"Ballad of Shelby Foote"

[mnaz]

“Ballad of Jed Clampett.. I mean, Shelby Foote”

Come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Foote
A Civil War buff, he knew all the guns they shoot
And then one day, reenacting Pickett’s Charge
He tripped on a rock like a bumbling sarge.
(sergeant, that is... Enlisted grunt)

Well the first thing you know old Foote’s on radio
He said strategy lagged behind the new techno
Them new rifles shoot quite a fur, fur piece
So why did they run straight into their teeth?
(Richmond!... Bull Run!)

Now Foote, he shared his wisdom, right before the end
High-minded words and they gone around the bend
Said, war will never settle anything that’s real
But his war settled, a bloody great deal
(Slavery!... The Union!)

Now Shelby he admitted only philosophically
The South was on the wrong side of justice, we can see
But if he’d been alive then, he would have worn the gray
Because they were his people, and come what may
(Tribal war! Kills, that is…)

(Cue up Flatt and Scruggs)

Note: Shelby Foote passed in 2005. His writings were the backbone of a popular TV series about the American Civil War, in which he dutifully illustrated scene after scene of mass-savagery in his gentle Southern inflection. I found some of his commentary interesting. I was in Tucson at the time. Scribbled a little ditty in my notebook.

[mb]

that was a fun take on Foote and the 'War Against Northern Aggression'. I visited Gettysburg last summer, spent time on both ends of Pickett's Charge, thinking, wondering, on the lookout for old ghosts moving up the line.

Foote seemed very much the soft-spoken, intelligent southern gentleman. Someone you wish you might have had a conversation with.

-mb

[judih]

i can hear the banjos string along to this bio piece.
love how you mused with the tune to immortalize him.

[hester_prynne]

Dig it!
I'm hummin it!
H

[mnaz]

Just messin' a little with Foote (R.I.P.). He sure knew a lot about that damn war. Anyone who knows an awful lot about that war (and stages elaborate "reenactments" and such) gives me a mild case of the heebies in general, but anyway... Sometimes I wonder how we think we're going to basically "conquer the world," when 5 generations or so ago we tried to to annihilate ourselves, and until just a couple generations back certain of our citizens had to ride the back of the bus. I wish us luck.

...had this one kickin' around for 5 years, from that trip (the 2nd one) when I went to visit Cec & Sooz. Thought I'd toss it on. The first stanza is the funniest. Thanks mb, judih & Hest