SKU: A0.1270160

For TTBB chorus a cappella and solo voice. As performed by Arlo Guthrie.

Wanna hear something? You know that Indians never ate clams. They didn't have linguini!
And so what happened was that clams was allowed to grow unmolested in the coastal waters of America for millions of years. And they got big, and I ain't talking about clams in general, I'm talking about each clam! Individually. I mean each one was a couple of million years old or older. So imagine they could have got bigger than this whole room. And when they get that big, God gives them little feet so that they could walk around easier. And when they get feet, they get dangerous. I'm talking about real dangerous. I ain't talking about sitting under the water waiting for you. I'm talking about coming after you.

Imagine being on one of them boats coming over to discover America, like Columbus or something, standing there at night on watch, everyone else is either drunk or asleep. And you're watching for America and the boat's going up and down. And you don't like it anyhow but you gotta stand there and watch, for what? Only he knows, and he ain't watching. You hear the waves lapping against the side of the ship. The moon is going behind the clouds. You hear the pitter patter of little footprints on deck. ‘Is that you kids?’ It ain't! My god! It's this humongous, giant clam!

Imagine those little feet coming on deck. A clam twice the size of the ship. Feet first. You're standing there shivering with fear, you grab one of these. This is a belaying pin. They used to have these stuck in the holes all around the ship… You probably didn't know what this is for; you probably had an idea, but you were wrong. They used to have these stuck in the holes all along the sides of the ship, everywhere. You wouldn't know what this is for unless you was that guy that night.

I mean, you'd grab this out of the hole, run on over there, bam bam on them little feet! Back into the ocean would go a hurt, but not defeated, humongous, giant clam. Ready to strike again when opportunity was better.

You know not even the coastal villages was safe from them big clams. You know them big clams had an inland range of about 15 miles. Think of that. I mean our early pioneers and the settlers built little houses all up and down the coast you know. A little inland and stuff like that and they didn't have houses like we got now, with bathrooms and stuff. They built little privies out back. And late at night, maybe a kid would have to go, and he'd go stomping out there in the moonlight. And all they'd hear for miles around...(loud clap/belch).... One less kid for America. One more smiling, smurking, humongous, giant clam.

So Americans built forts. Them forts --you know—them pictures of them forts with the wooden points all around. You probably thought them points was for Indians but that's stupid! 'Cause Indians know about doors. But clams didn't. Even if a clam knew about a door, so what? A clam couldn't fit in a door. I mean, he'd come stomping up to a fort at night, put them feet on them points, jump back crying, tears coming out of them everywhere. But Americans couldn't live in forts forever. You couldn't just build one big fort around America. How would you go to the beach?

So what they did was they formed groups of people. I mean they had groups of people all up and down the coast form these little alliances. Like up North it was call the Clamshell Alliance. And farther down South it was called the Catfish Alliance. They had these Alliances all up and down the coast defending themselves against these threatening monsters. These humongous giant clams. Andt hey'd go out there, if there was maybe fifteen of them they'd be singing songs in fifteen part harmony. And when one part disappeared, that's how they knew where the clam would be.

Which is why Americans only sing in four part harmony to this very day. That proved to be too dangerous. See, what they did was they'd be singing these songs called Clam Chanties, and they'd have these big spears called clampoons. And they'd be walking up and down the beach and the method they eventually devised where they'd have this guy, the most strongest heavy duty true blue American, courageous type dude they could find and they'd have him out there walking up and down the beach by himself with other chicken dudes hiding behind the sand dunes somewhere.

He'd be singing the verses. They'd be singing the chorus, and clams would hear 'em. And clams hate music. So clams would come out of the water and they'd come after this one guy. And all you'd see pretty soon was flying all over the sand flying up and down the beach manmanclamclammanmanclam manclamclamman up and down the beach going this way and that way up the hills in the water out of the water behind the trees everywhere. Finally the man would jump over a big sand dune, roll over the side, the clam would come over the dune, fall in the hole and fourteen guys would come out there and stab the shit out of him with their clampoons.

That's the way it was. That was one way to deal with them. The other way was to weld two clams together. [I don't believe it. I'm losing it. Hey. What can you do. Another night shot to hell.]

Hey, this was serious back then. This was very serious. I mean these songs now are just piddly folk songs. But back then these songs were controversial. These was radical, almost revolutionary songs. Because times was different and clams was a threat to America. That's right. So we want to sing this song tonight about the one last... You see what they did was there was one man, he was one of these men, his name will always be remembered, his name was Reuben Clamzo, and he was one of the last great clam men there ever was. He stuck the last clam stab. The last clampoon into the last clam that was ever seen on this continent. Knowing he would be out of work in an hour. He did it anyway so that you and me could go to the beach in relative safety. That's right. Made America safe for the likes of you and me. And so we sing this song in his memory. He went into whaling like most of them guys did and he got out of that, when he died. You know, clams was much more dangerous than whales. Clams can run in the water, on the water or on the ground, and they are so big sometimes that they can jump and they can spread their kinda shells and kinda almost fly like one of them flying squirrels.

