[Dixielandjazz] Lyrics

[Steve Barbone]

pat ladd" <pj.ladd at btinternet.com> wrote (polite snip)

> I think we beat ouselves up too much with explanations in which  no one is
> interested. They think it is just a good tune and who on earth, unless they
> are looking for a reason to be offended, could object to the lyrics of  Dark
> Town strutters Ball. Dark Town? its just a place, Strutters? They are just
> Dancers. How do you get from there to Black Hookers?

Here is one way to get there Pat, from a bio of composer Shelton Brooks by
Thomas Morgan. The Geoffrey Brooks quoted below was a family member of the
composer. BTW, for those who may not know, Shelton Brooks was half American
Indian and half Black, born in Canada.

He was a great friend of Sophie Tucker and she took one of his songs, "Some
of These Days" and made it a big hit. Later Brooks introduced Noble Sissle
and Eubie Blake to Tucker and she helped their careers as well.

----- start snip

Brooks's most famous song was Darktown Strutter's Ball. Published in 1917
and introduced to the public on record by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band,
it became an instant success. The story behind the song according to
Geoffrey Brooks was that:

" there was a formal dance held in Chicago once a year for those who you
might say "practiced the oldest profession in the world" and their
associates. Each year they dressed in the proper attire of tall hats, coats
and tails, and spats. This was their night that they suffered no oppression
and were not bothered very much if at all by the local authorities. It was
if they were ignored and as long as "they" were all in one place, no bother!
Granted these people did have some clout of their own and were the pride of
their people, even though some of them were practicing illegal moonlighting
in their illicit affairs after their day jobs. It was a marvelous occasion
looked forward to each year by thousands and to be a guest was by all means
a pride of honor. In their minds, they were (and who could disagree) the
bottom of the social ladder. But with the likes a Shelton Brooks, Fats
Waller and some of the most talented musicians to grace one place in one
night would be a great honor in any human book."

----- end snip

Since Jazz is "ART", perhaps we should investigate the artistic message?
Lest we believe that books like Billy Budd and Moby Dick are just simple sea
stories rather than examinations of good and evil. :-) VBG
 
> Who would ever connect `the blues` with the colour you turned after
> treatment for a social disease. I dont believe it for a minute.

Who indeed? Thousands of people would, given the title. Just what are "The
Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me?"

That story derives from my grandmother. When I was 6 or 7, she took me to
the NYC docks to look at the great Ocean liners one day, before WW 2. As we
were walking from the subway station to the Hudson River, I saw a man,
distinctly blue, walking towards us. I pointed and said why is that man
blue. Grandma, obviously embarrassed, shushed me. Later at home she made
sure I was taught not to point to people and told me that the man had a
social disease and the treatment for it is what turned him blue.

When I first played the tune some 10 years later one of my black band mates
told me that BMNSGTM was about Syphilis.

Whether you believe it or not about Darktown and Naughty Sweetie is
unimportant.  However if it makes the music relevant to the kids, (and in my
experience it does) then to me and them, it is very important. :-) VBG.

IMO, this happy, toe tappin music we call Dixieland derives from sex, drugs,
alcoholics, poverty, social diseases, bigotry, humor etc. And much of it,
especially that written and/or played by blacks has a message that is
completely missed by many of us, for one reason or another.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone