The Ink Spots - "If I Didn't Care" (with song lyrics & information about why that Jazz group was named "The Ink Spots")

BlueGamma2, May 15, 2013

Lyrics:

If I didn't care
More than words can say
If I didn't care
Would I feel this way?

If this isn't love, then why do I thrill?
And what makes my head
Go 'round and 'round
While my heart stands still?

If I didn't care
Would it be the same?
Would my every prayer
Begin and end with just your name?
And would I be sure that this is love
Beyond compare?
Would all this be true
If I didn't care for you?

"If I didn't care, honey child
More than words can say
If I didn't care, baby
Would I feel this way?
Darlin', if this isn't love
Then why do I thrill so much?
What is it that makes my head
Go 'round and 'round
While my heart just stands still so much?"

If I didn't care
Would it be the same?
Would my every prayer
Begin and end with just your name?
And would I be sure that this
Is love beyond compare?
Would all this be true
If I didn't care for you?

Music in this video

Song: If I Didn't Care

Artist: Ink Spots

Album: Inkspots

Writers: Jack Lawrence

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 Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a sound file of The Ink Spot's 1939 recording of the song "If I Didn't Care". 

This post also provides information about The Ink Spots along with information about why that Jazz group was named "The Ink Spots".

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to The Ink Spots (the original group) for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT WHY THAT JAZZ GROUP WAS NAMED "THE INK SPOTS"
From https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/ink-spots
"The Ink Spots

A number of black male quartets have billed themselves as the Ink Spots, cashing in on the tremendous success of the original singing group which performed during the 1930s and ’40s. Famous for their song “If I Didn’t Care,” with its smooth tenor lead and spoken refrain, they were the best known act of their kind and served as a huge influence on later rhythm and blues groups. The Ink Spots were also one of the first black acts to become a hit with white audiences. The Ink Spots made numerous recordings, had regular radio shows, and performed with the biggest musical stars of their time, including Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald. While they were at their peak of popularity, the group appeared in two Hollywood movies.

After the quartet split up, however, their reputation became blurred by the splinter groups that were created. And so the Ink Spots have lost some of the recognition they deserve, according to David Hinckley of the Daily News; he reflected in 1995 that “the Ink Spots are too often relegated to the wallpaper of pop music history as if they were one more group that was bright and new for a while, then got covered over by something brighter and newer.” Original members of the Ink Spots struggled for many years to distinguish themselves from copycat acts and to perpetuate the reputation of the group, but were often fighting amongst themselves. Now that all of these men have passed away, several “Ink Spots” groups continue to perform, and if they do not have an authentic pedigree, they do serve to keep the many songs popularized by the Ink Spots in the public’s ear.

[…]

The group’s founding members were all from Indianapolis. They were Jerry Daniels, who played guitar and sang lead tenor; Orville “Hoppy” Jones, who sang bass and played the cello; Ivory “Deek” Watson, a baritone and songwriter; and Charlie Fuqua, the second tenor and guitarist. The Ink Spots are sometimes described as having evolved out of the Percolating Puppies, a group that Deek Watson performed with on street corners in Indianapolis. Watson was on the road when he met up with Fuqua and Daniels, whom he knew from Indianapolis. This meeting resulted in the formation of a trio that went by the name King, Jack and the Jester; the addition of Jones and an “s” to the name made a quartet.

This foursome moved to New York with hopes of making it big, but struggled to make a living. For a time, all worked as ushers at the Paramount Theater. Subsequently, the quartet billed themselves as the Riff Brothers until one day in 1932 when, according to Deek Watson in his book The Story of the ‘Ink Spots, ’ the group happened upon the idea of the “Ink Spots.” Watson told of how he was inspired by a splash of ink from a fountain pen and how he had to overcome the protests of his fellow members. He remembered Jones as saying that he was “always wanting us to be something colored. ’Black Dots, ’ ‘Ink Spots’—next thing you know he’ll be wanting to call us the ’Old Black Joe’s’.” But the members agreed to try the new name, and its adoption coincided with better fortunes for the struggling quartet.”…

-snip-
The words in italics refer to the group name "The Ink Spots".

Here's a short answer to the question about why that Jazz group was named "The Ink Spots":
That group’s name referred to the fact that the group’s members were African American (i.e. Their skin color was dark like the color of ink).

