Jack Takes the Floor

Reminds me of my great-grandfather, Marion “Red” Caudill. Miss him dearly. He used to talk about CCC sites that he worked at in the 30s. He’d sing me and my cousins a little tune such as these. I believe it was an amalgamation of “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” and other Jack Elliot/Woody Guthrie tunes. This just feels like he’s singing to me again.

its great and all but i thought he'd be ramblin' a bit more!

".....Honey let me be your Salty Dog". now i know where The Darlings got this song to play on the Andy Griffith Show. Such a great album. One of the albums that exploded folk music in NYC.

A cross between Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Hank Willian and the Darlings. Enjoyed. Can picture myself sitting on a deck or around a fire and smiling while listening. A nice change of pace

Salty Dog… need I say more. Stolen from the Darling’s and Ernest T. Bass! Haha. Typical 1950’s folk music.

Fine but inessential.

Nah, that's alright. Pass.

I'm nowhere near american enough to get this.

This guy has such an intense bed bug infection it caused him to yodel.

no me gusto

Can't stand the talking drawl over guitar music. This must've been inspiration for Bob Dylan. 2/5

So folksy, much yodeling

* really bad vocals, good instrumental

I think this album is important as you can hear the influence it had on Bob Dylan & other artists. It's a bit of a tough listen as it's certainly dated.

Clearly influential but the production quality is poor. 3/5.

Classic American folk music.

I debated giving this five stars but it never hit that peak of perfection for me. A lot of the songs on here surprised me. It ranged from your standard talking blues country songs, to yodeling and duck noises, capped all off with some catchy ant nuclear jingles. Each song was a delight in its own sort of way.

It's interesting and funny how early Bob is the perfect offspring, in both sound and image, of Woody's politics and Jack's strangeness (plus a little something earnest of his own)--I had no idea before today! I enjoy this as a time capsule, but it mostly makes me want to go listen to one or more Bootleg albums.

Decent folk, but probably won't revisit this one. Favorite track: Grey Goose

im not listeining to this bs

This is pretty standard 50s folk, which definitely sounds more like country to a modern ear. More Johnny Cash than Bob Dylan. And a lesser Johnny Cash should I add. It's not bad music by any metric, but it is kinda dull.

boring shit

*Old timey faux Appalachian from the 30’s voice* Well, I was born on a rainy Tuesday under a full moon the color of corn liquor in the holler of a town that ain’t on no map, to a sharecropper daddy who done lost his leg in the war and a mama who could sing the devil right out of a mule. I took to the road at the age of nine with a bindle on a stick and a heart full of sorrow, ridin’ the rails from ol’ San Antone to the muddy Okacholie, where I met a blind street preacher named Big Jim McGee who done taught me three chords, seven verses of ‘The Roving Gambler,’ and how to tell the difference between a boll weevil and a man who ain’t worth his salt. Well, Big Jim had himself a daughter, Little Sadie, who was courted by a gambler, a ramblin’ man, and a fella named Stagger Lee, all of ‘em wanted for murder in three counties and a parish, and one night they got into a poker game down in Gitchie Goomie with a railroad man from ol’ Muskegee who’d done killed his woman with a rusty razor and buried her in the Cumberland Gap. Now, I don’t rightly know what happened next, on account of the train come through and took my hat, my rust bag, and the last honest dollar I ever seen, but I reckon that’s the way of this wicked old world, where the rich man rides in a Pullman car and the poor man rides in a grease barrel strapped to a one-legged dog, where the river keeps rollin’ and the cotton keeps growin’ and the hammer keeps ringin’ till the judgment day, when the Lord’ll come down from the mountain with a shotgun in one hand and a jug of moonshine in the other and ask us all, ‘Which side are you on, boys?’ Well, I told him I was just a poor boy from the country, tryin’ to get to heaven ‘fore the devil knew I was dead, and he said, ‘Son, you done missed your train.’ So I caught the next one west, bound for Frisco, where the ocean meets the railroad track and the pretty girls wear ribbons in their hair and dance around in circles all day long, and I sang my song for a nickel to a man who’d lost his farm, his wife, his dog, and his only son to the man down at the bank, and he said, ‘Mister, that’s the saddest song I ever heard.’ And I said, ‘Well, mister, you ain’t heard the last verse yet,’ and I sang him a song about a hobo, a banjo, a dead mule, a union man, a crooked sheriff, a lonesome dove, a hard-luck miner, a rambling gambler who never played a hand, a railroad engineer, a mountain girl with coal-black hair, a hard-ridin’ cowboy, a hard-times farmer, a sailor lost at sea, a mother who’d died in childbirth, a father who’d gone to prison, a baby who’d been left on the doorstep of a prison who then was subsequently put into that same prison on that very same day on account of loitering, a dog who’d been shot by the revenuers for a crime he didn’t commit, and a man who’d been hung for a crime he had done but only in a dream but who figured he got what he deserved, and when I finished, the man asked for one more, so I gave him my review of Jack Takes the Floor by Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and it went a little something like this: This sucks.

