Alexander

But where do you draw the line? Do you really think that every blackface performer was a racist or was inspired by nothing but contempt? Even if there was only one blackface performer who was inspired by what he regarded as a love of black music (however condescending), doesn't that effectively obscure the line? And ultimately, why should we try to make the distinction? Was minstrelsy really so bad? It was America's first mass entertainment and arguably its first major contribution to world culture (both Britain and Japan were tremendously affected by it). And the end result is the same.

So I recently picked up "Pebble To A Pearl" by Nikka Costa (daughter of arranger Don Costa). It's quite good, and at the same time it's yet another in the recent string of white girls doing soul music. Not that Costa doesn't do a good job. She's fine. And the album is on the Stax imprint and it does its soul/R&B heritage proud. But it started me thinking... A few years back, when Amy Winehouse first became big here in the States, there were a few who accused her of doing a contemporary version of blackface, which at the time I found a bit disturbing. I mean, if what Amy Winehouse was doing was blackface without the makeup, what does that make Van Morrison? Or Mick Jagger? Or Rod Stewart? Or Joe Cocker? Or any one of a number of white American, British and Canadian singers who deliberately affect African American mannerisms? What's the difference between Amy Winehouse and Emmett Miller? Then, just the other day, it hit me: There IS no difference. We've wiped away the blacking, but the fact is that whites ARE continuing to mimic blacks in popular culture, just as they did nearly 200 years ago. And...I've concluded...there's nothing wrong with it. The fact is that African Americans have been at the forefront of American pop culture pretty much since America developed a popular culture. So what else do we expect? The black artists have been setting the bar for a long time now. Are we really surprised that some white artists have attempted to reach it? Of course, some will say that there's a difference of intention. That the Blackface performers mimicked in order to mock. First of all, mimicry is mimicry, in the end. It doesn't really matter WHY it's done. Secondly, we don't really know what drove some blackface performers to do what they did. Some did it because it was a way to make a buck. Some did it because they loved the minstrel stage. And some, I'm sure, did it to emulate their models instead of mocking them (wasn't Bix who said he wanted to find "real jazz n*ggers"?). So let's do away with the pretense. No, there is no difference between what Mick Jagger has been doing since the sixties and what Emmett Miller did in the twenties. In fact, let's recognize Miller for the absolutely brilliant performer that he was! Check it out...

New blog post is up. As of today, I have finished disc one of the "Anthology." Only seven more to go! You can now follow "Where Dead Voices Gather" on Twitter. Where Dead Voices Gather: Using Today's Technology to Promote Yesterday's Music!

New post is up! Today we discuss G.B. Grayson's performance of "Ommie Wise." Also, please check out the podcast. The first episode is up and ready for listeners! Also available through iTunes!

Damn!

First episode of da podcast is up!

Here's an update: The first episode of the "Where Dead Voices Gather" podcast is almost ready. The new post on the blog was delayed a day thanks to technical goofs. Here it is: The Carolina Tar Heels - "Peg and Awl"

The Blog is now titled "Where Dead Voices Gather," also to be the title of the podcast I will be launching soon. More to come on that... Today's post is up.

Yep. Great album. I love John Hammond's introduction, even if it is a bit long...

Update! Today's post is on "Willie Moore" by Burnett and Rutherford.

I think it's interesting, considering that Paul freaked at the Spector-ized version of "The Long and Winding Road" and was - as I have noted - the primary force behind the "Naked" project, that on Paul's new live album "Good Evening, New York City" he has his keyboard player perform a string arrangement on "The Long and Winding Road" that is not dissimilar to that used by Spector...

I guess I'll respectfully disagree as Naked was released by them and which was, I believe, a group effort (although I'm not sure what you mean by group effort). Naked just represents Let it Be as apparently they wanted it to be when they recorded it: true to the get back concept, not over produced. Yes, but "Naked" is closer to what Paul had envisioned for the "Get Back" project, and it was Paul who was the primary force behind "Naked." Both John and George had worked (or would soon work) with Spector at this point and had approved his production on "Let It Be." I don't know if Ringo had an opinion either way, but he did side with John and George by signing with Klein during this period. So if any version of the album is closer to a "group effort," it's the original release and not "Naked."

