax describes Frank Proffitt as the "original source" for the song. Since the song predates Frank Proffitt's early version, it appears that Lomax means that Proffitt's version is the one that has become most well known to us because the Kingston Trio derived their interpretation from it. Certainly, there is at least one earlier known recording, by Grayson and Whitter made in 1929, approximately 10 years before Proffitt cut his own recording.[1]
History
Impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula (Dooley), Laura Foster's lover and probable fiancé, was convicted of her murder and hanged May 1, 1868.[2] Foster was stabbed to death with a large knife; the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.
Dula had a lover, prior to his leaving for the war, named Anne Melton. It was her comments that led to the discovery of Foster's body, but Melton was acquitted in a separate trial based on Dula's word. Dula's enigmatic statement on the gallows that he had not harmed Foster but still deserved his punishment led to press speculation that Melton was the actual killer and that Dula simply covered for her. Melton, who had once expressed jealousy of Dula's purported plans to marry Foster, died insane a few years after the homicide. Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times, and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and hanging were given widespread national publicity. A local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy after the hanging.[1]
A man named "Grayson," mentioned in the song as pivotal in Dula's downfall, has sometimes been characterized as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff who captured him and presided over his hanging. Some variant lyrics of the song portray Grayson in that light, and the spoken introduction to the Kingston Trio version did the same. Col. James Grayson was actually a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion and was using a false name. Grayson did help North Carolinians capture Dula and was involved in returning him to North Carolina, but otherwise played no role in the case.[1]
Dula was tried in Statesville, because it was believed he could not get a fair trial in Wilkes County. He was given a new trial on appeal but he was again convicted, and hanged on May 1, 1868. His alleged accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free. On the gallows, Dula reportedly stated, "Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn't harm a hair on the girl's head."[1]
Dula's last name was pronounced "Dooley," leading to some confusion in spelling over the years. (The pronunciation of a final "a" like "y" is an old feature in Appalachian speech, as in the term "Grand Ole Opry").[2] The confusion was probably compounded by the fact that Dr. Tom Dooley, an American physician known for international humanitarian work, was at the height of his fame in 1958, when the Kingston Trio version became a major hit.
The doleful ballad was probably first sung shortly after the execution and is still commonly sung in North Carolina.[1]
[edit] RecordingsSeveral notable recordings have been made:
Grayson and Whitter, Victor, 1929. The first recorded version by a group well known at the time.[1]
Frank Warner, Elektra, 1952. Warner, a folklorist, unaware of the 1929 recording, in 1940 took down the song from Frank Proffitt and passed it to Alan Lomax who published it in Folk Song: USA.
The Folksay Trio, which featured Erik Darling, Bob Carey and Roger Sprung, issued the first post-1950 version of the song for American Folksay-Ballads and Dances, Vol. 2 on the Stinson label in 1953. The group reformed in 1956 as The Tarriers, featuring Darling, Carey and Alan Arkin, and released another version of "Tom Dooley" for The Tarriers on the Glory label in 1957.[3]
Paul Clayton, a singer-songwriter and folklorist, recorded "Tom Dooley" (as "Tom Dula") on Bloody Ballads: British and American Murder Ballads for Riverside Records in 1956.[4]
The Kingston Trio, Capitol, 1958. This recording sold in excess of six million copies, topping the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is often credited with starting the "folk boom" of the late 1950s and 1960s. It only had three verses (and the chorus four times).[1] This recording of the song has been inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress[5] and been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.[6]
Lonnie Donegan, also 1958. This version charted in the United Kingdom simultaneously with the Kingston Trio's. Its uptempo skiffle style was a contrast to the U.S. version's slower arrangement.
Line Renaud recorded a French-language version, Fais Ta Prière (Tom Dooley), in 1959. The song was released on Renaud's album "Les souvenirs sont faits de ça," and is also available on the compilation "Line: 100 chansons."
Doc Watson, Vanguard Records, 1964. This version considerably extended the scope of the song.
