Edited by Azizi Powell
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on the fashion attire known as "zoot suits".
This post provides an excerpt from an online article published by the Exploring The Arts Foundation about the 1941 Jazz song singing the 1941 song "A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)". That excerpt includes Kay Kyser's version of that song's lyrics.
This post also showcases a 1942 1942 soundie (short music film) of Dorothy Dandridge and Paul White singing this song. That video includes information about Dorothy Dandridge.
My transcription of the lyrics to the Dorothy Dandridge/Paul White version of this song is also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the composers of this featured song and thanks to Dorothy Dandridge and Paul White for their performing arts legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of this embedded YouTube video.
*Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/02/two-examples-of-1942-song-zoot-suit-for.html for a 2014 pancocojams post that showcases this song. That post doesn't include any lyrics for this song.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "A ZOOT SUIT (FOR MY SUNDAY GAL)
From http://www.electricka.com/etaf/muses/music/gone_but_not_forgotten/second_world_war_era/zoot_suit/zoot_suit.htm published by Electricka on behalf of the Exploring The Arts Foundation
“Zoot Suit
Are you in the groove? Can you "dig a zoot suit with a reet pleat and a drape shape and a stuff cuff to look sharp enough to see your Sunday gal?" Want to see more of this once-cool but now quaint jive talk?
If your answer is yes, the lyrics from a popular 1941 song called A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal) by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Bob O'Brien make a great way to get in the groove. The version you are now hearing, one of the most popular of all the versions, is by the Big Band of Kay Kyser and his Orchestra. Vocal credits go to Sully Mason, Jack Martin, Ishkabibble, Dorothy Dunn, and Trudy Erwin.
Other Renditions
A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal) was written by Wolfe Gilbert and Bob O'Brien. It received a lot of attention; it was one of the most popular tunes of its time. It was played on jukeboxes, in diners, bars, and juke joints everywhere. It seemed to say something valid and important about the music and spirit of the times.
The song was recorded by these artists in 1942:
Kay Kyser & His Orchestra, vocal by Sully Mason, Trudy, Jack Martin, Max Williams
The Andrews Sisters.
Paul Whiteman & And His Orchestra.
Bob Crosby & His Orchestra, vocal: by Nappy Lamare.
Ray Herbeck & His Orchestra, vocal by Hal Munbar & Yvonne Walker.
Harry Roy & His Band.
The song is still popular in some circles. In a recent performance, the song was played by Wendi Williams in the 1999 film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. It was also recorded by Benny Goodman and the Bill Elliott Swing Orchestra.
The Lyrics Examined [Pancocojams Editor’s note: This is Kay Kaiser’s arrangement]
[...]
First Half
The guy sings to The gal, who appears to be a seamstress, describing the clothes he wants her to make for him. If she makes them well, he can properly sport his favorite lady in the style he desires on Sunday, his day off. Of course, the style he wants is the zoot suit.
The gal assures him that she knows exactly the kind of clothes he wants by describing the outfit she's going to make for him. She's so in, he confirms his order. Then he asks her what she wants to wear.
Second Half
The gal answers by describing the outfit she's going to wear to please her man on Sunday, her day off. The guy realizes that her man wears a zoot suit and that she wars the female counterpart to the zoot suit. She must be in the groove.
The guy is now positive the gal knows the clothes he wants her to make for him and he reaffirms his order.
Lyrics From A Zoot Suit (For My Sunday Gal)
First Half
Guy:
I want a zoot suit with a reet pleat
And a drape shape, and a stuff cuff
To look sharp enough to see my Sunday gal.
Gal:
You want a reef sleeve with a right stripe
And a rare square, so the gals will stare
When they see you struttin' with your Sunday pal.
Guy: (That's me).
Gal:
You wanta look keen so your dream will say
"You don't look like the same beau"
So keen that she'll scream, "Here comes my walkin' rainbow."
Guy:
So make a zoot suit with a reet pleat
And a drape shape, and a stuff cuff
To look sharp enough to see my Sunday gal
Now, what you want, baby?
Second Half
Gal:
I want a brown gown with a zop top
And a hip slip, and a laced waist
In the sharpest taste to see my Sunday man
Guy: (In his zoot suit).
Gal:
A scat hat and a zag bag
And a slick kiss, so the other chicks
Will be jealous when I'm with my Sunday fan
I wanta look keen so my dream will say
"Ain't I the lucky fellah"
So keen that he'll scream, "Baby's in Technicolor."
Guy:
So make a reet pleat with a drape shape
And a stuff cuff, to look sharp enough
To see my Sunday, Sunday gal.
More About The Song And Lyrics
Did you know that there are alternate versions of the lyrics? Different bands recorded the song and thought nothing of using their own variations on the lyrics when it pleased them to do so. The song was popular and received a lot of attention. It was played on music boxes in diners, bars, and juke joints everywhere."...
-snip-
Wolfe Gilbert and Bob O'Brien, the composers of this once very popular song, were White Americans.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Dorothy DANDRIDGE "Zoot Suit" (1942) !!!
JUSTASITTINANDAROCK, Published on Feb 25, 2014
RARE OLDIES SOUNDIES WITH MISS DOROTHY DANDRIDGE !!! Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 -- September 8, 1965) was an American actress and singer. Dandridge was the first black actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.
After many bit parts and a few minor roles, Dandridge landed her first notable film role in Tarzan's Peril (starring Lex Barker) in 1951. She won her first starring role in 1953, playing a teacher in Bright Road, a low-budget film with a nearly all-black cast, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In 1954 she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Carmen Jones. In 1959 she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Porgy and Bess. In 1999 she was the subject of the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, starring Halle Berry as Dandridge. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Dandridge was married and divorced twice: first to dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne), then to Jack Denison. She died at age 42.
-snip-
I haven't found any information about Paul White except for this anonymous comment that was posted to the following blog post http://swingjazzblues.blogspot.com/2008/10/dorothy-dandridge-paul-white-zoot-suit.html
"Anonymous said...
Paul is /was a relative of mine.
I know that he moved to Denmak. His sister Meredith is still around, she was the night club singer in Pete Kellys Blues.
Thank you
Laura
[...]
MARCH 6, 2010 AT 11:37 PM"
-snip-
That comment includes an email address which I've not shared according to the policies of this pancocojams blog.
****
LYRICS: A ZOOT SUIT (FOR MY SUNDAY GAL)*
(as sung by Dorothy Dandridge & Paul White)
Guy:
I want ah zoot suit with ah reet pleat
With ah drape shape, and ah stuff cuff
To look sharp enough to see my Sunday gal
I want ah reef sleeve with ah right stripe
And ah vest pressed in the glad plaid
in the latest fad to see my Sunday gal
I wanna look keen so my dream will say
"You don't look like the same beau."
So keen that she'll scream
"Ahh! Here comes my walking rainbow."
So make ah zoot suit with ah reet pleat
And with ah drape shape, and ah stuff cuff
To look sharp enough to see my Sunday gal
Gal:
I want ah brown gown with ah zop top
And ah hip slip, and ah laced waist
In the sharpest taste to see my Sunday man
I want ah scat hat with a trim brim
Ah sag bag with ah riff zip
to look plenty hip to see my Sunday Sam.
Justa wanna look keen so my dream will say
"Ain't I the lucky fellah"
So keen that he'll scream, "Baby, you sure look mellow".
So make ah brown gown with ah zop top
Ah hip slip, and ah laced waist
In the sharpest taste to see my Sunday man
[Instrumental]
Guy:
I gotta zoot suit with ah reet pleat
With ah drape shape, and ah stuff cuff
So I look sharp enough to see my Sunday gal
I gotta brown gown with ah zop top
And ah hip slip, and ah laced waist
In the sharpest taste to see my Sunday Sam
I wanna look keen so my dream will say
"You don't look like the same beau."
