Hank Williams: Recalling the Last Ride

"I don’t write ‘em. I just hang onto the pen and God sends ‘em through.”

– Hank Williams

Hiram “Hank” Williams ranks among the most powerfully iconic figures in American music. As Williams became one of America's first country music stars, he set the bar for contemporary country songcraft. No one has eclipsed his great influence in the genre, and it's likely no one ever will. 

Williams composed thirty-one of the singles he released during his six-year career; as well as posthumous work including: singles, compilation albums, and previously unreleased material. During his lifetime, he placed thirty songs on Billboard's Top C&W Records, while he had seven number one hits. Almost 100 of his songs came into national prominence.

Of Williams' many songs, these are just ten of the more memorable works:

"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
"I Saw the Light"
"Your Cheatin' Heart"
"Ramblin' Man"
"Moanin' the Blues"
"Kaw-Liga"
"Move It On Over"
"Cold, Cold Heart"
“I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)”
“Lovesick Blues”

The incredible simplicity and stark emotional impact of Hank's music has been long noted as the alchemy of a musical genius. Andrew Romano, senior writer for Newsweek and The Daily Beast wrote ...

“His (William's) work was a perfect storm of sorts. Individually, every element of a Williams record – his lyrics, his music, his voice – was memorable. But it's the way those parts combined into a seemingly inevitable whole – the way they reflected and amplified each other – that made him great, rather than merely good.

“Hank's music—a blend of the blues he learned from a local busker and the Appalachian hill songs he heard at home—served as a kind of musical onomatopoeia for heartbreak; his lyrics put that feeling into words. They locked together like puzzle pieces: note by note, syllable by syllable.

And then there was Williams's voice: a seismic instrument that registered every shockwave of sadness or rage as it reverberated outward from somewhere inside him. He wasn't just singing about heartbreak; he actually sounded heartbroken. That's why "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" seems indivisible: like all the best pop records, it convinces the listener that only this voice could sing those words over that melody. It couldn't exist in any other form.”

(Andrew Romano. “The Ghostwriter.” GQ. October 3, 2011.)

With an $8 guitar and a melancholy voice, Williams, a poor Alabama country boy, set out on his meteoric rise to fame and fortune. Reflecting his own troubled experiences, most his songs portrayed the love and loss of sad and lonesome souls. Although he left an incredible body of songs, it is notable that upon departing his brief life, he left no in-depth interviews and just a few letters. According to songwriter Danny Dill, Hank held a fascination for the dark side of life.

“Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves began to die?
Like me, he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry”

“I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry” Hank Williams

In 1952 alone, despite physical deterioration, he recorded 89 songs. In the same year, his public drunkenness led the Grand Ole Opry to fire him. Williams had missed an appearance two days earlier, and it wasn’t the first time. A heavy drinker caught up in a barely-understood addiction to painkillers, the singer’s behavior had becoming increasingly erratic – something especially troubling to the music establishment.

“I can settle down and be doin' just fine
Til' I hear an old train rollin' down the line
Then I hurry straight home and pack
And if I didn't go, I believe I'd blow my stack”

“Ramblin' Man” Hank Williams

The Opry has always said they never intended Williams’ removal to be permanent. The Mother Church of Country Music claimed it was meant as a wake-up call for the troubled artist. A psychiatrist once described Hank "as the most lonesome, the saddest, most tortured and frustrated of individuals."

Hank’s life was a series of contradictions. Rush Evans writes in Goldmine …

“He was an alcoholic who could undergo long periods of sobriety. He sang songs of the wild life and songs of faith. He was a reckless playboy and a devoted family man. He was an upbeat guy with mean old miseries in his soul. He was an uneducated hillbilly and a creative genius. And most of all, he was a man with a carefree attitude about life who also had a remarkable ability to articulate any human feeling with depth and despair at the Shakespearean level.”

“When you are sad and lonely and have no place to go
Call me up, sweet baby, and bring along some dough
And we'll go Honky Tonkin', Honky Tonkin'
Honky Tonkin', Honey Baby
We'll go Honky Tonkin' 'round this town.”

"Honky Tonkin'” Hank Williams

Williams was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong pain – a factor in his later abuse of alcohol and other drugs. To make matters worse, in 1951 Williams fell during a hunting trip in Tennessee, reactivating his old back pains and causing him to be dependent on alcohol and prescription drugs.

By the end of 1952, Williams had started to suffer heart problems. He met Horace Raphol "Toby" Marshall in Oklahoma City, who claimed to be a doctor. Marshall had been previously convicted for forgery, and had been paroled and released from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1951. Among other fake titles he claimed to be a Doctor of Science. He purchased the DSC title for $35 from the "Chicago School of Applied Science.” Under the name of Dr. C. W. Lemon he prescribed Williams with amphetamines, Seconal, chloral hydrate, and morphine.

“I was just a lad, nearly twenty two
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I'm lost, too late to pray
Lord I paid a cost on the lost highway”

“Lost Highway” Hank Williams

One of Hank’s band members, Tommy Hill, described the daily routine as they toured the country playing one-nighters:

“Me and a bunch of the pickers talked about how [Hank’s manager] Clyde Perdue and Toby Marshall were just in it for what they could get out of Hank cause he was making pretty fair money. But Hank never saw any of it. You see, if Hank took one shot of whiskey, he was drunk, so they’d get a six-pack and allot him so many beers after he woke up until the time of the show and that kept Hank happy. Then the doctor would give him a shot so he’d lose all his beer, throw it all up, then they’d put black coffee down him, let him do the show, then give him a six-pack and put him to bed. Same thing every day. I said, ‘They’re killing him.’ The booker and the doctor.”

(Robert A. Waters. “Last Ride down the Lost Highway.” November 12, 2011.)

The story of Williams' tragic death at age 29 has been the subject of a multitude of books, songs, and personal accounts. Lore began growing around the event from day one. H.B. Teeter, newspaperman for the Nashville Tennessean, published an article one day after Williams' death claiming Williams had told him months before in an interview – “I will never live long enough for you to write a story about me.”

“If it was rainin' gold I wouldn't stand a chance
I wouldn't have a pocket in my patched up pants
No matter how I struggle and strive
I'll never get out of this world alive”

"I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive" Hank Williams

The Last Journey of Hank Williams

Note: Much of the evidence for the report of Hank Williams' last days here are excerpted and paraphrased from Hank: The Short Life and Long Country Road of Hank Williams (2017) by Mark Ribowsky.

Ironically Williams' single, “I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” was scaling the top-ten at the time of his demise. On Monday, December 29, 1952, Hank is reported to have made a rare and unexpected visit to church, St. Jude’s Hospital chapel, to pray with the nuns. “Ol’ Hank needs to straighten up some things with the Man,” his wife Billie Jean said he told her. It was his last full day in Montgomery.

“I wandered so aimless life filled with sin
I wouldn't let my dear savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord I saw the light”

"I Saw The Light" Hank Williams

Williams was booked to play two venues – one in Charleston, West Virginia, and one in Canton, Ohio. Before he left, Williams came into his cousin Marie McNeil’s room and handed her forty dollars, which he wanted used to help pay the doctor who would deliver Bobbie Jett’s baby. As he left the room, Marie said, Hank told her, “Ol’ Hank’s not gonna be with you another Christmas. I’m closer to the Lord than I’ve ever been in my life.”

Note – Bobbie Jett had a brief relationship with Hank Williams between his two marriages. Their baby, Antha Belle Jett (Jett Williams) was born on January 6, 1953, in Montgomery, Alabama, five days after her father's death on January 1.

Jett was adopted by Hank's mother Lillie Stone. But when Stone died herself just two years later, Jett was put into foster care. After a lengthy court battle in the 1980s, she was ruled to be one of her father's legal heirs and due to half of the family fortune. In 1990, Jett told her story in the memoir Ain't Nothin' as Sweet as My Baby.

The next morning, December 30, Hank's travel plans still in limbo, he chartered a flight to Charleston for early afternoon. But because of the horrendous weather – a snow-storm had blanketed Montgomery, one of the few to ever hit the city – he had hired a driver days before. Because of his reputation for missing shows he couldn’t afford more bad publicity.

Williams hired 17-year-old Charles Carr, son of Dan Carr, owner of Lee Street Taxi, to drive him on the four-day, two show, round trip. Although Billie Jean expressed her desire to go with him, Hank left alone. According to Billie Jean, Hank had spent a restless night in bed with excruciating back pain. She feared something more was wrong.

Around 11:30 a.m. Hank and Carr loaded up his baby blue ’52 Cadillac convertible. He had Carr buzz the airport to check on a plane before they left, but all flights were canceled well into the day. Hank settled in, his back already hurting, for what would be hours on the road.

“Oh, the blues come around
Oh the blues come around
Lawd, the blues come around
Ev'ry evenin' when the sun goes down”

“The Blues Come Around” Hank Williams

Before they left, Williams also had the driver stop by a doctor, identified in one account only as a man named “Black,” who shot him up with morphine. After buying some sandwiches, coffee, and a six pack of Falstaff beer at the Hollywood Drive-in Diner, Hank headed north on Highway 31.

“I'll gas up my hot rod stoker we'll get hotter than a poker
You'll be broke but I'll be broker tonight we're settin' the woods on fire
We'll sit close to one another up one street and down the other
We'll have us a time oh brother settin' the woods on fire
We'll put aside a little time to fix a flat or two
My tires and tubes are doin' fine but the air is showin' through
You clap hands and I'll start bowin' we'll do all the laws allowin'
Tomorrow I'll be right back plowin' settin' the woods on fire”

“Settin' the Woods on Fire” Hank Williams

The itinerary covered nearly a thousand miles, from Montgomery to Charleston to Canton. Because Hank had gotten out of Montgomery late, he decided to stay the night in Birmingham, where they got a decent night's sleep at the Redmont Hotel. They were off early the next morning, New Year's Eve day, and they made a stop in Fort Payne, where Hank bought a bottle of bourbon. The duo made it to Chattanooga by lunchtime and ate in a diner.

By 1:00 p.m. they were in Knoxville, still three hundred miles from Charleston. In Knoxville, Williams found his way to St. Mary’s Hospital, where, in mysterious circumstances Carr never explained, he was able to have a doctor give him another morphine shot.

By then, as Carr learned when he phoned Lillie, Hank's mother, the two Charleston shows had been canceled due to the storm. Meanwhile, stuck back in Knoxville, Carr and a dog-tired Hank checked into the Andrew Johnson Hotel. Hank, who had drained the bourbon, could barely stand, and two porters all but carried him to his room.

“Well I stopped into every place in town
This city life has really got me down
I got the honky tonk blues,
Yeah the honky tonk blues
Well Lord I got em,
got the ho-on-ky tonk blues.”

“Honky Tonk Blues” Hank Willliams

At the hotel, Hank was laid out on his bed, but was kept awake by nagging hiccups that seemed to approach convulsions. Carr notified the front desk to summon a doctor. Minutes later, Dr. Paul Cardwell rushed to the hotel and, possibly having conferred by phone with Marshall, injected Williams with two more morphine shots along with vitamin B-12.

Williams dozed off fully clothed, but about 10:30 p.m., Carr got a call from the concert promoter telling him they had to leave right away and drive through the night to make the Canton show.

The show’s promoter, A.V. “Bam” Bamford, was particularly peeved, knowing he’d be refunding two sellout houses of 4,000 people if Hank didn't show. Bam instructed all of them to get going to Canton for the next night’s shows. One other interested party had made it to Charleston as well – Toby Marshall, who called Lillie for his marching orders.

Note: Reportedly at the request of Hank Williams’ mother, Jessie Lillybelle Skipper Williams, Toby Marshall had flown to Charleston to look after Hank and to accompany him back to Montgomery following the Canton show. Marshall had been supplying Williams with the powerful sedative chloral hydrate, and appeared to have gained the trust of both Hank and his mother.

(John Lilly. “Hank Williams’ Lost Charleston Show.” Native Ground.)

"There was some kind of penalty clause in his contract . . . so we had to be there for the New Year's Day concert or else, " Charles Carr remembered.

"When we left the room, they sent a wheelchair, " Carr said. "They rolled him (Williams) down to the car and Hank got in on his own. I clearly remember that."