Sweeney's Men, 1967, On their first eponymous album. The lyrics differ from those as sung by the Kingston Trio.
Electric Peace, recorded a brooding (garage psychedelic) version of this song on their album, Rest In Peace (Enigma label) in the early 1980's.
Bill Morrissey & Greg Brown:Friend of Mine, Philo Records, 1993. This collaboration of two songwriters doing songs written by others included a version using the title "Tom Dula" and credited Frank Profitt as songwriter.
Rob Ickes recorded a version on his album "Hard Times" in 1997 as a Bluegrass-song.
Macabre Minstrels recorded it on their 2002 EP Macabre Minstrels: Morbid Campfire Songs.
Carolina Chocolate Drops recorded a version on their 2006 album Dona Got a Ramblin Mind.
[edit] ParodiesTom Dooley prompted a number of parodies, either as part of other songs (Ella Fitzgerald drops an altered line from the song into a recording of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) or as entire songs, including one called Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, Your Tie's Caught In Your Zipper by the Incredible Bongo Band in 1972.
The song and legend were parodied by a one-record novelty act called Waldo, Dudley and Dora on a 45 rpm Grayson Goofed, issued as Awful Records release #PU-1. Verses sung to the Tom Dooley melody alternate with mini-skits, as "John" Grayson's public reputation erodes from "a fine man" to "a stoolie" (i.e., stool pigeon) to "a gink".
The song was often parodied by the Smothers Brothers as Tom Crudely.
In Episode #705 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Crow T. Robot, motivated by one actor's resemblance to Thomas Dewey, sang a version beginning "Hang down your head, Tom Dewey."
In Ally McBeal (season 5 episode 18), "Tom Dooley" is the name of the episode in which John Cage sings a version of the song with his Mexican band.
[edit] Chart positionsFor Capitol Records 45 rpm Release #F4049 By The Kingston Trio [7]
Chart (1958) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
Australian Singles Chart 1
Norwegian Singles Chart 1
Canadian Singles Chart 1
Italian Singles Chart 1
U.K. Singles Chart 5
South African Charts 8
[edit] FilmThe Kingston Trio hit inspired a feature B-movie, The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959), starring actor Michael Landon, co-starring Richard Rust. A Western set after the Civil War, it was not about traditional Tom Dula legends or the facts of the case, but a fictional treatment tailored to fit the lyrics of the song.
[edit] Song booksBlood, Peter; Patterson, Annie (1992). Rise Up Singing. Quaker Song. Amherst, Ma: Sing Out Publications. pp. 104. ISBN 978-1881322139.
Lomax, Alan; Lomax, John A. (1947). Folk Song U.S.A.. Best Loved American Folk Songs (1 ed.). New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce. ISBN B000KKEP7E.
[edit] See alsoList of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1958 (U.S.)
List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1950s
[edit] References1.^ a b c d e f g Lopresti, Rob (2010-01-17). "Boy Kills Girl". Tom Dooley. Criminal Brief. http://www.criminalbrief.com/?p=11015. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
2.^ a b Lundin, Leigh (2010-02-21). "Who Killed Laura Foster?". Tom Dula. Criminal Brief. http://criminalbrief.com/?p=11062.
3.^ Curry, Peter J.. "Tom Dooley: The Ballad That Started The Folk Boom". The Kingston Trio Place. http://www.kingstontrioplace.com. http://www.kingstontrioplace.com/tdooleydoc.htm#DISCOGRAPHY.
4.^ Wirz, Stefan. "Paul Clayton Discography". American Music. http://www.wirz.de/. http://www.wirz.de/music/claytfrm.htm.
5.^ "The Full National Recording Registry". The Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-masterlist.html. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
6.^ "Grammy Hall of Fame Award: Past Recipients". The Recording Academy/Grammy.com. http://www2.grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Awards/Hall_Of_Fame/#t. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
7.^ Rubeck, Blake, Shaw, et al. The Kingston Trio On Record. Kingston Korner LLC, 1986. p.164.