So keen that I'll scream
"Here comes my walking rainbow"
I gotta zoot suit with the reet pleat
And the stuff cuff with the glad plaid
In the latest fad to see my Sunday gal [Girl sings "to see my Sunday guy".]
-snip-
This is my transcription of this Soundie. Additions and corrections are very welcome.
A commenter in one of the discussion threads for YouTube videos of this song with Dorothy Dandridge and Paul White transcribed "You don't look like the same beau" as "You don't look like Sambo". I can hear how that commenter arrived at that transcription. However, I'm very sure that "the same beau [with "beau" pronounced "boh" and meaning "boyfriend"] is the correct transcription, partly because the "the same beau" are the lyrics that are found in the Kay Kyser version and partly because the word "Sambo" (a negative caricature of a Black man) doesn't fit the words that were pronounced.
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label coon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coon. Show all posts
Monday, October 8, 2018
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Selected Comments From LyricalHub's Vlog Post - "The REAL Meaning of Childish Gambino's Video "This Is America"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series that focuses on the official video of Childish Gambino's 2018 Hip Hop composition "This Is America".
This post showcases 's YouTube vlog (video blog) about the official video of Childish Gambino's 2018 Hip Hop composition "This Is America". Selected comments from this vlog are included in this post. Note that this vlog shows only a few photographic scenes from that video and those scenes don't focus on the graphic violence that is shown in that song's official video.
This is only one of a number of videos that provide some explanations about the official video of Childish Gambino's "This Is America".
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/childish-gambino-this-is-america-video.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I showcases the official video of Childish Gambino's "This Is America". The lyrics for this song and notes about genuis.com.'s video and lyrics are also included in this post.
genuis.com's page about Childish Gambino's "This Is America" also provides some notes about that video.
Part II showcases a vlog about Childish Gambino's "This Is America" with particular focus on the official video of that 2018 Hip Hop composition. Selected comments from that vlog's discussion thread are included in this post.
****
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Childish Gambino (Donald Glover, Jr.) for his creative legacy. Thanks also to LyricalHub and others for sharing explanations about Childish Gambino's "This Is America" Hip Hop composition and its official video.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: The REAL Meaning of Childish Gambino - This Is America Will Shock You!
LyricalHub, Published on May 7, 2018
-snip-
Here are some comments from this video log, with numbers assigned for referencing purposes only. All of these comments were published between May 7 and May 9, 2018. I've included additional explanatory notes for certain terms that are mentioned in some of these comments.
[UPDATE: Additional comments added May 10, 2019.]
1. One of One
"This videos great man. I picked up everything you did as far as messages go except for the end where Gambino is running away from something. To me it seemed like he and everyone else was running away from the darkness behind them. I think ultimately the message was something like.. the scene of America is guns & gun control taking precedence over the lives taken by law enforcement & civilians alike - Americans are glued to entertainment & allow themselves to be distracted by anything pop culture (especially black pop culture) - if we don't wake up soon, there will be no America & we'll have to face this darkness we've been running from. But we won't be able to outrun it if we let it get to that point. Anyway, awesome video again man. Hope to see more."
**
REPLY
2. Corrine Lewis
"i love everyone’s deeper interpretation of it especially yours."
**
3. Chico Williams
"Everything on point, definitely the meaning behind the video shout out to Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino showing the life going on today"
**
4. Katie Johnson
"for some reason hearing you say "i don't wanna get too political" while analyzing this video was just too ironic"
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5. NIKKI NIKKI NIKKI
"I felt like everything was ok if he kept dancing (tap dancing ) but as soon as he stopped is when "America" starter started chasing him.."
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6. Hannah Stern
"I didn't catch that but your analysis is perfection!!!"
**
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7. Ishmael
"NIKKI NIKKI NIKKI I missed that. Excellent observation. There was so much going on that that went completely over my head."
**
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8. Mont 3000
"NIKKI NIKKI NIKKI I would say buck dancing but yeah."
-snip-
from https://www.ncpedia.org/buck-dancing "Buck dancing is a folk dance that originated among African Americans during the era of slavery. It was largely associated with the North Carolina Piedmont and, later, with the blues. The original buck dance, or "buck and wing," referred to a specific step performed by solo dancers, usually men; today the term encompasses a broad variety of improvisational dance steps."...
**
REPLY
9. Kai Mendez
"Great point๐๐พ"
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REPLY
10. Paige Washington
"Get it boo! You brought it together for me"
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REPLY
11. Paige Washington
"Now tell me why the joint first. Enlightenment? Then he stops dancing? Lol makes sense now"
-snip-
In this comment the word "joint" refers to the point in the video when the character played by Childish Gambino stops to smoke "marijuana" ("reefer").
**
REPLY
12. Mia England
"Paige Washington when he pauses he does it for 17 seconds for the 17 victims of the parkland shooting"
**
13. Kassie S
"Yes! I didn't think about that. Spot on."
**
14. sweety sweet
"Why is he shirtless"
**
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15. ToneBeMe
"To represent the slaves"
**
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16. Natasha Burton
"Filming from the back a lot shows that America benefitting from the work from the backs of slaves .. it’s why he’s shirtless throughout"
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REPLY
17. Mutima H
"Jim crow stance and i think some of the dancing is referencing "slavery of the mind".
-snip-
Read the note under #21 for information about "Jim Crow" and "Jim Crow laws".
**
18. Jairus Poellnitz
"what about the pants aren’t they confrederate army pants"
-snip-
"Confederate pants" refer to the style of pants that soldiers in the Confederate army wore during the United States Civil War (Apr 12, 1861 – May 13, 1865). Although some people disagree, the general consensus is that the main reason why the Confederate army fought the Union army was to maintain their way of life, and in particular to maintain slavery.
**
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19. Hannah Stern
"VERY interesting, but I think they may be more referencing the light coloured clothes that slaves would have worn in the fields. That's why he's not wearing a shirt, I think. But I'm interested in your interpretations."
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REPLY
20. John Leonardi
"1 day ago
I took it as slavery as well.
This is a very powerful video that will be studied for future generations"
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21. Jordan Chappell
"To be honest his pants reminded me of the style of pants that were commonly worn around the era that the jim crowe laws were around."
-snip-
"Jim Crow laws"= "Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures in the late 19th century after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued to be enforced until 1965. They mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America, starting in the 1870s and 1880s, and upheld by the United States Supreme Court's "separate but equal" doctrine for African Americans."... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
**
22. Courtney-Ann W.
"I think some of the dances done by the students refer to the sarafina movie"
**
REPLY
23. Edna.M.M.
"Courtney-Ann W. I was thinking that as well. I think people have forgotten about that movie (more like a documentary tbh)"
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REPLY
24. wilhelmina tetteh
"Courtney-Ann W. yeah. I think So too"
-snip-
Here's information about the Sarafina Broadway show and movie:
"Sarafina! is a South African musical by Mbongeni Ngema depicting students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to apartheid. It was also adapted into a 1992 film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Leleti Khumalo. Sarafina! premiered on Broadway on 28 January 1988, at the Cort Theatre, and closed on 2 July 1989, after 597 performances and 11 previews. The musical was conceived and directed by Mbongeni Ngema, who also wrote the book, music, and lyrics. The play was first presented at The Market Theatre, Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 1987. The cast included Leleti Khumalo as Sarafina.
Leleti Khumalo received a Tony Award nomination, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, as well as a NAACP Image Award for her Broadway theatre portrayal of the title character. The production was also nominated for the Tony Award for: Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography, and Best Direction of a Musical.
