Ballads tell stories. Often there are stories behind such stories.
Most boomers and the older among us will quickly recognize this 1971 song. It’s a narrative ballad, exposing a cycle of despair, hypocrisy, ostracism, and the shady underbelly of society. But it’s so-o-o well done. Many can still sing it today. If you haven’t heard it in a while, or ever, here’s the studio version (sorry if it becomes an earworm): Gypsys Tramps & Thieves.
I surmise that all such people can identify the young, talented and enchanting 24-year-old woman who performed it. The song itself is widely regarded as her signature song (although, later in her career, she made little secret of her contempt for it, singing it live only with lexical excisions).
Whatever the version, it begins eerily. And briskly – at 171 beats per minute, brisk for any ballad The original studio version begins with a few bars of mystical, even whimsical, sounding strings: a synthesizer emulating a sort of folksy fiddle, a bit harpsichord-ish, with a snare jumping in to emphasize the pace, and what sounds – to me – like some tambourines joining. A good job of setting the mood for a “Travelin’ Show.”
The bulk of the song is set in A-minor. [7] Minor keys are often used to set a mood of sadness. That mood is appropriate. |
Cher and others have recorded several versions. Herein, I refer to Cher’s original studio recording.
BPM: Compare to some ballads of that era like
Bonnie and Clyde (106 bpm, George Fame)
If You Could Read My Mind (123 bpm, Lightfoot)
She’s Gone (139, Hall & Oates) and
Ode to Billy Joe (120, Bobbie Gentry) <link in song name to song review>
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Cherilyn Sarkisian was born in El Centro [1], California on May 20, 1946. Her parents were young – around 20. Her father, John Sarkisian, of full Armenian ancestry (the -ian surname ending is a giveaway clue), worked as a truck driver. Her mother Georgia (born Georgia Crouch), only briefly married to John, was of English and German ancestry – lore has it she even had a splash of Cherokee descent. Thus, Cherilyn’s beguiling skin tone: a sense of the exotic. but something you can’t quite identify.
Georgia herself was born to a 13-yeal old mother in rural Kensett, Arkansas in 1926; and her mom was married young and several times, part a life of poverty and constant moving.
Cherilyn was 10 months old when her parents split. Her dad had serious drinking and gambling problems. Her mom, Georgia, a woman of high energy and curiosity, had many interests. She’d won contests of beauty and talent since she was a child. She was also a capable singer and song writer. Her dad had taught her music: singing and piano. How they ended up in El Centro is anyone’s guess. I found no reason. [5]
Georgia took Cherilyn away from the somewhat famous town of El Centro [at ~40 feet below sea level, probably the lowest elevation of any US city over 1,000 inhabitants; site of the first well measured earthquake, (1940) ]. They settled in Los Angeles, some 200 miles northwest of El Centro.
There Georgia worked on her own music and acting career while working various part time jobs. Through several of her mom’s failed marriages Cherilyn was moved across California and the southwest. She spent long periods in an orphanage when her mom was too ill, too broke, or too busy to care for her. Many times, she spent long periods with her maternal grandparents, who substantially raised her. These were difficult times for the young family, often close to destitution.
In 1961 it’s back to SoCal where Georgia wed Gilbert LaPierre. He adopted 15-year-old Cherilyn, and her younger half-sister, Georgann. Now going legally as Cheryl LaPiere, the girl now had the financial support to attend a private school, Montclair College Preparatory School. Here, she really took to performing – both acting and music. She was, in the words of all who knew her then, exceptional.
[LaPiere was Georgia’s 4th marriage. Cher’s half-sister Georgann, 5 years younger, was born to Georgia and her 3rd husband, John Southall. Georgann was also adopted by LaPiere. Georgia wed 7 times in all, to six different men, re-marrying Sarkasian for a cup of coffee in 1964].
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The 1st verse is a rich opening.
