Sunday Morning Coming Down | City Reliquary Museum | Ancient Rome | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Today’s tune on this Easter Sunday is Sunday Morning Coming Down by Johnny Cash. The song was originally written by Kris Kristofferson in 1969. Cash’s cover of the tune had its peak at #1 on Billboard’s US Country Hot 100 in 1970. This is one of my dad’s favorite songs, he’d listen to it growing up on my aunt Carmel’s cassette.
Sounds like he had a fun Saturday night, we’ve all been there.
Classic hair of the dog. Did you know that the original saying was “Hair of the dog thatbit you”? Makes a ton of sense.
Great line, he’s saving water by not washing. Speaking of men’s hygiene can we get a consensus on how long you can go without washing a pair of jeans? Goes without saying, that if they’re not stained and you’re not sweating in them, they don’t smell… Fine, I’ll wash mine later.
Love a stumble reference on a Stumblin’ Along song, those are my favorites. This song was written by Kristofferson when he was living in a run-down tenement in Nashville. At the time, he was a janitor for Columbia Records. Not necessarily the profession you’d expect a man with a master’s degree from Oxford University and someone who had risen to the rank of captain in the US Army. He wanted to be a songwriter so he swept the floors of Columbia Records, waiting to catch his break.
Uh-oh, it’s one thing if he’s a mess inside his own home. Now he’s Stumblin’ out in public.
Kristofferson’s writing is great because it’s all fairly simple words, but it’s poetic how descriptive it is.
The last time I heard this song, my dad told me it reminded him of growing up in Connemara. He was just a kid so I don’t think he was hungover, but Sundays could sometimes be a bit gray like this tune.
When Johnny Cash performed this song on ABC’s The Johnny Cash Show, ABC tried to censor Cash by asking him to sing, "Wishing, Lord, that I was home." Cash didn’t care. He sang it just the way Kristofferson wrote it and even stressed the “stoned” lyric. Classic Johnny Cash.
Many of Kristoferrson’s songs aren’t so much about the fun he had the night before but the aftermath the next day. Sunday hangovers are defintiely lonely.
The original story of how the janitor at Columbia Records caught his break was from his military experience, Kristofferson knew how to fly commercial helicopters. Legend has it that he flew his National Guard helicopter to Johnny Cash’s front yard where he delivered this demo tape. Kristofferson told the San Luis Obispo Tribune in ‘08…
“I knew John before then. I'd been his janitor at the recording studio, and I'd pitched him every song I ever wrote, so he knew who I was. But it was still kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn't recommend. To be honest, I don't think he was there. He had a whole story about me getting out of the helicopter with a tape in one hand and a beer in the other. John had a pretty creative memory but I would never have disputed his version of what happened because he was so responsible for any success I had as a songwriter and performer. He put me on the stage the first time I ever was, during a performance at the Newport Folk Festival.”
After landing the helicopter, Kristofferson made Cash listen to the demo tape. Once Cash heard Sunday Morning Coming Down, he “liked his songs so much that I would take them off and not let anybody else hear them." The rest is history as Kris Kristofferson would go on to win 4 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in ‘14. Even at 87 years old today, he still performs his music. Both men are absolute legends.
Before performing this song on The Johnny Cash Show, he introduced this song with a monologue that said…
“You know, not everyone who has been on 'the bum' wanted it that way. The Great Depression of the 30s set the feet of thousands of people—farmers, city workers—it set 'em to ridin' the rails. My Daddy was one of those who hopped a freight train a couple of times to go and look for work. He wasn't a bum. He was a hobo but he wasn't a bum. I suppose we've all....all of us 'been at one time or another 'drifter at heart', and today like yesterday there's many that are on that road headin' out. Not searchin' maybe for work, as much as for self-fulfillment, or understanding of their life...trying to find a *meaning* for their life. And they're not hoppin' freights much anymore. Instead, they're thumbin' cars and diesel trucks along the highways from Maine to Mexico. And many who have drifted...including myself...have found themselves no closer to peace of mind than a dingy backroom, on some lonely Sunday morning, with it comin' down all around you."
Excellent tune, with an even better backstory behind it.
On to Stumblin’ Along history…
Easter Facts
With Easter Sunday being the primetime of church going for all of us Christians, you’ll learn more about the significance of the Resurrection of Jesus at mass. For everybody who celebrates, it’s a massive religious day, but Week to Week Notes’ job falls more in line with investigating what the deal is with all the Bunny and Eggs… So, I concocted a list of 10 Fun Facts about Easter. As one does, I did my research using The Pioneer Woman and Good Housekeeping. What? The women love Easter so they know.
10. The Easter Bunny is German.
Germans started celebrating the tradition of Osterhase as early as the 1500s. The Easter Bunny didn’t get Americanized until the Germans immigrated to America in the 18th century. There is a bit more on Osterhase at #1.
9. Easter vs Halloween is an underrated rivalry.
This was a shocker. Who would’ve thought Halloween has a low-key-high-key rivalry with Easter on candy sales?
8. The mass production of Jelly Beans.
Jelly Beans have been around since at least the American Civil War. The Bostonian, William Schrafft, urged people to gift jelly beans to Union soldiers. (Source: Way Back Machine) The candy started to take off as a mass-produced candy during the 1930s as a gift for kids on Easter Sunday. The majority of the population claims the red as their favorite flavor.
7. We eat a lot of chocolate…like a lot of chocolate.
Around 90 million chocolate bunnies are sold for Easter in the United States alone.