The show presents a school uprising similar to the Soweto uprising on 16 June 1976. A narrator introduces several characters among them the schoolgirl activist Sarafina. Things get out of control when policemen shoot several pupils at the school. Nevertheless, the musical ends with a cheerful farewell show of pupils leaving school, which takes most of the second act." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarafina!_(musical)
-snip-
The students in the Sarafina Broadway show and movie wore uniforms just as the students in Childish Gambino's "This Is America" video did.
**
25. Alyse Underwood
"It's being said that, the man playing the guitar is Trevon Martin's dad."
**
REPLY
26. Corrine Lewis
"Alyse Underwood ty that’s what i’ve been wondering kinda the most amongst all other things"
**
REPLY
27. Benzi Musiq
"If this is true this video just went another level of deepness. Wow"
-snip-
According to this CNN article- https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/entertainment/trayvon-martin-father-this-america/index.html - the man near the beginning of Childish Gambino's "This Is America" video is "Calvin C. Winbush II, a Los Angeles-based actor and musician who goes by "Calvin the Second" professionally" and not Trayvon Martin's father.
However, I think that it's likely that that actor/musician was chosen for that part because he closely resembles Trayvon Martin's father.
**
28. Michelle Wright
"I noticed all the symbolic hints he gave us. This was powerful. Wake up America"
**
29. SnoopDogg6110
"The 80s 90s car with LAPD symbolizes the 1992 LA riots with chaos and looting."
-snip-
"LAPD" = Los Angeles Police Department; "LA" = Los Angeles (California)
**
REPLY
30. BluDrop5
"SnoopDogg6110 Good one!"
**
31. Bridgette smith
"what about the jim crow pose he did in the beginning. Edit : nevermind commented to early.. Thought you were gonna go in order"
**
32. Yaฤฤฑz Saidoฤlu
"The people around him was symbolising the children I think. They are following him without any question."
**
33. BSWs Wxrld
"There was a part when he was dancing he said I’m so faded, I on Gucci , I’m so pretty( or something close to that). I think he’s saying we’re so focused on bein pretty, wearing Gucci and being faded rather than the issue that occurs and permeates in society today."
**
34. Kennett Rivera
"This is speculations not the real meaning"
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35. TheZombifiedFairy
"The real meaning is unknown to all but Mr. Glover until he explains. Until then it is art and art has many interpretations, and this is one of them."
**
36. Lizzy V
"Why is he shirtless?"
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REPLY
37. Hot Potato
"Lizzy V I believe it's a reference to slavery, and it also might tie into the exploatation/fear of the African American body"
-snip-
Read the comments presented earlier in this compilation about this subject. I included examples from both of these two sub-threads to show how YouTube commenters often repeat the same questions, perhaps because they don't read comments that were published before theirs.
**
REPLY
38. sam mayne
"Distraction as well."
-snip-
One of the early comments by LyricalHub (this embedded video's blogger) is that the dancing in Childish Gambino's video served to distract viewers from all the other things that were occurring in that video.
**
39. Erin McMahon
"What about his eyes getting really big?"
**
REPLY
40. Azizi Powell
Showing wide eyed, bulging eyed Black people is a characteristic of Black minstrelsy, Broadway, and Black movie industry’s racially demeaning “coon caricature”. One Black actor who epitomized that coon caricature had the stage name “Stepin Fetchit”. Here’s an excerpt from https://ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/ :
[Stepin] “Fetchit became identified in the popular imagination as a dialect-speaking, slump-shouldered, slack-jawed character who walked, talked, and apparently thought in slow motion. The Fetchit character overcame this lethargy only when he thought that a ghost or some nameless terror might be present; and then he moved very quickly indeed. (p. 89)
Fetchit was the embodiment of the nitwit black man. As with the Zip Coon and Urban Coon, this old-fashioned coon character could never correctly pronounce a multisyllabic word. He was portrayed as a dunce. In Stand Up and Cheer (Sheehan & MacFadden, 1934), he was tricked into thinking that a "talking" penguin was really Jimmy Durante. Fetchit, scratching his head, eyes bulging, portrayed the coon so realistically that whites thought they were seeing a real racial type. His coon portrayal was aided by his appearance. According to Donald Bogle (1994), a film historian:
His appearance, too, added to the caricature. He was tall and skinny and always had his head shaved completely bald. He invariably wore clothes that were too large for him and that looked as if they had been passed down from his white master. His grin was always very wide, his teeth very white, his eyes very widened, his feet very large, his walk very slow, his dialect very broken. (P. 41) “
-snip-
The coon caricature's eyes were wide and bulging because that character was depicted as being childlike and afraid of things that reasonable adults wouldn't believe in (for instance ghosts) or be afraid of.
It also occurs to me that the "wide eyes" might be a "politically incorrect", stereotypical way of depicting someone (of any race/ethnicity) who is mentally ill. Therefore, that facial expression in Childish Gambino's "This Is Your Life" video may symbolize how America treats people who are mentally ill, and may also refer to the issue of people who are mentally ill having access to guns.
**
41. talkn with trini Stara
"Heed the message(s), not the messenger ๐"
**
42. jayepea81
"They are more concerned and paying attention to our cultural dancing than they are to the important matters that they ignore and push in the back ground. Just keep dancing. We are entertainers to American but not humans with rights or importance. That's what I took from the video. And even the kids just video everything but it doesn't matter"
**
43. Ms Synchronicity
"When your truly woke, this is the artistic result"
**
44. Marie White
"We've been asleep for too long now."
**
45. Jaeia Gibbs
"Stay. woke."
-snip-
In the context of these comments, being "woke" (and not being asleep) means to be alert to and vigilant toward social justice issues, particularly as they refer to Black and Brown people. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/what-stay-woke-really-means-definitions.html for a pancocojams post about the vernacular meaning of being "woke" and its opposite meaning "being asleep".
**
46. dallas adderly
"why r u playing gods plan in the background"
**
47. Marissa Gates
"Your opinion on the "this is a celly, that's a tool" had some really good points but he was definitely talking about stephen clark with that line."
-snip-
"Celly" here refers to cell phones (cellular telephones). I don't think that the term "celly" is widely used except, perhaps, in Hip Hop culture.
**
48. Angel Sweet
"There was also a scene in which a man jumps from the roof (suicide rates)"
**
REPLY
49. Romeo Robinson
"Yea I saw that and gasped ๐๐"
**
REPLY
50. Rhon Cartmell
"Wow. .I missed it"
**
REPLY
51. Camille Williams
"I noticed that the last time I watched"
**
REPLY
52. Queen Nonya
"Angel Sweet Did he jump or was he pushed? I have to watch his video again."
**
REPLY
53. Jamie Ambrose
"Looks like he was pushed"
**
54. Morgan Chevis
"Kinda missed the part that the ppl dancing with him are Kids meaning the generation can not wake up due to these distractions thus stopping from making a change my opinion"
**
REPLY
55. moval moval
"Yes. The kids are following us....so if we stay sleep...they are learning to stay sleep also."
**
REPLY
56. SouthernNYCga
"OR that black children learn to cope with trauma by dancing through it. Cause what else can they do?"
**
57. Edgar Garcia
"Yes I feel like he’s also putting the new gen rappers on the spot because all they promote is violence and drugs etc. instead of promoting change with the huge platform that they have. Like the line “hunnid bands hunnid bands hunnid bands” alluring to the song gucci gang, which all lil pump promotes is gucci and “I’m so pretty” and his newest single “Drug addict” literally says “All my friends are drug addicts (or something like that) so yeah I feel like that’s something nobody has talked about, This is America song and video is awesome"
**
REPLY
58. Shawnee Scorpion
"SouthernNYCga, ‘Dancing through it” also can be used in a Rhetorical sense."