I was born in the wagon of a travelin’ show
My mama used to dance for the money they’d throw
Papa would do whatever he could
Preach a little gospel
Sell a couple bottles of Doctor Good
Travelin’ show. In line number one we’re told of a “Travelin’ Show.” This confirmation suggested by the title informs that we are to hear of a roaming “gypsies.”
Now referred to as Travelers, Romani or Roma, they usually drifted around, from place-to-place where they were generally neither welcomed nor appreciated, trying to eke out a living on whatever they could acquire – legally, or, if necessary, not. Many still do. [The term “gypsy” is now regarded as pejorative, and has been for quite a few decades. I’ll try to use this term only in the context of the song itself.]
With the synthesized show-fiddle, perhaps some harpsichord, accordion, and a calliope-like sound sprinkled in, we get the feeling of a show, … a traveling road show.
Mama danced, almost certainly exhibiting increasing exotic sexuality and progressing states of deshabille as the dance proceeds, thus coaxing the men to throw coins at her in lusty appreciation. Kinda yuck.
Preach a little Gospel. Travelers were adept at picking up local cultures, such as how to give a good fire-and-brimstone sermon in the deep south. Christian missionaries were active among the Romani, particularly in the US – and especially so in the south – hence they developed a sufficient grasp of how to implement that form of communication.
Doctor Good. Probably a variation of a mostly traditional cultural “homemade” Roma medicine of various ingredients. Some of which, if not all, probably had health benefit. Roma were known to use Juniper berries. Horrible tasting, they often rubbed it on their gums. This helped manage scurvy, both as prophylactic and as treatment, and generally keeping their mouths healthy.
As a “medicine” to non-Roma it was probably this juniper juice mixed with Gypsy Juice … and a good dose of distilled liquor. Easy enough to make. The horrible tastes (juniper + un-aged/un-barreled spirits) sort of canceled out, especially when mixed with ingredients like pureed spinach, celery, carrot, fruit juices, and honey.
Sometimes juices from soaking chopped garlic cloves in white vinegar were added. Possible further additions were sage, lemon zest, rose petals, calendula, rosemary … whatever was available and generally healthy, or at least benign. This mixing of ingredients had the “benefit” of making the “medicine” taste different from place to place, among various Roma groups, and as each band moved to new areas. [3]
[1] Some aficionados of music from that era may recall the line in Elton John’s Your Song (1970),
wherein he wonders: “If I a sculptor, no, or a man who makes potions in a travelin’ show.“
We hear the chorus for the first time. We sense a raw emotion – Sorrow? Worry? Revulsion? Loathing? She races into:
“Gypsies, tramps, and thieves!”
We’d hear it from the people of the town
They’d call us gypsies, tramps, and thieves.
But every night all the men would come around …
And lay their money down.
Lay their money down. This is clearly more than a casual suggestion of prostitution.
Chorus: Mama? You? One shudders to think ….
Not even to the 2nd verse yet, and we’re into hypocrisy and sex.
Romani peoples. Originating in northern India (and perhaps in or near Afghanistan), they were exiled. First heading to NW China around the end of the first millennium, they wandered westward across Asia. Always in caravans of families – a custom they carried into the west, even to the US – they reached Constantinople (~50 years before it became Istanbul) around 1400 AD, crossed the Bosporus, and arrived in Romania in the 15th century.
As in their original homeland, they were seldom, if ever, welcomed. And they were not welcomed in Romania. Maltreated and even enslaved, they were eventually freed and encouraged to leave. Spreading out across to central and western Europe, they were soon enough in most European countries. Any goodwill upon their arrival was always followed by rejection. They couldn’t or wouldn’t fit in culturally and were eventually regarded as thieves and scammers: perhaps many were. It’s tough to get by in lands where your type is not at all welcome. Waves of plague had swept humanity from China to Europe since the mid-14th century. People learned to be wary of wandering strangers, especially those from strange lands.
