[Dixielandjazz] Swanee River

[David Richoux]

this was in the paper a few days ago:

Florida retires song with lyrics that offend
By Carol J. Williams
Los Angeles Times
Article Launched: 01/07/2008 01:32:50 AM PST

MIAMI - Whenever Floridians sing their state song at sporting events,  
school recitals and inaugurations, voices trail off in the third line  
of the chorus as the politically correct singers skip over or mumble  
the most offensive of its lyrics.
"Old Folks at Home," the official Florida ballad that voices an  
illiterate slave's nostalgia for the Suwannee River, has been a  
source of embarrassment and discord for decades for its allusions to  
"darkeys" and "longing for de old plantation."
The song, written by Pennsylvanian Stephen C. Foster in 1851 and  
adopted by Florida 84 years later, soon might be consigned, though,  
to the dustbin of the outdated.
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist nixed the song from his inauguration a  
year ago, giving critical mass to a campaign under way since the  
1960s civil rights movement to replace the ode commonly known as  
"Swanee River" with one that is more reflective of modern Florida.
The Florida Music Educators Association has been conducting a contest  
- "Just Sing, Florida" - for a new state song since April. A panel of  
music teachers listened to 243 entries submitted over six months,  
paring down the potential winners to 20, then to three. The new song  
will be announced Friday, and two state lawmakers intend to submit a  
bill to make that winner the official replacement for Foster's.
"There just comes a point in time when you need to make a change.  
We're not throwing the old song away; we're just retiring it," said  
state Sen. Tony Hill, a Jacksonville Democrat. "It should go into an  
archive or a museum where people can see that was the Florida of  
1935. But it's not the Florida of 2008 - a darkey longing for his  
plantation."

Dave Richoux
On Jan 17, 2008, at 6:19 PM, Mike Woitowicz wrote:

> AL LEVY said (in part):
>
> ============================
> "...Just for fun. Who can name the composer of Swanee River?"
> ============================
> Answer: Steven Foster, circa 1851. The correct title of the tune is  
> "Old Folks At Home."
>
>
> Mike Woitowicz
> The Banjo Barons Ragtime Band
> The Dixie Barons Dixieland Band
> www.banjomusic.biz
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