Updated! Today's post is "Old Shoes and Leggins" by Uncle Eck Dunford...

thanks Brad. I am surprised that the song Let It be is a result of multiple takes - I didn't hear the splice. did you get your copy of Naked yet? Any opinions. The 45 rpm and 33 1/3 rpm of Let It Be have completely different guitar solos. I am aware of that Jetman - which is why it makes it even more puzzling that if the song Let It Be on the Naked cd is a mixture of takes - why did they use what most people, if not everyone, considers to be the lesser guitar solo. Actually, the version of "Let It Be" on "...Naked" has a different guitar solo from either the LP version or the 45...

New post up! Today's song is "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" by Chubby Parker...

Just tried watching the first episode. Couldn't get through it. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I haven't watched TV in months now... I appreciated the references to the original series, but it just didn't hold my interest...

I never thought that "Let It Be...Naked" sounded bad by any means. But I agree that it's a different animal from "Let It Be.' The fact is that "Abbey Road" was the last album proper. "Let It Be" was the first "posthumous" release. It has more in common with the "Anthology" boxes than it does with "Abbey Road." But, of course, in 1970 there were no "archival releases." Instead, you tried to dress such material up as a completed album. Jerry Allison did it to Buddy Holly's apartment recordings. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's simply the way things were done then. There was no market for "legal bootlegs." I've often said that if Dylan's "Self Portrait" had been released in the '90s as a volume of the Bootleg Series, people would have gone apeshit for it. Everyone would have talked about how interesting it was to hear Dylan in such an informal setting. But, again, at the time you couldn't do that. You had to pretend that it was a real album. And people couldn't accept it as a real album. The same thing holds true for "Let It Be." Spector did a damn good job for what he had to work with. It's not what McCartney would have preferred, but he had already left the group by then. "Let It Be...Naked" is just another way of presenting the same unfinished material (in different takes, true. I wish that someone had mentioned that in the liner notes at least).

Get it! Get it now!

Because I can't stop tinkering, I have added some video to each entry. Each entry now includes a video of a later performance of that song by a different artist. Some are well-known and some are anonymous, but all are interesting and worth checking out...

Big ups to Allen for pointing out that the photo I had posted as Nelstone's Hawaiians was, in fact, Darby and Tarlton. I have corrected the error by removing the offending photo, although I cannot find one of Nelstone's Hawaiians. Instead, I went to my fallback of finding a creepy-looking picture to put up in its place. It's a cool medieval woodcut of death carrying off a child. Check it out here.

Thanks for the feedback, Allen. I'll look into the Nelstone's Hawaiians picture. I agree completely about the way old time (and blues) are perceived. Most of these musicians were not the "primitives" they were made out to be. Robert Johnson, for example, incorporated a lot of pop and jazz tunes into his repertoire (according to the accounts of his contemporaries), but the record companies didn't want to record these songs. Similarly, Bill Broonzy was an urban bluesman who often performed in a suit and tie. When he was brought east to perform at the "Spirituals to Swing" concert, he was dressed in a work shirt and overalls. Allen, I'd LOVE to talk to anybody who might help shed more light on this wonderful set. If you have any contact info or can introduce me, I'd love to talk to you about it. Please PM me. The new post is up. You can read it here.

Thank you, one and all! I'm really enjoying this. Not only am I having a good time researching the songs and the artists, but I'm also enjoying the discipline of listening to one track at a time. As 78s, of course, that's how they would have been heard...

Just checked her out on YouTube. Damn. The girl is KILLIN'! I'll have to check out her CD... I can tell you right now that there are some guys over at AllAboutJazz who aren't going to like this one bit...

Dahl was a favorite of mine from childhood, as well. I read my daughter "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" a couple of years ago. I've always appreciated the dark humor in Dahl's work. The scene you cited in "James" was always one of my favorites too, especially the part where the Centipede later crows, "Oh, what a fabulous bump!"

To me, both the Commodore and Decca Billie sides are essential. I have a hard time choosing one over the other. The Decca stuff is more pop, while the Commodore is more jazz...but both were produced by Milt Gabler...