I think that the group (or specifically Hoppy Jones) wanted the group to have a name that would distinguish them from White singing groups and/or specifically refer to their group as an African American group. That said, the statement quoted above implies that the names "Black Dots", "Ink Spots", and "Old Black Joe's" were perceived by members of the group as being somewhat insulting, and particularly that last possible name because of the negative connotations of the minstrel song "Old Black Joe" and the other group members may have thought.    

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The Ink Spots = "Java Jive" (with lyrics & information about the meanings of some words in that song)

Tim Gracyk, Sept. 10, 2017

[Song Lyrics]

Boston bean (soy beans)
Green bean (cabbage and greens)
I'm not keen about a bean
Unless it is a chili chili bean (boy!)

I love coffee, I love tea
I love the java jive and it loves me
Coffee and tea and the java and me
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup (boy!)

I love java, sweet and hot
Whoops mr. moto, I'm a coffee pot
Shoot the pot and I'll pour me a shot
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup

Oh slip me a slug from the wonderful mug
And I'll cut a rug just snug in a jug
A sliced up onion and a raw one
Draw one -
Waiter, waiter, percolator

I love coffee, I love tea
I love the java jive and it loves me
Coffee and tea and the java and me
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup

Music in this video

Song: Java Jive (Single Version)

Artist: The Ink Spots

Writers: Milton Drake, Ben Oakland

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a sound file of The Ink Spot's 1940 recording of the song "Java Jive".

This post also provides information about The Ink Spots along with some speculative comments about the meanings of certain words in the song "Java Jive".

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to The Ink Spots (the original group) for their musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT "THE INK SPOTS" (Jazz group) 
From https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/ink-spots-1932-1953/#:~:text=The%20Ink%20Spots%2C%20a%20musical,and%20the%
"The Ink Spots, a musical quartet, originally included members Orville “Hoppy” Jones, Ivory “Deek” Watson, Jerry Daniels, and Charlie Fuqua. Some accounts claim Slim Greene also was a founding member. Influenced by the Mills Brothers, all four members sang together under the name “King, Jack, and the Jesters” in 1932.  In late 1933, the group renamed itself the Ink Spots.

The Ink Spots toured Britain in 1934 and their overseas success earned them a recording contract with Victor Records. In 1935, they recorded their first four songs, including “Swinging on the Strings.”

In 1936, Daniels left the group and Bill Kenny replaced him. Around this time, the Ink Spots signed with Decca and began developing its distinct sound. The group’s vocal arrangements and use of guitar riff song introductions would influence future generations of doo-wop, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll musicians, including Elvis Presley and the Beatles. With the release of “If I Didn’t Care” (1939), the Ink Spots became one of the most popular quartets in the United States.  The group’s success continued throughout the 1940s with hits such as “We Three” (1940), “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” (1941), “I’m Making Believe” (1944), “The Gypsy” (1946), and “To Each His Own” (1946).  The group also appeared in the films The Great American Radio Broadcast (1941) and Pardon My Sarong (1942).  Throughout World War II, the Ink Spots performed for the troops.  In 1944, they had another hit with “Cow-Cow Boogie,” which they recorded with Ella Fitzgerald.

By 1950, the Ink Spots’ popularity began to decline, but they remained in demand on the college circuit. As original members left the quartet, various singers performed with the group, including Bernie Mackey, Cliff Givens, Billy Bowen, Huey Long, Herb Kenny, Adriel McDonald, Teddy Williams, Ernie Brown, and Jimmy Kenny.

Starting in the 1940s, the quartet sued imitation groups using the Ink Spots name, but its legal problems increased when Fuqua and Kenny each formed groups called the Ink Spots in 1952.  The Decca Ink Spots officially played their last concert in 1953.

Since the original Ink Spots disbanded, dozens of Ink Spots imitators have formed and recorded.  Most of these groups have no connection to the Decca Ink Spots.  “If I Didn’t Care” was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1987.  The Ink Spots also were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1989) and Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame (1993)."

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WHAT CERTAIN WORDS IN THE SONG "JAVA JIVE" MEAN
"Java" is a slang reference for "coffee". Here's one website that explains how this slang term originated:

From https://coffeechronicler.com/why-is-coffee-called-java/
"Coffee has plenty of nicknames, but ‘Java’ is one of the most common ones. How did this come to be?