Nah, not feeling this today.

It’s calming and pleasant, but kinda went in one ear and out the other

As much as I loathe the genre, for some reason, this album has a charm. Hell, this man is such a good storyteller, he had me engaged in a ballad about Bed Bugs(I know it was the 1950s, but "Black Baby" was a terrible mistake). He also invented a sub-genre of music, so this album rightfully deserves to be on the list. Favorite Track: "Bed Bug Blues".

Rambling all right... This is neither original nor innovative, but just annoying.

Excellent folk by a contemporary of Woody Guthrie. It also just made me think of my grandad who would have loved this album.

Made it to Bed Bug Blues before deciding that I don’t want to spend my time listening to this.

Overall: 8/10 This is that classic folk stuff that I really enjoy. Jack has a great voice and poetic lyrics. I loved it. Fav Song: Dink's Song

Just not my type of music at all, and unlike other similar albums in which the genre is not my type, I just don't like it. Don't like the voice and can't really make out most of the lyrics. Meh

Classic country, all the usual tropes there but the voice and humour is particularly enjoyable. The production was very average even for the time which made this a harder listen, but at least it has a snapshot of Lo fi production from the era

The 1001 Albums We Must Hear Before We Die list could use more like this. Fun.

Ramblin’ Jack sure knows how to ramble.

Quack, quack, big duck.

85

A curious artifact from '58 — interesting to listen to once, but not more than that.

Two different songs about bugs. Cool

- This feels so honkey tonk folk to me, and I'm not into it. - Don't like the wailing and screechiness of his voice... and the annoying out-of-tune yodelling. - I also didn't like the lyrics (including the casual misogyny and racism). I get that everything is all tongue-in-cheek kind of thing, but he's supposed to be a storyteller, and I don't care at all about these "stories". There wasn't any vulnerability here (with his put-on accent, too), and not enough of anything else to make up for that. - The finger picking was the highlight, for sure. - Thankfully, the album is short... and I don't want to hear it again.

I find it hard to rate this album. Sometimes I found Ramblin' Jack's folksiness inauthentic and irritating, and other times I went along with it. Overall, I think he should have left out the chatter.

Waarom moet Ol’ Riley zo diy klinken

This was fine. Not something to get particularly excited about though.

I have to kind of grade this on a curve because Apple didn’t have this specific album on iTunes. So, I just listened to a compilation of his his stuff and got the idea. This is not my music of choice, but I understand why it’s on the list and importance. Ramblin Jack has been around a long time ( still alive! ), and rambling is kind of an appropriate name! Still - I learned something and appreciate his place in music history.

Maybe it’s because I live in Texas and am married to a yapper, but I enjoyed more than I expected to.

not on spotify/5

I appreciated a song or two worth of this but at one point it was just a little too much non-stop folk twang.

No for my taste unfortunately 2/5

Definitely earned the name "ramblin". I don't have a lot positive to say about this one - it's fine, maybe influencial? Every song though could've been two minutes shorter. Not a huge fan (especially Grey Goose... yikes) Rating: 3/10 Favorite Song: Cocaine

I can't think of anything I hated about this album, but I didn't find too much to enjoy either. I always like hearing how music as changed and been influenced upon throughout the decades, but sometimes what comes later is better than the predecessor that that influenced it. I think this might be the case for this album for me. Glad to have heard it, but don't think I'll be coming back for seconds.

mid

Wonderful music, cross between Dylan and Guthrie. However, the album was inconsistent at best.

