darktown strutter's ball

Subject: darktown strutter's ball
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 26 - 05:08 AM

I am advising you on mudcat to not find the words of darktown stutters ball becuse of what music in the 1940s taking the tune and part of the words this lasted right untill today from Joe.

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Helen
Date: 19 May 26 - 06:34 AM

Ted Mulry Gang - Darktown Strutters Ball (1976)

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 26 - 09:57 AM

Joe, we could use more information about what you think is going on here. Thanks!

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Helen
Date: 19 May 26 - 04:19 PM

Joe, I don't understand what you are asking. Could you explain please?

This was the first recording of the popular song composed by Shelton Brooks (1886-1975) in 1917. The recording was made in the same year that the music was first published.

Darktown Strutters Ball - The Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917)

I posted the link to the Ted Mulry Gang rock version which was released when I was a teenager so that is the version that I heard first on the radio, way back then, and later heard the more original styles by various great performers like Fats Domino, Hoagy Carmichael, and many more.

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Johnny J
Date: 19 May 26 - 06:21 PM

The thread doesn't make sense?

I can understand why some may think the song inappropriate now though.

The Umps and Dumps recorded a good version on their "The Moon's in a fit" album.

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Helen
Date: 19 May 26 - 06:44 PM

I don't understand how the song could be considered inappropriate. I see nothing inappropriate in the lyrics and it was composed by Shelton Brooks who was of African heritage. It's a fun song about going out and enjoying the dancing and the music.

The only word which might possibly be interpreted as inappropriate would be the name "Darktown", but as that name was given by the composer I would be surprised if he thought it to be a racial slur.

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 19 May 26 - 09:00 PM

Helen wrote: The only word which might possibly be interpreted as inappropriate would be the name "Darktown", but as that name was given by the composer I would be surprised if he thought it to be a racial slur.

Sadly, Black writers often conformed to the language of the time if they thought it was the only way they could sell a song. Look at the works of James A. Bland, the author of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny." He was Black, and he wrote what is pretty much a plantation song.

When I hear "Darktown Strutters Ball," it makes me think of the Skidmores, and the "Skidmore Fancy Ball," in the works of Harrigan and Braham. The Skidmores were a Black social club (portrayed by men in blackface) who were prone to wielding razors and the like.

I'm not saying there is a link, but I can't help feeling a link. Is that reason enough to suppress the song? I don't know. It was apparently a favorite of my grandfather's (though I never heard him sing it; he was basically deaf by the time I was around). So I think it worth remembering. But I also see why people would object.

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: meself
Date: 20 May 26 - 01:19 AM

Okay - but are they?

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Lighter
Date: 20 May 26 - 08:23 AM

There was a doughboy travesty in 1918:

Machine-gun bullets are a-whizzin' round me,
The old tin hat's a-feelin' mighty small;
Inside it I'd like to crawl.
I'd like to hug the ground like a mustard plaster!
My feet feel heavy and my knees feel weak;
I bite my tongue every time I speak.
The shells are fallin' fast,
And I think I'm smellin' gas!
In No Man's Land,
Where they play that Shell-Hole Rag!

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Lighter
Date: 20 May 26 - 09:05 AM

Just recalled the rest of it. From some old book long ago:


I'll be down to get you in an ambulance, buddy,
You better be ready 'bout half-past eight.
Now, buddy, don't be late.
I want to be there when the bombs start fallin'.

Now machine-gun bullets are a-whizzin' round me,
The old tin hat's a-feelin' mighty small;
Inside it I'd like to crawl.
I'd like to hug the ground like a mustard plaster!
When I hear those 9.2's,
I shake the hobnails right outta my shoes.

My feet feel heavy and my knees feel weak;
I bite my tongue every time I speak.
The shells are fallin' fast,
And I think I'm smellin' gas!
In No Man's Land,
Where they play that Shell-Hole Rag!

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Helen
Date: 20 May 26 - 12:51 PM

Thanks Lighter. That has certainly brought the party atmosphere down - a lot! ;-(

But it shows that only one year after the song was composed it was known well enough by WWI soldiers or someone who knew what they were going through to write a parallel song.

Note: my maternal Grandfather suffered for the rest of his life from mustard gas poisoning and I am sure he also suffered from post-war PTSD which was not recognised back then. Not at all pleasant. He passed away abuot 40 years after he came back home from the war.

Subject: RE: darktown strutter's ball
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 20 May 26 - 12:54 PM

Helen wrote: But it shows that only one year after the song was composed it was known well enough by WWI soldiers or someone who knew what they were going through to write a parallel song.

That's pretty typical. Parodies fall into two large classes with relatively few exceptions: The ones that use a handful of very standard tunes ("Villikens," "Rosin the Beau," "Yankee Doodle") and those that are parodies of recent pop songs. Overall, I think the distribution of the two is about equal -- but soldiers' songs tilt toward current pop songs, probably because they heard those songs endlessly on their bases.