The reason for this name is obvious when we take a close look at the history of the plant.

You see, back in the days coffee only grew wild in Ethiopia. Finding out about the plant’s potency, Arabians took it with them to Yemen. Here it was grown commercially with great success. In fact, the business around coffee was so profitable that it was punished by death to take the plant outside the country.

Coffee flourished on islands such as Sumatra, Sulawesi, and – you guessed it – Java.

[Information about the island of Java is inserted here.] 

Since Java was the main island where the capital Batavia (today called Jakarta) was located, the majority of coffee was exported from here. Rapidly, Indonesia became the world’s largest exporter of coffee. So most of the bags arriving in Europe said ‘Java,’ and this is how the nickname came to be."

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Here's my speculation about the word "jive" in the song title "Java Jive":
"Jive" refers to the usually rhyming hip talk (slang talk) that is found throughout that song. That definition of "jive" comes from the hip talk that jazz musicians used (in the 1930s and 1940s and perhaps even earlier).

**
Here's an excerpt from an article about the etymology of the word "jive": https://www.thoughtco.com/gibe-jibe-and-jive-1689398
"Jive first appears in written form in the 1920s, but that doesn't mean it wasn't in use much earlier. The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that it might have an African origin, coming from a West African Wolof word "jev" or "jeu" that means to talk about someone absent in a disparaging manner."...

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Here are some responses from https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-lyrics-java-jive-by-oakland-and-drake/585849

[Numbers added for referencing purposes only. These numbers don’t respond to the responses that are found on that website.]

1. Guest, Jun '11
"Mr Moto was a fictional Japanese secret agent.

 “I cut a rug” means “I dance”.

 “Snug as a bug in a rug” means to be wrapped up ready for sleep. The substitution of “jug” has no meaning to me.

No more ideas though - suspect the lyrics are just nonsense in order to scan and rhyme."

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2. CookingWithGas, Jun '11
"To “draw one” in this context probably means to fill a coffee cup from an urn. You normally don’t hear people using this for coffee, but rather for beer filled from a tap.

A lot of these words are just thrown in there to fill space and rhyme. Lots of songs in that era had nonsense lyrics,…."

**
3. ericinwisconsin, Jul '11
"Yep, slice of onion on a buger, cooked rare.

 More interesting to me is the line:

 whoops, Mr. Moto, I’m a coffee pot

 Who is Mr. Moto? If it’s the character played in movies by Peter Lorre, why? What does Mr. Moto have to do with coffee? This has bugged me for years and no one has been about to provide me with a satisfactory explanation."

**
4. filling_pages, Jul '11
"Google led me to a Wordwizard message board post from 2004, which suggests this connection:

"Peter Lorre, who starred in the role of Mr. Moto also played a evil henchmen in Arsenic & Old Lace(1944). Cary Grant plays the main character of Mortimer, who pays a visit to his two sweet aunts who raised him. Uncle Ted, who also resides at the residence suffers under the delusion that he is Teddy Roosevelt. He had the habit of blowing a bugle and running up the stairs(San Juan Hill) with the cry of “Charge!” He discovers that his dear old aunts have taken up the charitable mission of euthanizing lonely old men by taking them in as boarders, and offering them elderberry wine laced with poison; so that their last moments on earth would be pleasant ones. 12 souls are interred in the basement with the help of Uncle Ted who assumes that they are Panama Canal workers who died from malaria. To make the situation worse, Mortimer’s sadistic step-brother returns home with sidekick Dr. Einstein(Peter Lorre), and the corpse of his latest victim for the purpose of using the place for a temporary hideout and disposal. Mortimer arrives at the conclusion that he may have inheirited his family’s insanity. The cab driver arrives on the scene and witnesses the spectacle. Mortimer’s aunts reveal to him, to his relief, that he is not related and that his dying mother requested that they raise him. They also tell him that his father was a sea cook. Mortimer in the final scene triumphantly shouts out “I am not a Brewster. I am the son of a sea cook!! Charge!!!” The taxi driver sarcastically quips “I am not a taxi driver. I am a coffee pot.””….
-snip-
I added italics to highlight this line.

**
5. TomTheBari, Nov '11
“Egg Coffee” is coffee made with an egg (shell and all). You put the ground coffee in a filter and break a raw egg over it (a “raw one”). Egg shell is crushed. It is said to reduce the acidity of the coffee.