**
59. Lyndell Chambers
"Dancing was definitely a distraction. I missed everything in the back!!! That’s crazy!!!"
**
60. CAAARRRLL
"I just love his facial expression when he dances"
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61. fake Apple Store
"Yeah made the video artsy."
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62. Alec Truelove
"That's also from a Jim crow propaganda poster."
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63. Cecile Estelle
"Yeah it feels like a comment to the viewer (especially when you listen to the lyrics playing over that scene) that Black people are NOT here just to "party just for you." It's definitely a rejection of the continued culture of minstrelsy that is sometimes expected of Hip Hop artists. There's some comments on this issue in episodes of Atlanta as well."
**
REPLY
64. Fi Dixon
"They're Uncle Rukus (Boondocks). Google It."
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65. Ebony Love
"The faces he made (especially in the beginning) represented Uncle Rukas - the blk character that loves white ppl more than his own."
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REPLY
66. ewgamingspies
"OMG! It's true! Uncle Rukus always had this "unique" facial expression"
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67. S M.
"Did anyone notice the brown and white chickens?
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68. Risky
"it's a coon chicken inn reference"
-snip-
I think "inn" is a typo for "in". An "in reference" means an "inside joke" (a joke whose real meaning may only be caught by people within a certain population or group; in this comment, the commenter is implying that only (or mostly) Black Americans would understand the hidden meanings of the coon/chicken reference.
**
69. Yade N Adamma
"Unrelated, but the older girl (dancer) is Rwandese and the choreographer of the video ✊๐พ ๐ท๐ผ"
**
70. Missy Miles
"The dances in the video are moves that are popular in Africa"
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71. Ladiluv
"Every new dance , Murder is Still happening Etc ❗❗❤"
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72. Berardo Manzi
"I think that the "smartphone part" has another meaning. The guys do records, but they have white clothes on their mouths. It can mean many things: "You think about recording violence, but you don't protest about it" "
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73. theosaka69
"Berardo Manzi Yes! The essence of World Star HH!"
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74. mr spacley
"America is a giant warehouse"
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75. qasdad qaweqeqsdas
"I think there's also a meaning in why the dancers all are kids and wear uniforms. I think Childish Gambino want to criticize the youth of America whose blind/living in an illusion with the way hedonism is advertised by artists/musicians, and not realizing that their surrounding is falling apart."
**
76. LovelyLady Carter
"Respect bro✊๐ฝnot just for the break down but for getting it๐๐ฝ♀️like really understanding the truth behind it all ๐ฏ๐๐พ๐๐ฝ๐๐ฝthank you๐"
**
77. Eddie Landeros
"The color of the cloths that take the guns are red which could represent a few things: red being the color of power, the color of blood to hide it when it's wiped, and the color of the Republican party that is more known for keeping the right to bear arms even after tragedies occur."
**
REPLY
78. JASDKA1
"WOW!"
**
REPLY
79. Kassie S
"Interesting theory. ๐"
**
80. LovelyLady Carter
"Respect bro✊๐ฝnot just for the break down but for getting it๐๐ฝ♀️like really understanding the truth behind it all ๐ฏ๐๐พ๐๐ฝ๐๐ฝthank you๐"
****
This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series that focuses on the official video of Childish Gambino's 2018 Hip Hop composition "This Is America".
This post showcases 's YouTube vlog (video blog) about the official video of Childish Gambino's 2018 Hip Hop composition "This Is America". Selected comments from this vlog are included in this post. Note that this vlog shows only a few photographic scenes from that video and those scenes don't focus on the graphic violence that is shown in that song's official video.
This is only one of a number of videos that provide some explanations about the official video of Childish Gambino's "This Is America".
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/childish-gambino-this-is-america-video.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I showcases the official video of Childish Gambino's "This Is America". The lyrics for this song and notes about genuis.com.'s video and lyrics are also included in this post.
genuis.com's page about Childish Gambino's "This Is America" also provides some notes about that video.
Part II showcases a vlog about Childish Gambino's "This Is America" with particular focus on the official video of that 2018 Hip Hop composition. Selected comments from that vlog's discussion thread are included in this post.
****
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Childish Gambino (Donald Glover, Jr.) for his creative legacy. Thanks also to LyricalHub and others for sharing explanations about Childish Gambino's "This Is America" Hip Hop composition and its official video.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: The REAL Meaning of Childish Gambino - This Is America Will Shock You!
LyricalHub, Published on May 7, 2018
-snip-
Here are some comments from this video log, with numbers assigned for referencing purposes only. All of these comments were published between May 7 and May 9, 2018. I've included additional explanatory notes for certain terms that are mentioned in some of these comments.
[UPDATE: Additional comments added May 10, 2019.]
1. One of One
"This videos great man. I picked up everything you did as far as messages go except for the end where Gambino is running away from something. To me it seemed like he and everyone else was running away from the darkness behind them. I think ultimately the message was something like.. the scene of America is guns & gun control taking precedence over the lives taken by law enforcement & civilians alike - Americans are glued to entertainment & allow themselves to be distracted by anything pop culture (especially black pop culture) - if we don't wake up soon, there will be no America & we'll have to face this darkness we've been running from. But we won't be able to outrun it if we let it get to that point. Anyway, awesome video again man. Hope to see more."
**
REPLY
2. Corrine Lewis
"i love everyone’s deeper interpretation of it especially yours."
**
3. Chico Williams
"Everything on point, definitely the meaning behind the video shout out to Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino showing the life going on today"
**
4. Katie Johnson
"for some reason hearing you say "i don't wanna get too political" while analyzing this video was just too ironic"
**
5. NIKKI NIKKI NIKKI
"I felt like everything was ok if he kept dancing (tap dancing ) but as soon as he stopped is when "America" starter started chasing him.."
**
REPLY
6. Hannah Stern
"I didn't catch that but your analysis is perfection!!!"
**
REPLY
7. Ishmael
"NIKKI NIKKI NIKKI I missed that. Excellent observation. There was so much going on that that went completely over my head."
**
REPLY
8. Mont 3000
"NIKKI NIKKI NIKKI I would say buck dancing but yeah."
-snip-
from https://www.ncpedia.org/buck-dancing "Buck dancing is a folk dance that originated among African Americans during the era of slavery. It was largely associated with the North Carolina Piedmont and, later, with the blues. The original buck dance, or "buck and wing," referred to a specific step performed by solo dancers, usually men; today the term encompasses a broad variety of improvisational dance steps."...
**
REPLY
9. Kai Mendez
"Great point๐๐พ"
**
REPLY
10. Paige Washington
"Get it boo! You brought it together for me"
**
REPLY
11. Paige Washington
"Now tell me why the joint first. Enlightenment? Then he stops dancing? Lol makes sense now"
-snip-
In this comment the word "joint" refers to the point in the video when the character played by Childish Gambino stops to smoke "marijuana" ("reefer").
**
REPLY
12. Mia England
"Paige Washington when he pauses he does it for 17 seconds for the 17 victims of the parkland shooting"
**
13. Kassie S
"Yes! I didn't think about that. Spot on."
**
14. sweety sweet
"Why is he shirtless"
**
REPLY
15. ToneBeMe
"To represent the slaves"
**
REPLY
16. Natasha Burton
"Filming from the back a lot shows that America benefitting from the work from the backs of slaves .. it’s why he’s shirtless throughout"
**
REPLY
17. Mutima H
"Jim crow stance and i think some of the dancing is referencing "slavery of the mind".
-snip-
Read the note under #21 for information about "Jim Crow" and "Jim Crow laws".
