Bruce Springsteen has never performed or recorded THE LAST WORDS OF COPERNICUS, but he used excerpts from Alan Lomax's recording in DEATH TO MY HOMETOWN.You can hear the sample in the musical intro to the song and in the musical breaks after every repetition of the song’s chorus. What you hear is mostly the song’s alto line at the start of the fuge, which was added to the song by S. M. Denson in 1911 .

 

 

Bruce played ' death to my hometown ' 188 times  

 

First time : 

 

THE LAST WORDS OF COPERNICUS is an old folk poem written by Philip Doddridge in 1755 and set to music by Sarah Lancaster in 1869. A performance by the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers was recorded by Alan Lomax on 12 Sep 1959 at the annual United Sacred Harp Musical Association Singing Convention in Fyffe, AL. It can now be found on Lomax's Southern Journey Volume 1: Voices From The American South and Southern Journey Volume 9: Harp Of A Thousand Strings collections. Alan Lomax was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the twentieth century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain. In 1959 and 1960, he embarked on field trips throughout the American South, recording over 80 hours of folk music. This was the most important of Lomax's efforts to promote traditional music

 

 

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