Added: 5 years ago
From: jguth3
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  • I've wanted to see Steve do this since I first heard it (and have since performed it). Thanks so much. The wars never see to be over. Just more begun. Peace.

  • brother stevie -we still miss you...

  • That's for the posting. Another song from this show, When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob Bobin' Along, is also posted. Does anyone have the rest of the show? Arlo, you introduced Steve. If you're listening, are there any more songs from this great performance?

  • What a fantastic voice! I am of the Vietnam War age and this has me in chills and queasy in my stomach, and crying. We were lied to. Now days, they at least tell us they are going into a country. That doesn't help those who have lost loved ones. It never helps. This version is so potent...his voice is so strong and challenging. God Bless Steve. I hope he is in peace. Thank you for this version. I have never heard it before. God Bless all the families and those who were lost years ago...and now.

  • Makes me cry every time

  • Great American and talented writer/singer sadly missed,other favourites are"Ican't sleep when I can't sleep with you" and "you're the girl I love " a really genuine person,

  • Steve is missed! Also here in Belgium.

    Someone wrote 8 months ago "I got chills".

    Well, I feel it as well.

    Very, very, very nice song, very, very, very well sung!

  • why dislike this song there is nothing wrong with and unlike most of the crap today it has meaning

  • My name is Penni Evans. Really.

  • Haunting.

  • a great song. Michelle Shocked did a great version of it.

  • This sh*t is crack-er-lackin', Steve is just bossin' it chillin' with his homies

  • My best friend/little brother is just about to go to war....Neither he nor his wife are even 20 yet...I pray to God that she doesn't have to become another "Penny Evans" because of this foolish war...

  • I still remember weeping through the whole rendition the first time I heard this song in the seventies. I'm almost sixty - and it is still just as poignant. We really miss you still, Steve...

  • "And 50,000 "Heart & Soul's" being played with just one hand"

    Such a telling phrase.... so beautiful and sad

  • I got chills...

  • This song makes me cry every time I hear it. So beautiful. Mr. Goodman, you are missed.

  • wow.

  • what happened to The REd Red Robin from the same gig?? It was one of my favorites & it seems to have disappeared!

  • @rukeyser I was wondering the same thing.

  • It's on here. Just type Steve Goodman red red robin. I just watched it.

  • @rukeyser Ok, now I see how this works. This new youtube format stinks.

  • it takes real talent for a man to sing a song in a narrative female voice. he is amazing. it's sad he's gone.

  • man, this is a masterpiece. It is even more impressive that he performs it a cappella as if he were continuing a bardic tradition. The lyrics are so poignant and reflective. The melody is simple and beautiful. All around a fantastic song

  • When discussing the greatest song writers of my generation Steve Goodman certainly has to be included.

  • does anyone know where I could find this concert on DVD?

  • Not likely. This was recorded by jackie Guthrie, Arlo's wife. Don't think it's on any other recording.

  • For the person who asked for similar songs, try "Mary Danced With Soldiers." One version can be found on the CIRCLE 2 album.

  • Can anyone recommend some other good songs that have a similar feel to this one?

  • There's a chance peace will come in your life. Please buy one.

  • wow. that just knocked me over.

  • Steve Goodman was a master songwriter and master showman. This is a beautiful and moving piece of storytelling in traditional guise, while also being an incredibly powerful indictment of the war machine. There are plenty of good song writers writing powerful anti-war songs, but they are not getting recording contracts like Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Buffy St. Marie, Mark Spoelstra, Eric Anderson, Patrick Sky, Arlo Guthrie: they were all on major labels. Now, at least, we have YouTube!

  • What a wonderful song this is.

    'and it's every month I tear it up and mail the damn thing back'... He wouldn't even have had to finish the song, would've been worth it just for that line.

  • I am listening to a few of Steve's I have found here. You Tube is such a tapestry of memories, (forget the crap like dorm floor mattress wars) as we fill in the gaps with each other's saved remnants.