(Jim Tharpe. “At 17, Charles Carr was the only witness when a legend died, and myths were born.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. December 30, 2002.)

The roads were bad due to the weather and the traffic was slow. Carr got a ticket about an hour later in Blaine, Tennessee, when he almost ran into a patrolman while trying to pass another car. He paid a fine and got back behind the wheel with Williams asleep in the back. It was after midnight by this time – already New Year's Day – and Carr had been behind the wheel since early that morning.

“Like a bird that's lost its mate in flight
I'm alone and oh, so blue tonight
Like a piece of driftwood on the sea
May you never be alone like me”

"May You Never Be Alone" Hank Williams

The tired teenager stopped in a small town in the dead of night – maybe Bristol or Bluefield as Carr remembers – to gas up and get a bite to eat. He specifically remembers a service station on one side of the highway and a diner and a cab stand on the other.

"I remember Hank got out to stretch his legs and I asked him if he wanted a sandwich or something, " Carr said. "And he said, 'No, I just want to get some sleep.'

"I don't know if that's the last thing he said. But it's the last thing I remember him telling me."

At the cab stand, Carr picked up a relief driver who helped him drive for a few hours before getting out somewhere in rural West Virginia.

Carr drove on, but became increasingly concerned about the eerie silence in the back seat. He pulled off the road to check on Williams, who was lying with his head toward the passenger seat and had his left hand across his chest.

“Won't you redeem; your poor wicked soul
You can't pay your way; with Silver and Gold
If you're not saved; you'll be lost in the night
When the Pale Horse and his rider goes by?”

“The Pale Horse and His Rider” Hank Williams

From this point on, mysteries abound that have never been solved, mysteries with plenty of clues but a lot of doubt.

Carr would later say Williams had spent time writing songs and chugging some beer, and noted that the last song they sang was Red Foley’s “Midnight,” a song that may have matched the mood he was in as he sang for the last time:

“Midnight, oh what a lonely time to weep, I ought to know
Midnight, I should have been fast asleep hours ago …”

"He had his blue overcoat on and had a blanket over him that had fallen off, " Carr said. "I reached back to put the blanket back over him and I felt a little unnatural resistance from his arm."

Panicking, Carr rushed into the restaurant it’s unknown whether Surface and came back out with an older man who took a look at Hank Williams and summed up the situation with classic understatement.

“I think you got a problem,” he said.

Police reports would indicate that Carr, knowing they had a famous corpse in the back and needing to get it to a hospital, asked for directions to one at Burdette’s Pure Oil gas station. Carr asked the owner, Peter Burdette, to call the local police station and tell them a dead man had been driven into his place. Within minutes, a police car arrived, and Officer Orris Stamey confirmed Hank was dead.

The official cause of death, which was declared at Oak Hill Hospital, has also been reported several ways, both accurate, with the death certificate saying that the cause of death was “acute rt. ventricular dilation” and a later coroner’s jury declaring that he “died of a severe heart condition and hemorrhage.”

Because of the uncertainty about where Hank died and the fact that the West Virginia coroner ruled his death a heart attack, charges against Toby Marshall were never filed.

Defending his position, Marshall claimed that Williams possibly committed suicide. Marshall stated that Williams told him that he had decided to "destroy the Hank Williams that was making the money they were getting". He attributed the decision to Williams' declining career:

"Most of his bookings were of the honky-tonk beer joint variety that he simply hated. If he came to this conclusion (of suicide), he still had enough prestige left as a star to make a first-class production of it … whereas, six months from now, unless he pulled himself back up into some high-class bookings, he might have been playing for nickels and dimes on skid row."

A scrap of paper found on the floor of the car that carried Hank Williams to his death on New Year's Day, 1953, is reported to have read …

“We met we lived
And dear we loved
Then came that fatal day
The love that
Felt so dear fades far
Away
Tonight we both
Are all alone and here’s
All that I can say
I love you still and
Always will
But that’s the price
We have to pay”

Fifty-seven years after his death, Hank Williams received a special Pulitzer Prize citation for lifetime achievement in music. The Pulitzer board praised him as “a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity.” Of his own life, Hank once told a reporter that the “people who has been raised something like the way the hillbilly has, knows what he is singing about and appreciates it.”

Whether you call him “Hillbilly Shakespeare” or “Luke the Drifter,” Hank Williams left an incredible body of brutally honest songs about his life in the language of the common man – he brought country music into the modern era, and his influence spilled over into the folk and rock arenas as well.

Smartphones and Nomophobia -- Electronic Obsession

“Three billion people, around 40% of the world’s population, use online social media – and we’re spending an average of two hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute.”

– From BBC Future’s “Best of 2018”

Everywhere I am I see so many people, at the first available minute, choosing to bury their noses into their smartphones. They begin accessing the web, texting friends and relatives, and communicating with seemingly everyone about everything. Whether at their homes, driving their cars, or at social settings, these people automatically employ their mobile digital assistants as if they are turning on their brains. They feel they must connect with their extended, electromagnetic minds and devote their attention to mobile technology. It's enough to make me wonder if anyone is living in the moment.

Statistics gathered by Pew Research Center in early 2018 found that 95% of Americans owned some type of cell phone. Of them, 77% owned a smartphone. This was a 42% increase from 2011, the first year that smartphone ownership surveys were conducted.

Additionally, 84% of Americans households had at least one smartphone and about 33% had at least three smartphones.

People fiercely believe they must have their phone with them and active all the time. Nomophobia – no–mobile-phone-phobia – is the fear of not having your phone with you. Just how real is this fear?

Consider …

• The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day. (Source: Internet Trends, Kleiner Perkins)
• 71% of users usually sleep with or next to their mobile phone. (Source: Huffington Post)
• 75% of users admit that they have texted at least once while driving. (Source: TrustMyPaper)

I've actually seen people freak out when they cannot get a signal. They panic and worry something will happen without their instantaneous access. Paranoid?

I've seen other users fall victim to “phantom phone alerts,” the mysterious phenomenon where they think their phone is buzzing but it isn’t. Neurotic?

According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 46 percent of Americans say they could not live without their smartphones. Hyperbole or chronic admission of dependency?

“The starry sky is absolutely gorgeous tonight. Maybe I'll see a shooting star and can make a wish … especially since I'm getting told to get off my phone.”