**
18. Jairus Poellnitz
"what about the pants aren’t they confrederate army pants"
-snip-
"Confederate pants" refer to the style of pants that soldiers in the Confederate army wore during the United States Civil War (Apr 12, 1861 – May 13, 1865). Although some people disagree, the general consensus is that the main reason why the Confederate army fought the Union army was to maintain their way of life, and in particular to maintain slavery.
**
REPLY
19. Hannah Stern
"VERY interesting, but I think they may be more referencing the light coloured clothes that slaves would have worn in the fields. That's why he's not wearing a shirt, I think. But I'm interested in your interpretations."
**
REPLY
20. John Leonardi
"1 day ago
I took it as slavery as well.
This is a very powerful video that will be studied for future generations"
**
REPLY
21. Jordan Chappell
"To be honest his pants reminded me of the style of pants that were commonly worn around the era that the jim crowe laws were around."
-snip-
"Jim Crow laws"= "Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures in the late 19th century after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued to be enforced until 1965. They mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America, starting in the 1870s and 1880s, and upheld by the United States Supreme Court's "separate but equal" doctrine for African Americans."... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
**
22. Courtney-Ann W.
"I think some of the dances done by the students refer to the sarafina movie"
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REPLY
23. Edna.M.M.
"Courtney-Ann W. I was thinking that as well. I think people have forgotten about that movie (more like a documentary tbh)"
**
REPLY
24. wilhelmina tetteh
"Courtney-Ann W. yeah. I think So too"
-snip-
Here's information about the Sarafina Broadway show and movie:
"Sarafina! is a South African musical by Mbongeni Ngema depicting students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to apartheid. It was also adapted into a 1992 film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Leleti Khumalo. Sarafina! premiered on Broadway on 28 January 1988, at the Cort Theatre, and closed on 2 July 1989, after 597 performances and 11 previews. The musical was conceived and directed by Mbongeni Ngema, who also wrote the book, music, and lyrics. The play was first presented at The Market Theatre, Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 1987. The cast included Leleti Khumalo as Sarafina.
Leleti Khumalo received a Tony Award nomination, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, as well as a NAACP Image Award for her Broadway theatre portrayal of the title character. The production was also nominated for the Tony Award for: Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography, and Best Direction of a Musical.
The show presents a school uprising similar to the Soweto uprising on 16 June 1976. A narrator introduces several characters among them the schoolgirl activist Sarafina. Things get out of control when policemen shoot several pupils at the school. Nevertheless, the musical ends with a cheerful farewell show of pupils leaving school, which takes most of the second act." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarafina!_(musical)
-snip-
The students in the Sarafina Broadway show and movie wore uniforms just as the students in Childish Gambino's "This Is America" video did.
**
25. Alyse Underwood
"It's being said that, the man playing the guitar is Trevon Martin's dad."
**
REPLY
26. Corrine Lewis
"Alyse Underwood ty that’s what i’ve been wondering kinda the most amongst all other things"
**
REPLY
27. Benzi Musiq
"If this is true this video just went another level of deepness. Wow"
-snip-
According to this CNN article- https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/entertainment/trayvon-martin-father-this-america/index.html - the man near the beginning of Childish Gambino's "This Is America" video is "Calvin C. Winbush II, a Los Angeles-based actor and musician who goes by "Calvin the Second" professionally" and not Trayvon Martin's father.
However, I think that it's likely that that actor/musician was chosen for that part because he closely resembles Trayvon Martin's father.
**
28. Michelle Wright
"I noticed all the symbolic hints he gave us. This was powerful. Wake up America"
**
29. SnoopDogg6110
"The 80s 90s car with LAPD symbolizes the 1992 LA riots with chaos and looting."
-snip-
"LAPD" = Los Angeles Police Department; "LA" = Los Angeles (California)
**
REPLY
30. BluDrop5
"SnoopDogg6110 Good one!"
**
31. Bridgette smith
"what about the jim crow pose he did in the beginning. Edit : nevermind commented to early.. Thought you were gonna go in order"
**
32. Yaฤฤฑz Saidoฤlu
"The people around him was symbolising the children I think. They are following him without any question."
**
33. BSWs Wxrld
"There was a part when he was dancing he said I’m so faded, I on Gucci , I’m so pretty( or something close to that). I think he’s saying we’re so focused on bein pretty, wearing Gucci and being faded rather than the issue that occurs and permeates in society today."
**
34. Kennett Rivera
"This is speculations not the real meaning"
**
REPLY
35. TheZombifiedFairy
"The real meaning is unknown to all but Mr. Glover until he explains. Until then it is art and art has many interpretations, and this is one of them."
**
36. Lizzy V
"Why is he shirtless?"
**
REPLY
37. Hot Potato
"Lizzy V I believe it's a reference to slavery, and it also might tie into the exploatation/fear of the African American body"
-snip-
Read the comments presented earlier in this compilation about this subject. I included examples from both of these two sub-threads to show how YouTube commenters often repeat the same questions, perhaps because they don't read comments that were published before theirs.
**
REPLY
38. sam mayne
"Distraction as well."
-snip-
One of the early comments by LyricalHub (this embedded video's blogger) is that the dancing in Childish Gambino's video served to distract viewers from all the other things that were occurring in that video.
**
39. Erin McMahon
"What about his eyes getting really big?"
**
REPLY
40. Azizi Powell
Showing wide eyed, bulging eyed Black people is a characteristic of Black minstrelsy, Broadway, and Black movie industry’s racially demeaning “coon caricature”. One Black actor who epitomized that coon caricature had the stage name “Stepin Fetchit”. Here’s an excerpt from https://ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/ :
[Stepin] “Fetchit became identified in the popular imagination as a dialect-speaking, slump-shouldered, slack-jawed character who walked, talked, and apparently thought in slow motion. The Fetchit character overcame this lethargy only when he thought that a ghost or some nameless terror might be present; and then he moved very quickly indeed. (p. 89)
Fetchit was the embodiment of the nitwit black man. As with the Zip Coon and Urban Coon, this old-fashioned coon character could never correctly pronounce a multisyllabic word. He was portrayed as a dunce. In Stand Up and Cheer (Sheehan & MacFadden, 1934), he was tricked into thinking that a "talking" penguin was really Jimmy Durante. Fetchit, scratching his head, eyes bulging, portrayed the coon so realistically that whites thought they were seeing a real racial type. His coon portrayal was aided by his appearance. According to Donald Bogle (1994), a film historian:
His appearance, too, added to the caricature. He was tall and skinny and always had his head shaved completely bald. He invariably wore clothes that were too large for him and that looked as if they had been passed down from his white master. His grin was always very wide, his teeth very white, his eyes very widened, his feet very large, his walk very slow, his dialect very broken. (P. 41) “
-snip-
The coon caricature's eyes were wide and bulging because that character was depicted as being childlike and afraid of things that reasonable adults wouldn't believe in (for instance ghosts) or be afraid of.
It also occurs to me that the "wide eyes" might be a "politically incorrect", stereotypical way of depicting someone (of any race/ethnicity) who is mentally ill. Therefore, that facial expression in Childish Gambino's "This Is Your Life" video may symbolize how America treats people who are mentally ill, and may also refer to the issue of people who are mentally ill having access to guns.
**
41. talkn with trini Stara
"Heed the message(s), not the messenger ๐"
**
42. jayepea81
"They are more concerned and paying attention to our cultural dancing than they are to the important matters that they ignore and push in the back ground. Just keep dancing. We are entertainers to American but not humans with rights or importance. That's what I took from the video. And even the kids just video everything but it doesn't matter"
**
43. Ms Synchronicity
"When your truly woke, this is the artistic result"
**
44. Marie White
"We've been asleep for too long now."
**
45. Jaeia Gibbs
"Stay. woke."
