[78-L] Race observations

[Chris Zwarg]

>You guys are big fans of Al Jolson (and now, it seems, his source of inspriation, if you want to call it that, Stephen Foster) who made a career of sorts, by depicting African-Americans as wide-eyed, lustful, disorganized, ignorant and inferior to whites. 

Please give examples, *especially of the last "quality"* - it's easy to make a claim, but how about proof? Show don't tell, as people say! If what you say is true, it shouldn't be too hard to type out and post some lyrics, or put some MP3 excerpts somewhere. 

"Wide-eyed", "lustful", "disorganized", also "lazy" and "cunning" - yes, agreed: In short, everything "good people" would occasionally like to be but rarely dare to admit it. My - of course totally subjective - ears hear a lot of escapism in these songs, a (maybe unintentional and subconscious) longing to be able to take your own life as easy as these "simple folks" and get away with it; no hateful or degrading intention but rather a projection of unacknowledged desires onto a group outside bourgeois society - very like the equally popular "tramp/hobo", "gypsy", "soldier" and "sailor" songs, usually depicting what was in reality a dreary life as packed with rollicking fun. Dunno if any of the latter groups ever protested against that kind of being portrayed in the way Afro-Americans apparently do today.

What is obvious *musically* is that the composers of "coon songs" are usually trying to imitate Afro-American musical styles - mainly spirituals and ragtime - so these must have had *positive* connotations with their audience, if only as "exotic" spices to liven up the usual diet of romantic ballads and marching tunes. As the old saying goes "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", and the flood of "faux Afro-American" blackface entertainers to me looks very much like it filled a void in White popular culture *caused* by the social unacceptability to enjoy the genuine article rather than *causing* it. White Americans - as well as Europeans I might add - discovered and enjoyed Afro-American rhythms and styles first in this "sanitized" form of imitation (or if you prefer parody), and many would agree that this paved the way for the interest in real Blues and Jazz rather than obstructing it.

>And by the way, no one performs Stephen Foster or Al Jolson songs any more and for good reason. 

Have you ever listened to Emma Calvé or Nellie Melba singing "Old folks at home", Galli-Curci's "My old Kentucky home", John McCormack's "Come where my love lies dreaming" or Jussi Björling's "Jeanie with the light brown hair"? You need a perfect vocal technique to do full justice to these songs, and if you have it, they're perfect vehicles to show it off. OTOH, even "pedestrian" routine singers usually make something beautiful of these eminently singable melodies (try any example by people like Harry Macdonough, Will Oakland, or the Hayden Quartet), and I'd guess one of the reasons are the sentimental lyrics speaking right to their hearts. I would not willingly be without the recordings I have listed as they are (to my ears) among the most beautiful vocal sounds ever caught on record. "Banning" this kind of song denies today's performers some wonderful opportunities to display their art, not easily substituted from art song or operatic repertoire.

Chris Zwarg