– April Mae Monterrosa

For so many, smartphones have become a habit which causes them to miss out on meaningful engagements in the real world. They also miss the creativity that comes in idle moments when the mind is free to wander. Spending so much time on their smartphones, some cannot find the right phone/life balance – they end up overly distracted and anxious as their excessive phone use starts to affect their mental health.

People's obsessional reliance on smartphones causes them to lose their ability to take care of themselves in an organic and all natural way. Hyung Suk Seo, M.D., professor of neuroradiology at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, and his colleagues found that people with a so-called internet and smartphone addiction actually demonstrated imbalances in brain chemistry compared to a control group.

Another study appearing in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research found that cognitive capacity was significantly reduced whenever a smartphone was within reach, even when the phone is off.

(Maureen Morley and Linda Brooks. “Smartphone Addiction Creates Imbalance in Brain.” Radiological Society of North America. November 30, 2017.)

How about very young people and their use of smartphones?

The experts are unequivocal: Kids in this age group shouldn’t be using smartphones (or other mobile devices), period. The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) recommends limiting it to less than one hour a day for children ages two to five years old (screen time for children younger than two years old is not recommended at all), while the American Academy of Pediatrics advises placing consistent limits on media consumption for children ages six and older.

Michael Cheng, a child and family psychiatrist at Ottawa’s Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, explains that mobile devices cause the brain to become wired from an early age to crave easy dopamine, referring to the “feel-good” chemical released by the brain. The constant overstimulation from mobile screens gives the brain hits of dopamine (and adrenaline), which is why they’re so addictive.

Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine took a close look at the available literature on smartphone and iPad use among very young children. Using such devices to entertain or pacify children, they warn, might have a detrimental effect on their social and emotional development.

“If these devices become the predominant method to calm and distract young children, will they be able to develop their own internal mechanisms of self-regulation?” the researcher's question.

Hands-on activities and those involving direct human interaction are superior to interactive screen games, the experts suggest. The use of mobile devices becomes especially problematic when such devices replace hands-on activities that help develop visual-motor and sensorimotor skills.

Children spend more time with electronic media than they do in any other activity, aside from sleep. Too much screen time can be harmful to kids. One recent study found that parental monitoring of kids' media use – cutting screen time – led to improved sleep, decreased body mass index, reduced aggression, and better grades.

(Douglas A. Gentile, PhD1; Rachel A. Reimer, PhD2; Amy I. Nathanson, PhD3; et al. “Protective Effects of Parental Monitoring of Children’s Media Use.” JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168.)

Teens have been dramatically affected by smartphone use.

Smartphone ownership has expanded dramatically among teens over the past six years. According to a national “Social Media, Social Life” report by Common Sense Media (2018), less than half of teens (41 percent) had phones in 2012. Today, 89 percent of teens do. Pew Research Center (2018) found 45 per cent of these teens are online “constantly.”

Although some studies disagree, San Diego State University psychologist Jean Twenge sees a direct link between how much time teens spend on smartphones and troubling signs of mental health distress.

In her 2017 book iGen, Twenge cited national health surveys and other statistics to argue that a generation of teens have turned to smartphones as their preferred social outlet, and teens who spend the most time on their screens are more likely to be unhappy. Psychological well-being was highest in years when adolescents spent more time with their friends in person, reading print media, and on exercise and sports.

"What you get is a fundamental shift in how teens spend their leisure time," Twenge told USA TODAY. "They are spending less time sleeping, less time with their friends face to face … It is not something that happened to their parents. It is not something that happens as a world event."

And, some experts warn that this over-reliance on your mobile device for all the answers might lead to avoidance of effort. In fact, a study from researchers at the University of Waterloo published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior found that there is actually a link between relying on a smartphone and mental laziness.

"The problem with relying on the Internet too much is that you can't know you have the correct answer unless you think about it in an analytical or logical way," explained Gordon Pennycook, one of the study's co-authors

“Our research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence,” said Pennycook. “Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research.”

(Nathaniel Barr, Gordon Pennycook, Jennifer A. Stolz, Jonathan A. Fugelsang. “The brain in your pocket: Evidence that Smartphones are used to supplant thinking. Computers in Human Behavior, 2015.)

Conclusion

Smartphones offer many positive features while offering instant access to friends and to the Internet. They can be an invaluable convenience that puts a world of information at the fingertips. They're always at hand to help keep people safe and to assist them with day-to-day tasks.

However, when the device becomes a routine substitute for reality, we should understand the dangers involved with its obsessive use. With the potential to dehumanize users and to make them overly dependent on technology, smartphones can hinder human development and cripple interpersonal relationships. Like every dangerous obsession, Nomophobia can damage and even destroy its host. The “smart” in “smartphone” is critically dependent on its owner and his or her good judgment.

"The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another 

than his or her smartphone.”

– Alain de Botton

The Deliberate Demise of Rock Music

“Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye.

Hey hey, my my.”

– From “My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)" by Neil Young

“Long live rock!” In 2019, this may be more of a wish than a cry of strong defiance.

Many critics say rock music is dead because it has been eclipsed in all measures of popularity and profitability by pop, hip-hop, and EDM (electronic dance music). Even though there are a few glimmers of hope for the genre, demographics have changed and, for whatever reason, the music has lost its appeal to the masses.

None other than Bob Dylan proffers the most interesting reason for rock's decline. Dylan sees the death of rock as a forced commercial segregation. Dylan says …

“From its fused inception, rock ‘n’ roll was already a racially integrated American invention being blasted in teenage bedrooms as early as 1955, but as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum going into 1960, the genre was being commercially segregated, on the sly, into white (British Invasion) and black (soul) music by the (WASPy) establishment.”

(Brent L. Smith. “Bob Dylan Lays Down What Really Killed Rock ’n’ Roll.” Cuepoint. April 13, 2016.)

Rock began as a rhythmic explosion of rebel artists – black and white – and ever since, the music has been both reviled as an agent of social destruction and hailed as a stimulant to Western artistic endeavor. Early rockers hit the market with the force of an testosterone-fueled F5 tornado. But, immediately, conservative white parents – looking for music that was square and “safe” with no sex appeal – objected to what they called black “race records.”

