Solidarity forever
Red diaper babies Cat, Lionel, and Leon Fullerton all fell close to the tree, spending a lot of their adult lives among unions, civil rights groups, peaceniks, and other desirabless. Leon, in particular, made himself useful, both musically and with anything else that needed doing.
He was a chronicler. The stories he sang were sometimes uplifting, sometimes grim. Those songs were never about himself. As he explained to Brownie McGee, who had given young Fullerton a few pointers on blues picking: "I'd rather sing about interesting people."
Here, culled from other pages on this website, are demos of some of his songs of struggle, recorded in reliably (or at least predictably) haphazard fashion by his nephews Ray and Del and son Jasper, a.k.a. the Outcasts.
He was a chronicler. The stories he sang were sometimes uplifting, sometimes grim. Those songs were never about himself. As he explained to Brownie McGee, who had given young Fullerton a few pointers on blues picking: "I'd rather sing about interesting people."
Here, culled from other pages on this website, are demos of some of his songs of struggle, recorded in reliably (or at least predictably) haphazard fashion by his nephews Ray and Del and son Jasper, a.k.a. the Outcasts.
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The songs:
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> See "Heat Lightning" lyrics and notes at Blame It On Memphis. |
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There once was a union maid,
she never was afraid of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid. She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called, and when the Legion boys come 'round she always stood her ground. Woody Guthrie |
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