Apparently, this custom was imported from Scandinavia, and is reportedly still practiced by some Lutheran congregations in the American Midwest (e.g. Minnesota).”…"

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Words in the Sand: a festival of nomadic people in Maradi, Niger (video & information about the West African nation of Niger)

Christopher Roy, Dec. 21, 2017

Three months ago a group of Fulani and Tuareg men and women met in a small village south of Maradi, Niger, for a festival of dancing and camel racing.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases an hour+ YouTube video of a 2017 festival in Niger, West Africa.

Information about Niger is included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.people.

Thanks to all those who are associated with this video and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publisher of ths video on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT NIGER, WEST AFRICA
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger
"Niger or the Niger … officially the Republic of the Niger,[10][11] is a landlocked country in West Africa named after the Niger River. Niger is bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria to the south, Benin and Burkina Faso to the southwest, Mali to the west, and Algeria to the northwest. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km2 (490,000 sq mi), making it the largest country in West Africa. Over 80% of its land area lies in the Sahara Desert. The country's predominantly Muslim population of about 22 million[14][15] live mostly in clusters in the far south and west of the country. The capital and largest city is Niamey, located in Niger's southwest corner.

[…]

Ethnic groups

Niger has a wide variety of ethnic groups as in most West African countries. The ethnic makeup of Niger in 2001 is as follows: Hausa (55.4%), Zarma-Songhai (21%), Tuareg (9.3%), Fula (French: Peuls; Fula: Fulɓe) (8.5%), Kanuri Manga (4.7%), Tubu (0.4%), Arab (0.4%), Gourmantche (0.4%), other (0.1%).[101] The Zarma-Songhai dominate the Dosso, Tillabéri, and Niamey régions, the Hausa dominate the Zinder, Maradi, and Tahoua regions, Kanuri Manga dominate the Diffa region, and Touaregs dominate the Agadez region in Northern Niger.[108]

 Languages

French, inherited from the colonial period, is the official language. It is spoken mainly as a second language by people who have received a formal western education and serves as the administrative language. Niger has been a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie since 1970.

Niger has ten recognized national languages, namely Arabic, Buduma, Fulfulde, Gourmanchéma, Hausa, Kanuri, Zarma & Songhai, Tamasheq, Tassawaq, Tebu.[1] Each is spoken as a first language primarily by the ethnic group with which it is associated.[109][110] Hausa and Zarma-Songhai, the two most spoken languages, are widely spoken throughout the country as first or second languages.

Religion

Niger is a secular country and separation of state …Islam, widespread in the region since the 10th century, has greatly shaped the culture and mores of the people of Niger. Islam is the most dominant religion, practiced by 99.3% of the population according to the 2012 census.[111]

The other two main religions of Niger are Christianity, practiced by 0.3% of the population, and Animism (traditional indigenous religious beliefs), practiced by 0.2% of the population.[111] Christianity was established earlier in the country by missionaries during the French colonial years. Other urban Christian expatriate communities from Europe and West Africa are also present. Religious persecution is rare in Niger which is ranked last (#50) on the World Watch List for severity of persecution that Christians face for actively pursuing their faith.

[...]

Islam

The majority of Muslims in Niger are Sunni, 7% are Shi'a, 5% are Ahmadiyya and 20% non-denominational.[113][114] Islam was spread into what is now Niger beginning in the 15th century, by both the expansion of the Songhai Empire in the west, and the influence of the Trans-Saharan trade traveling from the Maghreb and Egypt. Tuareg expansion from the north, culminating in their seizure of the far eastern oases from the Kanem-Bornu Empire in the 17th centuries, spread distinctively Berber practices.

[...]

A small center of followers of Salafi movement within Sunni Islam have appeared in the last thirty years, in the capital and in Maradi.[115] These small groups, linked to similar groups in Jos, Nigeria, came to public prominence in the 1990s during a series of religious riots.[116][117][118]

Despite this, Niger maintains a tradition as a secular state, protected by law.[119] Interfaith relations are deemed very good, and the forms of Islam traditionally practiced in most of the country are marked by tolerance of other faiths and lack of restrictions on personal freedom.[120] Divorce and polygyny are unremarkable, women are not secluded, and head coverings are not mandatory—they are often a rarity in urban areas.[121] Alcohol, such as the locally produced Bière Niger, is sold openly in most of the country.

