Oh Yes, Oh Yes, My Darling!

Published on October 11, 2007

Sharlet: "Oh Yes, Oh Yes, My Darling!: The Great Unsung Song of Lee Hays" -- or, as Oxford American's 9th annual Southern Music issue retitled my essay about the co-writer, with Pete Seeger, of "If I Had a Hammer," "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," and so many other important American songs, "The People's Singer." The essay was online, then offline, and now it's online again; and here's a link to a correction I posted. This story is music history, but there's more than one ghost of a religion story within it. Hays, a socialist, was also a preacher's son who never saw any reason to draw sharp lines between politics and religion, so long as both were liberatory, and, maybe even more importantly, singable. Also online from this issue: Sean Wilentz on the "Mystic Nights" of Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" sessions; Alex Rawls on the Cowsills, famous long ago for a psychedelic mini-epic that featured back-up singers singing "six, six, six"; and Bill Wasik on how blogging killed the ephemeral indie-rock star.

Sharlet: “Oh Yes, Oh Yes, My Darling!: The Great Unsung Song of Lee Hays” — or, as Oxford American’s 9th annual Southern Music issue retitled my essay about the co-writer, with Pete Seeger, of “If I Had a Hammer,” “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine,” and so many other important American songs, “The People’s Singer.” The essay was online, then offline, and now it’s online again; and here’s a link to a correction I posted. This story is music history, but there’s more than one ghost of a religion story within it. Hays, a socialist, was also a preacher’s son who never saw any reason to draw sharp lines between politics and religion, so long as both were liberatory, and, maybe even more importantly, singable. Also online from this issue: Sean Wilentz on the “Mystic Nights” of Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” sessions; Alex Rawls on the Cowsills, famous long ago for a psychedelic mini-epic that featured back-up singers singing “six, six, six”; and Bill Wasik on how blogging killed the ephemeral indie-rock star.

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