Michael

September 1961

Next up is an adaptation of a black American spiritual that should be familiar to damn near everyone. It's "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and it's sort of a campfire classic, I guess. Easy as pie to play and sing, and it always seems to come out pretty well. The subject of this entry is the Highwaymen's version, which I'd say is probably the most well-known recording of the song:

This is pretty typical of popular music of the 20th century: music borrowed from black culture, then whitified for the masses. That was apparently the modus operandi of this group – here's their other major hit from the following year, an adaptation of a Leadbelly song:

It just doesn't sound quite right coming out of the mouths of these preppy white college boys. But the American populace ate this stuff right up. Just look at the major popular trend of the first half of the century: jazz. The revolutionary music genre was codified by black Americans, but generally the most successful music of the time was produced by whites in a much more toned-down, easy listening style. It's what the people want.

Not that this song, in this version, is all that bad. Actually, it's all right by me. I'd say it's such an innately good song that it would be pretty hard to screw up. It's catchy without being annoying; a perfect balance. And the Highwaymen's reading of it is pretty straightforward. They don't do anything outlandish with it. It works.

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