He was instrumental in bringing down two powerful
opponents: Senator Joe McCarthy at the very beginning of his career and President Richard Nixon at the very end. In 1954 Nixon, then vice-President, appointed Ervin to a committee formed
to investigate whether McCarthy should be censured by the Senate. It was Ervin's investigation of the Watergate scandal in 1972/73 that lead to the resignation of his former mentor.
However, although there is little evidence to show that
the man was involved in any lynchings himself, in 1956 he helped draft The
Southern Manifesto, which encouraged defiance of desegregation and was signed
by most the Southern members of Congress. His apologists argue that his
opposition to most civil rights legislation was based on his commitment to the
preservation of the Constitution, and that he also
supported civil liberties by opposing "no knock" search laws, the
growing intrusions of data banks and lie-detectors (a machine he branded '20th century witchcraft'), the use of illegally-seized
evidence in criminal trials, and he played a major role in the defeat of a
Constitutional amendment to make prayer in public schools compulsory. So he wasn't all bad, then, or all good. Like most of us.
A native of Morganton, North Carolina, he thought of
himself as a "country lawyer", and was well-known for telling humorous
stories in his Southern drawl. It was this particular party piece that led Columbia
Records to sign him up. His one album - Senator
Sam at Home - featured Sam speaking his mind, telling a few anecdotes and
occasionally bursting into song: evidence of which managed to cross the pond
when CBS in the UK issued Bridge Over
Troubled Water as a single in 1973. The track was later re-issued on the
Rhino compilation Golden Throats 2.
Senator Sam at Home was, apparently, recorded in the library of his
Morganton home.
I fail to understand what was going on in the mind of the
CBS executive who thought that this drivel stood a chance of being a hit in
Britain. The man was famous in the States, of course he’ll sell a few copies,
but here he was an unknown septuagenarian doing little more than reading a poem
– badly. When performed with emotion, Paul Simon’s Bridge Over Troubled Water is a great song: recited in stumbling
fashion over a hokey backing just doesn’t cut it. Scheduled for release in the
UK in November 1973, all of the UK copies I have seen have been promos: it’s
possible that the disc was so poorly received that stock copies were never
issued here. In America the album was supported by full-page ads in the trade
papers which waxed lyrically about Sam’s ‘insights into Shakespeare, the
Constitution and the Bible’. William S Burroughs even wrote about the album in
Esquire.
Sam Ervin retired from Congress in December 1974. he continued to practice law, and his son and two of his grandsons followed him into the legal profession. He
died from emphysema on April 23, 1985, aged 88.
Here’s Senator Sam ghastly version of Bridge Over Troubled Water. I’ve also
included the 45’s B-side, Zeke and the
Snake.
Enjoy!
5/2/14
ReplyDeleteRobGems.ca Wrote:
Talk about poor timing! No less than five days after Paul Simon has been accused with getting into a domestic fight with his wife, singer/songwriter Edie Brickell (And getting arrested for it!) you put this up on the blog post. I was aware of this album back in the mid 1980's courtesy of an out-of-print book titled "Rock & Roll Confidential", which had among other things, a whole chapter on celebrities cutting rare discs. Columbia did issue this in 1973 in LP form to cash in on his notoriety of the Watergate scandal, but I had no idea this single was yielded from that album. Senator Sam sounds like a curious cross between Andy Griffith & Foghorn Leghorn and his recitals remind me of the awkward but charming singles by Walter Brennan from the 1950's & 1960's on the Dot & Liberty Labels ("Dutchman's Gold" & "Old Rivers" were Top 40 hits over here in The US.) At least Senator Sam doesn't recite his words ham-like as William Shatner would do on his recordings. The idea of reciting the lyrics instead of singing the lyrics is a risky move, but this is an interesting record. As for Mr. Simon's domestic problems with the Mrs., they both had to pay a strict fine for their little outbursts, and TMZ covered it in the press embarrassingly. I hope they both recover from their problems soon.