I don't know much about the music being discussed, but I was interested in Hollowfox's info on the origin of the epithet "coon", pasted below:

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."

I always wondered about that, and I'm the type who likes to know how various words and phrases got their meanings. Now there's another piece of trivia stuck in my head.