If you were a white teenager in the 50s, your parents might well prohibit you from buying these records produced by what they considered dangerously sexual black artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. However, they likely would not object to you purchasing watered-down covers by Pat Boone – a handsome, crooning throwback to their generation and an outspoken icon of middle-class morality. In the process, rock anthems like “Tutti Frutti” became maudlin and candy-coated for the masses.

Still, nothing stopped young people from buying the records, hiding them in a closet, and playing them when no adults were around. And, of course, wildly popular disc jockeys like Alan Freed were playing the uptempo black R&B records as early as 1951 on Cleveland radio station WJW. In addition, in 1952, Freed was one of the people who put together the Moondog Coronation Ball, a Cleveland concert that is now considered the first-ever rock and roll concert. Rock was flourishing all over the nation.

Dylan remembers …

“I was still an aspiring rock n roller. The descendant, if you will, of the first generation of guys who played rock ’n’ roll – who were thrown down. Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis. They played this type of music that was black and white. Extremely incendiary. Your clothes could catch fire. When I first heard Chuck Berry, I didn’t consider that he was black. I thought he was a hillbilly. Little did I know, he was a great poet, too. And there must have been some elitist power that had to get rid of all these guys, to strike down rock ’n’ roll for what it was and what it represented – not least of all being a black-and-white thing.”

What mainly disturbed and threatened the white establishment was the unabashed sexuality inherent in rock ’n’ roll – no doubt stemming from the sweaty gyrations of jazz and the gritty influences of the blues. This context of white fear and anxiety about African American sexuality, and about blacks' sexual access to white women and girls, had forever been ingrained in white culture.

Jack Hamilton, a professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, writes in his deep study Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination how rock and roll went from an art form pioneered by black musicians and rooted in rhythm and blues to being overly simplified as "rock," a genre symbolized by a white man with a guitar.

In his book, Hamilton points out how artists like Bob Dylan and Sam Cooke, or Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin were put into different musical genres despite being rooted in the same influences. Hamilton claims …

"By the end of (the 1960s), rock and roll music, which was first seen as an interracial art form, had become viewed as almost exclusively white. There developed a total lack of understanding that a lot of music you listen to was created by black musicians. For instance, Led Zeppelin is great but they didn't invent rock and roll music."

Hamilton writes that since the 1960s, playing and consuming rock music has offered new ways into being a “real” white person – most often a white man – and in many quarters being a white man became a precondition for making “real” rock music. Rock essentially became the natural province of whites.

Bob Dylan puts it like this …

“Racial prejudice has been around awhile, so, yeah. And that was extremely threatening for the city fathers, I would think. When they finally recognized what it was, they had to dismantle it, which they did, starting with payola scandals. The black element was turned into soul music, and the white element was turned into English pop. They separated it … Well, it was apart of my DNA, so it never disappeared from me. I just incorporated it into other aspects of what I was doing.”

If this view of the evolution of the death of rock is accurate (And, I fear it is.), musical segregation is largely responsible for killing the popular genre. 

True rock fans understand the original form as being a melting pot of seemingly all musical forms including jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, folk, big band, and even country. They enjoy songs like “Mystery Train” by Junior Parker, “Saturday Night Fish Fry” by Louis Jordan, “Precious Memories” by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston (actually Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm). They understand “rock” is simply a moniker for “rock and roll” and a good recording is a rainbow of sound and color.

Rock should not be the domain of those who would further categorize and racially divide the music. That only serves to weaken its existence. If that all began by diluting the lyrics and the style of rebellious early artists like Little Richard, this slow and deliberate bloodletting is claiming the life of a truly American musical form.

Long Tall Sally

Little Richard

Gonna tell Aunt Mary 'bout Uncle John
He claim he has the misery but he's havin' a lot of fun
Oh baby, yeah baby, woo
Havin' me some fun tonight, yeah

Well long, tall Sally
She's built for speed, she got
Everything that Uncle John need, oh baby
Yeah baby, woo baby
Havin' me some fun tonight, yeah

Well, I saw Uncle John with long tall Sally
He saw Aunt Mary comin' and he ducked back in the alley oh baby
Yeah baby, woo baby
Havin' me some fun tonight, yeah, ow

"I'm Certain That It Happens All the Time" -- Love At First Sight

“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear –
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand
And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight,
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.”

– From William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act I

Romeo is the classic example of a person who falls in love at first sight and possibly the best known example of the phenomenon. Readers love the extremity of the romantic and sudden action. Is Romeo really in love or is this feeling something else entirely? Does a justification for his feelings exist? For centuries, scholars have argued about the affair and the dire consequences.

Call it “positive illusion” or “halo effect” or “assortative mating” or simply “sexual chemistry.” It really doesn't matter. To the majority, love at first sight is real. The instant infatuation has been portrayed in arts and literature for at least 3,000 years. Described by poets and critics since the emergence of ancient Greece, falling in love at first sight has become one of the most common tropes in Western fiction.

"As soon as I had seen her, I was lost. For Beauty's wound is sharper than any weapon's, and it runs through the eyes down to the soul. It is through the eye that love's wound passes, and I now became a prey to a host of emotions … “

-- the lover Clitophon in Achilles Tatius's ancient Greek romance 

Leucippe and Clitophon

A recent 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll in found that fifty-six percent of Americans believe in love at first sight, and every third person reports that he or she has experienced it.

What happens? You see someone and you are attracted, your pupils automatically dilate. One look and a chain of chemical reactions begins in your autonomic nervous system, the system which regulates your body’s unconscious actions and is deeply connected to the arousal centers of your brain. Twelve areas of your brain begin releasing chemicals and hormones that induce the feeling of falling in love. All of this happens in just a fifth of a second – suddenly you feel yourself being jettisoned to the proverbial “Cloud Nine.”

Studies have shown (Andrew Galperin and Martie Haselton, “Predictors of How Often and When People Fall in Love,” 2010) that men are more likely to report feelings of love at first sight than women do. Scientists have theorized that this may be due to the more visual aspects of attraction that men typically report noticing first. Men fall for boobs, booties, legs, or some other attribute they have been wired to associate with youth, health, and vitality. Scientists claim it takes men just 8.2 seconds to fall head over heels.

