Ashman

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Robert Hunter

The listing for Robert Hunter's Armageddon Rag at the US Copyright Office describes it as "on 1 sound cassette + lyrics ... with Ragin' and Ashman." Hunter has performed Ragin' in solo concerts, but I've never seen any other references to his version of Ashman (described in the registration as "lyrics with chord symbols").

In the novel by George R.R. Martin, Sandy plays a cassette by The Nazgûl - their album titled "Music To Wake The Dead". The tracklist includes "Ashman (Ashes, Ashes)" and the novel quotes the following fragments of lyrics:

See the ash man, gray and shaken, too powdery to cry
(Ashes, ashes all fall down)
(Ashes, ashes all fall down)
The only Hunter song with any echoes of this is No Place Here which starts with the line "Ashes, ashes all fall down" and has been cannibalised by Hunter for material for many other songs. But this is probably a coincidence - the line derives from a popular nursery rhyme, and No Place Here was written in 1970 whereas the US Copyright registrations were done in 1984.

 


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