I never knew country/blues was a thing. And I never knew I need it. the end gets a little too country for my tastes, but good album

Good

It can be hard to buy into a record when the artist starts the first track talking about some other guy who performed it, and with what sounds like a much more interesting backline than whatever is going on here. Jack redeems himself slightly with his hollering, which is generally preferable to his rambling, even if his fake drawl is more stereotypical than Ian Dury’s genuine cockney. Still, the record’s place on this list is questionable, even as a demonstration of Dylan’s lineage, when I believe there is no Woody Guthrie and I doubt there’s any Bobby Vee. 2 I note that Ramblin’ Jack is still alive. I wish him joy of course, but at the same time it does seem a little inappropriate. 2/5

I can appreciate the part Jack and this album may have played in leading to some later music that I absolutely adore, but this one fell right about in the middle for me

Guy is not a good enough singer or player to carry a whole album by himself.

A Jewish Doctor's son from New York who ran away with the rodeo to be a cowboy, Ramblin' Jack seems to have known everyone, from Woody Guthrie and Reverend Gary Davis to Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. A number of the songs he sings were also sung by Lead Belly (who was also fond of a spoken, explanatory introduction, particularly on the Smithsonian recordings) His influence on the early Dylan is obvious. His simple, traditional songs are presented with that spoken intro and some tasty acoustic guitar. It's sort of simple, old fashioned goodness set squarely in an Americana, roots tradition.

Old school traditional folk music, played by one man and his guitar (with one track adding harmonica and another pretending to be accompanied by folk legend Woody Guthrie). It's presented more like an archival recording than a performance; most songs have a few lines of spoken introduction about the origin of the song. This isn't high art; the timing is sometimes sloppy, the pitch is sometimes off, and the songs are old and simple. Also, Elliott grew up in Brooklyn, so I suspect a lot of his folksy charm is a put-on. I think the album is interesting as a historical document, but it's not going onto the listening pile.

He fooled me, I thought he was a less famous but authentic country boy, singing about country stuff. It would have been a three. But I'm docking a star because it's not authentic after all; perhaps that's why the songs aren't great, despite some quality picking.

Кантри и кантри.

<3

This one reminded me of Bob Dylan in styling, but this guy in understandable because he enunciates. I have no idea why Spotify delivered the version they did, because there's a song thrown in there that he didn't even perform on. The music is Americana folk, and on one track he works with Woody Guthrie, which was interesting. Bluesy, cowboy/hobo songs. Not my bag. I would not stick around if I walked into a room and this was playing. My Rating: 3/5

Not my genre.

This was a really cool album to listen to for its historical context. This era of music from the late 50s, especially folk music, is way out of my element, so it’s really hard for me to listen to this in the same context as someone who’s more familiar with this kind of music. But this was a really fun album, especially with the country folk, cowbo song, and blues elements. It almost fits the stereotype of everything you would associate with music like this, especially from this period. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack Elliott was one of the artists who actually helped form that stereotype in the first place. Either way, the music is extremely stripped down, mostly just Jack Elliott with his guitar. A lot of what makes it interesting is his clever phrasing and storytelling, and some of his vocal performances are more along the lines of half spoken and half sung.

Couldn't find the album on Apple Music, but listened to some of his other stuff and it was fine.

I would not expect a New Yorker to be that good of an old time folksy cowboy type but well done even if he was cosplaying.

Oh no...!! Not available in my streaming service. I've seen seen the cover and checked the reviews, I'll be fine. Heard before  ❌️ Listened this time ❌️ Revisit ❌️ ★★☆☆☆(4/10) Default Total reviewed : 434 Already owned : 98 Purchased : 21 To buy : 5 Nope : 310

He certainly rambles. I don't really know what to do with this album cause it's not good, and it's also not really like horribly bad. I mean, the fact that he struggles to find a tune at several points is certainly something. Like, there's no way something like this would get released today. There's so much of this album that just feels like the very first thing the mic recorded. And the fact that it keeps peaking throughout the album really adds to that. I think this album is trying to be funny at points, at no point was I laughing with it, but I'm laughing at it instead. And 'Grey Goose', in particular, really sucked. Lawd lawd lawd. Fav Track: San Francisco Baby Blues

Well, not sure I needed to hear that. But there were a couple of good songs on it. I could imagine me and my friends (back in the day) finding this and learning some of the songs to play and sing during our down-time at college.

