Easy wind

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I kind of like 12/26/70, personally

https://archive.org/details/gd70-12-26.sbd.miller.22369.sbeok.shnf/gd70-...

Now I would like to impress upon the zone my belief and offer discussion that contrary to our rudimentary lyrical understandings, balling a jack (hammer) does not actually mean pounding spikes into railroad ties. Close, but not quite.

When train tracks and rail were laid by hand, the tools that could not be done without were the track jacks. In this time, there were two sizes of jacks. One was about 2 feet high with a lift of about 12 to 14 inches. The other, a smaller jack, was about 10 inches high with a lift of six to eight inches. The tall jacks were usually used when the track was pulled out of surface to be reballasted or retied. The smaller jack could also be used for this work but the small lift restricted its use. The stem on the small jack had a groove cut on the top of the stem. 

Using these jacks to line track was thus. Two jacks were used. Digging an angled hole on the inside of the track, you placed the jack stem with the groove against the ball of the rail. You had already dug out the ballast from the end of the ties. The jacks were placed about a half a rail length apart. With one man lining, the other two operated the jacks, pushing the track until instructed to stop. 
 

Www.madisonrails.railfan.net/lewman10.html

 

so there. Balling a jack. The other guy is swinging the maul.

now back to your regularly secheduled zoning

Interesting, I never related Easy Wind to the railroad.  I thought it was about chipping rocks to build a highway in the daytime (hard labor) and drinking and women at night.

found this link on Dodd's annotated...

        Ballin' the Jack is basically just a sensual, gyration dance with bumps and grinds. Notorious in its day, it was done as a solo dance or along with swing dancing. It's first public appearance was in 1913 at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem, the play was called "The Darktown Follies" produced by Leubrie Hill in the first act called "At The Ball, That's All." Florence Ziegfeld loved it so much he purchased the rights and used it in his Follies of 1913.

    In 1913 dancer and composer Chris Smith wrote the song titled "Ballin' The Jack," based on a Negro song that was becoming a dance fad across the nation with white America. Most people think of Ballin' the Jack as a swing variant such as the Big Apple and Truckin'. However in the early 1900's, it was a dance all in its own. When it merged with the Lindy Hop, it lost most of its original form and became just a sidekick to swing dance such as pictured on left.

    There are stories that 'Ballin' the Jack' was sung by the African-Americans while laying rail for the rail road companies in the 1890's. The "Jack" was a common name for a locomotive (the jackass carrying the load), and Ballin' was the trainmen's hand gestures to 'Highball it' or "High Balling" which means, "faster or to have fun." a side note:
The vintage 'Little Wonder Records' had the title of 'Ballin' The Jack' in 1909. The last patent date listed on the record is 11/30/1909

http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3balin.htm

 

42-17860290.jpg

 

No citations, but I'm pretty sure that "Ballin' That Jack " refers to running a jackhammer to chip rocks for the great highway.

"Ballin' that shiny black steel jack hammer".

 

Which is also a double-entendre, since Pig had a black girlfriend at the time.

The Easy Wind from the Capitol Theatre on February 21, 1971 is really tasty:

https://archive.org/details/gd1971-02-21.sbd.miller.116618.flac16/gd71-0...

Certainly another possibility surf, it's kind of how I've always interpreted it as well. It would help if San Francisco had a bayou. Chipping up rocks for the great highway seems like a pretty straightforward reference, but I feel like the "great highway" here could just as easily have been a railroad being built. Or maybe I was just way off and typing nonsense at 2 a.m.

I don't think there's a double entendre there if you consider the song writing from the writer's perspective rather than the singer's, but that is also possible.

Hunter really had an incredible ability to phrase things like they could have happened just as easily yesterday as 200 years ago. 

 

 >>>>>don't think there's a double entendre there if you consider the song writing from the writer's perspective rather than the singer's, but that is also possible.

 

Yeah, but I think he wrote it for Pig.

It's pretty clear to me that the speaker in Easy Wind is a laborer who operates a jack-hammer busting up rocks on a highway job. What's really interesting to me about these lyrics is the bad relationship the speaker seems to be in: We hear that his "rider hide my bottle in the other room," while he dreams of woman who "won't hide my liquor try to serve me tea". I think everything in the first two stanzas can be read literally, but in the third stanza, things get more complex.

In the third stanza, we learn that the speaker definitely has his eye out for a replacement for his rider: "There's a whole lotta women, mama / Out in red on the streets today." Ladies in red were often thought to be women of loose values; "easy" in a word. What's also interesting here is the introduction of the river. In a way, the river comes as kind of a surprise, being introduced as it is long after the setting has been established. The river is tied, by its proximity, to the women in red, and would seem to symbolize change, as water often does. The wind can be seen as a symbol of change too.

It's also notable that the speaker shifts from first-person to second after the introduction of the river: "The river keep a talkin' / But you never hear a word it say." It's not really clear who "you" refers to here. Does it refer to the speaker himself, or does it refer to his rider? If it's the speaker who never hears what the river says, then it's an indication he feels stuck in his current situation; if it refers to his rider, it could indicate that she is unwilling to change. These things never resolve, but leave us with the impression the speaker wants change, but hasn't gotten to the point where he can do anything about it, and hence, he sings the blues.

I been ballin' a shiny black steel jack-hammer
Been chippin' up rocks for the great highway
Live five years if I take my time
Ballin' that jack and a drinkin' my wine.

I been chippin' them rocks from dawn till doom
While my rider hide my bottle in the other room
Doctor say I better stop ballin' that jack
If I live five years gonna bust my back, yes I will

Easy wind cross the bayou today
There's a whole lotta women, mama,
Out in red on the streets today.
And the river keep a talkin'
But you never hear a word it say

Gotta find a woman be good to me
Won't hide my liquor try to serve me tea
'Cause I'm a stone jack baller and my heart is true
And I'll give everything that I got to you, yes I will

Easy wind blowing cross the bayou today
There's a whole lotta women, mama,
Out in red on the streets today
And the river keep a talkin'
But you never hear a word it say

You know where the loneliest bayou is?

 

Bayou Self

Lol

I actually stumbled onto the railroad page and got a little stuck on the track jack thing while researching some of the themes in the traditional song "Walking Boss".

The walking boss was the railroad company superintendent who literally "walked" the tracks as they were being built, carefully inspecting and if necessary also correcting the work in real time.

 

Even before that, the walking boss was the guy who walked among the slaves in the field to make sure they were picking it all.