Just as I thought, this issue roils the waters of much calmer ponds than my own. I must admit that the tin-pan alley stuff was not even a consideration in my mind. Those are just dumbed-down ragtime ditties, aren't they? But you guys are right in putting them in the "coon song" genre. I should have been more specific, what I had in mind were really just melodies with "crude" titles such as HELLO COON and RUN NIGGER RUN. And yes, I recoil at even mentioning these tunes. If I would have learned these tunes as being called something else, like LIBERTY or TATER PATCH this issue wouldn't be - I wonder how many tunes with kind and mysterious titles once meant something entirely different? Any more thoughts on this? This is a difficult issue and I appreciate the wide range of views expressed.