According to Steve Sanfield (Adventures of High John the Conqueror, 1989, Franklin Watts/Orchard Books), the term "coon" came about during slavery times, when the slaves would sometimes pilfer corn, melons, etc. from the masters' gardens for their own use. When the overseers asked what happened to the produce, the slaves would say that raccoons must have gotten it. The overseers suspected the truth, and started refering to the slaves as "coons". "Although the term later became a bitter racial slur, it was at first a begrudging recognition of cleverness and audacity."//This has been an interesting thread, but there seems to be an "all or nothing" thought regarding performances. Early in this thread I learned why the Yellow Rose of Texas was yellow. For most concerts, campfire singalongs, etc, there's no real need to either change the word "soldier" back to "darky" or to stop the performance to explain that a word has been changed. On the other hand, I don't think that the knowledge of this change should be lost. The origins, development, and changes in a song have their place; they are commonly found in books, on recording notes, at workshops, and (ideally) in the background information that a singer has about a song.// As for "PC"..."In practice, labeling minorities with euphemisms is often tantamount to polishing the chip and transferring it to the other shoulder. There may be better uses for shoulders." (John Ray, (London) Times Literary Supplement, 2/25/94, in a book review on dwarfs in ancient Egypt and Greece). No I'm not saying we should stick with offensive nouns, this is just about the "PC" thing.