Hard Times, Come Again No More - Thomas Hampson

[Yzabeaux]

I read this about the journalist Kevin Carter & a few colleagues who claim were simultaneously out there when his Putlizer Prize photo was taken. In some of the excerpts taken from his suicide note he was in serious deep debt with no money. One of his colleagues mention the foregoing on Carter's photo: "João Silva, a Portuguese photojournalist based in South Africa who accompanied Carter to Sudan, gave a different version of events in an interview with Japanese journalist and writer Akio Fujiwa

[BA97000]

Ideal song for this time of austerity we live in. No hard times for our ministers or builders or bankers or developers. Bet they'll have a great Christmas.

[TheHazeyQ]

I came to your vid having just watched the film 'Neon Bible' which features this song during a very moving scene. HAD to find a recording of it. Thank you for posting with the terrible and terrifying photographs.

[auguritutto]

Very moving photographs. Many thanks for exhibiting. I'm not knowledgeable about thes ephotgraphs can anyone briefly explain when and where exactly they were taken. Appologies for my UK ignorance. Kind regards.

[auguritutto]

Very moving photographs. Many thanks for exhibiting.

[lilibetp]

Beautiful. The Stephen Foster is my favorite Hampson cd, and this song is my favorite.

[eirbiz]

Don't forget that those of us who fall on hard times do so because YOU are 'all right Jack'.

[Ygrec23]

Thank you.

[camm1961]

Beautiful voice and beautifully sung !

[theoperaguy]

@camm1961 I couldn't agree more. Hampson is our greatest Lieder singer, & I often wish I had his upper pianissimos. I fear for what will happen to the world economy if Our government can't get it together to raise the debt ceiling & cut out the ridiculous tax breaks to the wealthiest of corporations. If not there will almost certainly be another world-wide depression. Please communicate with your Congress persons & Senators, & do some heavy duty praying. Wado (Thanks)

[sp617]

Heartless son of a bitch, leaving that poor child. A very moving video. Thanks for posting.

[Lisnageeragh]

Are there any of the photo here from THE MIGRATIONS ....Hampson , I think does a great job ....RIP Stephen Foster.

[RatherLargeAllan]

Every country has an unofficial national anthem. The USA has two - this and "This Land Is Your Land" and neither expresses the 'owners' viewpoint. How much easier it would be to love a country that sang this on state occasions!

[eirbiz]

You can bet your bottom dollar that this song will NEVER become the 'Anthem' of the greedy bastards on Wall Street!

[eirbiz]

A little reality lesson: If the 'I'm all right Jacks' of this world really gave a shit about children dying from hunger, it wouldn't happen. They park their SUV's in the 'middle' - where their 'success' can be seen - of the road outside the church where they pray for the destitute of this world and spend €20 on dog food on the way home. A child would have to eat an awful amount of prayer before its hunger would be satisfied.

[starlight1946]

Its said those who don't learn from History only repeat it again, I say those who don't give a hoot about History allow the evil doers to repeat History again.

[starlight1946]

Learn history what got these folks out of the Depression. It was the creation of factories and industries, the USA made items and hired the unemployed. Get rid of the Laws preventing this from happening. Allow folks to farm their own land, etc.

[63oldgymrat]

You people criticizing the photographer for not saving that one child have clearly not been in similar situations. The camera just shows you ONE of an overwhelming crush of such individual dramas. The photographer did his job and thereby did more to stop other such tragedies from occurring. But still he lost himself to the overwhelming trauma of such tragedy.

[knuteboy36]

I agree. It's so easy to sit in judgment of that guy. Who knows what it was like. Perhaps the child was one of hundreds of starving and dying children all around the area. Perhaps there were armed men around and they had to go. We don't know the circumstances.

The one thing we do know is it broke his heart terribly. He must have come home and felt an emptiness that ate him up inside. Life lost it's meaning for him so he took his own life. Shame on you people who act high and mighty.

[keydet72]

I love this song, but cannot watch the part where the photographer leaves the child to die. Where was God?

[pudercukurs]

can't believe this photographer didn't help the child. just took picture and left.

[xboilermaker]

There is another explanation of this photo in the wikipedia article on Kevin Carter. I hope the version given to the Japanese press by the other journalist is correct.

[Ionwhite]

@pudercukurs That's what photographic journaists do. It's their job to capture history on film. History is a harsh mistress. So, get off the high horse.

