Cover Me: Red River Rock

Okay, hang with me while we unspool this thread.

Way back in the 19th century, a folk song made the rounds of several Canadian provinces. Over the years that followed, it would go by several different names, but  the most common (or at least the most enduring) was “Red River Valley” (possibly in reference to the area by that name in Manitoba).

In 1926, Kelly Harrel gave us the earliest known recorded version, called “Bright Sherman Valley.” (The song would often take the name of the place where it was sung.)

The following year, Riley Puckett and Hugh Cross recorded it under the “Red River Valley” name.

Woody Guthrie also recorded a popular version in 1944.

The song gathered greater popular attention when Gene Autry sang it as the title song for his 1936 film by the same name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAYSPUQ_F8

And of course, if factored in this memorable scene from one of Bruce’s all-time favorite movies, The Grapes of Wrath.

By the time the rock and roll era began, “Red River Valley” was a fixture of American western culture, so it was a natural candidate for adaptation in the late 1950s when bands looked for standards they could update.

In 1959, Johnny and the Hurricanes took a swing at it and scored a big hit. Their version of “Red River Rock” peaked at #5 in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K.

By the autumn of 1981, Bruce had almost certainly been steeped in lifelong exposure to various incarnations of “Red River Valley/Rock,” from his beloved Western movies, to the folk music of Woody Guthrie, to the instrumental rock hit from when he was only ten years old.

So maybe that’s why one day during his Nebraska writing and home recording sessions, Bruce took a break from his own material and recorded his one-man cover of the rock instrumental, whistling in place of the absent synthesizers.

And yes, I realize that’s a lot of spun thread for a not-even-one-minute cover that never went anywhere.

Such is the lot of the obsessive blogger.

Red River Rock
Recorded: Autumn 1981 (demo only)
Never released
Never performed