[...]

Health

The child mortality rate in Niger (deaths among children between the ages of 1 and 4) is high (248 per 1,000) due to generally poor health conditions and inadequate nutrition for most of the country's children. According to the organization Save the Children, Niger has the world's highest infant mortality rate.[124]

Niger also has the highest fertility rate in the world (6.49 births per woman according to 2017 estimates[125]); this means that nearly half (49%) of the Nigerien population is under age 15. Niger has the 11th highest maternal mortality rate in the world at 820 deaths/100,000 live births.[126] There were 3 physicians and 22 nurses per 100,000 persons in 2006.[127]

[...]

Until the 1990s, government and politics was inordinately dominated by Niamey and the Zarma people of the surrounding region. At the same time the plurality of the population, in the Hausa borderlands between Birni-N'Konni and Maine-Soroa, have often looked culturally more to Hausaland in Nigeria than Niamey. Between 1996 and 2003, primary school attendance was around 30%,[128] including 36% of males and only 25% of females. Additional education occurs through madrasas.

Media

Niger began developing diverse media in the late 1990s. Prior to the Third Republic, Nigeriens only had access to tightly controlled state media.[129] Now Niamey contains scores of newspapers and magazines; some, like Le Sahel, are government operated, while many are critical of the government.[130][131] Radio is the most important medium, as television sets are beyond the buying power of many of the rural poor, and illiteracy prevents print media from becoming a mass medium.[89]

In addition to the national and regional radio services of the state broadcaster ORTN, there are four privately owned radio networks which total more than 100 stations. Three of them—the Anfani Group, Sarounia and Tenere—are urban-based commercial-format FM networks in the major towns.[132] There is also a network of over 80 community radio stations spread across all seven regions of the country, governed by the Comité de Pilotage de Radios de Proximité (CPRP), a civil society organisation. The independent-sector radio networks are collectively estimated by CPRP officials to cover some 7.6 million people, or about 73% of the population (2005).

Aside from Nigerien radio stations, the BBC's Hausa service is listened to on FM repeaters across wide parts of the country, particularly in the south, close to the border with Nigeria. Radio France Internationale also rebroadcasts in French through some of the commercial stations, via satellite. Tenere FM also runs a national independent television station of the same name.[132]"...

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Two More Videos Of Brazil's Estrela Brilhante Maracatu Nação Group (2011 & 2014)

Eduardo Di Napoli, Mar 11, 2011

Maracatu Estrela Brilhante do Recife entrando na avenida

• Carnaval - Março 2011

• Avenida Dantas Barreto

• Desfile das Agremiações

• Filmado por: Edu

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series that showcases the two additional videos of  Brazil's Maracatu nação performance art genres.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/02/afro-brazilian-maracatu-nacao-music-and.html for Part I of this two part pancocojams series of this Afro-Brazilian music and dance genre. 

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who have performed or are performing maracatu music and dance. Thanks to all those who are associated with this video and all those who are quoted in this post.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THIS GROUP
From the summary for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTO3-5itQPI&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=TaleOfTwoNations [2012 performance? ]
"Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante is one of  Brazil's  oldest and most respected traditional maracatu groups.  Founded in 1906,  Estrela Brilhante  ('Bright Star')  has become one of the most renowned and respected traditional maracatu groups in the world.  Their music and performance reflect not only more than a century of history, but the entire history of the Afro-Brazilian people of northeastern Brazil.  It is a history condensed into a colorful and vibrant ritual, an ancient Carnival art filled with pulsating rhythms, call and response songs and infectious dance. Led by the legendary Mestre Walter and Queen/President Dona Marivalda  since 1993, Estrela Brilhante has accomplished several remarkable achievements including releasing  the first maracatu recording,  Amazônica (Sony Music), in 1996 and contributed a track to the live CD Pernambuco em Concerto (África Produções) in 1998.  They have performed throughout Brazil and hold numerous Carnival competition championship titles in Recife.  Over the last decade they have performed throughout Europe including EXPO 2000 in Hanover, Germany and other prestigious festivals.

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VIDEO #2

Jeff Duneman, Feb. 1, 2015

Tri-campeão Estrela Brilhante da comunidade do Alto José do Pinho na avenida, 2 de Março 2014, Carnaval do Recife.

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