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The TOTW this week is Frankie Baker a.k.a. Frankie, Frankie Was A Good Gal, Frankie and Albert, Frankie and Johnny, Leaving Home.
I have worked with this family of tunes in more than 50 years. It started with Pete Seeger’s version of Frankie and Johnnie. Then I bought a songbook (Folk Song U.S.A. by John a. and Alan Lomax) where they had a version called Frankie and Albert. I listened to Charlie Poole’s Leaving Home and heard Mike Seeger performing “Frankie”. I also found a version called Frankie Was A Good Girl in Art Rosenbaum’s first book. I found that there were a lot of similarities between all these versions, but also a lot of differences, which raised my interest for the song.
This fall I had some spare time after a knee surgery so I spent some time to research Franky Baker and try to put all loose threads together. These are my findings.
Background story
The full history of this song (or these songs) is not fully known, and with all sources there are difficulties to distinguish between fact and fiction.
The murder
According to Wikipedia the song was inspired by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in an apartment building located at 212 Targee Street St. Louis, Missouri, at 2:00 on the morning of October 15,1899. Francine “Frankie” Baker (1876 – 1952), a 22-year-old black woman, was a wealthy boarding house owner and prostitute in St. Louis . She met 17-year old Allen Britt (probably mispronounced as “Albert”), a local black piano player at the Orange Blossom ball, and they became lovers and Britt lived with Baker. Frankie Baker shot Allen Britt in the abdomen. Britt had just returned from a cakewalk at a local dance hall, where he and another woman, Nelly Bly (also known as "Alice Pryor" and no relation to the pioneering reporter who adopted the pseudonym Nellie Bly or the "Nelly Bly" who was the subject of an 1850 song by Stephen Foster), had won a prize in a slow-dancing contest. Britt died of his wounds four days later at the City Hospital. On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense; she was acquitted and died later in a Portland, Oregon mental institution in 1952.
As a parenthesis it can be mentioned that in 1935, Baker sued Mae West for $100,000 for incidents in the film She Done Him Wrong for $100,000.
Other theories about the origin
The song has also been linked to Frances "Frankie" Stewart Silver, convicted in 1832 of murdering her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina. Unlike Frankie Baker, Silver was executed.
John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax present in their song book “Folk Song U.S.A.”(copyright 1947, first printing 1966) the theory that the song refers to a murder sometime between 1840 and 1890, and John Lomax claims to have met several people that said they heard the song before 1890.
This may explain why the man sometimes is called Albert and sometimes Johnny (or Johnnie). The names may refer to different murders and the song we hear today is a mix of two or more songs?
In some early versions of the song a Mrs Johnson is mentioned as Albert’s mother. The question is if it was Allen Britt’s mother or if the lyrics refers to another man, perhaps Johnny?
For more information (fact and fiction) about Frankie, read these:
• Wikipedia about Frankie Baker
• Wikipedia about Frankie and Johnny (song)
• An article in SingOut Magazine 30 January, 2012
• Planetslide.com
Early versions of the song
In 1899, popular St Louis balladeer Bill Dooley composed "Frankie Killed Allen" shortly after the Baker murder case. The first published version of the music to "Frankie and Johnny" appeared in 1904, credited to and copyrighted by Hughie Cannon, the composer of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey". The piece, a variant version of whose melody is sung today, was titled "He Done Me Wrong" and subtitled "Death of Bill Bailey".
Another variant of the melody, with words and music credited to Frank and Bert Leighton, appeared in 1908 under the title "Bill You Done Me Wrong"; this song was republished in 1912 as "Frankie and Johnny". This sheet is available on Internet.
Recordings
There are a lot of recordings of different versions of Frankie (Frankie and Albert, Frankie and Johnny and so on). I will mention just a few, that I have found of interest.
Old-Time, pre-WWII
• Frankie and Johnny - Frank Crumit – 1927, (early jazz recording)
• Leaving Home – Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers (1927). The lyrics are identical to the version published by Frank and Bert Leighton 1912, but the melody is different.
• Frankie - John Hurt (1928): and live
• Frankie and Johnny - Jimmie Rodgers (1929)
• Frankie and Albert – Leadbelly
• Gene Autrey
Old-Time Revival 1960-1999
• Frankie Baker – Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham
• Frankie Baker - Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham and Oscar Jenkins
• Frankie Baker - Fred Cockerham (banjo)
• Frankie and Johnny - Roscoe Holcomb
• Frankie - Mike Seeger
Contemporary Old-Time
• Frankie and Albert – Nora Brown and here
• Frankie and Albert - Clifton Hicks: here and here and here
• Frankie Was A Good Girl – Art Rosenbaum
• Leaving Home - Josh Turknet (scroll down on page below Wandering Boy) and video
Folk 1960’s -
• Frankie and Johnny - Pete Seeger
• You’re Gonna Miss Me – Kingston Trio, (warning, avoid listening!)