-snip-
In the context of these comments, being "woke" (and not being asleep) means to be alert to and vigilant toward social justice issues, particularly as they refer to Black and Brown people. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/what-stay-woke-really-means-definitions.html for a pancocojams post about the vernacular meaning of being "woke" and its opposite meaning "being asleep".
**
46. dallas adderly
"why r u playing gods plan in the background"
**
47. Marissa Gates
"Your opinion on the "this is a celly, that's a tool" had some really good points but he was definitely talking about stephen clark with that line."
-snip-
"Celly" here refers to cell phones (cellular telephones). I don't think that the term "celly" is widely used except, perhaps, in Hip Hop culture.
**
48. Angel Sweet
"There was also a scene in which a man jumps from the roof (suicide rates)"
**
REPLY
49. Romeo Robinson
"Yea I saw that and gasped ๐๐"
**
REPLY
50. Rhon Cartmell
"Wow. .I missed it"
**
REPLY
51. Camille Williams
"I noticed that the last time I watched"
**
REPLY
52. Queen Nonya
"Angel Sweet Did he jump or was he pushed? I have to watch his video again."
**
REPLY
53. Jamie Ambrose
"Looks like he was pushed"
**
54. Morgan Chevis
"Kinda missed the part that the ppl dancing with him are Kids meaning the generation can not wake up due to these distractions thus stopping from making a change my opinion"
**
REPLY
55. moval moval
"Yes. The kids are following us....so if we stay sleep...they are learning to stay sleep also."
**
REPLY
56. SouthernNYCga
"OR that black children learn to cope with trauma by dancing through it. Cause what else can they do?"
**
57. Edgar Garcia
"Yes I feel like he’s also putting the new gen rappers on the spot because all they promote is violence and drugs etc. instead of promoting change with the huge platform that they have. Like the line “hunnid bands hunnid bands hunnid bands” alluring to the song gucci gang, which all lil pump promotes is gucci and “I’m so pretty” and his newest single “Drug addict” literally says “All my friends are drug addicts (or something like that) so yeah I feel like that’s something nobody has talked about, This is America song and video is awesome"
**
REPLY
58. Shawnee Scorpion
"SouthernNYCga, ‘Dancing through it” also can be used in a Rhetorical sense."
**
59. Lyndell Chambers
"Dancing was definitely a distraction. I missed everything in the back!!! That’s crazy!!!"
**
60. CAAARRRLL
"I just love his facial expression when he dances"
**
REPLY
61. fake Apple Store
"Yeah made the video artsy."
**
REPLY
62. Alec Truelove
"That's also from a Jim crow propaganda poster."
**
REPLY
63. Cecile Estelle
"Yeah it feels like a comment to the viewer (especially when you listen to the lyrics playing over that scene) that Black people are NOT here just to "party just for you." It's definitely a rejection of the continued culture of minstrelsy that is sometimes expected of Hip Hop artists. There's some comments on this issue in episodes of Atlanta as well."
**
REPLY
64. Fi Dixon
"They're Uncle Rukus (Boondocks). Google It."
**
65. Ebony Love
"The faces he made (especially in the beginning) represented Uncle Rukas - the blk character that loves white ppl more than his own."
**
REPLY
66. ewgamingspies
"OMG! It's true! Uncle Rukus always had this "unique" facial expression"
**
67. S M.
"Did anyone notice the brown and white chickens?
**
68. Risky
"it's a coon chicken inn reference"
-snip-
I think "inn" is a typo for "in". An "in reference" means an "inside joke" (a joke whose real meaning may only be caught by people within a certain population or group; in this comment, the commenter is implying that only (or mostly) Black Americans would understand the hidden meanings of the coon/chicken reference.
**
69. Yade N Adamma
"Unrelated, but the older girl (dancer) is Rwandese and the choreographer of the video ✊๐พ ๐ท๐ผ"
**
70. Missy Miles
"The dances in the video are moves that are popular in Africa"
**
71. Ladiluv
"Every new dance , Murder is Still happening Etc ❗❗❤"
**
72. Berardo Manzi
"I think that the "smartphone part" has another meaning. The guys do records, but they have white clothes on their mouths. It can mean many things: "You think about recording violence, but you don't protest about it" "
**
REPLY
73. theosaka69
"Berardo Manzi Yes! The essence of World Star HH!"
**
74. mr spacley
"America is a giant warehouse"
**
75. qasdad qaweqeqsdas
"I think there's also a meaning in why the dancers all are kids and wear uniforms. I think Childish Gambino want to criticize the youth of America whose blind/living in an illusion with the way hedonism is advertised by artists/musicians, and not realizing that their surrounding is falling apart."
**
76. LovelyLady Carter
"Respect bro✊๐ฝnot just for the break down but for getting it๐๐ฝ♀️like really understanding the truth behind it all ๐ฏ๐๐พ๐๐ฝ๐๐ฝthank you๐"
**
77. Eddie Landeros
"The color of the cloths that take the guns are red which could represent a few things: red being the color of power, the color of blood to hide it when it's wiped, and the color of the Republican party that is more known for keeping the right to bear arms even after tragedies occur."
**
REPLY
78. JASDKA1
"WOW!"
**
REPLY
79. Kassie S
"Interesting theory. ๐"
**
80. LovelyLady Carter
"Respect bro✊๐ฝnot just for the break down but for getting it๐๐ฝ♀️like really understanding the truth behind it all ๐ฏ๐๐พ๐๐ฝ๐๐ฝthank you๐"
****
This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Childish Gambino - "This Is America" (video, lyrics, selected notes from genuis.com about the meaning of this video)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series that focuses on the official video of Childish Gambino's 2018 Hip Hop composition "This Is America".
This post showcases the official video of Childish Gambino's "This Is America". The lyrics for this song and notes about genuis.com.'s video and lyrics are also included in this post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/selected-comments-from-lyricalhubs-vlog.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases LyricalHub's Vlog post entitled "The REAL Meaning of Childish Gambino - This Is America Will Shock You". Selected comments from that vlog's discussion thread are included in this post.
****
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Childish Gambino (Donald Glover, Jr.) for his creative legacy. Thanks to all those who were involved in composition and this video. Thanks also to genuis.com for the transcribing these lyrics and sharing notes about the meaning of these lyrics and this video.
-snip-
WARNING: This video contains two very violent scenes of people being killed by gun fire.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: #10 ON TRENDING
Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)
Donald Glover, Published on May 5, 2018
“This is America” by Childish Gambino http://smarturl.it/TcIgA
Director: Hiro Murai
Producer: Doomsday with Ibra Ake and Fam Rothstein of Wolf + Rothstein
-snip-
Statistics: as of May 9, 2018 at 2:12 PM
#10 trending [Twitter]
total views - 51,577,818
total likes - 1.9M
total dislike -89,000
total number of comments: 199,041
****
LYRICS AND NOTES ABOUT CHILDISH GAMBINO'S "THIS IS AMERICA"
From https://genius.com/Childish-gambino-this-is-america-lyrics
This Is America
Childish Gambino
Produced by: Childish Gambino & Ludwig Gรถransson
Album: CG4*
This Is America Lyrics
[Intro: Choir]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
[Bridge: Childish Gambino & Young Thug]
We just wanna party
Party just for you
We just want the money
Money just for you
I know you wanna party
Party just for me
Girl, you got me dancin' (yeah, girl, you got me dancin')
Dance and shake the frame
We just wanna party (yeah)
Party just for you (yeah)
We just want the money (yeah)
Money just for you (you)
I know you wanna party (yeah)
Party just for me (yeah)
Girl, you got me dancin' (yeah, girl, you got me dancin')
Dance and shake the frame (you)
[Chorus: Childish Gambino]
This is America
Don't catch you slippin' up
Don't catch you slippin' up
Look what I'm whippin' up
This is America (woo)
Don't catch you slippin' up
Don't catch you slippin' up
Look what I'm whippin' up
[Verse 1: Childish Gambino, Blocboy JB, Slim Jxmmi, Young Thug, & 21 Savage]
This is America (skrrt, skrrt, woo)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy)
Look at how I'm livin' now
Police be trippin' now (woo)
Yeah, this is America (woo, ayy)
Guns in my area (word, my area)
I got the strap (ayy, ayy)
I gotta carry 'em
Yeah, yeah, I'ma go into this (ugh)
Yeah, yeah, this is guerilla (woo)
Yeah, yeah, I'ma go get the bag
Yeah, yeah, or I'ma get the pad
Yeah, yeah, I'm so cold like yeah (yeah)
I'm so dope like yeah (woo)
We gon' blow like yeah (straight up, uh)
[Refrain: Choir & Childish Gambino]
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
You go tell somebody
Grandma told me
Get your money, Black man (get your money)
Get your money, Black man (get your money)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Black man
[Chorus: Childish Gambino, Slim Jxmmi, & Young Thug]
This is America (woo, ayy)
Don't catch you slippin' up (woo, woo, don't catch you slippin', now)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy, woah)
Look what I'm whippin' up (Slime!)
