Is it Annie or Fanny?
It's Memorex
I vote for Annie, only because Annie's better.
Timmie, if you don't bring that rocketship back this instant, you'll get the spanking of your life!
The consensus is Fanny according to this article written the day after Levon Helm died.
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/20/the-weight-of-our-ears-take-a-load-off-who/
Hi Randy, Thanks for the reply.
Not sure if that's a consensus, but I figured out how to deal with it in any case…
If and when I sing the song again, I'll just sing it like The Band did and then someone else can wonder whether I sang Fanny or Annie. I was in a band when this came out, and I sang it, but I really don't remember what I thought I was singing.
It's Annie. The lyrics are on the internet.
shareLol, okay chief. I've seen all sorts of misheard lyrics on the internet. The following site I've found to be a very reliable resource on the Band and it has "Fannie" - . It also has some pretty informative song analyses of you're interested in that kind of thing.
shareBoth versions of the lyrics are on the Internet.
Can't we just compromise here? Can't it be both? The third verse talks about "young Anna Lee" (Annie), and the final verse talks about "Ms. Fannie". Still, no matter which way you sing it, it's ultimately up to the listener.
It's definitely "Fanny", not Annie.
I've been listening to it since 1969. Trust me on this! 😉
By now it's well-known that song lyrics get misheard and misrepeated-- especially in rock music. In fact, the term "mondegreen" was coined for misheard lyrics.
IMO, this is because of 1) the difficulty of hearing the lyrics clearly above the music, and 2) the fact that rock music lyrics can be more poetic and surrealistic than in other genres.
But sometimes the "controversy" seems bogus. I can see wondering about Annie/Fanny, but "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" has this couplet:
"I swear by the mud below my feet/ You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat."
I used to visit a Band site. There was a huge, endless "argument" over whether the word is "mud" or "blood". It's obviously "mud", which logically fits in with the beginning of the verse: "Like my father before me, I will work the land."
All this has nothing to do with your original question, but when I saw it I had to "vent" about the stupid mud/blood argument.
Thank you for sharing.
shareFair enough. Now in Cripple Creek, is Bessie a truckers, or a drunkards dream (if he ever did see one)?
shareDrunkard's. No controversy.
shareWell, you got a short, and correct, answer. Here's a longer-winded one.
If you've never seen it, and are interested, check out this article:
Up on Cripple Creek - notes by Peter Viney
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/up_on_cripple_creek_viney.html
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The article goes into the trucker's vs. drunkard's "controversy" extensively. You'll either be glad or sorry that you asked!
To offer a quasi-spoiler lifted from the recommended article, apparently the use of "drunkard" was influenced, or inspired, by a folk song called "Drunkard's Dream".
The Stanley Brothers released a version in 1962; Levon, at least, was a fan and probably knew the song.
But this is another case where songwriter Robbie played with words/language, as he loves to do.
The song deliberately confuses, or conflates, the issue, because it is about a trucker, or at least it can be read this way. But he also wanted to incorporate the phrase "drunkard's dream", and the spirit of that song, into "Cripple Creek".
Remember, this is the guy who liked to "tease" listeners with phrases like: "Holy roaster on the brink" (not "holy roller"), and "The ghost is clear" (not "the coast is clear").
So we might have to split the difference, and conclude that the answer to your question is that Bessie is a drunken trucker's dream-- or a trucking drunkard's dream. 😉