• Frankie and Johnny – Doc Watson and David Grisman
• Frankie and Johnny - Doc Watson
• Frankie and Johnny - Dock and Merle Watson
• Frankie and Albert - Dave van Ronk
• Frankie and Johnny – Lonnie Donegan
• Frankie and Johnny - Burl Ives
• Frankie and Johnny - Big Bill Broonzy
• Frankie and Johnny (instrumental) – Chet Atkins
Pop and Country
• Frankie and Johnnie - Johnny Cash
• Frankie and Johnnie – Elvis Presley
• Frankie and Johnnie – Elvis Presley, the shooting scene from the movie Frankie and Johnny, 1966.
• Frankie and Albert - Bob Dylan
• Frankie and Johnny - Jerry Lee Lewis
Jazz
• Frankie and Johnny – Louis Armstrong
• Frankie and Johnny – Mae West (from the Movie She Done Him Wrong, 1933)
• Frankie and Johnny - Duke Ellington (Warning, not my taste)
• Frankie and Johnny – Count Basie
Similarities with the song Staggerlee
Another infamous murder ballade is Stagger Lee (Staggerlee, Stagolee) that sounds very close to some Frankie versions. The fact that Allen's murder 1899 took place just a few blocks from where Stagger Lee had killed Billy Lyons four years before, means the two ballads have always tended to get tangled up with one another, swapping fragments of their lyrics at will. For example listen to John Hurt or Tom Pailey.
Movies
Frankie and Johnny has also been subject to several movies (in the fiction genre, not documentary!).
1933: She done him wrong, starring Mae West
1966: Frankie & Johnny, starring Elvis Presley
1991: Frankie & Johnny, starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer
Some discussion about the tune/song
The lyrics have risen several questions. Even if most versions are rather similar there are details that differs. These may depend on that the song versions listed may be based on several earlier songs, based on other earlier murders:
• The man’s name is sometimes Albert (birth name was Allen Britt) and sometimes Johnny or Johnnie. Also, Bill or Billy seems to have occurred at least in the title in early versions.
• In most version Albert/Johnny dies slowly, but in some versions, he seems to die immediately.
• The fate of Frankie. In a version she was sent to ‘lectric chair, in another version she hang herself. However, she seems to have lived to 1952, and she also had a lawsuit against Mae West in 1935.
• In a version Frankie talks to Mrs Johnson who is Albert’s (Allen Britt’s) mother. Shouldn’t she be named Mrs Britt? Perhaps is this Mrs Johnson is referring to another murder?
Most versions seems to have the structure of 12 bar blues: I I I I - IV IV IV I - V7 V7 I I. This may depend on that the song originally had black origin. The Leighton version from 1912 has quit another more developed chord progression. There are also some mono-instrumental versions that more or less have the same chord throughout, for example John Hurt.
The melodies are different. If we compare the melody in the first four measures:
• Old-time version the melody is mostly between the first and third note in the scale.
• Several folk versions of Frankie and Johnny the melody is mostly between the first and sixth note of the scale.
• Some versions have other melodies, for example the Leighton version from 1912 and Charlie Poole’s Leaving Home (however those two version has almost identical lyrics).
Tabs
I have added some tabs into the BHO tab archive. They are in TablEdit with pdf and midi files . The lyrics are added to the tab.
• Frankie and Johnny, arranged by Deighton Brother 1912, played 3-finger, (open D tuning f#DF#AD)
• Frankie and Albert from John and Alan Lomax’ Folk Song U.S.A, clawhammer version (printed 1947) (G tuning)
• Leaving Home, based on Charlie Poole’s version, but arranged for clawhammer (double C tuning)
• Frankie and Johnny based on Pete Seeger, arranged for clawhammer (key of A, G tuning capo 2)
• My own version, clawhammer and thumb lead (G tuning)
I also put together tabs of about ten different versions in a separate pdf file, that is enclosed to this post. Most of the songs have full lyrics ( I am thankful for any input of this item!).
Edited by - janolov on 01/17/2025 07:49:12
Thank you so, so much. What a wonderful silver lining to the knee business, which I'm sure was non-trivial and hope will turn out OK.
