Subject: RE: Lyr Req: If I Were Free To Speak My Mind From: Art Thieme Date: 01 Mar 08 - 12:48 PM I'm gonna start a new thread I think. Once, I was asked by a folk festival to put together a 1-man workshop called "POLITICALLY INCORRECT SONGS. "There were MANY songs I had in my repertory that had become, for various reasons, over the years, politically incorrect and difficult, in many settings, to pull out and sing. I thought they were all quite good or at least interesting songs historically, sociologically, etc. Changing attitudes, the mere passing of time, personal enlightenment over some years... Maybe, now, I ought to add "Kum Ba Ya" to that list !!!!!! ;-) But done in a retrospective, as history, possibly with a relevant story/joke, tossed in --- to prove a connection to modern people, times and events --- the chorus to this song served as a perfect way to tie the tales within the various songs together. It is pleasant to recall that old workshop. We MUST learn to learn from history! Until we evolve to the place where we can truly empathize with other people and/or species, I doubt our civilization has much of a chance to make it a part of our sensory input. Art Thieme Transferred in per request. JC |
Subject: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: Art Thieme Date: 01 Mar 08 - 01:30 PM Ballad Of Sherman Wu (ethnically insensitive-but funny) Blow Boys Blow (a whaling song) Greenland Whalers-- as above The Diamond -- as above The Cock fight Buffalo Skinners Union Maid East Of West Berlin East Texas Red (gun-play to right a wrong) Blackjack County Chain (murder for a good reason?) Dobie Bill (gun-play to make things right) Louis Collins -- gun-play-murder Electric Chair Blues The Wind And Rain (killing and making a fiddle from the bones) The South Coast (mail order bride) The Ladies Auxiliary (how women can help the union man) Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly (how can I count the ways?) Cherry Tree Carol -- blasphemy Bitter Withy (apocryphal blasphemy) Billy Vanero (gun-play to set stuff right) Zack The Mormon Engineer (anti Mormon/polygamy) Pie In The Sky (blasphemy) Sioux Indians (ethnic cleansing) We've Got F.D.R. Back Again (anti Bush politics!?) Aunt Martha (the dangers of gambling) God Don't Like Ugly Baby Your Home Is In Hell Night They Drove O' Dickey Down (Nixon) Lord Thomas-beheading bride and kicking it against wall) ------------------------------------------- These are just the few songs I can recall from my own repertory that were in the workshop called Politically Incorrect Songs. I did it at the University Of Chicago Folk Festival about 1988. We do tend to toss the baby with the wash-water, do we not? If Joe, or some kind clone, can pull my last post to the thread about the song "If I Were Free To Speak My Mind" and put it into this thread,it would be seriously appreciated! Art Thieme |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Mar 08 - 01:54 PM Art- Practically any song Tom Lehrer composed was politically incorrect. Such was their charm. "The Lavender Cowboy" (but only three hairs on his chest) is another classic which made the pop charts. "My Last Cigar" was a lament of a young officer who had run out of stogies and was far out to sea. I always wanted to add the Kipling lines "A woman is only a woman but a good cigar is a smoke." "The Anarchist Song" with its advocacy of trying to blow people up with the bomb, bomb, bomb. We used to think this was very amusing. "The Tenure Tango" which is only politically incorrect from the prospective of university administrators. "Dead Dog Scrumpy (Cider)" which might ferment further canine abuse. "The Body in the Bag" which might encourage the same to felines. Cheerily, Charley Ignoble |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: Murray MacLeod Date: 01 Mar 08 - 02:32 PM Randy Newman's "Short People" has to be included in any list of non-PC songs. |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: GUEST,Randy Fan Date: 01 Mar 08 - 02:39 PM I believe that the number of people whove misunderstood the words to Short People now runs into the millions. Murray just adds to their number. |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: Murray MacLeod Date: 01 Mar 08 - 02:48 PM I don't think I misunderstand the words, I enjoy the song, and I realise it is tongue-in -cheek, so I don't take offence. But then again, I am over six feet tall ... |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: GUEST,Randy Fan Date: 01 Mar 08 - 02:56 PM Murray the song has nothing to do with physical height!!!!!! |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: oldhippie Date: 01 Mar 08 - 02:56 PM "Send Me To Glory In A Glad Bag" - John Biggs comes to mind. |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: john f weldon Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:00 PM From an early Pete Seeger record: I had a wife and got no good of her Here is how i easy got rid of her Took her out and chopped the head off her Early in the morning (etc....) "It's a shame to Whip your Wife, on a Sunday" (fiddlin John Carson) Best of all, the earliest versions of Old Man River. Paul Robeson actually used the dreaded N-word in early versions, and I have an Al Jolson version that does also. It is far more poignant than later revisions. Ethnic sensitivity (although sometimes a good thing) is often the enemy of poetry. |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: Murray MacLeod Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:04 PM maybe you are the one who is misunderstanding the lyrics of "Short People", Randyfan ? |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: GUEST,Randy Fan Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:11 PM Oh well just another from the US who doesnt understand