More on Bob Blue

Daniel Dern wrote to tell me he already owned the Ballad of Erica Levine, and to provide a pointer to a double CD of Bob Blue’s Work. I ordered it. I’m sure his other works are as wonderful as the two I plugged last week, the ballad and Their Way.

As for Daniel’s opinion of Erica Levine: “While I might have heard Bob Blue sing it (presumably on WUMB-FM, etc.),  I'm more familiar with Frankie Armstrong's version” of the song. I've heard her a bunch of times (not for >20 years, sigh). She was, IIRC, one of the first to popularized Peggy Seeger (Pete's sister)'s song, "I Was Gonna Be An Engineer" (note, it's a British song, engineer = somebody who works a machine). She also did a remarkable album with Dave Van Ronk of songs by Berthold Brecht.

In case you've lost track, at least 3 Brecht songs are in the popular/rock music (i.e., beyond the Great American Songbook) repertoire:
The first, of course, is Mack the Knife.
The second, Pirate Jenny.
And the third, from The Doors, Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar).

This concludes today's musical trivia.