The Golden Vanity (Child 286)
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Whether the song bears a tone of resignation or rebelliousness, and whether its initial or current popularity has to do with its social-political critique, “The Golden Vanity” touches on something enduring and fundamental, perhaps mythological in its resonance. Is the cabin boy an early modern successor to Icarus, flying too close to the sun and falling with melted wings? No, that’s not quite it, but we do see in his fortunes a kind of cruelty of the gods. Although we lament the story’s outcome, it provides a deep cathartic satisfaction, driven in no small measure by our knowledge that fate can be unkind, and seems no more so than when our hopes are at their highest.
Performances
Child 286 presents itself in various guises, as old English folk ballad, sea shanty or pirate song, Ozark Mountains old-time, and contemporary classical composition. I’ll give you some examples, including some of my favorites, and provide a playlist for you to hunt down your own.
Gordon Bok’s performance is moving, and significantly more somber. The peril in this approach is that the song may become maudlin. Bok avoids this pitfall and he broadened this song’s palette for me. If you like Bok’s performance, you may also like folklorist Sandy Dolby’s on the playlist.
Odetta’s version strikes a tone between Bok’s sobriety and Stecher’s energy. Odetta’s version also stands out as a rare example of the African American folk tradition’s engagement with this song. While it’s difficult to pin down precisely why something didn’t happen, my best guess is that “Golden Vanity” stayed mostly “white” because the prospect of social mobility is key to the song’s narrative tension. For the vast majority of the song’s history, that prospect was a non-starter for African American singers and listeners, at least when set aboard a sailing ship and through marriage to the captain’s daughter. However much the story speaks to shared elements of the human condition, some threshold of realism had to be crossed to engage people in the first place. A song dealing with English nobility in the 17th century is not the best candidate for crossing that threshold.
African American folk music traditions did not lack for examples of life’s hardships and social injustice. “Golden Vanity” may do for some what “John Henry” does for others, for example. I find some illuminating parallels between them. Both songs celebrate the dignity of the ostensible “loser,” even in death, and find an artful way to confront an oppressive system in an engaging manner.
My favorite British version comes under the title “The Old Virginia Lowlands,” from Martin Carthy and friends in the ensemble Brass Monkey off their 1998 album, Sound and Rumour. You can find Brass Monkey’s lyrics here.
Beyond these initial standouts, which only scratch the surface of quality performances, I’ll include a Spotify playlist at the end of the post for you to go hunting for your favorites. I’ll focus the rest of the links on versions that can’t be found on Spotify.