Subject: RE: origins:Broonzy's Black Brown and White
From:
Stewie
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 07:39 PM
Broonzy told Studs Terkel in an interview [Folkways FG 3586] that he wrote 'BB&W' in 1939. At the time, he was working as a moulder in a foundry. A fellow was put to work with him and Broonzy taught him all he knew. Within a month, the fellow became Broonzy's boss and told him what to do - this was the inspiration for the song. In his essay in the booklet insert to the above cited Folkways LP, Charles E. Smith wrote [the quotes are from Broonzy's book, 'Big Bill Blues']:
... In 1939, When he appeared at the second 'Spirituals to Swing' concert at Carnegie Hall, he was reluctant to sing certain songs known to share-croppers because, he told Sterling Brown and myself, he might have to go back to share-cropping again. So far as I know, he never had to ...
In Paris, he gave his first concert in 1951 - he is well known in England, Belgium, France and other European countries - and while there he made a record of 'Black, Brown and White'. When he returned to the United States and first tried to have it recorded, he met with many objections from both Negro and white sources, though others fought for its acceptance. Big Bill remarks that some Negroes (as well as whites) don't like it because it says: 'If you're black git back'. 'And I don't blame them because we all Negroes in the USA have been getting back all our lives and we're tired of getting back. But this song doesn't mean for a Negro to get back, it just tells what happens on jobs where Negroes go'. [Charles E. Smith 1957].
--Stewie.
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sj