This wasn't on Spotify or Apple Music. I had to listen to it on Youtube, which is always annoying. It was fine. It was folksy and bluesy with an old country sound. He had a song with Woody Guthrie on it. It was just him and a guitar.

Maybe too much ramblin’ for this time in the morning. Favourite track: Cocaine

Interesting to listen to as an obvious Dylan influence. But not an album that I'd go back to.

If Jack White wasn’t influenced by this guy then what is life? Not my favorite thing to listen to in the realm of alt country….? I don’t know. Country? Bluesy country All that is rolled into this album Nothing to take from the album though. All the songs are just present

Som en kuriositet av historisk relevans? Greit. Men jeg hører ikke på musikk fordi det har historisk relevans. Tilbøyelig for at det har en plass på denne lista dersom det faktisk har historisk relevans; at feks. Bob Dylan hadde en åpenbaring da han hørte J. Elliott for første gang og la en trygg karriere i finans på hylla og løp ut og kjøpte seg en kassegitar & harmonica for pengene han skulle bruke på college tuition. Basert på den snevre wikipedia-artikkelen til albumet, så er det eneste merkverdige med skiva at den er med på denne lista. Men det handler kanskje ikke om skiva, men om mannen? Går i så fall litt vekk ifra listas konsept, som tilsynelatende er album-basert; det er ikke 1001 artister du bør høre før du dør.

Syns jeg hører mye tidlig Dylan i det her, og derfor skjønner jeg ikke helt hva det er som gjør av Freewheelin' Bob Dylan feks kommer så mye bedre ut av det. Kanskje samme grunn som at Freewheelin' kommer bedre ut av det enn det litt bortglemte debutalbumet til Dylan. Det er for det meste coverlåter? Man blir en tolker, men legger seg så tett opp mot tradisjonen at reelt bidrag er bedre opptaksutstyr og eventuelle preferanser på vokal og gitar. Freewheelin kopierer mye av trad-låtene, men det føles mer som adaptering enn cosplaying av Woody Guthrie. Men jeg liker uttrykket til Elliot, for all del.

On paper, I should hate this - but the innovative guitar, the charming delivery, the remarkably modern lyrics for a 50s recording, I actually found incrediblu charming. Right on the 4/5 boundary, the lofi recording probably just keeps it as a 4, but only just...

Det va helt nytt men ganske trivelig og akkurat som forventa, æ likte det, men ikke mye nok til at æ gjør Ramblin' Jack Elliott til et bekjentskap æ lytte mye til, tror æ.

Woody 2.0 - such a smart ass and still sagacious. Essential listening for an Dylan fan.

Old timey bluegrass music definitely scratches a very specific itch. Some of the earlier tracks had very ‘modern sounding’ production. More aptly, modern country has come back around to this style. I was less enthused during the back half.

Better than Coldplay

Thank god for Bob Dylan is all I'm gonna say (which, in a way, is a thank to Mr. Elliot here too, I suppose).

I have zero faith that the curators of this list could adequately represent the tradition that Elliot hails from, and nor can I, but the fact that there is no Woody Guthrie on the list is still a bit of a tell, along with the fact that the Elliot album they've listed not only seems to be out of print, it appears to have been reissued with a different name and isn't even officially reviewed on AllMusic. As a nod to the artists that took Guthrie's legacy and stylings and made them accessible for a new generation, however, it does the trick.

not really my thing

Me gusta el country pero no me afanó

Interesting that this guy was the thread between Guthrie and Dylan. But also where did his accent come from? Isn't he from Brooklyn? Personal enjoyment: 3/5 Relevance to this list: 3/5

Never heard of him … will probably have forgotten him again by tomorrow 🤷‍♀️

Musically very sparse like bob dylan and vocally a bit repetitive. As a monument to the times though its very important but its not an experience that needs repeating

The Woody Guthrie comparison here is obvious - and made by Elliott himself, in the course of a song in which he literally pretends to be Guthrie ("New York Town") - but I think the real antecedent here is Jimmie Rodgers, who Elliott covers on "Mule Skinners Blues." Elliott's not-so-secret weapon is his powerful pipes, which bridge the gap between Rodgers' yodel and the early blues of someone like Howlin' Wolf. The song structures are basic and the production values low, as is par for the period. But Elliott's voice and persona are consistently engaging. I was pleasantly surprised by this.

