Talk:The Prisoner's Song

Correction by Amanda Wilde

Amanda Wilde, the host of The Swing Years and Beyond (KUOW, broadcast Feb 7, 2009, 7:20 PM PST), just referred to this article, saying the information was incorrect. She said "Guy Massey" was not a pseudonym, but a real existing person and that Robert Massey, Guy's brother actually composed the song. — Sebastian 03:30, 8 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, she just sent me the original source: http://www.bobdylanroots.com/prisoner.html. She also added that we'd need to research this further. But I think this is already better referenced than most information in such articles. — Sebastian 04:04, 8 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Palmer biography of Dalhart cited in the article is by far the most carefully researched work on the Prisoner's Song. Palmer contacted the families of the principal claimants and gathered copies of letters written at the time as well as gathering a large body of other material to document his comments.

Who Wrote the Prisoner's Song?

The October 20, 1924 letter by Guy Massey to Rob Massey, et. al., mentioned in the article provides the most compelling evidence that the song went from Rob Massey to Guy Massey to Dalhart to Shilkret at Victor. According to Palmer, a 1940s document written by Massey family member Dudley William Casley, Jr., apparently as part of the family archives, said that Rob Massey spent some time in prison in Texas and Louisiana and Rob heard a number of songs, including the Prisoner's Song, there. Victor artist Carson Robison, who worked closely with Dalhart and was frequently asked about authorship of the Prisoner's Song says that from what he was told by Dalhart, that neither Guy Massey, nor Dalhart had anything to do with the composition of the song; it was merely a song heard in the penitentiary. Dalhart's claims of having rewritten the song are not credible. He constantly changed his story to fit his pocketbook. As a Victor executive responsible for insuring the quality of Victor recordings, it is likely that Shilkret made some changes in the music, and there are a number of recordings with sufficient changes by Shilkret that Victor gave label credit to Shilkret, acknowledging his role in the compositions. There is only scant documentation of the importance of any possible changes made by Shilkret in the case of the Prisoner's Song. In response to articles on Dalhart written by Jim Walsh in the magazine Hobbies in the 1960s, there were two people who wrote to Walsh that they had heard the song, largely as recorded in 1924, before 1910. Niel Shell (talk) 23:34, 30 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What is the French Song Doing in this Article

Clearly this is not the appropriate place. Suggest delete of section. 2601:545:C000:C165:8939:49F1:4E60:E725 (talk) 02:45, 8 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Use of song

The song is heard at the end of the 1937 film “Dead End”. The song is sung by members of the gang as the movie ends and credits roll. 100.36.105.124 (talk) 12:16, 21 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]