6. Easter keeps Peeps afloat.
Peeps make 2 billion marshmallow chicks per year. That averages out to about 5.5 million per day. I’m assuming the vast majority of these get eaten on Easter. Good Housekeeping suggests dipping your peeps in melted chocolate, great new recommendation.
5. The origins of the name Easter.
The name stems from the Anglo-Saxon goddess named Eostre. Scholars believe pagans would have festivals to celebrate her to represent the start of spring. Her sacred symbols were eggs and hares so that makes sense.
4. White House Easter Egg Roll.
Since President Rutherford B. Hayes, the White House’s South Lawn has been host to an Easter Egg Roll. It is one of the oldest White House annual traditions. Some historians say that First Lady Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison, must have suggested the egg roll when they were in office from 1809 to 1817. Allegedly even Abraham Lincoln may have hosted some too, but they were recognized as informal. (Source: White House History)
3. Cadbury Creme Eggs rebranded.
The Cadbury Creme Eggs we know today were invented back in 1923. In 1963, they started to be sold under the name Fry's Creme Eggs. It wasn’t until 1971 that they got their current name Cadbury Creme Eggs. Good call but I wonder why they felt the need to change from Fry’s?
2. The reason for colored eggs.
Some believe we dye our eggs to represent the blood of Christ. Others believe it’s because they look nice and kids are more likely to eat them instead of the brown or white everyday egg. It may have also come from the Osterhase story below.
1. Easter Egg hunt origins.
The legend of Osterhase has it that a poor woman living in Germany decorated eggs with colors for her children to find in their garden. As soon as the kids found the hidden eggs, they claimed they saw a large hare hopping away. Medieval origins of eggs symbolized fertility and rebirth, which coincide well with spring, and the resurrection of Christ. That’s sorta how we got Easter Sunday.
Quite a few Sundays ago, somehow in my drunken stupor, I Stumbled Along to The City Reliquary in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The museum filled with cool New York City history is open on Saturdays and Sundays from Noon to 6 PM. For a $10 visit, you can see a ton of cool relics from The City. This week's Stumblin’ Along on Week to Week Notes features another piece on the history of Wooden Brick roads and sidewalks.
Pictured above is a wooden brick of the last known remaining wooden sidewalk in New York City. It was taken from West Street at Greenpoint in Brooklyn. I always assumed that the cobblestones we sometimes see on old City streets were the only roads people would walk over besides dirt before cement pavement. Wooden bricks were also used back in the 1800s. The old gravel, cobblestones, and granite blocks, would sometimes often come loose. Horse manure would get trapped between the joints of the stones. This was a massive everyday problem we wouldn’t even think about much today but in 1870 half a million cartloads of manure had to be removed from the city streets.
The New York Times came out in favor of wooden blocks as an alternative. When they were properly constructed, the wood would offer a smoother surface, be a bit quieter, and wouldn’t get disjointed so manure wouldn’t get trapped under them. The downside, of course, is that wood rots away and would eventually give off its own nasty scent. They would tar the wooden streets, which offered a brief respite from decay, but this would then make the streets flammable and the creosote smell also had some funk to it. Plus, horses don’t just stool, they also piss so the wooden blocks would absorb it and would get slippery. I’d say, we have it pretty good today.
While we’re on the subject, the first street in New York City to ever be paved by anything other than dirt or gravel was Stone Street. The Dutch laid down cobblestones on what they called Hoogh Straet way back in 1655. The man behind the wooden pavement was named Samuel Nicolson. He experimented with wooden roads up in Boston around 1848 before the idea behind it came about in New York in the 1860s. Broadway, Mercer Street, State Street, Greenwich Street, 24th Street, Rector Street, and Maiden Lane all had wood pavement at one time so it was very popular for its time. By the early 1900s, concerned citizens had enough of the rotting roads so eventually, we got the cement we see today. You can still find remnants of wooden blocks in The City, such as a small rectangle of the wooden pavement on Wall Street.
This Week’s Bit on The Roman Empire
This week your quick bit on The Roman Empire brought to you by Week to Week Notes featuring Ancient Rome: The Exhibition in New York is on the Roman Water Clock.
Water clocks were quite complex. In the type above, the principle of the clock utilizes 3 tanks with adjustable taps to regulate the water flow to mark the passage of time. The advantage to the water clock over last week’s sundials was that you could use the water clock indoors and at night time.
Many are now wondering how it worked…
The water would be emptied into the top of the tank to keep it running. This water would then feed into a secondary holding tank on a lower level through an adjustable valve. The holding tank is what controls the water level. Due to this, the holding tank would feed the water into the final tank at a constant pressure, ensuring the clock’s speed doesn’t slow down as the water pressure becomes weaker, which would occur if the water level of the holding tank was too low. The final tank uses a float connected to a graduated rod which floats on the water’s surface and marks the passing of the hours as the last tank fills.
All that seems a bit much for my brain to comprehend. Sounds cool, but couldn’t they have just checked their iPhones?
Here’s an interesting finisher, did you know the ROman hour was not a set period of time? Unlike the hours we use today which are set to a period of 60 minutes (duh). Instead, the Romans divided the total amount of daylight in a day by 12. This meant that Roman hours were longer in the summer, which could last up to 75 minutes when there was more daylight. This also meant that their hours would be shorter in the winter when an hour could be as short as about 45 minutes. Thus, water clocks needed to be regulated by adjusting the valves between the tanks in accordance with sundials to ensure that they reflected the correct hour length for the current time of year. That’s pretty interesting.
YouTube Rabbithole
Kris Kristofferson & Johhny Cash - Sunday Morning Coming Down (1978 Johnny Cash Christmas Show)