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<TITLE>Re: [Dixielandjazz] Black & Blue significance</TITLE>
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OFF-LIST<BR>
Hi, Steve,<BR>
In a conversation with Tommy Loy when he was out here last year, he said that it was written because he was having a clandestine affair with a white woman and was frustrated that he couldn't be out in the open with the truth.<BR>
What say ye, Bob Romans, Bill Gunter, Rebecca, Jim Beebe, Bob Ringwald, or anyone else to whom he may have told this? BTW: Didn't Tommy sing it so well, and with so much heart? Wonderful.<BR>
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<B>From: </B>Stephen Barbone <barbonestreet@earthlink.net><BR>
<B><BR>
</B><FONT SIZE="2">Sung by a dark black man lamenting the intolerance of lighter skinned blacks towards him, in a show written by blacks, for black audiences.<BR>
<BR>
It was only after Louis Armstrong made "Black & Blue" very famous, that<BR>
it was assumed to be about the intolerance of whites towards blacks.<BR>
<BR>
Cheers,<BR>
Steve Barbone<BR>
<BR>
Rob McCallm wrote; (polite snip)<BR>
<BR>
I read a fascinating passage this morning from a book called The Blacker<BR>
the<BR>
Berry. It was published in 1929 by Harlem Renaissance writer Wallace<BR>
Thurman, and the passage describes a night out at the Lafayette Theatre,<BR>
an<BR>
important establishment in the history of jazz. Because it is such a<BR>
gem<BR>
for describing the atmosphere and because it is an uncommon book, I'm<BR>
going<BR>
to reproduce the couple of paragraphs (though edited) that describe this<BR>
<BR>
scene below (which is a bit long so delete now if uninterested).<BR>
<BR>
A quick note, for those interested, the central theme of the story deals<BR>
<BR>
with color prejudices among black people regarding lightness or darkness<BR>
of<BR>
skin tone.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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