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Stan Rogers was a Canadian folk singer...this was spawned by his Wreck of the Athens Queen

Blind Joe's Curve
© 2023 John Voorpostel



The sun was setting in the west and we were on the porch
Before we poured a second whiskey crashing sounds were heard
Time to go get up growled Bob as he got up to leave
He headed out to Blind Joe’s Curve just down the road a piece
Heading out to Blind Joe’s Curve just down the road a piece

I got my barrow waiting outside tore right after Bob
I knew whoever got there first got bragging rights for sure
It happens every now and then the sun sets in that bend
Catching drivers unawares they miss whole lot a things
Catching drivers unawares they scatter lots of things

Now Bennie took the hindmost with his polyester bags
The big kind, matching luggage, they hold a pile of swag
Bob and me and Bennie made the curve in seconds flat
Cried eureka all at once so much to carry back
We cried eureka all at once so much to carry back

Strewn there on the road before us liquor by the case
The truck had stopped just off the curve a little up the way
The driver gestured on his phone as he was calling in
While I just calmly filled my barrow bottles to the brim
While I just calmly filled my barrow bottles to the brim

A toast to Bob and Bennie and a big one to our curve
It takes a bit of vigilance, some quickness and some nerve
A county slow with maintenance means much drinking on the porch
And when we’re out we know that we can always get some more
Yes when we’re out we know where we can always get some more

Bob dug the road holes in the curve himself a few years back
Now we’re better for his vision and the things that we can tax
We use our fancy tollbooth to collect what we pick up
Just some things in Blind Joe’s Curve that tumble off a truck
Just some things in Blind Joe’s Curve that tumble off a truck

So thank you Bob
And Blind Joe’s curve
For everything in Blind Joe’s Curve that tumbles off a truck
For everything in Blind Joe’s Curve that tumbles off a truck

You should say "Hello" and tell us the story behind your songs in the video

It's a fun song, John, and clever too. A couple of lines where you have to squeeze all the words in, but a nice folk melody and you bring the characters alive. I can imagine this going down really well live.

I googled The Wreck of the Athens Queen but wasn't able to figure out if it was a real ship. There was a real incident during World War 2 when a ship carrying 22,000 cases of whisky ran aground on the little island of Eriskay in the Hebrides. It formed the basis of a novel and film called Whisky Galore. Apparently, bottles are still turning up in various hiding places on the island

Finally, a song about the pothole mafia. 😊

Hard enough to get things down without flubbing Tony..... I just start again...right back in....and miss the niceties

Yeah I can slow it down a little Gavin and it won't sound rushed...and I think it was pure fiction on the part of Stan to write it.
Not hard to think the Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was influenced by White Squall...

Yup Mac..love the Pothole Mafia description...will steal that as part of the intro if you don't mind...

Thank you everyone for checking this out

Kinda reminds me a bit of the Jan and Dean classic "Dead Man's Curve", which one of them actually lived in real life. Wondering if that song was an inspiration for this as well?

Nope....totally Stan Rogers inspired Beechnut ...thank you for listening to this

Nice John, the story comes across like a real historical event. Very creative

Thank you Chester...had a great role model so it came pretty easily

John,

I also thought about Dead Man's Curve from the 60's. Enjoyed your story and energy!

steady-eddie

Stan Rogers might have inspired but it's definitely a Voorpostel original...nice job John

Stan Rogers is big here on the coast with an annual festival in Canso on Cape Breton Island

Steve

Great song, John, and the lyrical style harkens back to songs of old that rely on catchy meter and colorful storytelling and reminds me of Christy Moore (still going strong) and (of course) Canada's Stan Rogers who, like Chicago's Steve Goodman, made quite an impact on the folk world despite his short life.

Fairly original in how the narrator is in on some naughty stuff and quite proudly without much justification and/or rationalizing, just the line "A county slow with maintenance" --like a song from a pirate's POV, something I could imagine Randy Newman writing (but in a completely different musical style) cuz you force me to hear the singer as an antihero/scoundrel. When it's announced his (presumed) friend Bob dug the holes himself, the deal is sealed, and I am confronted with a singer taking part in a pirate-ish plunder scheme that has probably caused if not deaths at least some injuries, and I feel like I am inside the mind of one of the perpetrators, and come to understand how some crimes can be committed in this world with the thinnest of justifications (if any) and that it's a whole group of drinking guys that brings "threshold theory" into the mix-in-my-mind, and so, as a result, I have a wonderfully "complicated" reaction to this song! Especially when I take into account the fun, slighly/slightly humorous tone of the lyric.

