[Dixielandjazz] Basin Street Blues

[Bill Haesler]

Dear friends,
[A bit long, so if not interested hit the delete key now.]
Also a bit late, but I'm with me mate Pat the Ladd from England on this 
one who said:
"Good grief!  Why bother? It is going along with daft things like this 
that encourages the mind set among some people who are determined to be 
upset whatever you do. Who are you upsetting the `light  folk` or the 
`dark folk`?"
Fortunately, we Oz jazz people don't have a PC fixation.
In all my jazz years I have yet to have anyone come up to the band, or 
ring me at the radio station to complain about tunes like "Basin Street 
Blues", "Mississippi Mud", "Shine", "Darktown Strutters Ball", 
"Nagasaki", "Limehouse Blues", et al.

Here, as a handy reference to the following comments, are the 'non-PC 
lyrics' taken from the 1931 Charleston Chasers rendition.
BASIN STREET BLUES (1928. Spencer Williams)
   Verse:
Won't you come along with me,
To the Mississippi,
We'll take the boat to the land of dreams,
Steam down the river down to New Orleans.
The band's there to meet us,
Old friends to greet us.
Where all the dark and the light folks meet,
[The familiar "Heaven on earth" is not sung) This is Basin Street.
    Chorus:
Basin Street, is the street,
Where the dark and light always meet,
In New Orleans, land of Dreams,
You'll never know how nice it seems
Or just how much it really means
Glad to be, yes sir-ee,
Where welcome's free, dear to me,
Where I can lose, my Basin Street Blues.

So far as (my other mate) Adrian Ford and I can determine the song was 
originally published by  Joe Davis Inc. in 1928, then by Mayfair Music 
in 1933 and is currently being 'looked after' by Edwin H Morris & Co. 
Inc.
Adrian has (in a folio) what is claimed to be the original 1928 sheet 
music sans verse, which uses the word "el-ite" instead of "dark and 
light" in the chorus. We would love to hear from someone with an 
original copy dated 1928.
Basin Street was located in the 'Storyville' area of New Orleans. It 
name was changed to North Saratoga Street in 1921 following demolition 
of this 'notorious red light' district. It was renamed Basin Street in 
1946, due to the popularity of the Spencer Williams' song and a renewed 
interest in the jazz music of New Orleans.
Yesterday and today, out of interest, I took a chronological musical 
stroll down Basin Street and played all the early recorded versions of 
the song:
*4 Dec 1928. The first recording of the tune by Louis Armstrong and His 
Hot Five. Louis 'sings' a wordless vocal.
*11 June 1929. Louisiana Rhythm Kings. Jack Teagarden sings one of his 
typical blues lyrics - "Going down to Basin Street baby but I can't 
you...."  So perhaps there were no published words at that time.
*9 Feb 1931. The Charleston Chasers. The first version with the verse 
and the words (as quoted above). Although Jack Teagarden hesitates and 
omits "Heaven on earth" in the last line of the verse.
Jazz history claims that the night before this record date (under Benny 
Goodman's direction) Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden sat down, composed 
a verse for the tune and wrote words for the verse and chorus, but 
never claimed nor received any composer credit.  The full story can be 
found in 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya' (1955. Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro) 
and is republished on pages 145-46 of bass player Bill Crow's book 
'Jazz Anecdotes' (1990. Oxford University Press).
*9 July 1931. Cab Calloway and his Orchestra. Cab scats, and does not 
sing any words.
*July 1932. Joel Shaw and His Orchestra. Borrows from the Louis 
Armstrong' version. The ad lib vocal introduction ignores the 
'offending' lyrics.
*21 Sept 1932. The Three Keys. A black group who changed the offending 
words to "the dearest place in the land" in the verse. In the chorus 
and the coda "....where the folks they always meet...." is sung.
*27 Jan 1933. Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra. A reprise of his 
earlier 1928 version including the wordless vocal.
*Feb/March 1934. Bill Dodge and His Orchestra. No vocal.
23 Aug 1934. Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. Bob Crosby uses the Charleston 
Chasers lyrics but adds the "Heaven on earth" bit to the last line of 
the verse.
*22 Jan 1935. Nat Gonella and His Orchestra. Nat only sings the chorus 
and uses "....where the folks always meet...."
*15 March 1935. Al Bowlly with a small group drawn from the Ray Noble 
band sings "... where the black and white folk meet...." in the verse 
and "...where the dark and light folk meet...." in the chorus.
*17 May 1935. Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang. Louis, who never 
stuck to original lyrics, doesn't play the verse. In the first vocal 
chorus he ad libs  "...where all the boys dark and light...."
*22 Nov 1935. Benny Goodman and His Orchestra. Joe Harris sings the 
whole of the above Teagarden verse then "...all the people meet...." in 
the chorus  but sings ".... dark and light folk meet...." plus "Heaven 
on earth" in the coda.
*8 May 1936. Wingy Manone and His Orchestra. No verse. Wingy ad-libs, 
scats and sings including "....where the white folks meet...."
*25 Sept 1937. Bing Crosby and Connie Boswell. Connie sings  "....light 
and the dark folk meet,,,," in both the verse and chorus.
*18 Oct 1937. Willie Lewis and His orchestra. Lewis sings".....dark and 
light folk meet...."
 From there on I gave up, as the song was by now too far removed from 
the original to be of any research value.
So it t seems there has never been a positive version, although when a 
black artist sang the 'offending' words "dark" came first. For white 
artists it was usually "light" first.
PC lyrics?
Go for them. No apparent rules for this song.
8>)
Kind regards,
Bill.