Not bad, but from a genre I'd not normally listen to our of choice. Quite enjoyed it without getting excited at any point, so three stars seems a fair reflection. Amazed to read he's still alive too.

Jack Elliott, eigentlich Ramblin' Jack Elliott, war Amerikaner. Aufgenommen 1958 in London, für Topic Records, produziert von Bill Leader und Dick Swettenham. Welches Studio genau, ist nirgends festgehalten. Elliott kam von Woody Guthrie her, mit dem er Anfang der Fünfziger durchs Land getrampt war, und man hört das: nur Gitarre, eine raue Americana ohne jeden Schliff, jeder Song erst mit einer kleinen Anekdote eingeleitet. Was mich an dem Album packt, ist wie unangestrengt es klingt. "San Francisco Bay Blues" von Jesse Fuller, der alte "Boll Weevil" – bei Elliott wirkt das, als würde er die Songs gerade in dem Moment erfinden. Cowboy-Songs, Folk-Balladen, Blues, er springt zwischen allem, ohne dass es nach Stilübung riecht. Hängen geblieben sind mir vor allem "Mule Skinner Blues" und "Dink's Song". Elliott hat nie behauptet, Bluesmusiker zu sein. Genau da liegt für mich seine Stärke. Aufgenommen wurde das in Elliotts England-Jahren, als er mit Derroll Adams durch die Clubs zog. Bob Dylan hat sich später einiges davon abgeschaut. Die Songs erschienen danach nochmal unter dem Titel "Muleskinner", mit zwei zusätzlichen Stücken. Das Material trägt bis heute. Auch fast 70 Jahre später klingt "Jack Takes The Floor" für mich immer noch frisch.

Man, I feel like I should be out on a cattle run with ol’Curly sitting beside the fire drinking rot-gut whiskey, and listen to him play the guitar (City Slickers reference). I was surprised how much I enjoyed Ramblin’ Jack Elliott‘s music. I don’t necessarily know if this is gonna be a bumper on the way to work every morning, but it really was a fun and cool listen. His sound and his feel is so authentic, like Bill and Ted grabbed him in the Time Machine and brought him to modern day, or at least the 1957 version of it. I think my favorite two songs were O’Riley and the Bol Weevel, but Cocaine was pretty good too. A song came on after called If I Were a Carpenter, and that song will probably end up on my annual soundtrack. This was a pretty cool album!

Random thoughts: * I didn't know anything about Ramblin' Jack Elliott before this 1001 entry, * Interesting to see he was a contemporary of guys I know much better like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. * I find it interesting that a Jewish guy from Brooklyn got famous being a "singing cowboy". It shows how much of music is tradition passed down and borrowed and expanded and appreciated before it becomes commercially viable. I'm sure there are some singing cowboys and blues musicians (especially black people) that really created these songs that became commercial for Jack and others. * Why is cocaine a common theme is some of these old folk/blues songs? I guess this was a problem long before the 1970s. * I appreciate this music and what it is. Will I be playing it again? probably not. * For some reason, Spotify played Sarah Vaughn's "Can't We Be Friends" instead of Dink's Song which was quite an abrupt transition from Ramblin' Jack. This was clearly an error. Ramblin' Jack is also credited with Charlie's Angles Theme on Spotify but this has a better explanation: "The confusion comes from a name overlap. The famous 1970s television theme song was co-written and composed by television composer Jack Elliott (along with Allyn Ferguson)—not the folk musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Digital streaming platforms often misattribute or lump the composer credits together under name variations, but they are entirely different people."

I love when a guy is Ramblin'

not really sure what inspired me to listen to this album in 2024. Making this my second listen thru... totally good. no issues. good music. good job. nice ramblin.

Good early folk.

Not as good as Merle Haggard but not bad

Makes you feel like you're in an old saloon in the south

4.0/10 Not really digging this one..

"Bed Bug Blues"? People really were singing about anything and everything back then

This is tuff