This is America (yeah, yeah)
Don't catch you slippin' up (woah, ayy)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy, woo)
Look what I'm whippin' up (ayy)
[Verse 2: Childish Gambino, Quavo, Young Thug, & 21 Savage]
Look how I'm geekin' out (hey)
I'm so fitted (I'm so fitted, woo)
I'm on Gucci (I'm on Gucci)
I'm so pretty (yeah, yeah)
I'm gon' get it (ayy, I'm gon' get it)
Watch me move (blaow)
This a celly (ha)
That's a tool (yeah)
On my Kodak (woo, Black)
Ooh, know that (yeah, know that, hold on)
Get it (get it, get it)
Ooh, work it (21)
Hunnid bands, hunnid bands, hunnid bands (hunnid bands)
Contraband, contraband, contraband (contraband)
I got the plug in Oaxaca (woah)
They gonna find you like blocka (blaow)
[Refrain: Choir, Childish Gambino, & Young Thug]
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
America, I just checked my following list and
You go tell somebody
You mothaf&&kas* owe me
Grandma told me
Get your money, Black man (black man)
Get your money, Black man (black man)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Black man
(One, two, three, get down)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
You go tell somebody
Grandma told me, "Get your money"
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Black man
[Outro: Young Thug]
You just a Black man in this world
You just a barcode, ayy
You just a Black man in this world
Drivin' expensive foreigns, ayy
You just a big dawg, yeah
I kenneled him in the backyard
No probably ain't life to a dog
For a big dog
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in the lyrics on that page.
About “This Is America”
Dropping amid ongoing political and cultural tumult and turmoil, Childish Gambino’s “This is America” appears to be a commentary on black life in America and American culture as a whole. It contrasts popular culture’s perception of black experience and its often brutal reality by juxtaposing happy, carefree choruses and dark, aggressive verses.
This contrast may also allude to the cyclical shifts in mood whenever there is a shooting in America. One second, the entire nation is in an uproar, the next, they are happy and unconcerned, placated by pop culture trends.
In the music video, directed by frequent Gambino collaborator Hiro Murai, Gambino portrays this comparison by dancing around gleefully, seemingly unbothered by the chaotic scenes of violence in the background. However, in the short film’s final scene, Gambino is seen running frantically through a darkened warehouse trying to escape the mob that now chases him, a reminder that if America chooses to remain ignorant to its problems, eventually they will catch up to us.
“This is America” is Gambino’s first single since he dropped the 2016 studio album Awaken, My Love!. The song’s release coincided with Gambino’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, where he performed the new track, along with another one titled “Saturday.”
[...]
Are there any good essays to read about "This is America"?
Yes! Some strong early analyses include Doreen St. Felix’s “The Carnage and Chaos of Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’” in The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-carnage-and-chaos-of-childish-gambinos-this-is-america and Frank Guan’s “What It Means When Childish Gambino Says ‘This Is America’” in New York Magazine.http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/what-it-means-when-childish-gambino-says-this-is-america.html
Why is he running at the end of the music video?
One theory suggests that Gambino is running from The Sunken Place, a concept developed in Jordan Peele’s film Get Out. In a tweet, Peele explained the meaning of The Sunken Place:
Jordan Peele
✔
@JordanPeele
The Sunken Place means we're marginalized. No matter how hard we scream, the system silences us.
12:12 AM - Mar 17, 2017
[…]
Glover believes we have cultivated a culture in which we emphasize the trivial social issues around us unaddressed.
It’s also worth noting that Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya introduced Glover’s performance of “This Is America” on Saturday Night Live. The scene is also perhaps reminiscent of the “running” scene in Get Out.
[...]
Why is there a white horse in the music video?
A brief scene in the music video portrays a hooded figure riding on a white horse through the chaos behind Bino. One theory suggests that the horse alludes to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the first of which was white.
The white horse is typically referred to as Conquest, which is sometimes construed as Victory–because the horse is white, Donald may be using it to symbolize white power over blacks. Different interpretations of the horse name it Pestilence, Evil, and War, all of which may embody the position of blacks in the equation.
The white horse or pale horse can also connote apocalyptic symbolism related to Revelation Chapter 6:
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and the name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him…
[...]
What is the meaning of the dancers in what appears to be school uniforms?
The video has multiple references the dancers in the school uniforms are referencing the Florida shootings and other harmful events that have happened to school students.
"This Is America" Track Info
Written By Ludwig Gรถransson & Childish Gambino
Ad-Libs Aminรฉ, 21 Savage, Young Thug & 3 more
Recording Engineer Kesha Lee, Ludwig Gรถransson, Alex Tumay & 1 more
Mix Engineer Mixed by Ali
Video Director Hiro Murai
Additional Vocals Young Thug
Mastering Engineer Mike Bozzi
Release Date May 6, 2018
****
This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series that focuses on the official video of Childish Gambino's 2018 Hip Hop composition "This Is America".
This post showcases the official video of Childish Gambino's "This Is America". The lyrics for this song and notes about genuis.com.'s video and lyrics are also included in this post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/selected-comments-from-lyricalhubs-vlog.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases LyricalHub's Vlog post entitled "The REAL Meaning of Childish Gambino - This Is America Will Shock You". Selected comments from that vlog's discussion thread are included in this post.
****
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Childish Gambino (Donald Glover, Jr.) for his creative legacy. Thanks to all those who were involved in composition and this video. Thanks also to genuis.com for the transcribing these lyrics and sharing notes about the meaning of these lyrics and this video.