Research also shows (Jeffrey C. Cooper, Simon Dunne, Teresa Furey and John P. O'Doherty. “Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex Mediates Rapid Evaluations Predicting the Outcome of Romantic Interactions.” 2012) that within the first fifteen seconds, a woman will decide subconsciously whether she will give a man a chance to “try to make her fall in love or not.” In the same amount of time, a man will decide if he is “turned on” by how a woman looks or not. So, within seconds, one (or both) of the two prospects usually finds fertile ground for a potential love affair or takes a pass on the opportunity.

Passionate love (Some would argue “lust.) is rooted in the reward circuitry of the brain. That is the same area that is active when humans feel a rush from cocaine. In fact, the cravings, motivations and withdrawals involved in love have a great deal in common with addiction. What all of this means is that one special person can become chemically rewarding to the brain of another.

"... when [a lover] ... is fortunate enough to meet his other half, they are both so intoxicated with affection, with friendship, and with love, that they cannot bear to let each other out of sight for a single instant."

-- Plato's Symposium in Aristophanes' description of the separation of primitive double-creatures into modern men and women and their subsequent search for their missing half

Therefore, “love” at first sight is possible if the mechanisms for generating long-term attachment are triggered quickly. Romantic love runs along certain electrical and chemical pathways through the brain which can be triggered instantly." There are two distinct components of romantic evaluation: either consensus judgments about physical beauty (paracingulate cortex) or individualized preferences based on a partner's perceived personality (RMPFC). The continuation of the attraction depends on the corresponding brain activity.

"When we feel an attraction for someone, we seem to have this gravitational pull which is what neuroscience calls our adaptive oscillators, and that really pulls us together," neuropsychotherapist Dr. Trisha Stratford says. Stafford explains …

"When you look into another person's eyes, your adaptive oscillators — which are part of the prefrontal vortex, which is the orbital frontal complex — these lock between you and your partner and it forms this loop. The greater the feeling here, the stronger the feeling of love. From there, these adaptive oscillators just pull you together and guide the two mouths together and you kiss. So there are chemicals in everything."

The Provençal troubadour poets of southern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries elaborated on the love darts of the eyes. This understanding became part of the European courtly love tradition. In particular, a glimpse of the woman's eyes was said to be the source of the love dart:

“This doctrine of the immediate visual perception of one's lady as a prerequisite to the birth of love originated among the "beaux esprits" de Provence. (...) According to this description, love originates upon the eyes of the lady when encountered by those of her future lover. The love thus generated is conveyed on bright beams of light from her eyes to his, through which it passes to take up its abode in his heart.”

So, is love at first sight not only possible but also unusually probable? A person with an open mind might say it can be commonly distinguished by strong initial physical attraction toward the new potential partner coupled with a certain level of openness to experiencing high levels of passion, intimacy, and commitment for that person in the future.

Dr. Earl Naumann, author of Love at First Sight (2001), interviewed and surveyed 1,500 individuals of all races, religions, and backgrounds all across America, and concluded that love at first sight is not a rare experience. What’s more, Dr. Naumann theorizes that if you believe in love at first sight, there’s a roughly 60 percent chance it will happen to you. Here’s what led him to that conclusion:

• A majority of the population believes in love at first sight.
• Of the believers, many have experienced it.
• Fifty-five percent of those who experienced it married the object of their affection.
• Three quarters of these married couples stayed married.

From Hero and Leander: "It lies not in our power to love or hate"

By Christopher Marlowe

It lies not in our power to love or hate,

For will in us is overruled by fate.

When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,

We wish that one should lose, the other win;

And one especially do we affect

Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:

The reason no man knows; let it suffice

What we behold is censured by our eyes.

Where both deliberate, the love is slight:

Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

Tecumseh -- How Did the Legend and the Dream Die?

“Tecumseh's skin was bullet-proof. When he went into battle, he always wore a white deer-skin hunting shirt, around which was girt a strap. The bullets shot at him would go through his shirt, and fall harmless inside. When the weight of the bullets inside the shirt became too great, he would unstrap his belt and let them fall through to the ground. He was a brave man, as a man whom bullets could not wound would of course be; he never used a gun in battle, only a hatchet.

“Tecumseh had but one son. One day, when the great warrior had grown old and feeble, he called his son to him and said: 'I am getting old. I want to leave you what has made me proof against bullets.' Thereupon Tecumseh commenced to retch, and try to vomit. He repeated this several times and finally threw up a smooth, black stone, about three inches long.

“That stone was Tecumseh's soul. Handing it to his son, he said: 'I could not be killed by a bullet, but will die only of old age. This is to be your charm against bullets, also.' And so his son swallowed it, that he, likewise, might never be killed by a bullet. And he never was."

-- Spoon Decorah, interview by Reuben Thwaites conducted at the home of Spoon, in the town of Big Flats, Adams county, some ten miles north of Friendship, 

March 29, 1887

Tecumseh (“Shooting Star”) was a legendary Native American war chief of the Shawnee. His political leadership, oratory, humanitarianism, and personal bravery attracted the attention of friends and foes. He was much admired by both the British and the Americans as he led a large tribal confederacy (known as Tecumseh's Confederacy) which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812.

After his death in Ontario, Canada, at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, Tecumseh became an iconic folk hero in American, Aboriginal, and Canadian history. Details of his death in battle have been the subject of endless debate – a matter based on incomplete accounts, speculation, and popular lore.

How did Tecumseh die and what happened to his remains? Those mysteries still fascinate lovers of history.

Dramatic Rendition

The historian Allan Eckert's dramatic account is depicted in the Tecumseh! outdoor drama. In this version, the frontiersman Simon Kenton, who was at the battle and had met Tecumseh previously, was asked to identify the body after the battle. Although on different sides, Kenton and Tecumseh held a great deal of respect for each other. Kenton knew Tecumseh's body would be mutilated and scalped by the soldiers, and he felt the warrior deserved better, so he falsely identified a different body to allow Tecumseh to be taken away by his comrades at night to provide him a proper burial in a secret grave.

"Historical" Accounts

Historical accounts of Tecumseh's last day say recall that Tecumseh and 600 warriors screened the retreat of General Henry Procter and his British troop after William Henry Harrison and his militiamen had invaded Ontario in the fall of 1813.

