[Dixielandjazz] FW: "Black and Blue" lyric

[Charles Suhor]

Interesting exchange. I like Gary and May's approach of explaining the background of the song, which rescues it (though not to everyone's satisfaction, I'm sure) from being seen as inappropriate, or worse, a blatant cultural misappropriation. A different matter--in many settings the audience isn't interested in (or sober enough for) a thoughtful explanation, however beneficial that might be. I never sang the song on a gig, nor do I recall it being sung in bands in New Orleans during my years as a player and listener there, roughly 1946 to 1977. 
To pose the appropriateness question more sharply, would any white musician feel comfortable singing "Strange Fruit"? It would need quite a sociological mini-lecture.

Charlie

On Oct 1, 2014, at 10:15 AM, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:

> when May sings it, even the kids cry.  mind you, we prefix this by
> explaining where the song came from in the musical, and then what
> Louis Armstrong did with it in Ghana, but I think even without that,
> May (who is Chinese) brings a great deal of her own hurt into it and
> that makes all the difference. (and she sings "white inside", but with
> an edge ;) )
> 
> On 10/1/14, Jim Kashishian <jim at kashprod.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Richard wrote:
>>> Before I have to write my own lyric, has anyone got words a white guy can
>> sing without getting a visit from the PC cops?
>> 
>> Dunno about PC cops, but I don't see how someone white can pull off singing
>> that song.  You'd have to give it a new title, also!  It's such a beautiful
>> tune, why not leave it as an instrumental?  I don't sing it (for the above
>> reasons), and most of our audiences don't even understand English!  It just
>> wouldn't seem right to me...
>> 
>> Jim
>> 
>> 
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