Skin color in songs & singers' names

Subject: RE: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 04:06 AM

Here's another reference to dark skin color from Talley's 1922 collection:

STEALING A RIDE
Two liddle N----r boys black as tar
Tryin to go to Heaben on a railroad chyar.
Off fall N----r boys on a cross-tie!
Dey's gwineter git to Heaben shore bye-an'-bye.

-Talley,"Negro Folk Rhymes", page 188

Subject: RE: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 03:50 AM

I've theorized in other Mudcat threads that the referent "Ginger Blue" refers to the reddish "ginger" coloring of some Black people.

That referent is found in this excerpt of the dance song "Gooseberrt Wine":

Now 'umble Unccle Steben
I wonder whar youse gwine?
Don't never tu'n yo' back, Suh,
On dat good ole gooseberry wine!

Oh walk chalk, Ginger Blue!
Git over double trouble.
You needn' min' de wedder
So's de win' don't blow you double.

-Talley "Negro Folk Rhymes", p. 41

Note: "walk chalk" refers to "walking the chalk line", a dance that became the "cake walk". However, imo, it refers here to walking very carefully, and being alert and ready for defensive action. The line
"get over double trouble" is still found in various genres of African American songs, including children's rhymes.

Subject: RE: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 03:42 AM

Here's another example of light skin color preference that is found in this first verse of a secular slave song:

WHEN MY WIFE DIES, excerpt.
We'n {when} my wife dies, gwineter to git me anudder one
A big fat yaller one, jes lak the yudder {other} one.
I'll hate mighty bad w'en she's been gone.
Hain't no better 'oman {woman} never nowahs been bo'n.

Talley, "Negro Folk Rhymes", page 26

Subject: RE: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 03:37 AM

"Yella" /"yeller" [yellow] is a very common referent for light skin in African American secular slave songs.

Most of the references that I have found refer to women and not men. The majority are complimentary.

See this example:

Come down to Tennessee
{Ride er ole grey horse}
Yaller gal's de gal for me
{Ride er ole grey horse}
Kiss her under de mulberry tree
{Ride er ole grey horse}
Oh my, N----g,* don't you see
Better come to Tennessee.

Dorothy Scarborough, "On The Trail Of Negro Folk-Songs",
{FolkLore Associates Edition, 1963, page 183; originally published in 1925}

* I choose not to write this entire word, but that's me and I'm not suggesting everyone do as I do.

Subject: RE: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 03:24 AM

It is also my belief that the following secular slave song [whose tune is probably lost]refers to a Black woman of very light skin color:

PRETTY LITTLE PINK
My pretty liddle Pink,
I once did think,
Dat we-uns sho' would amrry;
But I'se done give up,
Hain't got no hope,
I hain't got time to tarry.
I'll drink coffee dat flows,
From oaks dat grows,
'Long de river dat flows wid brandy.

-Tally, "Negro Folk Rhymes", page 127

Subject: RE: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 03:20 AM

There are numerous secular slave songs that refer not only to race but to skin complection.

Stephen Foster's "Old Black Joe" and James Brown's "Say it Loud I'm Black And I'm Proud" refer just to race.

But imo, the still widely known saying [in African American communities] "the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice" refers to skin color. This saying is excerpted from the following rhyme that is found in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection "Negro Folk Rhymes" [page numbers of all examples cited are from the Kennikat Edition, 1968]. Btw, Talley wrote that most of these rhymes were sung, and not recited as prose.

YOU LOVE YOUR GIRL
You loves'yo' gal?
Well, I loves mine.
Yo'gal hain't common?
Well,my gal's fine.

I loves my gal,
She hain't no goose-
The blacker 'an blackberries,
Sweeter 'an juice.
-page 95

Subject: RE: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 03:04 AM

The artist whose name caused me to think of this subject was
"Tampa Red".

Tampa Red was an African American bluesman who got his "stage" name because of his place of birth or his residence and because of the reddish hue of his light brown skin.

See this information about Tampa Red:
"One of the most popular artists of the [19]20s, 30s and 40s, Tampa red was probably the all-time best-selling Georgia bluesman. He may well have been the most influential bottleneck stylist in blues. He perfected the single-string slide attack and smooth bottleneck tones mimicked by a number of Georgians and later post-war artists."

-snip-
http://www.yazoorecords.com/1039.htm includes listing of songs and a few audio links.

Other African American celebrities who nicknames referred to "redbone" skin complections were comedian/actor Red Foxx and activist/religious leader Malcolm X {Detroit Red}.

"King Yellowman" [also known as "Yellow"] is another Black artist who uses a skin color referent as his stage name.

"King" Yellowman as he is known, is one of the most popular reggae artists to have come from Jamaica. Born as Winston Foster in 1959, in Kingston, Jamaica, he was also an alumnus of the Alpha Boy's school where many reggae artists and musicians got their early musical training.

Yellowman, nicknamed for his albino appearance, got his start in the late 1970's as a young DJ (toaster or rapper). He built his early career around the fact that he was an albino, and his audiences accepted him for his self-effacing humor and lyrical cleverness. He won the annual Tastee Talent contest held in Jamaica in 1978, and within a matter of months became a headlining act on Jamaican stage shows. His records were both witty and relevant, and his slack lyrics were as prevalent as the strong social commentary he could record."

http://www.artistsonly.com/yellhm.htm

Subject: Skin color in songs & singers' names
From: Azizi
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 02:38 AM

This thread provides an opportunity to list, provide information about, and comment on references to skin complection in songs. This thread also provides an opportunity to list, provide information about, and comment on the use of skin color references by vocalists, musicians and possibly others.

I started this thread because I was going to add information that about this subject in a current thread, but that information had absolutely nothing to do with the thread title.

I debated whether I should start this thread but a bout of sleeplessness coupled with an advertising message that came up when I went to another website that said "It's not just black or white" sealed the deal for me.

I'll start off with a list and some information. And, it goes without saying that I encourage others to add to that list and that information. I'm curious if there are such references in songs and singer/musicians other than those from the African American/African Diaspora traditions.

Join in the listing and the discussion please.

Thank you.