    This is such a touching song. We have the same stuff going on now. Who are our troubadours reminding us of the human cost of war? Why are we so desensitized?

  • Steve Earl.See the Revolution starts now, Rich mans war both on you tube. No argument on the desensitization though but don't see that changing anytime soon. Except possibly for the worse.

  • Glad to see this song and that it's available for viewing here - what a voice, what a song, what a heart. Still brings me to tears - Steve Goodman was terrific.

  • I've had abnormal size goose bumps while listening to this song.

    Thumbs up !

  • Spent '68 in Vietnam - what a waste, just like Iraq and Afghanistan.

  • @thekidde63 Bring all our troops home

    -from Germany and South Korea, too.

    America First.

    No more World Policeman.

  • You may think this is boring (sad about your spelling) but it makes the point as do all of his songs---up beat or not. There is another song by Kate Long called McNamarras tear---even slower and just as poignant.

  • I love it. I'm sending this link to an actress friend of mine to sing at an open mic. Steve was one of the best performers, guitar pickers and writers I've ever seen. Thanks, Jackie!

    BTW, I talked with Sarah Lee yesterday at the L.A. Acoustic Music Festival. Her and Johnny sure were fine. Favorite song, Kindness.

  • hey forotherstuff32. While I think your comments are insensitive and basically wrong, I respect your right to post them.

    Music is such a subjective experience.

    Uh, well....Maybe you oughta watch your spelling though. The inaccuracy in spelling opens you up to the usual name calling that goes on around here.

  • foreotherstuff: yes, a war widow is a terrible thing. That's the point. It is an anti-war song, sung from the point of the view of a civilian suffering a war loss.

    Taking a wild guess, you are too young to have gone through the Viet Nam War, and you are not a folk music fan. Just a guess.

  • Thank You Ms Guthrie for one of the best channels on YouTube. I find myself tuning in often.

  • Michelle Shocked did an even more chilling version of Steve's incredible song at a Folk Festival. I haven't been able to find it on YouTube.

  • wow, this was just 2 towns away, however i was born in 72 and at that time we lived in new jersey!

    my dad will freak when i tell him about this, and maybe he'll tel me he was there, and that is why i listened to steve growing up, and grew up where i did.

  • wow, to think it's been nearly 35 years. I am a Vietnam vet. I cried when I heard this.

  • I remember this song from when I was a kid, my dad was a folkie around the Chicago area, and a draft dodger. I remember the feelings it brought to my little girl heart, that it was too sad. Twenty five years later my husband has been to Iraq twice. I have two sons.

    Will it ever end?

  • I first heard Steve Goodman driving home one day when The Dutchman played on the radio. I loved it but he totally slew me with this song. What I did not get was how he could get that traditional style so down the one and only time (as far as I know) that he tried it.

  • Steve used the tune to "The Flying Cloud", a 19th century British sea chantey, and then just, as he said, wrote down Penny Evans's words,as she told them to him. He spent a total of 30 minutes putting the song together. He was one of the best.

  • Incredible....

  • Penny Evans is my mother in law ... for real

  • I was talking to a friend of mine who is currently in ROTC at SIUC and will probably end up in Iraq after he graduates. He told me about the life insurance that the person of his choosing gets paid if he dies and he said he's giving it to his ex, because his parents wouldn't want it. It made me think of this song when he told me that. I hope he makes it through all right.

  • When the war in Iraq started I was trying to remember the lyrics to Penny Evans.

    Shortly after Bush had proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" we were planning an anti-war rally in Portland, Maine. On our flyer I put the words I had remembered, "They say the war is over, but I think it's just begun."

    How true those words were.

  • I was so excited to find this here. I think it's the best anti-war song ever written. I still miss Steve Goodman...

  • wow, this song is so emotional

    and i love it!