irony! |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: BK Lick Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:26 PM From Wikipedia: Newman often pokes fun at the misinterpretation of his song during concerts. |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: catspaw49 Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:26 PM Hey Randy Fan.......I'm a fan too and the point/subject of this thread is politically incorrect which as often means words as well as ideas. Many Randy Newman songs are non-PC because of the words and not for their intent as used in the song. We're rednecks, rednecks....Don't know our ass from a hole in the ground We're rednecks, rednecks....Just keepin' the niggers down" That's not PC no matter the real point of the song. One of the great charms of RN is just that........the language is true. Great thread here Art! I'm so damn glad you got that new computer! And..........Ya' know, it sort of depends on what you're teaching just whether "East Texas Red" is politically incorrect or not. Outside of the gunplay there are a couple of solid moral/ethical ideas in there........Besides, I love the damn song (;<)) Spaw |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: Leadfingers Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:27 PM Tucker Zimmerman ' s song " Handfull of Rain" has the line :- 'One mans's woman is another man's pain in the arse , but that's allright by me' |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Murray MacLeod Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:46 PM Spaw has jolted my memory into recollecting Jerry Jeff Walker's "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mothers", which could be considered non-PC. Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee" is either PC or non-PC depending on whether you believe his tongue was in his cheek when he wrote it. |
Subject: RE: Art'sPolitically Incorrect Songs-wrkshp From: GUEST,Volgadon Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:47 PM Black Betty. God Save the King. There is an old Russian song called the Liveried Nigger, but it's from 1911 and he hardly puts in an appearance, only to hand the singer's old flame her coat. Gop so smykom is an old Russian criminal song, about a criminal who boasts that he'll burglar God's office and steal Judas' silver. Charley Noble, you left out Lehrer's National Brotherhood Week! |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:53 PM Volgadon- Yes, indeed. I think it's only fair to include ALL of the Lehrer songs. To exclude some would imply discrimination, which I personally cannot abide. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: john f weldon Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:56 PM Back in my younger hippie days, we used to frequent a local C&W bar; the band was great, even tho some of the other patrons were kinda scary. When the band asked for requests we yelled "Okie From Muskogee." The MC commented: "Geez, every time there's hippies in here, they ask for that song." They were frustrated that we DIDN'T take offense, and laughed along with them laughing at us. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: meself Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:02 PM "Oh well just another from the US who doesnt understand irony!" Now would that be ironic, politically incorrect, or just plain ill-mannered? |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: bankley Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:03 PM "I'm an Asshole"...Dennis Leary a lot of Stephen Foster's songs have 'niggas' but that was then David Allen Coe, and Loudain Wainright 3rd... have produced songs that could offend many... thanks Art... |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: dick greenhaus Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:09 PM There were some fine Civil War examples. "Year of the Jubilo" comes to mind, as does "Sambo's Right to be Kilt". There's "Twelve Hundred More" (a bit later), "Damn, Damn, Damn the Filipinos" and "When a Lady's Wearing Pantaloons" from the Phillipine insurrection. (all in DigiTrad) |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Cool Beans Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:15 PM "Bill Johnson, The Monkey and the Dago." My late friend Downeast Bob used to sing it with gusto. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Amos Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:15 PM "Why Do They Call Me Snowball" "Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield" "DIvil and the Farmer's Wife" are a few that come to mind which parlayed biases about gender or color. A |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Rapparee Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:30 PM The Old Woman From Wexford (where to start?) The Pill Song (contraception, religious belief) Vietnam Jingle Bells Blue-tail Fly Jump Jim Crow Yes, We Have No Bananas Starving To Death On A Government Claim Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime? Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation Dixie Old Folks At Home Carry Me Back To Old Virginny Old Black Joe Come Out, Ye Black And Tans The Bold Raparree Yankee Doodle Tell Laura I Love Her Lucy In The Sky Whup Jamboree Barbara Allen Lord Randall ...hell, Art, 'most every song's got something in it to offend someone. |
