[78-L] Stephen Foster

[soundthink at aol.com]

One cannot analyze the works of Foster without understanding the times in which he lived. Minstrelsy - coarse, vile minstrelsy - was the order of the day. Foster, like Lincoln, reluctantly understood that slavery was the accepted social form of the day, but believed that blacks should be treated with more compassion. In writing his songs, Foster tried to present slaves in a compassionate, sympathetic light. Of course, from today's perspective, this appears to be cloying sentimentalism, but considering the songs that were being written back then, Foster's were definitely against the grain. He began his career by writing simplistic songs such as "Camptown Races" (published in 1850) for the minstrel stage. As his career progressed, his songwriting matured. Later songs such as "Old Black Joe" and "My Old Kentucky Home" were deliberate attempts to humanize African Americans - not enough by today's standards, but you must once again consider the venal alternatives being written. He stopped using the word "darkie" in his songs and refrained from using other epithets in lyrics. Foster wanted to escape the music of minstrelsy, something that highly offended him. He wrote what was probably the first song about a national economic downturn, "Hard Times Come Again No More." It was only when his sales began to decline and he became financially desperate in the early 1860s did he resort to writing minstrel songs again. 

Stephen Foster was sympathetic to African Americans, an anomaly in his time. He had a tragic, frustrating life, ripped off by E.P. Christy, who published Foster's songs under his own name. Despite selling hundreds of thousands of copies of his music, he only earned $15,000 during his lifetime. Here is an article I wrote several years ago on Foster, who was the first American to try to earn a living as a professional songwriter.

http://www.musicreports.com/smart_licensing/content_article.php?article_id=64&title=Stephen+Foster+and+the+Birth+of+an+Industry

Cary Ginell


-----Original Message-----
From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:16 pm
Subject: Re: [78-L] Stephen Foster



I think we're all generally agreed that De Camptown Races is a dumb song in any 
context. It's also probably one of his best known and most parodied..just dial 
a 7-digit telephone number and try and resist singing "doo-dah, doo-dah". 
There's even a commercial running on Toronto radio for a garage door company, 
Dodds, where a banjo plays and a voice sings "Dum de dum dum dum dum dum, Do 
Dodds, Do Dodds".

Nothing wrong with Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair, Beautiful Dreamer et al. 
Gangsta rap is better? Frankly, I despise just about any song written in 
dialect, and that embraces a lot of Oscar Hammerstein lyrics.

dl

Tom wrote:
> Alrighty, well since you asked for it, here it is. And I'd like an answer to 
my previous question which you'll find at the end of this quoted section:
>  
> -------------------------------------------------
>  
> De Camptown Races, by Stephen Foster (aka Gwine To Run All Night)
>  
> De Camptown ladies sing dis song, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
> De Camptown race-track five miles long, Oh, doo-dah day!
> I come down dah wid my hat caved in, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
> I go back home wid a pocket full of tin, Oh, doo-dah day!
>  
> Gwine to run all night!
> Gwine to run all day!
> I'll bet my money on de bob-tail nag,
> Somebody bet on de bay.
>  
> De long tail filly and de big black hoss, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
> Dey fly de track and dey both cut across, Oh, doo-dah-day!
> De blind hoss sticken in a big mud hole, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
> Can't touch bottom wid a ten foot pole, Oh, doo-dah-day!
>  
> Chorus
>  
> Old muley cow come on to de track, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
> De bob-tail fling her ober his back, Oh, doo-dah-day!
> Den fly along like a rail-road car, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
> Runnin' a race wid a shootin' star, Oh, doo-dah-day!
>  
> Chorus
>  
> See dem flyin' on a ten mile heat, Doo-dah doo-dah!
> Round de race track, den repeat, Oh, doo-dah-day!
> I win my money on de bob-tail nag, Doo-dah! doo-dah!
> I keep my money in an old tow-bag, Oh, doo-dah-day!
>  
> Chorus
>  
> -------------------------------
------------------
>  
> So, again, here's the question:
>  
> What is it, exactly, about American art forms that depict African-Americans in 
the most demeaning, pejorative, and degrading light possible that you guys find 
redeeming and worthwhile?
> 
> TIA
> 
> 
> --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Chris Zwarg <doctordisc at truesoundtransfers.de> wrote:
> 
> From: Chris Zwarg <doctordisc at truesoundtransfers.de>
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Stephen Foster
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 2:46 PM
> 
> At 20:17 23.01.2009, you wrote:
>> Tom wrote:
>>
>> Stephen Foster) who made a career of sorts, by depicting African-Americans
> as wide-eyed, lustful, disorganized, ignorant and inferior to whites.
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> Maybe you  know different Foster songs than I do but I can't think of
> one Foster lyric which is guilty of this observation.  In my experience, 
Foster
> always depicted blacks as hard working, God fearing, family devoted, honest,
> fun-loving people.
> 
> I have already asked Tom in an earlier posting to quote actual examples that
> prove his extravagant claim. Let's see what he comes up with - no answer
> will be just as illuminating than any other in this case! I'd venture a bet
> he not only will not be able and willing to quote any such Foster (or for that
> matter "coon song") lyric, but he has never actually listened closely
> to any such songs, which by Oscar Wilde's definition naturally makes him the
> ideal person to talk about the subject...!
> 
> Chris Zwarg
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