[Dixielandjazz] Re:was/Cornet Education for Bill Biffle/DenyingHistory o...

[Mike Durham]

Jim, I can certainly measure the 'blackness' of a song when I compare 
'That's All right, Mama', a 12 bar blues, to later Elvis pop crap like "Blue 
Hawaii"! But of course you are right, there is and always has been 
cross-pollination, many early white country artists (like Darby & Tarleton) 
sang 12 bar blues, played bottle -neck guitar and sounded very black. But at 
extremes of the spectrum, there is a difference (and all musicologists agree 
that the 12 bar blues is one of the few musical forms that is undeniably a 
black American 'invention'). What's more, I don't see Sam Phillips of Sun 
Records as evil, he was just a small guy trying to make a buck. Now Colonel 
Tom Parker, maybe......  and lastly, I don't suppose Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup 
got any royalties for his songs (nor Elvis at that date, probably). Black 
songwriters were consitently cheated out of their royalties from the get-go 
by unscrupulous agents, publishers, ASCAP, you name it. Irving Mills put his 
name on almost every tune Ellington wrote while Mills was his manager, 
'stealing' half of Duke's royalties, and the Melrose brothers pulled the 
same trick with Morton, adding crap lyrics (that nobody ever sings) to his 
compositions as a means of taking half the composer's royalties in addition 
to their publisher's royalty (the irst Jelly knew of this was when the 
published sheet music hit the stores). And when Jelly finally got admitted 
to ASCAP in the late 30's, they placed the composer of 'King Porter Stomp', 
then a huge hit for several big swing bands, in their lowest category and 
paid him less than a hundred bucks for a year's worth of public peformance 
of all his tunes. OK white jazz and other artists got screwed too, but the 
black guys got it worse in every way. Will quit now before I burst a blood 
vessel in indignation!

Yours aye,

Mike.

>From: TCASHWIGG at aol.com
>To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Re:was/Cornet Education for Bill 
>Biffle/DenyingHistory o...
>Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 17:15:52 EST
>
>In a message dated 11/17/03 1:36:03 PM Pacific Standard Time,
>jbeebe at centurytel.net writes:
>
> >   It will take more than 'thoughts' to make sense out of this nonsense. 
>So,
> > the evil white promoters saw Elvis as a 'white Negro' who could get
> > 'forbidden black' music to the very 'affluent' white teenage market and 
>make
> > big money.  Whew! what a nifty conspiracy. And his early stuff was VERY
> > black.  I'm curious...how do you measure the blackness of a song?
> >
> > You know, Mike, the music world cross pollinates all of the time.  Elvis
> > hears a tune, he likes it.  His enormous talent makes it a hit.  Ray 
>Charles
> > hears a tune he likes it and records it.  It. is a country tune and 
>Charles
> > has a big hit with it.  Now is this a conspiracy for Ray Charles 
>promoters
> > (white or black)?  To rip-off country music.  Here is a clue for you, 
>song
> > writers don't give a damn who records their tunes...the more the better
> > royalties for them.
> >
> > Jim
> > Beebe
> >
> >
> >
>No No No Jim:   We did not say they were EVIL WHITE PROMOTERS at all, just
>stating how and why it happened.
>
>Sam Phillips of Sun Records was not an evil promoter at all, he heard the
>great Black music and thought it should be exploited to a wider audience, 
>and
>knew full well that in those days he could not buy a hit record with a 
>Black
>artist int he predominately white repressed marketplace.
>
>Hence when Elvis (a poor kid from a White Trash community) as it was 
>referred
>to back in those times, showed up on the scene, it was an answer to his
>prayers if indeed he was a praying man.
>
>I understand it totally because I grew up with a very similar background, 
>too
>bad I was not a good singer and went into Rock & Roll a few years earlier, 
>or
>I might have had a shot at what Elvis did.  It was basically about being at
>the right place at the right time for Elvis.
>
>I have stated before that I believe that Elvis was indeed one of the 
>greatest
>Entertainers that ever graced a stage, but that he was far from being a 
>great
>talented Singer.
>
>He was a Star who was definitely MADE as most of them are ever since then.
>Very few ever make it on talent alone, it is a combination of savvy and
>sometimes unscrupulous managers, agents, and producers and record labels 
>and radio
>programmers that determine who becomes a Star.
>
>All one has to do today is turn on the radio or watch MTV to see that.
>
>Without Col. Tom Parker, Elvis could very well have been just another poor
>white kid who sang a few songs and got dumped by the record label for the 
>next
>unsuspecting kid who came along.  Elvis had good looks, and sex appeal, 
>could
>sing a little bit, play a little guitar and had the guts to get up and try 
>to
>dance like a Negro.
>
>Remember Ed Sullivan wanted to only show him from the waist up, because his
>act was considered lewd and untasteful.  Such was the restraints placed 
>upon
>entertainers in those days, especially if they became uninhibited like the 
>Black
>performers.
>
>The last thing our parents wanted was to have their children acting and
>dancing and walking like Negroes.  Elvis changed all of that forever for 
>better or
>worse.  Hence he is fondly referred to by even Black Americans as a White
>Negro.  He walked, and danced and talked and dressed like them.
>
>Elvis along was one of the first to recognize the difference in the music 
>and
>adapted it to white rock and roll, as did Hank Williams Sr., so with his
>versions of Jambalya and other Blues songs he brought back from New Orleans 
>to
>Nashville, which greatly changed the face and sound of Country and Western 
>Music.
>  At the same time Buddy Holly became the opposite and more acceptable 
>version
>of rock and roll for white kids.
>
>To my musical experiences and ears this seems to be a similar situation
>between Black Traditional Jazz and the great success of Dixieland music to 
>the
>masses.
>
>The mainstream record labels have always been looking for new buzz words 
>and
>titles for styles of music for marketing purposes.  So why is it hard to
>believe that it happened back in the 1920s as well.  Ragtime was fading,
>Traditional Black Jazz was not readily acceptable and certainly not exposed 
>to the
>mainstream media, so it makes sense to create a new style How Bout 
>Dixieland.
>
>Just my view on the situation, and yes there has always been a musical 
>cross
>culture and always will be.
>
>We are always looking for some new sound, I am currently working on a 
>project
>with middleastern melodies over Latin and Cuban rhythms, and getting some
>great response and reviews for the act and the music from Europe.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Tom Wiggins
>
>
>
>
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