Subject: Lyr Add: WHATEVER YOU SAY, SAY NOTHING From: Rapparee Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:40 PM Chorus: Whatever you say, say nothing When you talk about you know what For if you know who could hear you You know what you'd get For they'd take you off to you know where For you wouldn't know how long So for you know who's sake Don't let anyone hear you singing this song And you all know what I'm speaking of When I mention you know what And I think it's very dangerous to even mention that For the other ones are always near Although you may not see And if anyone asks who told you that Please don't mention me And you all know who I'm speaking of When I mention you know who And if you know who could hear me You know what he'd do So if you don't see me around You'll know why I'm away And if anyone asks you where I've gone Here's what you must say Well that's enough about so and so Not to mention such and such I think I'll end my song now Sure I've already said too much For the less you say, the less you hear And the less you'll go astray And the less you think, the less you do And the more you'll hear them say |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive) Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:42 PM "the number of people whove misunderstood the words to Short People now runs into the millions." the number of Randy Newman fans who've said this now runs in the millions*LOL* Charlotte (who is 4 feet 11 inches tall) |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: meself Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:48 PM (Good one!) |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Bill D Date: 01 Mar 08 - 05:22 PM I was once upbraided for singing "Poor Lil" (Lil, she was a famous beauty. She lived in a house of ill reputy.) |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Art Thieme Date: 01 Mar 08 - 05:34 PM Some fascinating responses. I even recorded some of those songs I listed. "The ballad Of Sherman Wu" was recorded by Pete Seeger on a Folkways LP. It was about a student at Northwestern University in the 1950s who was kept out of Psi Upsilon frat because he was Chinese. It might've been the first BROADSIDE album on that label. It was meant to point out he wrongheadedness of what was going down. Some humorous lines fed on the stereotypes and many laughed in spite of the good intentions. It was a hard song to take seriously. Maybe we need a thread on "Songs that are funny in spite of original serious intent!" --- How about "LIZZY LINDSAY" with ol' Ronald MacDonald showing up to woo Lizzy. Ah, what ravages of fate the mere passing of time does to discredit an earlier generations sacred cows! It's like Al Grierson's great song about "Old Coyote"---the cosmic ultimate trickster had all four of his paws in these doings.------ Personally, I love those quirks of fate. A hell hole of a place, a housing project in Chicago, CABRINI GREEN, was named for a nun----but it's hard to hear the name of that decent woman without thinking of the horrors endured by those unlucky enough to have lived in those buildings. But I digress I guess. Sorry for creeping my own thread... Art ;-) |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice Date: 01 Mar 08 - 05:42 PM well over half the Trad. Arr music is politically and sexually incorrect...I'm not going to stop singing and playing.. Here's One Now.... The Bird In The Bush Charlotte (the erotic view from Ma and Pa's piano stool |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: SINSULL Date: 01 Mar 08 - 05:58 PM Coon Songs invariably make someone cringe. In another thread "Kentucky Babe" and "Mammie's Little Coal Black Rose" come up. Recently, there was some real harm done with a song from the 20s mildly ridiculing Japanese but mentioning Nagasaki and using an English word which translates to an insult in Japanese. Be sure of your audience and think before you sing. |
Subject: Lyr Add: SHORT PEOPLE (Randy Newman) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Mar 08 - 05:59 PM Art, Great beginning for a what will no doubt be a long running discussion. Simply understanding why people feel songs are not "politically correct" (an objectionable term in many situations) is interesting. So many so quick to criticise, to not take the long view, to apply critical thinking, to draw on the sense of irony. And BTW, here, from the Randy Newman site, are the words to Short People. Might as well finish up that squabble with a look at the words: Short People Short People got no reason Short People got no reason Short People got no reason To live They got little hands Little eyes They walk around Tellin' great big lies They got little noses And tiny little teeth They wear platform shoes On their nasty little feet Well, I don't want no Short People Don't want no Short People Don't want no Short People `Round here Short People are just the same As you and I (A Fool Such As I) All men are brothers Until the day they die (It's A Wonderful World) Short People got nobody Short People got nobody Short People got nobody To love They got little baby legs That stand so low You got to pick 'em up Just to say hello They got little cars That go beep, beep, beep They got little voices Goin' peep, peep, peep They got grubby little fingers And dirty little minds They're gonna get you every time Well, I don't want no Short People Don't want no Short People Don't want no Short People 'Round here ___ My Dad had a lot of songs that could offend someone, and I think we learned a lot about the world and thinking when he explained to us what they meant. Talk about a liberal education! SRS |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Cool Beans Date: 01 Mar 08 - 06:25 PM I don't understand what's politically incorrect about "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime." Could someone enlighten me. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: katlaughing Date: 01 Mar 08 - 06:32 PM Murray, we used to LOVE singing UP Against the Wall, You Redneck Mothers! Esp. when JJWalker was there to sing it with! I was upbraided one time in WY for singing She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain. The upbraider indicated that it was racist. I do not understand. Someone enlighten me, please? |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Richard Bridge Date: 01 Mar 08 - 06:38 PM Yes, there are some above that puzzle me as to why they are politically incorrect. Perhaps we should give reasons. Abdul the Bulbul Amir (racist) The Sheikh of Araby (ditto) Hog's Eye man (includes line, in some versions "Big buck nigger with his sea boots on) Champion he was a Dandy (dog fighting) The Old Alarum Clock (glorifies terrorism) |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Fred Maslan Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:17 PM Recently came upon the lyrics for "Squaws upon the Yukon". Which actually was heard on the radio in the 1960's as I recall. And thought for about 2 seconds of singing it at song circle. but then reality hit. Nope! |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: john f weldon Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:39 PM Coon from Tennessee -on a Red Clay Ramblers vinyl circa mid seventies |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Rapparee Date: 01 Mar 08 - 10:33 PM "Buddy Can You Spare A Dime" -- I've sung it and been told that it made fun of the poor! Of course, the guy who criticized me wasn't hurting for a meal or decent clothing.... |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Rapparee Date: 01 Mar 08 - 10:35 PM And while we're at it, let's not forget the songs that glorify alcoholism, like: Jug of Punch Whiskey You're The Devil Copper Kettle ...and about twenty thousand more. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: katlaughing Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:02 PM Or, for that matter, dare I say it? What should we do with a drunken sailor! |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Rapparee Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:06 PM Or "Sloop John B." for that matter. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Art Thieme Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:19 PM I suspect I'm saying that there might not be any politically correct or incorrect songs at all really. It could be that there are songs that push individuals' personal buttons at some given moment, just as there are cartoons depicting deities that set off the humongous ultimate Rube Goldberg Machine that, in the end, ignites the whole world and ends everything. And there probably might be just that wrong moment to sing a given song---or to write certain words. -- Just ask Salman Rushdie about that dynamic. I've always felt those Rube Goldberg cause-and-effect mechanical machines were pretty funny, and also proof of some sort of "intelligent design." That might be a fault of mine though, I guess. I see the humor in almost all of it. My list of songs were simply to show how timing and context is everything! I always figured that if anybody in my audience "takes offense," they ought to try to put it back quickly before all the cows get out! (pun intended--scroll down ;-) (takes a fence!) Just a little joke, but I didn't think it'd be THAT little! It can sometimes get so quiet around Mudcat that you can hear a pun drop! ;-) Art Thieme |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs From: GUEST,Uncle Jaque Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:25 PM When we're doing Civil War reenactment, we have to be pretty careful of what we perform to who, and there are a lot of historical songs - particularly some of Steven Foster's - that we only play - at least in their entirety - to VERY select audiences! At some of the major reenactments - like the one coming up this July in Gettysburg - some festive bunch will probably be gathered around a campfire in blackface doing an authentic period Minstrel show... AFTER the public has all gone home! I'm here to tell ya; they are a hoot! "Old Zip Coon", for example, is a catchy little minstrel tune and a natural for the banjo - but songs like that demand extreme social discretion! One of the things that the Minstrels did was to caricature the ethnically distinctive dialect of the slave culture, which white people of the time found to be utterly and hysterically amusing. Some folks just don't get it that we're trying to present "Living History" the way it WAS, not how the modern "enlightened" elite think that it ought to have been. Some of the "revisionist history" going on in public schools these days does, I opine, tremendous disservice to generations who have gone before us and have made America, for better or for worse, what we are today. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Sandy Mc Lean Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:30 PM I still sometimes sing "Bright Silvery Light Of The Moon" in public but I choose carefully the venue, state beforehand that it isn't very PC and that I didn't "WRITE" it. So far I've gotten a lot of laughs and no negative feedback but no doubt someday somebody will take offense. Sometimes I think that the PC pendulum has swung too far and is limiting free speech, but I am also a strong believer in equality. However humour wins over bombast so at times I may push the limits a bit. Racism I will fight against and real gender issues as well. Religious dogma will find less sympathy in my heart. