Improbable songs, unlikely singers

Subject: RE: BS: Improbable songs, unlikely singers
From: Art Thieme
Date: 10 Sep 02 - 08:41 PM

I'll risk destroying my image by telling you that I often did rather quiet and pretty banjo arrangements of pop songs like "Tammy", "As Time Goes By", "Ye Sir, She's My Baby", "San Antonio Rose". My more trad fans rebelled---but to no avail.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Improbable songs, unlikely singers
From: Orac
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 07:14 AM

Is someone here saying that "Running Bear" is racist... I really don't understand why ... It seems that too many read too much into quite innocent songs. All this "native american" stuff is nonsense. When you visit reservations you find the people there call themselves "Indians" ... everywhere advertises "Indian jewellry" etc... When you have left you go by signs that say "you have just missed the last chance to buy genuine Indian jewellry". Anyone with a knowledge of English knows that the word "indian" nowadays means the same as "native". Hence "south American Indians" ... None of this is being racist.

Subject: RE: BS: Improbable songs, unlikely singers
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 04:37 PM

You've got hold of the wrong end of the stick Orac. Nothing to do with Running Bear or anything like that.

The song which was ascibed by mistake to Johnny Horton was a very different and vicious race hate song, which was actually recorded by a sicko going under the name Johnny Rebel; since Johnny Horton wrote a song called Johnny Reb this led to the misunderstanding.