  • I LOVE this song and it may be the sadest song I have ever heard (Always moves me) Stop the damn wars ......... we have lost enough

  • I sanf this one at a central Ohio HS variety show a few years back. A few days later, a student came up to me and asked me about the song 'about the girl who'd only slept with one guy...'

    I think he missed the point.

  • This song is as timely now as it was then. Somethings never change

  • I live in the Pullman district of Chicago and my neighbor is Earl of Olde Town. He owned the bar were Steve played in the early years. Rest In Peace Steve.

  • Wow, good stuff. Steve was a good soul. He dragged Kristofferson there after closing to hear his friend John Prine. He would often make wry comments to John when they traveled through airports wondering why they used the word terminal. He left his mark.

  • I saw Small Potatoes Saturday night and they sang a "new" last verse to this song.

    My name is Penny Evans and I now am 61

    I'm a widow of the war that once was fought in Vietnam

    And I have two full grown daughters

    And I thank God they have no sons

    Now, they say the war is over but another has begun.

    Rich credits Christy Martin of Four Shillings Short

  • Doesn't Jacqui do an amazing job with this song? it's even more intense when done by a woman.

  • Another interesting tidbit in the Eals' biography: Steve and Hillary Rodham were high school classmates!

  • There is a video of 2 Austin City Limits concerts available (late 70's and early 80's). It doesn't have Penny Evans but it does have lots of great other songs. Also has interviews with Kristofferson, Prine and Arlo G. I got the VHS version as I heard the DVD had a defect.

    A blog somewhere from Penny Evans' son-in-law confirms the earlier post that she had a son later in life but there was more tragedy in Penny's life. She's now near Boston.

    Steve - best solo performer I've ever seen.

  • Libertarianism and raw social realism in a beautiful,musical harmonic motion.Well,it's my just words and thoughts,which can never describe this great man fully,anyway.R.I.P Steve.Peace.

  • Mourning death and its consequences is a libertarian thing, i hear.

  • I know this is a protest song,don't get me wrong.I was talking about Steve and his kinda life philosophy.Did you read my comment properly?Social realism?Okey.Peace!

  • Because we must put labels on everything.

  • Such a powerful songwriter. Sorely missed.

  • One of the most powerful protest songs ever recorded

  • He made it look easy. Reminds me of Mark Knopfler or Eric Clapton. Greatly missed by those who knew him or like me, wanted to. God Bless, Steve.

  • As a guitar player I got to meet Steve on a few occasions, in the 70's and before he died in 1982. Saw him 30 times perform. He was loaded with talent and spirit. That little body and gigantic voice. Musics stores no longer carry his albums/cd's and its a shame..from City of New Orleans which he wrote people.. not Arlo Guthrie). to Lincoln Park Pirates.. he made people laugh, cry and smile. He's missed.. and still the most fluid guitar player Ive ever seen.

  • Actually he died in 1984, just before the Cubs first playoff game in nearly 40 years,

  • well hello penny i hope your life aint as tragic as this song girl

  • Powerful song! A friend in the US put me on to this. And my name really IS Penny Evans!

  • Every President, Congressman, Senator, and every other person who jumps on the band to wage war should be force to listen to this song. I hope George W listens to it some day and realizes what he has done to so many thousands of families.

  • Sad to lose those we love.

    Freedom is not free though.

    There are evil people out there.

    And they aren't necessarily in the White House.

    Yet, don't ask for my son to go and die in another country while those there are unwilling to fight for it themselves.

  • i wish i could have married this man..

  • This song is so chilling. What a loss to the world of music to lose Steve Goodman so young.

  • This is my favorite of all the songs he wrote.  Love him!!! Wander if he had kids that went into music?

  • Steve's daughter released a CD in 2006, titled "My Old Man" in tribute to her father.

  • We miss you, Steve.