[benway15]

@pudercukurs You don't even know what you are talking about. You need to read about that photographer's life. Ended up killing himself over the shit he saw. You think that was the ONLY kid there like that? What the fuck would you have done? It's not like he happened to be carrying around heaps of food on his back. And also, even if he was, there is not much that can be done to help a human at that point of starvation, even with food.Tragically, the kindest thing that could be done is quick death

[benway15]

@benway15 Personally, I would want to be shot or euthenased ASAP if I was in that hideous position in life. Basically put down. It really is hopeless. At that point, you've suffered severe brain-damage and internal organ problems etc. from malnutrition. Can't believe anybody could judge that photographer, especially not from their fucking armchair watching youtube videos. If you are so high and mighty, why don't YOU fly over to Sudan and help all those children they keep bringing into the world?

[joeytwosubs]

@pudercukurs He did help him. He chipped in with obama and bought him a Chevy Volt.But he has no placr to plug it in.

[mobilechief]

@pudercukurs How do know that?

[thrush01]

Have checked out almost every version of this song, and you (whomever you are) have done one to equal anything. I'm still missing Kate McGarrigle, with her son Rufus singing with her on this, but I think yours is better even than theirs. Thank you so much.

[corywarden1]

Absolutely soothing. Hampson's voice is richer, sweeter, and smoother then honey.

[carole7351]

You did a fantastic job with putting Mr. Hampson's voice and the provoking images together!

[carole7351]

This is one of the most powerful videos I have seen!

[GenuineAmerican]

A fabulous story-video that rates a place in historical files. I have listened to and watched this video countless times. Having been born in 1940 and personally living/surviving near-such times, I too apply the meaning of the song to not just the anguish and the degradation of extreme poverty, but to other life-experiences and hard times just as "tomkelly" has so correctly stated.

[southdakotaslim]

I couldn't agree more with tomkelly's previous post: this is an excellent slide set. I teach US history and my students would gain much from viewing this presentation.

[tomkellycartoons]

I just saw Mr. Hampson sing this in concert at LA Opera two nights ago. I bought this cd, plus his "Wondrous Free: Song of Americ II." I highly recommend them. And...xboliermaker: your video is not amateurish...very moving....made me weep. I see this song as perfect for today's times, too. And not only financial troubles, but troubles of any kind...psychological, emotional, political...all of it. Beautiful Stephen Foster, sadly another troubled soul. Thank you for this. Mr. Hampson was lovely.

[mjw3121]

This video made me cry. I immediately donated some money to a feed the poor organization. To me the most truly sad picture was of a man walking alone down an empty highway. All alone with no hope in sight, perhaps he had a family back home dependent on him.

[xboilermaker]

I also fail to understand why he didn't include the verse beginning "There's a pale drooping maiden". Each artist likes to change something I guess. In Johnny Cash's version He says she is "singing" all the day instead of "sighing". I agree with you that it should be pronounced correctly.

[heliodor001]

@xboilermaker

Many singers leave out that verse. I think that it does an injustice to the song and it is incomplete.

[lilibetp]

I love Hampson's rendition of this song (although I do wish someone had sat him down and told him the word isn't "waifted" but "wahfted."

[Ermengarde11]

I'm guessing the rest of the take was so good that he let the error slip!  So very sweet yet rich with his voice.

[xboilermaker]

Yes, Thomas Hampson does a superb interpretation of this music, but you are too kind concerning my amateurish attempt to portray what the song means to me, (and many others also judging by the other versions of this song).

[Ermengarde11]

Nothing amateurish about this! There's another vid up here with similar theme, same song. So very relevant in these times!! beautiful

[mobilechief]

@xboilermaker I think it is meant to be sung in the fashion it make you fell , is is nice maybe also is yours, thats folk music.

[greensea4]

This is one of the finest films that I have seen on YouTube. The music was stunning; Hampson's rendition of this great song was perfect. The photos reminded us again of the vast suffering Stephen Foster's lyrics evoke. Beautiful work. Thank you.

[xboilermaker]

Thank you for your comment. I can empathize with these people because as a child, had to walk the railroad tracks to find coal that had fallen from the trains for heat. And we were still cold, with no insulation and paper stuffed between the wall boards where the wind rushed in and daylight showed through. But I consider myself lucky compared to the suffering of so many at this very moment.

[chiara54324]

Bravo,film maker!

You, with the moving, wonderful voice and music and the hard pictures, made us meditate on a big world problem:sufferig children and poor people.

Thank you!