I Wouldn't Mind Dying: A Song History

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The Carter Family recorded "I Wouldn't Mind Dying" for Victor on October 13, 1932, at the company's Church Building studio in Camden, New Jersey, with Ralph Peer supervising the session.[1] A. P. Carter is credited as arranger and lyricist, and the performance is a duet for Sara Carter's alto and A. P.'s bass voice, accompanied by two guitars, one of them played by Maybelle Carter.[1] "The Winding Stream," cut at the same session, became its partner on Victor 23807.[1][2] On the Montgomery Ward label the song was instead coupled with "This Is Like Heaven to Me," a Carter side from June 1933,[3] and some Montgomery Ward pressings reportedly carried a different title altogether, "See That My Grave Is Kept Green."[1]

Oil sketch of a flat green prairie under a wide cloudy sky, with a few grave markers in the grass and low hills on the horizon

Worthington Whittredge, Graves of Travellers, Fort Kearny, Nebraska, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 1866. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

Records with similar titles predate the Carters' session: Mamie Forehand recorded "Wouldn't Mind Dying If Dying Was All" for Victor on February 28, 1927,[4] and the Golden Leaf Quartette recorded "I Wouldn't Mind Dying" for Brunswick in Birmingham, Alabama, in November 1928.[5] The sources consulted here do not show whether either record is the same song as the Carters'.[4][5] A performance of the song is included on Arhoolie's The Carter Family On Border Radio-1939, Vol. 2, drawn from 1939 transcription discs whose station announcements name XET, a Monterrey border station,[6] while the 1932 Victor master has been reissued by Bear Family on In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain.[7]

Elwood Donnelly includes it in Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family, a self-published collection set entirely in DAD tuning, with instruction and notes covering mountain dulcimer, backup and singing.[8]

Our book that contains the song "I Wouldn't Mind Dying"

Sources

  1. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-59026. I wouldn't mind dying / Carter Family".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-59025. The winding stream / Carter Family".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Montgomery Ward M-7358 (10-in.)".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Mamie Forehand".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Brunswick matrix BIRM815. I wouldn't mind dying / Golden Leaf Quartette".
  6. Smithsonian Folkways: "The Carter Family On Border Radio-1939, Vol. 2" (liner notes).
  7. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Bear Family (Germany) BCD 15865 (Compact disc). In the shadow of Clinch Mountain".
  8. Elwood Donnelly: "Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family".
  9. Image: Worthington Whittredge, Graves of Travellers, Fort Kearny, Nebraska, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 1866. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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