Erik Darling, RIP

[GA Russell]

Darling's name was one which I came across fairly often, but I didn't know his history until reading his obit this morning.

I have Walk Right In, and I'll have to put it on. I had no idea that it was from 1929.

Here's his Washington Post obituary:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,3482738.story

Erik Darling, 74; singer-songwriter helped revive American folk music

Folk Era/Wind River Records Singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Erik Darling was a virtuoso on the 12-string guitar, and replaced singer Pete Seeger in the Weavers, the celebrated group at the heart of the post-World War II folk resurgence. In 1963, he arranged and recorded the pulsing pop hit “Walk Right In” with the Rooftop Singers. By Martin Weil, Washington Post

August 9, 2008 Erik Darling, a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist who played a vital role in the revival of American folk music and was identified with the pulsing 1960s pop hit "Walk Right In," died Aug. 3 in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 74 and had lymphoma.

Starting in the late 1950s as the replacement for Pete Seeger, Darling spent more than four years with the Weavers, the celebrated group at the heart of the post-World War II folk resurgence.

In an interview, Seeger called Darling a "tremendously talented musician with a subtle sense of poetry and musicianship. . . . He wasn't loud, he wasn't flashy, but very sensitive."

A master of the banjo, a virtuoso on the 12-string guitar and the possessor of a well-received tenor voice, Darling over the years could be heard or seen in films and on television, and on records and CDs, as well as on college campuses and at other concert venues in the United States and abroad.

Music reviewer Steve Leggett on allmusic.com called Darling a "behind-the-scenes innovator on the folk scene for decades."

Climbing quickly to the top of the 1963 charts, "Walk Right In," as arranged and recorded by Darling and the other two members of the Rooftop Singers, exerted an irresistible up-tempo appeal with lyrics such as "Walk right in, sit right down; Daddy, let your mind roll on."

Earlier, the Tarriers, another folk group in which Darling was a member, produced a highly successful version of "The Banana Boat Song," the catchy Jamaican folk number that included the cry "Day-O" and ignited a brief Calypso craze. (The Harry Belafonte version became even better known.)

With the Weavers, Darling was more than just a substitute for Seeger, according to one student of the folk scene. Instead, Ron Kolesko wrote in his online "Folk Music Notebook," Darling "introduced new songs and styles to the group and really held his own."

Fred Hellerman, one of the original Weavers, said this week: "Pete never swung the way Erik could swing. His banjo could take command and carry everybody along with it."

Of Darling's later career, Hellerman said his friend "was constantly full of surprises. Erik would disappear for a while and all of a sudden pop up with songs or an album so completely off the wall and different, and of such high quality."

Erik Darling was born Sept. 25, 1933, in Baltimore, where his mother's family lived, but grew up in Canandaigua, N.Y.

Much of Darling's musical education was obtained in New York's Washington Square, which during his teenage years was a focus of the burgeoning folk movement that included Seeger, Belafonte, Bob Dylan and Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary. In the mid-1950s, Darling formed the Tunetellers, which later became the Tarriers, and included future actor Alan Arkin.

The group soon had a top-10 hit in 1956 with the calypso-influenced "Banana Boat Song," which Darling reportedly had heard from folk musician Bob Gibson in Washington Square.

Darling left the Weavers in 1962 to form the Rooftop Singers, in which he was credited with leading a 12-string guitar revival when he hit upon the idea of using the instrument that year for his version of "Walk Right In." The song had been written and recorded in 1929 by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers and had been regarded as an essentially forgotten classic.

Darling formed the Rooftop Singers specifically to release "Walk Right In" in updated form. The song became Darling's biggest commercial hit.

He was divorced from television actress and director Joan Kugell Darling. He had no immediate survivors.

Edited August 10, 2008 by GA Russell

[Christiern]

I recall being disgusted when, as a broadcaster, I received "Walk Right In" by the Rooftop Singers, and saw them credited with the composition. It was a shameless rip-off, compounded by the $500 Gus Cannon (the real composer) received when the truth came out. Also, the so-called "arrangement" made by Darling and co. was virtually identical to Cannon's original 1929 recording. That song was everywhere and Cannon, who was quoted as being "grateful" should have received a far bigger check. You can't tell me that the RT singers didn't know--they might have though Cannon was dead, but he was not difficult to find and, if memory serves me right, he was working in a very meanial, low-paying job.

