1. A little dose of Stephen Foster, the world's first professional popular songwriter. Foster was a Northerner who wrote Southern & blackface songs, many of which are very un-PC today (many uses of "darkies"). But Foster came to see the problem...
-
-
3. Foster was an amazingly gifted songwriter. Here, Ray Charles modernizes the same song, and makes it live.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v53KyS90mg0 …
Show this thread -
4. By the time of My Old Kentucky Home, circa 1853, Foster was inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin to turn his odes to Southern living to a more anti-slavery sound that sought sympathy with black Americans.
Show this thread -
5. Frederick Douglass said that My Old Kentucky Home awakened, "the sympathies for the slave, in which anti-slavery principles take root and flourish." Here it is rendered by John Prine, who died of COVID-19 this springhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYQ4WnFG_0I …
Show this thread -
6. Beautiful Dreamer wasn't even published until 1864, after Foster's death. It's such a durable popular song: here's the Beatles doing a rock spin on it on the BBC in 1963https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHIf-GHjMm0 …
Show this thread -
7. Anyway, Foster's creative & moral arc, his groundbreaking commercial career, & his sad alcoholic demise are all both pieces of his American era & templates for the world of popular music ever since. His gifts were remarkable. He earned his place in the American songbook.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
If you’ve got 5 minutes to spare and want to hear the brilliant satirist Stan Freberg’s 1957 rendition of the song which spoofs political correctness before anyone even knew what it was:https://youtu.be/PLlTlYfqQV4
-
Thanks for the retweet, Mr. Tweedly
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.