[It’s a mere coincidence that the group’s name Romani – or Roma – seems to match with their misperceived European origin in Romania. It’s simply a variation of the original Sanskrit language root, Rom (or Dom), meaning “man.” Romani is the feminine form of the noun. The term “gypsy” stems from a common misconception that they originated in Egypt.]
For the most part, they continued their traditional caravan traveling, and never quite getting acceptance wherever they went. Starting in Britain they picked up the name Travelers.
Not a lot of space in a travelin’ van
Europeans, especially the colonial powers like Portugal, began exporting Romani to the new world as slave labor. Much of Europe has had “anti-gypsy” laws at some point. And then there’s the mass exterminations of them by Nazi Germany 1933-1945. Shamefully, President Sarkozy deported them from France in 2010 – mostly to Bulgaria and Romania. All this and more encouraged many Romani to migrate to the US, particularly in the mid-19th century. Their reception there was mostly more of the same.
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Los Angeles provided Cherilyn an excellent setting for beginning and growing her career. With her mother Georgia’s musical background (she appeared on several national shows and was a night club singer, composed songs, getting national recognition for “Honky Tonk Woman”). Cherilyn had the setting, the genes, the background, and maternal encouragement to begin an entertainment career.
Her mom had begun getting bit acting parts on TV and in movies – and was able to get some roles for her daughter, too.
At age 16 she left home and moved in with a friend. She took acting classes while working small club jobs and beating the pavement looking for entertainment jobs. That’s how she met Salvatore (Sonny) Bono. She was still just 16. He was an assistant to record producer Phil Spector at the time. Cherilyn’s talent and drive were apparent; he worked his contacts for her. She sang back-up vocals for several famous Spector groups’ recordings, including big hits: the Ronettes’ “Be my Baby” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’ ”.
When Cherilyn’s friend moved out, stretching her thin finances too far, Bono agreed to take her in as his “housekeeper.”
Sonny & Cher 1971, funny angle, Sonnty at 5′-5″, was about 3″ shorter than Cher.
Perfectly able to perform solo – Sonny wanted her to do just that – but she was just a teenager and still suffered from stage fright; she’d only sing with Sonny. Their relationship turned romantic; they wed in the autumn of ’64. She was 18. Sonny was 29 and already once-divorced. Their first hit together was “I got you Babe” (to me always associated with the movie Groundhog Day). That’s when Cheryl/Cherilyn LaPiere became simply “Cher.” When they sang together it was clear that Cher was far superior to Sonny. To me at least.
They quickly rose to fame. Their unique chemistry – musically, in appearance and in personality – captured the public’s imagination. They performed as “Sonny & Cher” with a type of soft pop in singles and albums. But America’s tastes were changing rapidly, and around 1970 their popularity ebbed. So did their personal lives.
Cher began pursuing a personal career. Although they often still worked together, this grew less frequent as their lives diverged. [Their variety and comedy show, The Sonny & Cher Show, which promoted her rapidly growing solo singing career, ran from 1971-74]. They divorced in 1975.
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Second Verse. We learn a lot more.
Picked up a boy just south of Mobile.
Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal.
I was sixteen, he was twenty-one;
Rode with us to Memphis,
Papa woulda shot him if he knew what he’d done
What is south of Mobile (Alabama)? Isn’t that the ocean, the Gulf of Mexico? Wrong. Mobile is some 15 miles up north from the “mouth” of Mobile Bay. Along the banks of the Bay, particularly on the west, are some areas of open space and parks that could host a “traveling show.” A bit filled in nowadays with development, I’m thinking that in the ‘50s or so (where I tend to place this story historically, but could be earlier) it was quite open.
She’s 16 and probably knows very, very little about life outsider her Traveler community. So much to learn. And those funky hormones.
