News – Dan Steven Erickson

I wanted to write a post about a song that I recently wrote, recorded, and posted to YouTube. William Coswell Haley is simply a practice in writing a song based on a story. In this case, on a fictional character.

It’s a practice that great songwriters have been doing for many years, going way back. I studied Woody Guthrie as a Master’s student at Washington State University. Woody’s song “Tom Joad” is based on the entire book, The Grapes of Wrath.

The character of William Coswell Haley is kind of a creep. He rapes his niece. My goal is not to condone or immortalize that kind of behavior, but rather to shed light on it so that it might be avoided.

In the novella Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson, the Haley character comes up in a single scene. The protagonist of the story, Robert Grainier, runs into a man who has been wounded and whose flesh is beginning to rot. That’s Haley, who tells Grainier not to help him, but rather just listen to his story and his final words.

When I was reading the book, one paragraph was written in a way to almost lend itself to song just as it was written. That inspired me to write the song. I use many similar lines as are written in the narrative. I use many of the same words. I even use the repeated lines in the chorus.

If you ever get a chance to read Train Dreams, you will see that other than some organizational changes, and minor word changes, I remained very true to the original narrative.

Here’s the lyric:

William Coswell Haley

I am William Coswell Haley
I’m 42 years old
I always was good man
Up until four years ago
I had a niece named Susan Haley
About twelve years of age
I was staying at my brother’s house
Back in those days

Well sometimes late at night
Lord knows I couldn’t sleep
And I couldn’t stop my heart
From that running, racing beat
So I got up from my pallet
And I snuck into her room
I just stood there in the quiet
And little Susan never moved

Well then I got a little closer
And dear Susan never woke
Even when I stirred the covers
And tugged upon her toe
So I got a little braver
And I gave her a little kiss
She just kept on sleeping
So I lifted up her shift

I did every little thing I wanted
Every little thing
In her bed night after night
I did every little thing

I was working at the factory
When I came home one day
My sis-in-law, Alice Haley
Was bawling like a baby
Little Susan had got pregnant
And my brother did find out
He beat that girl with a stick
Now she’s six-foot underground

I did every little thing I wanted
Every little thing
In her bed night after night
I did every little thing

I never went back to that house
I just walked straight to the tracks
I jumped onto a flatcar
And I never did look back
Well I roamed and I rambled
Never strayed far from the rails
But I got rolled for 14 dollars
And now I haven’t got a prayer

I did every little thing I wanted
Every little thing
In her bed night after night
I did every little thing

I am William Coswell Haley
And I’m already dead
They cut the strings behind my knees
And now the rot is setting in
Now I don’t want any water
Though I’m as dry as bone
Just listen to my story
‘Fore the devil takes me home

I did every little thing I wanted
Every little thing
In her bed night after night
I did every little thing

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