You could be standing there thinking that your perfectly safe and all of a sudden whop.... That's true... And so this is the song of this guy by the name of Reuben Clamzo and the song takes place right after he stabbed this clam and the clam was, going through this kinda death dance over on the side somewhere. The song starts there and he goes into whaling and takes you through the next...

I sing the part of the guy on the beach by himself. I go like this: Poor old Reuben Clamzo and you go Clamzo Boys Clamzo. That's the part of the fourteen chicken dudes over on the other side. That's what they used to sing. They'd be calling these clams out of the water. Like taunting them making fun of them. Clams would get real mad and come out. Here we go. I want you to sing it in case you ever have an occasion to join such an alliance. You know some of these alliances are still around. Still defending America against things like them clams. If you ever wants to join one, now you have some historic background. So you know where these guys are coming from. It's not just some 60's movement or something, these things go back a long time.

Notice the distinction you're going to have to make now between the first and easy Clamzo Boys Clamzo and the more complicated Clamzo Me Boys Clamzo. Stay serious! Folk songs are serious. That's what Pete Seeger told me. Arlo I only want to tell you one thing... Folk songs are serious. I said right. Let's do it in C for Clam...Iet's do it in B... For boy that's a big clam... Iet' s do it in G for Gee, I hope that big clam don't see me. Let's do it in F... For …he sees me. Let's do it back in A...for a clam is coming. Better get this song done quick. The Story of Reuben Clamzo and His Strange Daughter in the Key of A.

SKU: A0.928974

In My Room, by The Beach Boys. 

This gentle song may be sung as a prayer, with tenderness. Your audiences will love the melody and harmonies.

This arrangement by Donald A. Mills is for barbershop as a quartet or chorus. It is TTBB (TLBB) a cappella, sung softly, sweetly, legato, singing the four dotted quarter notes as a 3/4 time. The Beach Boys have mentioned that they wrote In My Room in 12/8 time because they had tired of the 3/4 time many songs of the day were written in.

From Wikipedia, Gary Usher explained that 'In My Room found us taking our craft a little more seriously. Brian and I came back to the house one night after playing 'over-the-line' (a baseball game). I played bass and Brian was on organ. The song was written in an hour... Brian's melody all the way. The sensitivity... the concept meant a lot to him. When we finished, it was late, after our midnight curfew. In fact, Murry [the Wilson brothers' father] came in a couple of times and wanted me to leave. Anyway, we got Audree [the Wilson brothers' mother], who was putting her hair up before bed, and we played it for her. She said, 'That's the most beautiful song you've ever written.' Murry said, 'Not bad, Usher, not bad,' which was the nicest thing he ever said to me.

Gary Usher (who co-wrote the lyrics with Brian Wilson) further describes that Brian was always saying that his room was his whole world. Brian seconds this opinion: I had a room, and I thought of it as my kingdom. And I wrote that song, very definitely, that you're not afraid when you're in your room. It's absolutely true.

In 1990, Brian wrote, I also enjoyed producing 'In My Room'. There is a story behind this song. When Dennis, Carl and I lived in Hawthorne as kids, we all slept in the same room. One night I sang the song 'Ivory Tower' to them and they liked it. Then a couple of weeks later, I proceeded to teach them both how to sing the harmony parts to it. It took them a little while, but they finally learned it. We then sang this song night after night. It brought peace to us. When we recorded 'In My Room', there was just Dennis, Carl and me on the first verse...and we sounded just like we did in our bedroom all those nights. This story has more meaning than ever since Dennis' death.

SKU: A0.1298167

The song tells a folk tale of a cowboy who has a vision of red-eyed, steel-hooved cattle thundering across the sky, being chased by the spirits of damned cowboys. One warns him that if he does not change his ways, he will be doomed to join them, forever trying to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies.

Stan Jones said he was told the story when he was 12 years old, by an old Native American Apache. He related this story to a boyhood friend. As both boys were looking at the clouds one day, Stan shared the story with him, both looking in amazement as the cloudy shapes were identified as the ghost riders. Years later the story was transposed into lyrics. The melody is based on the Civil War-era popular song When Johnny Comes Marching Home.

Ghost Riders In The Sky has a haunting quality that will capture the imaginations of children of all ages from young to old!

Hundreds of performers have recorded this song, including Vaughn Monroe, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Lawrence Welk, Frankie Laine, Burl Ives, The Outlaws, The Ramrods, Stan Jones, and Johnny Cash.

Learning tracks and the Orchestral Accompniment Track (MP3) available at no cost from the arranger: AAR@prodigy.net.