Why would a 21-year old lad be leaving the area? On the lam? Legal issues? Pregnant girlfriend? Evicted by his family? Military AWOL? In any case, by hooking up with Travelers he was probably venturing far out of his element. And taking a chance. He was desperate. They fed him and transported him north. What good fortune. He pressed his luck.
Papa woulda shot him. I take this literally. It seems quite likely that Travelers, particularly in the deep south, would have firearms. No one really liked the Roma or having them around. Any issues with locals that lead to malicious actions? The law would look away. They themselves, as Roma, were their own first, last and only line of defense.
The song returns to the chorus, but it’s no relief. Rejection, hypocrisy and prostitution. Oy.
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1970. Cher’s career was waning too soon. She was too talented and ambitious to allow this. Yet, major changes had to come.
Why? 1960s America. As the decade drew to its conclusion, America grew ever more edgy, in music, sex, drugs, rock-and-roll. First JFK, then MLK Jr, followed shortly by RFK. Viet Nam. Cold War. Race riots. Sit-ins. Social justice rallies. Kent State, May 1970. “Edgy” isn’t strong enough. Prickly? Restless? Even Cantankerous? Confrontational?
Cher, with Sonny, sought a new path, a new direction. Seeing the need to leave their soft “I got you Babe” and “The Beat Goes On” image, and set out on her own, she hooked up with song writer Bob Stone and producer “Snuff” Garrett. They proposed a new and restless approach that fit Cher and the era. It clicked.
Edgy? Stone was a sound engineer and composer for Frank Zappa and his son, Dweezil.
Result? “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” was the feature song, and also the name of her first album, released on January 1, 1971. (Originally the album was to be named “Cher”; she changed it to the song title when was clear it would be a huge hit). Near as I can tell it was just a fantastic job all around. The lyrics? Captivating. Memorable. The production? Amazing. The mix of instrument sounds, the tempo changes, the key change, all impeccably intertwined. And the vocal delivery? Absolutely stellar. This one had to have taken a very long time to get right. Even today, over 50 years later, when you hear the music, you think of Cher. When you hear her voice, you think of the music. Her charisma and character come right through your speakers; they enchant you and grab you: listen to me!
The bridge. The tempo slows, yet the arrangement still gives us something of a carnival feel, or … like a traveling show. A key change to C-major suggests a mood change, and, here in the bridge, it sounds a bit more reflective. It’s a nuanced twist, part of telling a story that is emotionally complex.
Here, Cher’s ability to drop to a deeper voice provides a dramatic inside view of the story.
I never had schoolin’ but he taught me well
With his smooth southern style.
Three months later I’m a gal in trouble
And I haven’t seen him for a while, ..
I haven’t seen him for a while.
As a Romani child, of course, she had no schooling. The lad is trying to teach her. How to read? About the world? Language? Literature? Arithmetic? Doesn’t matter. The lass is enchanted: he has a “smooth southern style.” A romance ensues.
At three months she’s “showing.” The lad grows fearful. Pa has that shotgun, and I’m sure he’s seen it. He’s on the run again. She hasn’t seen him for a while. And never will again.
And here we get a subtle hint that the girl is still enamored with him, with her memory of him and the experience – even though this story is probably told much later. You can detect a slight moaning “o-oh” at the beginning and at the ending of the last line in the bridge. She misses him still. She still has feelings for him. She’s still a bit in love. And perhaps that’s why the bridge is in a major key.
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The 1971 album and song rocketed to national attention and the top of the charts. Cher’s new style, with a new team of writer/producer of Bob Stone and Snuff Garrett, was electric.
Garrett was influenced early and mixed with a radio DJ career, produced dozens of songs, the edgy types, including, later, Cher’s Half Breed and Dark Lady, and Vickie Lawrence’s The Night the Lights went out in Georgia, and many for Bobby Vee and for Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
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The final verse. The cycle continues.
She was born in the wagon of a travelin’ show.
Her mama had to dance for the money they’d throw.
