Back Cover

Ten years ago, in the pages of the Atlantic Monthly , Joseph Bottum took on the overarching problem of the emptiness inherent in so much that passes for music, that white noise we hear everywhere - and was soundly attacked for doing so. In the interim, he has come back to the problem, to dig into the vast riches to be found in forgotten folk ditties, ballads, hymns, and popular tunes, and has sought to revivify them with lyrics worthy of their haunting melodies, which somehow cut to the marrow of the soul. In this, he has succeeded beyond what one would have thought possible, by way of a fierce critical intelligence and a terrific sense of the comedy of errors we call the human condition. Let the music and the lyrics and the brilliance even of his footnotes wash over you, and see what it does for you. My guess is that the hissing sound-bite Muzak of public and private spaces will never sound the same to you again. Without irony, new possibilities - such as poets like Hopkins, the young Pound, and Auden hoped for - will begin to reveal themselves as surely as the fresh dawn rising. - Paul Mariani The poet and critic Joseph Bottum has managed to produce something genuinely original and quite brilliant: fine new words for good old tunes. His lyrics breathe vitality into some of our most wonderful folk melodies. - Robert P. George, McCormick Professor, Princeton University "Make it new!" advised Ezra Pound. That's exactly what Joseph Bottum has done in this spritely and memorable collection of songs. Looking about American culture today, it's easy to recoil in gloom. But Mr. Bottum reminds us that we look too partially if we see only the meretricious, superficial, and degraded. There is a new current of vitality coursing through American cultural life, a current that is life- and beauty- and joy-affirming. I offer The Second Spring as Exhibit A in the brief for cultural renewal. Here are songs that elevate, enthrall, and ensorcell. Mr. Bottum has reinvigorated a plump score of traditional tunes with lyrics that Make it New indeed. - Roger Kimball, editor and publisher, The New Criterion Prima la parola, dopo la musica, goes the old saying - "First the words, then the music." Or is it the other way around? In any case, they go together like a horse and carriage (words by Sammy Cahn, music by Jimmy Van Heusen). Joseph Bottum has given us bolts of melody, lyrics for tunes old and new. Learn them, sing them - and look forward to this extraordinary writer's next batch. - Jay Nordlinger, National Review Joseph Bottum has mixed and shaken three great ingredients to create one of the most stunning publishing events I know of: Twenty-some of the most haunting popular verses of the last four hundred years, given new life in lovely and faithful poems by Bottum himself, and set to (mostly new) music. Sit down at the piano, play them, expand the minds of all who sing along - you will see what I mean. You will tap or stomp your feet, hush, laugh, and shed a tear or two. This is popular music the way it was meant to be, and actually was, before the secular dreck of today's shameless record companies! - Michael Novak, journalist, novelist, and diplomat, and the author of more than twenty-five books on the philosophy and theology of culture.

Author Biography

JOSEPH BOTTUM is the editor of "First Things, "the former literary editor of "The Weekly Standard, "and host of the nationally syndicated radio show "Book Talk," His writings have appeared in" The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post," and "National Review." He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1.       The Windfall               to the early 19th-century English melody "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" 2.       Joy Will Keep Us              a Christmas carol 3.       The Long Grass              to the 19th-century Scottish lament "Mist-Covered Mountains of Home" 4.       He Will Wake to the Fire              to the 1835 shape-note melody "The Babe of Bethlehem" 5.       The Reason for the Light              adapted from the 1860 parlor song "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets" 6.       My House Is an Orchestra              to the 1701 longways dance "The Bishop of Bangor's Jig" 7.       The Faeries' Farewell              to the 1803 Shetland fiddle tune "Winyadepla" 8.       The Western Gate              to the sentimental 18th-century Irish melody "Snowy Breasted Pearl" 9.       The Rain and Wind              to the 18th-century Appalachian folk tune "The Golden Vanity" 10.    Suzanne Asleep              a pop song 11.    The Dean in the End Will Rise              to the scurrilous 1720 broadside "Duke Upon Duke" 12.    Dream, Pretty Baby              a lullaby 13.    The Only Hurry Is Our Own              to Michael Praetorius' 1612 Italian dance "Courante 183" 14.    My Love Sees the Rain              to the 18th-century Appalachian plaint "Pretty Saro" 15.    The Apple Revels              to the possibly 18th-century "Gower Wassail" 16.    Down by the Greenwood              to the 17th-century English ballad "Henry Martin" 17.    Holdin' On              a country-western song 18.    The Rose Once Cut for Me              to the 18th-century French folk tune "Sur les Bords de la Loire" 19.    Such Joys Our Savior Brings              to the 1871 Christmas anthem "Listen, Lordings, Unto Me" 20.    Wherever She May Be              a Nashville song 21.    The Children              to the late-medieval English ballad "Sir Lionel and the Boar" 22.    The Lilac and the Rose              a ballad 23.    The Second Spring              to the 13th-century Galician-Portuguese cantiga "Des Oge Mais"  Appendix: The Soundtracking of America

Description for Bookstore

In The Second Spring , the widely published author Joseph Bottum pens what may be the most original cultural undertaking in decades - an attempt to heal the damaged poetry of our time with an infusion of music, and an effort to strengthen the weak music of our age with an injection of poetry. Ten years ago, in the pages of the Atlantic Monthly , Bottum published an essay called "The Soundtracking of America," a much-attacked account of the misuse of music in contemporary culture. Now, with The Second Spring , he comes at the problem from the other side, as a lyricist rather than a critic. Selecting twenty-four haunting melodies, from a 13th-century Galician-Portuguese cantiga to a modern country/western tune, Bottum composes new verses that both stand alone as poems and reach deep into the roots of the musical genres in which they stand. Hymns, lullabies, folk tunes, pop songs, dirges, shape-note spirituals, broadsides, and Renaissance Italian dances - The Second Spring explores all these without sarcasm or mockery, allowing each genre to express itself within its natural form. The Second Spring contains the lyrics, melodies, and new piano arrangements (with guitar chords) for twenty-four songs: new words to old music. With an introduction and, as an appendix, the text of "The Soundtracking of America," this book is a vital and significant event in the nation's artistic culture.

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