Originally from New York, Elliott grew up in a Jewish family and had always wanted to be a cowboy. Pressured by his parents to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor, Elliott resisted and inspired by the rodeos he attended at Madison Square Garden, he ran away from home at the age of 15 and joined the J.E. Ranch Rodeo. Although he was only with the rodeo for three months (before his parents tracked him down and he was sent home), Elliott was exposed to his first singing cowboy, a rodeo clown who played guitar and banjo and sang songs.
Returning home, Elliott taught himself to play guitar and started busking for a living. Eventually he hooked up with Woody Guthrie and lived with him as a kind of student.
With banjo player Derroll Adams, he later toured Great Britain and Europe and had a lasting effect on the music scene there. By 1960, he had made three folk albums for the British label, Topic. Playing in the small clubs and pubs of London by day, he would then take his act to the smart, west end night clubs. Upon arriving back in the U.S., Elliott discovered he had become well-known within the folk scene.
Elliott's greatest influence was Woody Guthrie. Guthrie's son, Arlo, has said that because of his dad's illness and early death, he never really got to know him. Arlo acknowledged that he learned his dad's songs and musical style through Elliott.
Elliott's musical style influenced Bob Dylan so heavily that Dylan's first gig in New York City was billed as "Son of Jack Elliott." While Dylan rose to prominence through his compositions, Elliott continued as an interpretive troubadour, bringing old songs to new audiences in an idiosyncratic manner.
Elliott appeared on Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and played Longheno de Castro in Dylan's Renaldo and Clara.
Jack Elliott's style is distinctive in its use of excellent guitar technique matched with laconic, humorous storytelling and an emotional intensity in the singing.
Elliott's nickname is due not to his travel habits, but rather to the countless stories he would relate before answering the simplest of questions. Folk singer Odetta claims that it was her mother who gave him the name by remarking, "Oh Jack Elliott, yeah, he can sure ramble on!"
He was famously parodied in on the BBC in the 1960s by Kenneth Williams as Rambling Syd Rumpo who was a recurring character on Round the Horne. His claims of authenticity as a folk artist (despite being a Jewish doctor's son from New York City) and disparagement of other folk artists were also parodied by the Folksmen (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer) in A Mighty Wind both in the name of their "hit" Ramblin' and in their claims that their version was more authentic than the New Main Street Singers's version.
Jack Elliott's first recording in 20 years, "South Coast", earned him his first Grammy in 1995. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1998. Ramblin' Jack's long career and strained relationship with his daughter Aiyana were chronicled in her 2000 documentary, "The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack".
At 75, he has recently changed labels and released "I Stand Alone" on the Anti- label, with an assortment of guest backup players including members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers; again, an idiosyncratic collection of little-known music delivered with humor and intensity. He is on record as saying his intention was to title the album "Not For The Tourists" because it was recorded in response to his daughter's request for songs he loved but never played in concert. When she asked why he did not play them in public, he replied "These songs are not for the tourists".
Grey Goose
Ramblin' Jack Elliott Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The preacher went a huntin', Lord, Lord, Lord
And he carried along a shotgun, Lord, Lord, Lord
And along came a grey goose, Lord, Lord, Lord
Well he shot down a grey goose, Lord, Lord, Lord
And the gun went all belly, Lord, Lord, Lord
And down come the grey goose, Lord, Lord, Lord
And six weeks calling, Lord, Lord, Lord
And they put him on the table, Lord, Lord, Lord
And your wife and my wife, Lord, Lord, Lord
There's time for feather pickin', Lord, Lord, Lord
But the fork wouldn't stick it, Lord, Lord, Lord
And the knife wouldn't cut it, Lord, Lord, Lord
And they put him in the oven, Lord, Lord, Lord
But the oven wouldn't burn him, Lord, Lord, Lord
And they him in the hog pen, Lord, Lord, Lord
But the hog couldn't eat it, Lord, Lord, Lord
And he broke the hog's teeth out, Lord, Lord, Lord
So they threw him in the sawmill, Lord, Lord, Lord
And the sawmill wouldn't cut him, Lord, Lord, Lord
And he broke the saw's teeth off, Lord, Lord, Lord
And the last time I seen him, Lord, Lord, Lord
She was flyin' 'cross the ocean, Lord, Lord, Lord
With a long string o'gosling, Lord, Lord, Lord
And they're all goin' quack, quack, Lord, Lord, Lord.