Grandpa’d do whatever he could,
Preach a little gospel, sell a couple bottles of Doctor Good
Even a casual level of attention shows that it’s not a repeat of the first verse. How much changed?
Line 1 is rather obvious. With one word change we are back on the story’s track. The narrator/lass bears a daughter, at 16 or 17 years-old. The baby girl is born in a wagon – the same wagon of the same traveling show that the narrator herself was born in. The narrator has become the infant girl’s mother, strongly implying the baby – born in the same wagon – is destined to inherit the narrator’s circumstance in a repeating cycle. Just as she – the narrator – has become her own mother.
Dance for money, grandpa selling a concoction of Feel Good. Peeling back the onion now ….
In the very first verse we heard “my mama used to dance …” Now, later, with the narrator as the mother, it’s “her mama had to dance …” [6]
Two things.
One: the last verse, like the first, is also told in the past tense. Thus, this narrative could have occurred quite far into the future, well past “papa woulda shot him…”
Two: I do suspect the last verse is being told much later. Why? There is a difference between “had to dance” and “used to dance.” “Had to” implies that the dancing is imperative – it must be done to get enough money to survive. In verse 1 it’s only “used to dance.” Previously the dancing was optional, perhaps to generate a few extra dollars for auxiliary needs. The family financial situation has now deteriorated further. And here it’s HAD; that part of her life seems to be over.
The choice of “had” vs “has” suggests that she might even now be a woman decades beyond “I was 16.” She’s looking back at her life, musing about things as she remembers them: after all of the traveling, all the family crises, all the men coming around at night, and all the dancing is over. It’s all behind her now.
Or maybe she left the show traveling life, or was kicked out. Maybe she went on the lam, like the 21-year-old boy. The book is about to close, and the enigmatic story leaves us in mystery.
Oops, now it’s grandpa. So “papa,” has become “grandpa.” OK. If mama (the woman narrator) is now dancing for money … ewwww … where is the mama of verse 1? Why isn’t she now grandma? Did she not fit in this verse, or, as I gather here, she is no longer part of the story. Women travelers lived, on average, 10-15 years fewer than their menfolk. And men didn’t very live long either. Life was hard.
This last verse may be referring to a period in the past, but a couple of years after “papa woulda shot him” – the new young mama is now healthy enough, and – ahem – attractive enough, to dance for money and probably entertain the men who came around at night to “throw their money down.”
Overall the near duplication of the first verse is compelling. The clan of travelers, and this family, are stuck in a loop. Around the loop are despair, isolation, cultural rejection, hypocrisy, prostitution, strip teases, travel, travel, travel, eking out a living, sex without love, children born to struggling families.
Edgy, catchy, vibrant, quick and supremely performed, it is also one of the most emotional, gloomy and disturbing songs of my generation.
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The use of the term “gypsy” was already considered pejorative by 1970. It was, and remains, a controversial choice for a title. The lyrics themselves show that each word was carefully selected. It’s no accident; the team intended to use “gypsy”. Some research suggests it was chosen in order to play upon the negative connotations the word still carries to today. These people weren’t simply wanderers; they were shunned – looked down upon with disdain. [the formal plural of gypsy is gypsies. I’m not sure why they all agreed on the ungrammatical Gypsys for the title. Perhaps to convey a sense that the story is told by an uneducated person?]
“Gypsys” was so successful that Stone and Garrett continued to write and produce Cher’s songs for over a decade. It was the top charting song for both Stone’s and Garrett’s career. [On the other side, Stone also wrote #1 country song Are Your Happy Baby?]
Cher’s and Sonny’s marriage ended in 1975. They remained somewhat close, mostly just professionally. But, it couldn’t last and they went their separate ways. He had helped her in her early career, and she was grateful. To me, at least, Cher needed to move past Sonny. It was the right time. [Sonny died in a violent ski accident in January, 1998. Cher gave a eulogy. He had entered politics and risen to be the mayor of Palm Springs, then a US congressman]
Cher 1975
Cher continued to be extremely popular and went on to successes in both theater and cinema. She has achieved a sort of Triple Crown: she’s won an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy. That’s pretty dang amazing.