On October 5 Harrison caught up with Procter at the Thames River near Moraviantown. The British general ignominiously fled, and after a single American volley, all his regular troops surrendered. Tecumseh meanwhile positioned his exhausted men in a patch of swampy woodland and told them he would retreat no farther.

At some point during the attack on Backmetack Marsh, Tecumseh was fatally shot. As word spread of their leader's death, one American account tells of the warriors giving, "the loudest yells I ever heard from human beings and that ended the fight."

Bill Gilbert of the Smithsonian magazine wrote …

“Having finished the British, Harrison sent dragoons and infantry into these thickets. After an hour of fierce fighting Tecumseh was killed, or presumably so. At least he was never again seen alive …

“The first battle reports – later embellished in bloody detail – claimed Harrison's brave boys had overcome 3,000 superb warriors led by the great Tecumseh. Naturally the public was eager to know which American hero had brought down this mighty Shawnee champion.

“Warriors who survived the battle told various stories. They had been forced to leave Tecumseh's body on the field. They had carried him off, either mortally wounded or dead, and buried him in a secret place that whites would never find.

“As for the Americans, none of those who first overran Tecumseh's position were acquainted with him. But they found an impressive-looking dead Indian who they were convinced was Tecumseh. Some cut strips of skin from this body, later tanning them for razor strops and leather souvenirs. When people arrived who did know him, some said the battered corpse was indeed Tecumseh's. Others said it was not. Even Harrison could not positively identify it.”

Still, a number of Americans claimed they had personally killed Tecumseh. Most prominent among them was Colonel Richard Johnson, a Kentucky politician who fought at the Thames as a cavalry commander and who said he shot Tecumseh just before he lost consciousness. Johnson never claimed to have killed Tecumseh until it became politically advantageous to do so.

Nonetheless, a great number of Johnson's constituents evidently supported his claim. With supporters chanting "Rumpsey Dumpsey, Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh," Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Senate and then, in 1836, to the Vice Presidency. With a little help from another catchy jingle, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," William Henry Harrison became President four years later.

Wyandott historian, Peter D. Clarke, offered a different explanation concerning Johnson after talking with Indians who had fought in the battle: "(A) Potawatamie brave, who, on perceiving an American officer (supposed to be Colonel Johnson) on horse … turned to tomahawk his pursuer, but was shot down by him with his pistol … The fallen Potawatamie brave was probably taken for Tecumseh by some of Harrison's infantry, and mutilated soon after the battle."

Caleb Atwater, in his History of Ohio, remarks, that two Winnebago chiefs, Four-Legs and Carymaunee, told him, that Tecumseh, at the commencement of the battle lay with his warriors in a thicket of underbrush on the left of the American army, and that they were, at no period of the battle, out of their covert – that no officer was seen between them and the American troops – that Tecumseh fell the very first fire of the Kentucky dragoons, pierced by thirty bullets, and was carried four or five miles into the thick woods and there buried by the warriors, who told the story of his fate.

After an exhaustive study, John Sugden, who provided an in-depth examination of Tecumseh's death in his book, Tecumseh's Last Stand, could not conclude that Johnson killed Tecumseh.

In another account by Clarke, "A half-Indian and half-white, named William Caldwell … overtook and passed Tecumseh, who was walking along slowly, using his rifle for a staff – when asked by Caldwell if he was wounded, he replied in English, 'I am shot' – Caldwell noticed where a rifle bullet had penetrated his breast, through his buckskin hunting coat. His body was found by his friends, where he had laid [sic] down to die, untouched, within the vicinity of the battle ground … "

Several other of Harrison's men also claimed to have killed Tecumseh; however, none of them were present when Tecumseh was mortally wounded … or, at least alive to tell about it.

Some evidence points to Colonel William Whitley as the man who killed Tecumseh. A colorful pioneer, Whitley founded modern horse racing in the United States and made some of the first Kentucky sour mash whiskey. His recipe is still used by Evan Williams and Jack Daniels. He built the first brick home west of the Allegheny mountains as well, but his fame was that of an Indian fighter.

Whitley died in the Battle of the Thames, and his body was found very close to a body claimed to be Tecumseh. In his 1929 autobiography, Single Handed, James A Drain, Sr., Whitley's grandson, gives a detailed account by Col. Whitley’s granddaughter in which Whitley and Tecumseh killed each other simultaneously.

Sugden argued that Whitley had been killed in battle prior to Tecumseh's death. But, Whitley's grandson continued to claim that his grandfather single-handedly shot and killed Tecumseh. As Drain explained it, Whitley was mortally wounded, but he saw Tecumseh spring towards him, "intent upon taking for himself a scalp", and drew his gun "to center his sights upon the red man's breast. And as he fired, he fell and the Indian as well, each gone where good fighting men go."

Still another report came from the badly-wounded Colonel James Davidson who claimed that a man in his company, Private David King, shot Tecumseh with Whitley's rifle. It was reported King was next to Whitley when he was killed, and King picked up Whitley’s rifle, which was much better than his own and was loaded and ready to be fired, and shot Tecumseh. There were also eyewitnesses who saw King take the possessions from the body of Tecumseh, which was a common act.

Edwin Seaborn, who recorded an oral history from Saugeen First Nation in the 1930s, provides another account of Tecumseh's death. Pe-wak-a-nep, who was seventy years old in 1938, describes his grandfather's eyewitness account of Tecumseh's last battle. Pe-wak-a-nep explained that Tecumseh was fighting on a bridge when his lance snapped. Tecumseh "fell after 'a long knife' was run through his shoulder from behind." The witness, who hid in the water by “turning himself into a turtle” under a log, saw Americans take the body of another warrior to a tree and mutilate it, not Tecumseh.

John Sugden wrote that the details of how Tecumseh died remain unclear. Sugdon reported Tecumseh's body was identified by British prisoners after the battle and examined by some Americans who knew him and could confirm that its injuries were consistent with earlier wounds that Tecumseh has suffered to his legs (a broken thigh and a bullet wound). The body had a fatal wound to the left breast and also showed damage to the head by a blow, possibly inflicted after his death.

According to Sugden, Tecumseh's body had been defiled, although later accounts were likely exaggerated. Sugden also discounted some conflicting Indian accounts that indicated his body had been removed from the battlefield before it could be mutilated.

