Songs for Kellys and Cohens

Subject: Songs for Kellys and Cohens
From: DougR
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 12:55 PM

I realize that reading the Wall Street Journal might not be on top of the reading list for most American Mudcatters, but there is an interesting article in today's edition (Personal Journal section)about Irish music in America by Earle Hitchner. The principal character in the article is Mick Moloney who is described in the article as "The pre-eminant authority on Irish music in America."

Thought you might enjoy reading it.

DougR

Subject: RE: Songs for Kellys and Cohens
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 05:16 PM

So.... give us a link, please. Mick has published a good deal on this theme - summed up in the old song title "If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews".

Regards

Subject: RE: Songs for Kellys and Cohens
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 06:07 PM

Absolutely, Mr Gallegher!

Subject: RE: Songs for Kellys and Cohens
From: DougR
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:22 PM

Sorry, I never learned to do blue clickies. Those interested can Google Wall Street Journal on line and it probably can be brought up. It's in the "Personal Journal" section of the paper.

DougR

Subject: RE: Songs for Kellys and Cohens
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:59 PM

Thanks for this Doug. Here is a link to the WSJ article.

This has been an interest of Mick Moloney's for some time, and it is well worth listening to him talking at greater length about the topic during his Library of Congress lecture. The story of Abie's Irish Rose "the worst play ever written" is both hilarious and fascinating. Mick has rediscovered some wonderful songs and stories from the Tin Pan Alley era of people who have undeservedly been forgotten.

Compass Records have issued Mick Moloney's project on CD, with new recordings of the vaudeville songs on 'If It Wasn't For The Irish And The Jews'. The CD sounds worth buying to judge from this review by Aaron Howard.

Matthew

Subject: RE: Songs for Kellys and Cohens
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 08:14 PM

And here's a link to an article about Mick Moloney's new CD from the Forward, a great weekly newspaper of Jewish interest which a century ago published in Yiddish, but is now in English:
http://forward.com/articles/126548/

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Songs for Kellys and Cohens
From: DougR
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 12:05 PM

Thanks, Matthew, for helping out this old "tekkie" illiterate and providing readers blue clickies for the information.

DougR

Subject: Lyr Add: IF IT WASN'T FOR THE IRISH AND THE JEWS
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Apr 10 - 02:43 PM

If you ask me, this is a song that cries out for updating. Maybe Garrison Keillor could change it into IF IT WASN'T FOR NORWEGIANS AND THE SWEDES.

From the sheet music at UCLA's Archive of Popular Music:


IF IT WASN'T FOR THE IRISH AND THE JEWS
Words, William Jerome. Music, Jean Schwartz.
New York: Jerome & Schwartz Publishing Co., © 1912.
"Introduced by John T. Kelly in Weber and Fields Jubilee"

1. I just returned from Europe. I've seen London and Paree,
And I'm glad to get back home to Yankee land.
In fact, the little U. S. A. looks better now to me.
It's the real place for the real folks, understand?
But still I often sit and think: what would this country be,
If we hadn't men like Rosenstein and Hughes?
You'd surely have a Kingdom; there'd be no democracy
If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews.

CHORUS 1: What would this great Yankee nation really, really ever do
If it wasn't for a Levy, a Monahan or Donahue?
Where would we get our policemen? Why, Uncle Sam would have the blues
Without the Pats and Isadores. You'd have no big department stores,
If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews.

2. McDonald built the subway and his name we'll not forget.
A word of praise is due to Nathan Strauss.
For pasteurizing baby's milk the world owes him a debt.
He's a friend to ev'ry kiddie in the house.
Without Big Tim Sullivan, what would the Bow'ry do?
Just ask the man that needs a pair of shoes.
There wouldn't be an East Side in the City of New York
If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews.

CHORUS 2: Talk about a combination! Hear my words and make a note:
On St Patrick's day Rosinsky pins a shamrock on his coat.
There's a sympathetic feeling between the Blooms and McAdoos.
Why, Tammany would surely fall. There'd really be no Hall at all
If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews.

3. You all know Charlie Frohman and his brother Dan of course.
How often have you laughed at Louis Mann?
And Lew and Joe who used to run the Little Music Hall,
And that wonder, clever George M. Cohan.
Dave Warfield, Peter Daly, Charlie Ross, and Andrew Mack,
For years and years they drove away the blues,
Where would you get your actors from?—I'd really like to know—
If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews.

CHORUS 3: What would you do for amusement? There would be no place to go
If it wasn't for the Shuberts, Frank McKee, and Marcus Loew.
K. and E. and Billy Brady, Hammerstein I mustn't lose.
I once heard Dave Belasco say, "You couldn't stage a play today
If it wasn't for the Irish and the Jews."