Now, at 78 she’s still performing live and drawing crowds in Las Vegas. Her tours have very heavy schedules, evidence of her enduring popularity and energy.
Cher drew from her own life’s experiences in her performance of Gypsys. You can feel the emotion coming through her delivery. She came from a very chaotic youth, peppered with poverty, a string of broken homes, and constantly moving from place to place. She had little formal education. She had (likely) her earliest romantic encounter at 16. And not unlike her own mother’s youth, and her grandmother’s youth, bearing children while still young (not 13 or 19, but at 21). Cher broke a generational cycle of poverty, rejection, and despair. From a hardscrabble youth – the lives of her shoes often extended by holding them together with rubber bands – Cher took her talents, her ambition, her dreams, her energy, her drive, and her opportunities to reach stardom.
A remarkable woman.
Joe Girard © 2024
Thank you for reading. As always, you can add yourself to the notification list for newly published material by clicking here . Or emailing joe@girardmeister.com
[1] El Centro, perhaps best known for the very first digitally well-recorded and documented earthquake in 1940. The data were used to design CA buildings for decades. Other states too. Also, it’s likely the lowest elevation of US municipalities at -42 feet. It’s experienced many more shakes quite recently, although not very violent, but perhaps a portent of more and stronger earthshakes to come.
[2] Roma or Romani: somewhere near the end of the first millennium the Romani peoples were exiled from west India. Ethnically and culturally different they were not accepted. Whether cast out or of their own volition they left. Migrating ever westward, never fitting in, they moved through Persia, the Middle East and into Europe in the 14th century. Persecuted and shunned everywhere they went, locals gave them pejorative names, including “gypsy.” In their native language, which is traceable to Sanskrit, “Rom” means man, or person. Roma, or Romai, is the name they prefer for themselves: People. They spread over Europe, from the Balkans to the channel, and to England. Roma began coming to the New World in the 17th and 18th centuries, at first often as slaves (Portugal and France). Due to ever increasing social maltreatment and economic hurdles, many found ways to emigrate in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some countries, like England, sent many across the ocean as way to get rid of undesirables.
[3] Doctor Good: plenty of things would have been available, and healthy. Options would have included juniper berries. This bitterness could be smothered with honey, pureed spinach, celery, carrots, minced garlic, sage, citrus zest, rose petals and rosemary. Even calendula which has been brought to the Americas. With such options, various versions of Doctor Good would taste and smell different from one traveling show to another. They were probably healthy and with a little “kick” made consumers “feel good.”
[4] Georgia went by Georgia Holt the last 4 or 5 decades of her life. Holt was the surname of her last husband. She also had an interesting life, as you had probably guessed. Many sources on-line.
[5] Some rumors have it that Sarkasian and a quite pregnant Georgia were passing through El Centro when baby Cherilyn decided it was time for her debut appearance. And they stayed there.
[6] The last verse is as quick-paced as the rest. The storyteller seems even a bit more breathless. But it sure sounds as if there might be a slight “error”. The official lyrics say “her mama had to dance.” But Cher seems to sing “my mama had to dance.” Surely the production team noticed it, if it’s there… and opted to keep it. If so, perhaps they thought it conveyed a moment of confusion, caused by the overwhelming emotion from re-visiting a painful story – the storyteller blends her own story with her child’s. Or, perhaps they were running out of studio time.
[7] Key changes in songs are common. Changes of perspective, mood, …
Some sources:
[1] https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/cher-gypsys-tramps-thieves-greatest-song-7801038/
[2] https://www.npr.org/2017/09/20/552135954/shocking-omissions-the-resilient-reinvention-of-cher-s-gypsys-tramps-thieves
— but they did get a word in the first verse wrong.