From his analysis of the evidence, Sugden firmly claimed that Tecumseh's remains, mutilated beyond recognition, were left on the battlefield. Sugden's Tecumseh's Last Stand (1985) also recounted varied accounts of Tecumseh's burial and the still unknown location of his gravesite.

Absolute and perfect evidence does not exist. It is held that eight Native Americans gave testimony in relation to the death of Tecumseh. Of these, four assert that he was killed by the first fire from the American line; and four that he fell by the hands of a horseman, some time after the commencement of the action.

One of these native witnesses states that Tecumseh was shot in the neck; another, that he was hit above or in the eyes; two others that he was killed by a ball in the hip; and again two others, that he was pierced by thirty bullets on the first fire of our troops.

Three of these native witnesses testify that the body of the fallen chief was mutilated by taking the skin from off the thigh, and three that it was not.

As to the nature of his wounds, the mutilation of his body, the time when, the spot where, and by whose hands, he fell, these various statements are wholly irreconcilable with each other, and leave the main question involved in additional doubt and obscurity.

Said to be the rifle that shot Tecumseh

Burial Grounds

One of the natives who carried Tecumseh's body away from the battlefield was said to have been Oshawana (variously given as Shawnoo, Shawanaw, and Oshawahnoo) also known as Chief John Nahdee. He had been with Tecumseh in his last battle. He settled in the Township of Anderdon.

In 1848, Chief Nahdee and members of his band surrendered the 300 acres they held at Anderdon and moved to Walpole. He is said to have buried Tecumseh's bones on St. Anne Island and, when he died, passed on the knowledge of where they were. They were in the care of Chief John White when the Soldiers' Club reburied them.

No record exists of the exact location of Tecumseh’s grave. But Ken Tankersley, a University of Cincinnati archaeologist who is an enrolled member of the Piqua Shawnee and sits on the tribe’s Council of Elders, says that isn’t important. “For indigenous people, and the Shawnee in particular, what’s important is for the dead to ‘make the journey,’ or allowing the body to decompose, creating nutrients in the soil, and thus allow the cycle of life to continue.”

Tankersley notes that Shawnee will occasionally visit the battlefield and leave a tobacco offering. “We know where the battle was, and the whole battlefield is considered a sacred site, and that is close enough.” He predicts that protests would erupt if an archaeologist or anyone else ever tried to find Tecumseh’s remains. Even using noninvasive remote-sensing technology to locate the burial would be considered unacceptable, says Tankersley. “No one should ever go looking for Tecumseh.”

Of the eight native witnesses who say they saw the body, one says it was there the day after the action, lying on the battle ground; a second bears witness that it was buried on the spot the night of the battle; and a third, that it was carried four or five miles into the woods, and there interred.

There is further evidence suggesting that Tecumseh's remains may be buried on Walpole Island in Canada. Tecumseh was known to have had a broken thigh bone suffered in a fall from his horse while hunting buffalo on the Illinois prairies. Old bones were found there fitting this description. Of course, this does not prove the bones were Tecumseh's. According to an examination of the bones in the 1930s before the skeleton was reburied, the thigh bone was missing. That seems convenient, doesn't it?

The Dying Tecumseh

The Legend

A decade or so after his death Tecumseh had become “The Noble.” Towns, businesses and people were named for him. It was widely believed that his was the face that appeared on the "Indian Head" penny – a legend that overrode the facts as is often the case. No other declared enemy of the United States has been so well regarded for so long as has Tecumseh.

Praise for noble enemies – those dispatched and gone – is part of a long heroic tradition.

Whatever the accuracy of the details, Tecumseh's death remains a matter of interest and an enduring story of brave resistance. His skin was not “bullet proof.” Perhaps, his memory is.

One undeniable truth of the great leader sustains his tragic fame. Tecumseh’s single-minded mission, a secure Indian homeland, died with him in Ontario, Canada, at the Battle of the Thames. This was the demise of a truly American dream.

The Fear of Death

By Tecumseh

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Sources

“Autumn 1813 – Tecumseh's death launches artwork and political careers: Richard M. Johnson Campaign Slogan for Vice President.” National Park Service.

Dale K. Benington. The Death of Tecumseh Marker. July 23, 2013.

Peter Dooyentate Clarke. Origin and traditional history of the Wyandotts and sketches of other Indian tribes of North America, true traditional stories of Tecumseh and his league, in the years 1811 and 1812. 1870.

Spoon Decorah. "Narrative of Spoon Decorah. In an Interview with the Editor." Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Vol. 13 Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society.1887.

Donald Fixico. “A Native Nations Perspective on the War of 1812.” WOSU Public Media.

Geheo. October 5, 2011.

Bill Gilbert. “The Dying Tecumseh and the Birth of a Legend.” Smithsonian Magazine. July 1995.

Charles Hamilton, ed. Cry of the Thunderbird: The American Indian's Own Story. New York: Macmillan Company. 1950.

John Sugden. Tecumseh's Last Stand. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 1985.

“Tecumseh, Shawnee Leader.” Archaeology. August/September 2013.

Jason Winders. "Lecture Revisits Western's Archives and Tecumseh's Death.” March 27, 2014.

Historical Note: Commentary. "Spoon Decorah" – the interview by Reuben Thwaites was conducted "at the home of Spoon, in the town of Big Flats, Adams county, some ten miles north of Friendship, March 29, 1887. Moses Paquette, of Black River Falls, acted as interpreter. Spoon, who died in a cranberry marsh northwest of Necedah, Oct. 13, 1889, was a tall, well-formed, manly-looking fellow, with a well-shaped head, pleasant, open features, and dignified demeanor ... The old man told his story in a straightforward, dignified manner, his memory being occasionally jogged by Doctor Decorah, his nephew. The Doctor is a medicine-man, held in high esteem by the Decorah, or mixed-blood element of the Wisconsin Winnebagoes, who live chiefly upon homesteads in Adams, Marquette, and Jackson counties. ... Paquette is a faithful and intelligent interpreter, and in ease carefully rendered both questions and answers. The result I have formulated into two continuous narratives, following as closely as possible the Indian manner of speech; as here printed, they meet with Paquette's approval."

Spoon