My only wish is you keep playing it every day for another month or so and think you can have a more definitive performance as I feel you getting a little lost in the later verses and aren't "owning" the material like you really need to in order to pull off such a massive story song really well, and the guitar playing is great but the guitar itself seems slighly out-of-tune and could benefit from being tuned up a little better.

Guitar is out of tune but that untuning has alot to do with how your strumming it @ John, lol.

I understand you are a lyricist primarily so im not gonna harp on that. But it is important to add some melody to your words, your melody is an aferthought

I would suggest trimming down the lyrics some, you dont need 5 perfectly metered lines up and down the page.

But i could see this as a Irish or Scottish ballad, wolfe tones or something, who i happen to like. Folksie rebel music.

Nope Eddie it just had to spring from the situation and I think Blind Joe was a total spur of the moment kinda name for the curve I needed

Thanks Steve..the more I play it the better it gets

Hi Michael and wow thank you for the in depth thoughts on this and your complicated reactions...taking a key plot device to tragic consequences because that would certainly be a possibility
Definitely an increase in the scoundrel scale to an unintended level.
And yes. Practice. Practice....Repeat. That performance was definitely early to young version and has improved since
Still a CPA and doing tax returns and other things so I am happy when I get something decent I can get up to youtube
Out of tuning comment taken as that was the end of multiple takes and I should have checked my tuning.
And I love how precise your ear is...how precise ears can be.
Must come in handy when crafting operas..

Hiya FD and thanks for listening in. Early to young and much improving song as I play it.
Melody gets better too with repetition and thanks for the line metering suggestions as a way to play with it as I work on it

Thank you everyone...

"Scoundrel scale" put a smile on my face.

I think "crashing sounds were heard" ("crashing" infers crashing into something) combined with knowing these "accidents" were rather frequent left me with little choice but to imagine that there were at least some injuries. Nothing wrong with a complicated reaction, though.

But yeah, I look forward to future performances of this!

Mike

Ok Michael...will change crashing to screeching because your point is well taken....don't want these guys to be seen as criminal\evil\harmful


Thank you!

Well, now I can imagine these guys are just exploiting a problem and justifying what they do as a way to get the "county" to act faster, even though that makes them a little on the dumb side since Bob created the pot holes himself. The ends can sometimes justify the means, but in this case, would there be a "screeching problem" at all without the potholes?

It does work more for me, though they're still kinda robbing people, but hey! At least no one's getting hurt, now.

The only thing that really matters is that these guys, together, are all helping to convince themselves and each other and then re-enforce the idea that what they are doing is totally justified. It would have been hard to retain that idea if I knew these guys had to sleep at night knowing they were sending people to the hospital.

And of course, another possibility is that these guys aren't dumb: they know they are thieves and just don't talk (or care) about it.

My reaction is now a most excellent kind of complicated, where you paint a picture and tell a convincing story of how a small group of guys who want something (booze and other plunder) probably just can't come to the realization that their "want" has clouded their reasoning, as they believe that their thievery, which they probably don't even think of as thievery, is justified. The only thing that's important, here, is that THEY believe that, not you, me, or anyone else. You've created a universe, now, that is totally consistent within itself.

And that remains true even if they know they are thieves. Very gangsta! This could work as a Canadian gangsta rap!

MC Goin' Postel?

EDIT: I finally realize that what you have here is a kind of hybrid, John. The music resembles trad folk and the lyric resembles "gangsta rap" --at least in it's morality. In Gangsta Rap, thievery is dealt with simularly, with little to no justification for the act other than "gettin' paid" oft times. So that begs the question, will the lyric, as such, work with a trad folk audience since the expectation is that the theft be justified? That's why I kept trying to create ''moral justification'' in the minds of the characters. Maybe there is none, and that perhaps only an audience willing to enjoy a hybrid where the thievery is not really justified while the music is folk--can find the song "works" for them.

And I say, in all earnestness and sincerity, party on, Bob, Bennie, and ummm...the singer!

I enjoyed this, John. Good story........fun stuff!

Nothing like some deep thinking Michael...thank you for the heavy lifting
I never considered the morality angle but it is important...which is why I changed the screeching...
Not sure if I can make them any dumber

Thanks Tom...always like it when you drop by