[randyhersom]

I saw Erik Darling opening for and then backing Jonathan Edwards at a suburban Philadelphia coffehouse called The Main Point in the late 70s. It was an enjoyable evening. I enjoyed Edwards, but came away even more impressed with Darling. I decided to check out his then-current band Orphan, but never got around to it.

[GA Russell]

Chris, I'm sure that you know far more than I about how often this occurs.

A few years ago for Christmas my sister gave me a book which was a collection of the best magazine articles about music of the year. One article was about Wimeweh, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. It was about how the African composer lived a life of subsistence poverty while Pete Seeger received millions of dollars in royalties. According to the article, ASCAP or BMI (I don't rememeber which) got it straightened out after the fellow died, and sent his widow a sum which allowed her to buy a new home, but was chump change in comparison to what had already been paid out.

I'm pretty sure but not positive that the article was originally published in Rolling Stone.

[JSngry]

"Walk Right In", it was whispered, was a song about a "pot party".

[AllenLowe]

Seeger did not take the composer's money for The Lion Sleeps Tonight; it went to the original publisher at first - HOWEVER - the family of the impoverished South African who wrote it filed many lawsuits over the years and, a few years ago, won millions of dollars in royalties, which they continue to receive - so please, let us not libel Pete Seeger, who is anything but a hypocrite -

and thank you Chris for bringing up the Gus Cannon credit, which I was about to do -

Edited August 11, 2008 by AllenLowe

[GA Russell]

Seeger did not take the composer's money for The Lion Sleeps Tonight...

Allen, the article I referred to said that he did. If you dispute that, your beef is with the author, not with me.

[AllenLowe]

I understand - he may have received royalties as arranger or adaptor, I'm not sure - I have a very detailed article somewhere about it; I'll see if I can find it -

[7/4]

Time for a pot party folks....

[AllenLowe]

here's the Wikpedia entry, which I believe is accurate:

Alan Lomax brought the song to the attention of Pete Seeger of the folk group The Weavers. It was on one of several records Lomax loaned to Seeger.^[1] After having performed the song for at least a year in their concerts, in November, 1951, they recorded their version entitled "Wimoweh", a mishearing of the original song's chorus of 'uyimbube' (meaning "you're a lion"). Pete Seeger had made some of his own additions to the melody. The song was credited exclusively to Paul Campbell.

Pete Seeger explains in one recording, "it refers to an old legend down there, [about] their last king, who was known as Chaka The Lion. Legend says, Chaka The Lion didn't die when Europeans took over our country; he simply went to sleep, and he'll wake up some day." (See "Senzenina / Wimoweh" on Seeger's With Voices Together We Sing (Live).)

It was published by Folkways. Their 1952 version, arranged by Gordon Jenkins, became a top-twenty hit in the U.S., and their live 1957 recording turned it into a folk music staple. This version was covered in 1959 by the The Kingston Trio.

New lyrics to the song were written by George Weiss, Luigi Creatore, and Hugo Peretti, based very loosely upon the meaning of the original song. The Tokens' 1961 cover of this version rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and still receives fairly frequent replay on many American oldies radio stations. In the UK, an up-tempo rendering of this version was a top-ten hit for Karl Denver and his Trio. In 1971, Robert John did a cover of this version, and it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Since then, "Wimoweh" / "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" has remained popular and frequently covered.

[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Lion_Sleeps_Tonight&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Copyright issues">edit] Copyright issues

Pete Seeger later said in the book A Lion's Trail, "The big mistake I made was not making sure that my publisher signed a regular songwriters’ contract with Linda. My publisher simply sent Linda some money and copyrighted The Weavers’ arrangement here and sent The Weavers some money." Pete Seeger's publisher was The Richmond Organization (TRO, which also goes by a number of other names).

In 2000, South African journalist Rian Malan wrote a feature article for Rolling Stone magazine, highlighting Linda's story and estimating that the song had earned U.S. $15 million for its use in the movie The Lion King alone; this prompted the South African documentary "A Lion's Trail" by François Verster that documented the song's history. Screened by PBS, in September 2006, the documentary won an Emmy Award.

In July 2004, the song became the subject of a lawsuit between the family of its writer Solomon Linda and Disney. The suit claimed that Disney owed $1.6 million in royalties for the use of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in the film and stage production of The Lion King. Meanwhile, publisher of The Weavers' "Wimoweh", TRO/Folkways, began to pay $3000 annually to Linda's heirs.

In February 2006, Linda's heirs reached a legal settlement for an undisclosed amount with Abilene Music, who held the worldwide rights and had licensed the song to Disney. This settlement applies to worldwide rights, not just South Africa, since 1987.