Talk:Avenging Annie

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[edit] First-person account by artist

The artist, Andy Pratt (User talk:Apratt6436), apparently contributed the following first-person account to the article.

Unfortunately, Wikipedia cannot accept such first-person accounts. According to the No original research policy, Wikipedia cannot be used to create new primary sources (i.e. to publish information and first-person accounts that have not been published elsewhere in reputable sources). The lack of a published source also violates Wikipedia:Verifiability. Nor is a first-person account neutral.

We welcome any information that the artist can provide, but it must be in the form of published sources that we can cite. Mr. Pratt, if you can provide a reference to a magazine article, book, or other source that has the same information, we would be grateful.

Again, this does not mean that the account Mr. Pratt provided was bad or not valuable, just that Wikipedia is the wrong venue for it. Sorry.

—Steven G. Johnson 20:00, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

The following article was written by the author, Andy Pratt, Sept 6, 2006

I wrote "Avenging Annie" in the summer of 1972 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at my mother's 1926 Steinway B Baby Grand piano. I had broken up with my first wife[.] ... I was stoned on marijuana. On my turntable was the The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, in particular the Woody Guthrie song "Pretty Boy Floyd." You can clearly hear that the first part of "Avenging Annie" is an altered version of "Pretty Boy Floyd." I shut off the record and began playing "Pretty Boy Floyd." I was going into a creative trance, and I altered Woody's words, then out came a Bach-like piano riff which I liked, so I began singing to it in falsetto, taking the part of a woman I called Avenging Annie. A whole story came out, which was a fantasy version of my relationship with [my ex-wife], combined with the outlaw theme of the American West. I worked on the song for a few weeks and played for other people who liked it. I made a demo with Rick Shlosser and Bill Riseman, which became a hit at Brown University Radio WBRU. This new fame led to me being whisked away by John Nagy of Earth Opera, Clive Davis of Columbia Records, and Nat Weiss of The Beatles, being wined and dined in New York City and given star treatment at the famous Black Rock on 6th Avenue. Once recorded and released on Columbia, "Avenging Annie" took on a life of its own, which has never really stopped. My version was given extensive radio play, became a number one single in New Orleans and Providence, and reached about number eighty-five in the national charts. I did a successful tour of the East Coast, where Jimmy Buffet opened for me at Max's Kansas City, an Andy Pratt show was broadcast from Boston's Jazz Workshop over WBCN radio, and many other wonderful things happened. The Andy Pratt record, with "Avenging Annie" is still available on various web sites, including www.amazon.com.

Roger Daltrey covered "Avenging Annie" in 1974, and his version appeared first on his One of the Boys album as well as other collections he released. My opinion of his version is that he was afraid to play the role of a woman in the song, and his band did not play the syncopations that we played in our version. I prefer my version. Still, I am grateful for his recognition of the song, and the added exposure that he helped me to gain.

Carmenica Diaz wrote a book called "Avenging Annie" and credits the song as the book's inspiration, for which I thank her.

Andy Pratt

I modified the article by wikifying it and removing the name of Andy Pratt's first wife in interest of privacy. —Fantailfan 20:44, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you for this tactful approach

Dear Fantailfan, Thank you very much for this tactful approach to the whole dispute - you ought to become a diplomat, perhaps. This solution has made all parties involved very happy, and provides interested Wiki-readers with all the accurate info they need.

Personally, I think Wikipedia should make a distinction between vanity-content (Elton John writing in that he's the greatest pianist since Paderewski, for instance), slander (This heavy metal drummer sacrifices children to Baal) and helpful information that genuinely contributes to understanding what makes an artist or writer tick.

The facts that appear in this final version of the Avenging Annie page are easily verifiable (Pratt's official website, which he did not write himself, and some facts adapted from the 3rd edition of the first Dutch pop music encyclopedia published by "Muziekkrant Oor" (1982, p.219) and contain no biased comments whatsoever, according to me.

Since this was my first full-length article for Wikipedia (I also wrote a Dutch version, which I will update), I thought it wise to contact Mr Andy Pratt to ask him whether the Andy Pratt article was accurate. He kindly gave me the green light, adding a few names and the retitled autobiography, and mailed a photograph from his personal collection for the article to boot.

I recall that my younger brother Klaas Landsman(who is a Dutch physicist and mathematician) received a letter from Wikipedia asking him to check the accuracy of the Dutch entry on his life and work so far, to which he replied with suggestions for changes that were incorporated without anyone objecting. Anyway, thanks again for the effort to help out and keep writing, Fantailfan - you obviously have a vast number of rock music-related facts at your fingertips. Best wishes, Frank Landsman 07:32, 15 September 2006 (UTC)