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Rapparee Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:35 PM My father acted in minstrel (as well as in other types of theater). And I agree about revisionist history: there was good and bad and you have to take one with the other. Harriet Tubman was more than balanced by the slave catchers, Frederick Douglass with those who forbade slaves to learn anything. To make historical re-enactment a true re-enactment a lot of politically improper -- not to say repugnant -- things would have to be done. My brother and I thought once of getting a cart, a couple of barrels, and a couple of long handled shovels and becoming nightsoil removal specialists in a reproduced village of great historical importance (things changed and we didn't need to do that particular protest). When Colonial Williamsburg re-enacted a slave auction some years ago the local NAACP objected. I abhor slavery, but I disagreed with the NAACP on that one. SHOW people the bad, show them the politically incorrect. How otherwise will they know?? |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Charley Noble Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:07 AM Kat- There are certainly mildly bawdy verses to "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" but I've never run across a racist verse. "She'll be wearing pink pajamas when she comes" just doesn't rise to "politically incorrect" in my book. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:24 AM Initially, I was just going to say that the initial definition of non-PC material was way broader than mine. All the outlaw ballads, for example, don't ring "non-PC" bells in my head. Maybe they are ethically challenged, yes, but that depends on (1)the circumstances and (2) the ending. From what I know of John Wesley Hardin, for example, he was pretty much an open-and-shut psychopathic SOB whom I would not invite home for dinner, and the Dylan song to me is a laugh, content wise, though I love it musically. On the other hand, if "Cole Younger" ends with The robbing of the Northfield Bank Is a deed I'll never deny, But which I will be sorry of Until the day I die, then I've got to say that that is a "moral tale." What I really want to say now, though, cues off Rapaire's last post. I once did a couple rather formal debates on Civil War issues--Did the South have a right to secede? Was slavery the cause of the war? Stuff like that. I was a Union dude, and was opposed by two very well informed "Confederates," who were very articulate gents. After one debate, I heard an African-American woman in the audience say that she never understood the whole slavery thing completely until she heard my debate partner give the Southern viewpoint. Unfortunately--and if I'm reading between the lines correctly, Rapaire is saying this too--it's difficult to find people willing and able to present the nitty-gritty of some of our past history. (I had another Civil War show cancelled because the local Moms Against Guns didn't want to see soldier re-enactors with weapons.) But to return to the main point, SOME (tho' not all) "politically incorrect" stuff can be made into a great teaching vehicle. Chicken Charlie |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Mar 08 - 12:38 AM You're damned if you do and damned if you don't, when considering the raw material--perform a song as originally sung and risk offending those who are the butt of the joke and those who recognize the nature of the song and wish it to vanish; perform a revisionist version and risk offending those who despise the bowdlerization of the work and who know that to not tell history the way it happened is to risk repeating the mistake in some new way in the future. There will be no one or two or even a few answers to this. Someone will always be offended. The best you can do is offer warnings to those with delicate sensibilities and not overplay your hand when approaching material that is no longer sanctioned by the dominant culture. There are scholars and performers who can bridge those gaps. I'm thinking of a performance I heard last year when the BBC's Lucie Skeaping visited Texas for a brief lecture on broadside ballads. The nature of that lecture and performance didn't get into the kind of material we are discussing here (except for some bawdy stuff, and there are always some who will be offended by that). But her scholarship and demeanor, of understanding good humor, I think can serve as an example. And this is said in the context of the discussion started by Art, who like Skeaping, has the background to cover it. That said, I suspect there are some performers who, if they aren't confident enough to approach it in a large way, might consider not moving into that territory. Doing it in a nervous way will only chum the water for critics. SRS |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: cetmst Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:08 AM Then there are songs that start out with good intentions and come up with some questionable lines. I've been bothered by singing "There'll Be No Distinction There" and coming to the line "and we'll all be white in that heavenly light." I'm sure there are other examples. |
Subject: RE: Art's Politically Incorrect Songs - workshop From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:41 AM Newman is the unparalleled master of double-layered meaning. But God's Song is bleak no matter how you interpret it, and is bound to upset a lot of religious folk, though at least it's non-denominational. (Worth the price of a ticket to hell just to hear Etta James sing it.) And Sail Away (ditto). Spaw, don't forget the smart-assed New York Jew. We wouldn't want him to feel left out. Historically speaking, Mister Banjo is now pretty taboo. Shame, because I always liked the rhythm in it when I was a kid and we sang it in school with nary a thought. I have a book of Handel arias published in 1910 by a prestigious London classical-music firm which is still in business, and the back outside cover (where they always used to advertise their other wares) is proudly emblazoned with - I don't even feel comfortable typing this but here's what it says - "Ten More Nigger Tunes". We have at least made some progress as a society in the intervening century. |
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