I posted my own finger-style (?) plucked version of John Hurt's Frankie&Albert some years ago: https://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/audio_player2.asp?musicid=41219&archived= Of course, over the years, its gotten more fluid, but that recording has the idea.
You've out-done yourself this time, Jan! I looked for a version to try yet one more clawhammer arrangement. When I heard Tommy Jarrell with Fred Cockerham I was intrigued. It has a crooked feel, typical for their style, and has 10 measures, as opposed to the more familiar Pete Seeger one that you tabbed with 12 measures. There are two tabs for Frankie Baker in a tab book called Fred Cockerham & Tommy Jarrell, Clawhammer Banjo Masters by Bob Carlin and Dan Levenson. I attempted to play their tabs in f#BEAD tuning, which were both nice. The only thing missing was the first bottom note, so I switched to cello banjo and found it was tuned and ready to go in another tuning, equivalent to open G tuning. It got the bottom note I wanted, which is actually a pick-up note and similarly is played by Jarrell's fiddle in the second full measure.
Interestingly, the painting you included above, entitled "Frankie and Johnny" is by a favorite painter of my husband's -- Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975). I found this hand-written information by him in a book we have: "From section of Missouri Mural at MO State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO. The incident according to legend happened in St. Louis though the tune in various forms is earlier than the 1890 St. Louis story. Anyhow the story is a part of Missouri mythology, like the Jesse James and Huck Finn stories." In a second book we have, further information stated it was painted in oil and egg tempera on linen mounted on a panel, 7' X 12'. Benton was a master of mural-making, and some may know of him through his famous last painting called "The Origins of Country Music," finished, but unsigned due to his death that evening (according to a Ken Burns film, worth watching).
I have had an interest in this song over the years and it dovetails a lot with my music history interests as well as my interest in the ragtime and blues and the banjo and done a little work on it on and off over the years.
As we tend to look at a bit more than it should the way we might look at a traditional folk song when it was a major popular song crossing the ragtime and blues genre, and part of general popular music, especially in the kind of sing along popular singing that was popular singing that was popular at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century, a song that most people who sang knew, a song widely disseminated in sheet music, and in song sheets, and in the printing of verses in newspapers and magazines before it went away.
I guess I am still firmly wedded to Charlie Poole's version of it he called "Leaving Home." Of course, Leaving Home like so many of Poole's other recordings was a version of a published ragtime version of it.,
I feel bad that Poole's popularity in the revival which was huge in the 60s has more or less disappeared so to the old time jam crowd of today you say "Charlie Poole" and most folks say "who". So many of his tunes were simply ripping off published ragtime songs, many being coon songs that he cleaned up sometimes, but not always. Poole wanted to recording straight ragtime instrumentals and songs, but the record company told him his "hillbilly" stuff sold fantastically and they could go out on 14 street (he recorded at a studio around Union Square) and get 10 better ragtime banjoists.,
To me the appropriate banjo approach of this is in what Stewart called the guitar style of banjo or "classic" banjo. This is the way Gus Cannon preferred to play the banjo and probably other players of blues especially blues influenced by ragtime.
Again, as I said in my birthday greeting a day or so ago, the generosity that Janet and others like her have shown to the banjo world is something we should be grateful for and emulate . Thank You Janet!
In the 1920s and 1930s Thomas Hart Benton was a friend of Charles Seeger, the father of Pete and Mike and Peggy and Penny. He was an avid folk music enthusiast and I believe played the guitar. Interestingly enough for urban folk enthusiasts, Benton realized the connection betweem commercial old time music recordings going on in the 20s and the early 30s and his folk music enthusiasm, which many urban folk music enthusiasts did not. Michael Seeger wrote that he can remembeer that during his childhood Benton brought Dock Boggs recordings to their home and played them for Mike's father!
quote:
Originally posted by writerrad
Again, as I said in my birthday greeting a day or so ago, the generosity that Janet and others like her have shown to the banjo world is something we should be grateful for and emulate . Thank You Janet!
Thank you for the kind words, Tony. Perhaps our birthday is the same -- January 13. I recall that Thomas Hart Benton played harmonica and looked for scenes in the Ken Burns documentary with him playing. His wife, Rita, apparently played guitar. Another interesting note of information in the film is that the painting in the Frankie and Johnny mural is of Benton's favorite painting of Custard's Last Stand.
Photos courtesy of Thomas Hart Benton from the Ken Burns America Collection.
Edited by - JanetB on 01/18/2025 16:17:31
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