In 1832, James Lord Pierpont left his Boston, Mass. home for a boarding school in New Hampshire at the age of 10. The son of a Unitarian minister, John Pierpont, he wrote to his mother about how much he enjoyed the sleigh ride he took through the beautiful countryside. That vision and his enjoyment of the sleigh racing in Medford, where he lived as a young man, are credited as the inspiration for one of the most popular songs ever written: Jingle Bells. Behind this ubiquitous Christmas Carol was an unusual man with a taste for adventure, risky business and lovely ladies. A few things you may not have heard about him: 1.He was a wild child. Pierpont probably went to boarding school because he had a little wild streak in him. It manifested itself when he was 14 and ran off to join the crew of a whaling ship in the Pacific. From that experience, he moved on to serve in the U.S. Navy until he was 21. Not the most successful venture, he was back on land a few years later and living with his parents. 2.Gold fever got him. Before he settled into a career as church organist, music teacher and song writer, Pierpont tried his hand at panning for gold. Like many New Englanders his fling with the California gold rush turned out badly. He left his wife and children behind in Massachusetts with his parents in 1849 and set up shop as a daguerreotype artist in San Francisco. Daguerreotypes were hugely popular with people who wanted a picture of themselves to commemorate their California adventures. Unfortunately, Pierpont lost everything in a fire in May of 1851. He would later set his story to music in the song, The Returned Californian. The lyrics talk about a young man being duped into believing he’ll find riches in the California gold mines only to wind up disappointed and broke. One stanza reads: There’s my tailor vowing vengeance and he swears he’ll give me Fitts, And Sheriff’s running after me with pockets full of writs; And which ever way I turn, I am sure to meet a dun, So I guess the best thing I can do, is just to cut and run. And run home he did. 3.He supported the south during the Civil War. Pierpont’s brother John was a Unitarian minister, like their father. Both ministers were active abolitionists, and in the 1850s the younger John went to Savannah, Georgia to preach at a Unitarian Church. James Lord Pierpont soon followed him and took the post of musical director for the church. John’s anti-slavery views were not popular and as enmity toward his church heated up, he left Georgia to return to the North. James, however, stayed on. His first wife had died and James had married the daughter of the mayor, and so when war broke out he sided with the South (while his father, aged as he was, fought for the North.) James service was as a company clerk in a volunteer unit and he wrote several songs that were popular among Confederate soldiers, including “Strike for the South” and “We Conquer or Die.” 4.Pierpont originally released Jingle Bells under a different name: One Horse Open Sleigh. It was written for music producer John Ordway, who was born in Salem, Mass. Ordway had a varied career and was a physician, politician and music store owner in addition to running a minstrel show. Pierpont had written The Returned Californian for Ordway’s troupe, as well as One Horse Open Sleigh. Two years later it was reissued as Jingle Bells. 5.The song is naughtier than you might think. A relatively tame carol today, in its day Pierpont’s tune was the equivalent of a Beach Boy’s song about fast cars, pretty girls and sneaking off to be together in private. The second verse is more risqué that the first, describing a boy and girl sleighing together behind the fastest horse they could find, with the lyric: Now the ground is white Go it while you’re young, Take the girls to night And sing this sleighing song; Not to mention that tucked into a sleigh was one of few places where a boy and girl could be alone and unsupervised. 6.The song is undoubtedly inspired by the sleighing scene in Medford, where young people used to race them. But it’s less clear where it was written. Massachusetts students of the song argue he wrote it in Medford with some even claiming to know where. Georgians, however, point out that the song was released in 1857, long after Pierpont had moved south. It had to be written there, they say. Could both be right? Was part written in Medford and part in Georgia? The answer was probably forever buried with Pierpont when he died in 1893. 7.While it may not be clear where Jingle Bells was written, it’s well established that it wasn’t intended as a Christmas song. The song makes no mention of Christmas and if it was written for any specific holiday, it was more likely Thanksgiving. Ordway performed it in the fall for audiences in Boston, and some say Pierpont performed it at a Thanksgiving concert for his church. However, as it caught on popularly, people began singing it during the Christmas season and it has been identified as a Christmas song ever since. 8.Pierpont’s connection to the song was almost lost. Jingle Bells wasn’t inordinately popular when it was released, and after Pierpont died, his son had to renew the copyright. It was only through a disciplined fight that the song didn’t become attributed to “traditional.” 9.He was J.P. Morgan’s uncle. If there’s a less-Christmas-like character than a Wall Street banker, we can’t imagine what it might be. Nevertheless, there was a family connection. 10.He got a tip of the cap from Bob Dylan. Pierpont contributed to the song Gentle Nettie Moore, about a man who’s pining for a girl he loved who was sold into slavery. Dylan revived the name in his 2006 song, Nettie Moore.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 17:11:54 +0000
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