  • I sing this song and I remember the magic of the music of Steve Goodman, although I never got to hear him in person. This song transcends the war that it was about - it is about all wars and as such is sung in Scotland and by me in Ireland because war has to be about the individuals that are in it. Look behind the war machine rhetoric and always see the individuals. Steve did. He took a traditional tune and put new words to it - to very great effect.

  • i wish he was still alive to sing this to george w bush maybe he'd understand

  • YOU ARE A DICK, CASE CLOSED

  • I wish I could POKE you in the eye!

  • There's a wonderful CD called "The Easter Tapes" which is a compilation of songs Steve did on Vin Sclesa's WNEW show over the course of several Easters. Great to hear Steve perform live; so charming; great, great guitar pickin'. If you can't find it, you can download it from Amazon. I miss him.

  • Can anyone Post More of this fantastic Man's

    videos? PLEASE Please!!... I can only find 3

    songs, & would love to hear more. He seems to have been a beautiful person,& wonderful musician .

  • I once heard him do a version of "I'll Fly Away" that was fantastic! The man was a triple threat,a picker,a singer,and a songwriter! Only the good ones go young.

  • This song tears me up.......I loved Steve Goodman, and still play his old songs today. So sad that he left us so early..Have you ever heard the song that he wrote for his dad, Bud Goodman, about a year after Bud died.. Prine also does a good version of that song; " My Old Man.."

  • Hi , as you are a true fan, I was hinking that you JUst Might? Maybe,! Any chance you ? could put some of steves Music on you tube. video not necesary, Just want to hear more from him. He Was Outstanding.

  • does anyone know where to get the audio for this song?

  • I'm at work so can't look at my albums, but think this song was on "Somebody Else's Troubles". You can buy his albums at ohboy dot com. I was lucky enough to see him about 12 times in the 1970s. I still miss him.

  • According to the new biography of Steve ("Facing the Music", by Clay Eals), Penny Evans came to Steve after a concert in Rochester, and told her story, which was pretty much as the song said - including sending the checks back. Steve wrote the song that night, to a Louis Killean melody. Six months later she visited him in Chicago, wearing go-go boots and hot pants.She was then traveling the country managing a male rock group. Oh, well, it's still a great song.

  • I work with Penny Evans--the Penny Evans. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't know about this song except that she reluctantly told me of her meeting with Steve. The song is accurate, with the exception that she does have a son as well as two daughters. After the war, she spent a career in social work--no go-go boots or hot pants and no rock group management. Also, Bill continues to be the only man she ever married. Slept with? I didn't ask...

  • I only know what I read in the bio, which was very specific and detailed. That is not to say that the source couldn't get some facts wrong. (continued)

  • The source for the original meeting seems to be a friend of Steve's, who owned the pizzeria in which the two met. The source for the second meeting at the arl of Old Town might be Steve's manager, Al Bunetta, but this isn't clear. Bob Gibson was also there, but he can't be contacted, him deing deceased and all. It also said that Penny Evans later remarried, according to an interview Steve gave in 1976. That begs the question, how would he know that? Ahh, the mystery!

  • are you serious?

    that is

    amazing

  • My husband turned me on to Steve Goodman. I really enjoy his music. He was a great artist.

  • he makes me cry too.. the one in the cubs hat..

  • I love Steve Goodman! I was raised on him. This song always makes me cry.

  • "Lincoln Park Towing" anyone?

  • "Be it Edsel or Chevy There's nothing too heavy And we always collect our fee.. To me way! Hey! Tow 'em away!  The Lincoln Park Pirates are we!"

  • Thanks...any more Steve Goodman? The Dutchman?

  • He's a great singer & great cubs fan to. The dying cubs fans last request

  • Damn shame this song could be released today with the same relevancy. Great post of a great talent.

  • never heard of him, but I like his voice. And he's a cutie =] Thanks for sharign!

  • He wrote "City of New Orleans" which Arlo Guthrie made famous.

  • Thank you for posting Steve in some of his best moments.

  • Steve Goodman makes me cry everytime...I never heard that song before....Marie

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