The song "Grey Goose" by Ramblin' Jack Elliott tells a rather peculiar story. At the beginning of the song, we hear about a preacher who went hunting on an early Sunday morning. With him, he carried a shotgun, and as they walked through the fields, a grey goose appeared. Without hesitation, the preacher shot down the bird, but when they tried to prepare it for a meal later, they encountered all sorts of trouble. The fork wouldn't stick the goose, the knife wouldn't cut through the meat, and even the oven and the hog pen couldn't serve their purpose. The sawmill didn't cut through the meat, and the goose was still intact. The last time the singer saw the bird, it was flying across the ocean with a line of goslings, still quacking.
One interpretation of the song suggests that it is a parable or a satire on greed and the inevitability of death. The grey goose could represent life, and the preacher or those who strive for wealth represents those who try to control or dominate life. Though the hunter or the preacher could succeed in overpowering life temporarily, death eventually prevails, and no matter what one does, life (the grey goose) will escape and continue to thrive. The song could be conveying a message that trying to conquer or control life is fruitless and that true happiness and fulfillment come from appreciation and acceptance of its cyclic nature.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh early Sunday morning, Lord, Lord, Lord
On a Sunday morning, very early in the day
The preacher went a huntin', Lord, Lord, Lord
The preacher went hunting for animals
And he carried along a shotgun, Lord, Lord, Lord
The preacher had a type of gun called a shotgun that is used for hunting
And along came a grey goose, Lord, Lord, Lord
Then he saw a gray goose
Well he shot down a grey goose, Lord, Lord, Lord
He killed the goose by shooting at it
And the gun went all belly, Lord, Lord, Lord
The gun made a loud noise while shooting the goose
And down come the grey goose, Lord, Lord, Lord
The goose fell down to the ground after getting shot
Took six weeks of falling, Lord, Lord, Lord
It took six weeks for the goose to finally fall all the way down to the ground
And six weeks calling, Lord, Lord, Lord
During those six weeks, the geese calls could still be heard
And they put him on the table, Lord, Lord, Lord
The goose was placed on a table or surface after falling to the ground
And your wife and my wife, Lord, Lord, Lord
Your wife and my wife
There's time for feather pickin', Lord, Lord, Lord
They picked the feathers off of the goose after placing it on the table
But the fork wouldn't stick it, Lord, Lord, Lord
They tried to use a fork to cut the goose but it was too tough
And the knife wouldn't cut it, Lord, Lord, Lord
The knife was unable to cut the steely body of the goose
And they put him in the oven, Lord, Lord, Lord
They decided to cook the goose by putting it inside an oven
But the oven wouldn't burn him, Lord, Lord, Lord
The oven was unable to heat up enough to cook the goose
And they him in the hog pen, Lord, Lord, Lord
They attempted to feed the cooked goose to the pigs
But the hog couldn't eat it, Lord, Lord, Lord
The pigs were unable to eat the cooked goose
And he broke the hog's teeth out, Lord, Lord, Lord
The goose was too tough for the pigs teeth and broke them after attempting to eat it
So they threw him in the sawmill, Lord, Lord, Lord
They tried to chop or saw the goose with a sawmill
And the sawmill wouldn't cut him, Lord, Lord, Lord
The sawmill wasn't strong enough to chop the goose
And he broke the saw's teeth off, Lord, Lord, Lord
The goose was too tough for the saw's teeth and broke them
And the last time I seen him, Lord, Lord, Lord
The last time I saw the goose
She was flyin' 'cross the ocean, Lord, Lord, Lord
The goose was flying over the ocean
With a long string o'gosling, Lord, Lord, Lord
She had a string of baby geese attached to her while flying
And they're all goin' quack, quack, Lord, Lord, Lord.
The baby geese were making sounds like 'quack quack'
Contributed by Xavier R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.