<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=3>In a message dated 1/23/03 7:04:36 AM Central Standard Time, kash@ran.es writes:<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Can anyone give me some help on researching the song "Dixie"? I've got<BR>
it written by Daniel D. Emmett in 1860. Recorded the likes of the<BR>
Dukes, Ellington, Louie Armstrong, Kenny Ball, Red Allen. I'm missing<BR>
info on the history of the song itself. Why was it written, etc.<BR>
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My grandson has a paper to turn in on the song. Dunno why, but any help<BR>
will be appreciated.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">I'm not sure how right I am on this but I think that I'm close. The song "Dixie" came along I think just before the Civil War. It is a sentimental song about the South.<BR>
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Music played an important part in the Civil War with a number of Amercian classics coming out of that period. Most of them were very sentimental songs, evoking home and hearth. Dixie was one that was adapted by the South but was popular everywhere. <BR>
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Racial connotations were added on to this song as time went along but they were never in the original intent of this song. Dixie is a powerful, a clever and poigant song<BR>
and still calls up sentiments of days gone by. I'll never forget an old march, "Gate City" that we often played on parade in the Marine Corps. In the first strain the lower brass plays, "Swanee River." The next time though this is repeated with the trumpet/cornets coming in with 'Dixie." This always brought roars from the crowd. I hope that one day the racial dross that has been stuck on 'Dixie" will drop away and this great song can take it's rightful place in American musicana.<BR>
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Jim Beebe</FONT></HTML>