[78-L] Today Kate Smith; tomorrow ...?

[David Lennick]

Frank Sinatra in 1940. "Without a Song", original lyrics. String him up.

This whole thing is unbelievable..

dl


On 4/20/2019 9:51 PM, Lloyd Davies wrote:
> <<<Sports teams dump Kate Smith's 'God Bless America' because of her racist songs>>>
>
> I'm not writing as a defender of Kate Smith.  Altho a few of her recordings reveal her lively and emotive stage persona [I'm a big fan of "Somebody loves me" (1941)], most of her career was spent playing it safe as milk for her radio audience.  People are currently taking umbrage at a couple of her recordings from the early 1930's which a) have fallen out of circulation, and b) were hardly the most cringeworthy discs of their time.
> HonkingDuck is letting me down, so I'm unable to search who else recorded "Pickaninny Heaven", but a simple search shows the other offending title "That's Why Darkies Were Born" was recorded by many others, including Paul Robeson.
> I'm not claiming that people have no right to look backward with a revisionist lens, but I'm wondering what other artist who is still recognizable today should more fittingly be the subject of boycott.
>
> I would nominate Bing Crosby for his blackface performance of "Accentuate de positive" in "Here come the waves" (1944).
>
>
> I also won't object if Admin wants to cancel this thread.
> - Stephen in Calgary
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