-snip-
WARNING: This video contains two very violent scenes of people being killed by gun fire.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: #10 ON TRENDING
Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)
Donald Glover, Published on May 5, 2018
“This is America” by Childish Gambino http://smarturl.it/TcIgA
Director: Hiro Murai
Producer: Doomsday with Ibra Ake and Fam Rothstein of Wolf + Rothstein
-snip-
Statistics: as of May 9, 2018 at 2:12 PM
#10 trending [Twitter]
total views - 51,577,818
total likes - 1.9M
total dislike -89,000
total number of comments: 199,041
****
LYRICS AND NOTES ABOUT CHILDISH GAMBINO'S "THIS IS AMERICA"
From https://genius.com/Childish-gambino-this-is-america-lyrics
This Is America
Childish Gambino
Produced by: Childish Gambino & Ludwig Gรถransson
Album: CG4*
This Is America Lyrics
[Intro: Choir]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go away
[Bridge: Childish Gambino & Young Thug]
We just wanna party
Party just for you
We just want the money
Money just for you
I know you wanna party
Party just for me
Girl, you got me dancin' (yeah, girl, you got me dancin')
Dance and shake the frame
We just wanna party (yeah)
Party just for you (yeah)
We just want the money (yeah)
Money just for you (you)
I know you wanna party (yeah)
Party just for me (yeah)
Girl, you got me dancin' (yeah, girl, you got me dancin')
Dance and shake the frame (you)
[Chorus: Childish Gambino]
This is America
Don't catch you slippin' up
Don't catch you slippin' up
Look what I'm whippin' up
This is America (woo)
Don't catch you slippin' up
Don't catch you slippin' up
Look what I'm whippin' up
[Verse 1: Childish Gambino, Blocboy JB, Slim Jxmmi, Young Thug, & 21 Savage]
This is America (skrrt, skrrt, woo)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy)
Look at how I'm livin' now
Police be trippin' now (woo)
Yeah, this is America (woo, ayy)
Guns in my area (word, my area)
I got the strap (ayy, ayy)
I gotta carry 'em
Yeah, yeah, I'ma go into this (ugh)
Yeah, yeah, this is guerilla (woo)
Yeah, yeah, I'ma go get the bag
Yeah, yeah, or I'ma get the pad
Yeah, yeah, I'm so cold like yeah (yeah)
I'm so dope like yeah (woo)
We gon' blow like yeah (straight up, uh)
[Refrain: Choir & Childish Gambino]
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
You go tell somebody
Grandma told me
Get your money, Black man (get your money)
Get your money, Black man (get your money)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Black man
[Chorus: Childish Gambino, Slim Jxmmi, & Young Thug]
This is America (woo, ayy)
Don't catch you slippin' up (woo, woo, don't catch you slippin', now)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy, woah)
Look what I'm whippin' up (Slime!)
This is America (yeah, yeah)
Don't catch you slippin' up (woah, ayy)
Don't catch you slippin' up (ayy, woo)
Look what I'm whippin' up (ayy)
[Verse 2: Childish Gambino, Quavo, Young Thug, & 21 Savage]
Look how I'm geekin' out (hey)
I'm so fitted (I'm so fitted, woo)
I'm on Gucci (I'm on Gucci)
I'm so pretty (yeah, yeah)
I'm gon' get it (ayy, I'm gon' get it)
Watch me move (blaow)
This a celly (ha)
That's a tool (yeah)
On my Kodak (woo, Black)
Ooh, know that (yeah, know that, hold on)
Get it (get it, get it)
Ooh, work it (21)
Hunnid bands, hunnid bands, hunnid bands (hunnid bands)
Contraband, contraband, contraband (contraband)
I got the plug in Oaxaca (woah)
They gonna find you like blocka (blaow)
[Refrain: Choir, Childish Gambino, & Young Thug]
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
America, I just checked my following list and
You go tell somebody
You mothaf&&kas* owe me
Grandma told me
Get your money, Black man (black man)
Get your money, Black man (black man)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Get your money, Black man (get your, Black man)
Black man
(One, two, three, get down)
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, tell somebody
You go tell somebody
Grandma told me, "Get your money"
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Get your money, Black man (Black man)
Black man
[Outro: Young Thug]
You just a Black man in this world
You just a barcode, ayy
You just a Black man in this world
Drivin' expensive foreigns, ayy
You just a big dawg, yeah
I kenneled him in the backyard
No probably ain't life to a dog
For a big dog
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in the lyrics on that page.
About “This Is America”
Dropping amid ongoing political and cultural tumult and turmoil, Childish Gambino’s “This is America” appears to be a commentary on black life in America and American culture as a whole. It contrasts popular culture’s perception of black experience and its often brutal reality by juxtaposing happy, carefree choruses and dark, aggressive verses.
This contrast may also allude to the cyclical shifts in mood whenever there is a shooting in America. One second, the entire nation is in an uproar, the next, they are happy and unconcerned, placated by pop culture trends.
In the music video, directed by frequent Gambino collaborator Hiro Murai, Gambino portrays this comparison by dancing around gleefully, seemingly unbothered by the chaotic scenes of violence in the background. However, in the short film’s final scene, Gambino is seen running frantically through a darkened warehouse trying to escape the mob that now chases him, a reminder that if America chooses to remain ignorant to its problems, eventually they will catch up to us.
“This is America” is Gambino’s first single since he dropped the 2016 studio album Awaken, My Love!. The song’s release coincided with Gambino’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, where he performed the new track, along with another one titled “Saturday.”
[...]
Are there any good essays to read about "This is America"?
Yes! Some strong early analyses include Doreen St. Felix’s “The Carnage and Chaos of Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’” in The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-carnage-and-chaos-of-childish-gambinos-this-is-america and Frank Guan’s “What It Means When Childish Gambino Says ‘This Is America’” in New York Magazine.http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/what-it-means-when-childish-gambino-says-this-is-america.html
Why is he running at the end of the music video?
One theory suggests that Gambino is running from The Sunken Place, a concept developed in Jordan Peele’s film Get Out. In a tweet, Peele explained the meaning of The Sunken Place:
Jordan Peele
✔
@JordanPeele
The Sunken Place means we're marginalized. No matter how hard we scream, the system silences us.
12:12 AM - Mar 17, 2017
[…]
Glover believes we have cultivated a culture in which we emphasize the trivial social issues around us unaddressed.
It’s also worth noting that Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya introduced Glover’s performance of “This Is America” on Saturday Night Live. The scene is also perhaps reminiscent of the “running” scene in Get Out.
[...]
Why is there a white horse in the music video?
A brief scene in the music video portrays a hooded figure riding on a white horse through the chaos behind Bino. One theory suggests that the horse alludes to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the first of which was white.
The white horse is typically referred to as Conquest, which is sometimes construed as Victory–because the horse is white, Donald may be using it to symbolize white power over blacks. Different interpretations of the horse name it Pestilence, Evil, and War, all of which may embody the position of blacks in the equation.
The white horse or pale horse can also connote apocalyptic symbolism related to Revelation Chapter 6:
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and the name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him…
[...]
What is the meaning of the dancers in what appears to be school uniforms?
The video has multiple references the dancers in the school uniforms are referencing the Florida shootings and other harmful events that have happened to school students.
"This Is America" Track Info
Written By Ludwig Gรถransson & Childish Gambino
Ad-Libs Aminรฉ, 21 Savage, Young Thug & 3 more
Recording Engineer Kesha Lee, Ludwig Gรถransson, Alex Tumay & 1 more
Mix Engineer Mixed by Ali
Video Director Hiro Murai
Additional Vocals Young Thug
Mastering Engineer Mike Bozzi
Release Date May 6, 2018
****
This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Monday, April 7, 2014
"La Hoola Boola", The African American Source Of The Yale University Song "Boola Boola" & The University Of Oklahoma song "Boomer Sooner"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post presents information about the 1898 song "La Hoola Boola" that is documented as the source of the Yale University Fight Song "Boola Boola" & The University Of Oklahoma song "Boomer Sooner. Documentation about the connection between these three songs, and a sound file example of "Boola Boola" are also given in this post.
In addition, an example of an unrelated Somalian (Northeast Africa) song with the name "Boola Boola" and an example of the also unrelated Indonesian national anthem whose tune is quite similar to "La Hoola Boola" are included in the Addendum section of this post.
The content of this post is provided for folkloric, historical and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Bob Cole and Billy Johnson for composing the song "La Hoola Boola". Thanks also to the vocalists who are featured on these sound files and videos and thanks to the publishers of these sound files and videos on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
Hat tip to Slam20011 for sharing the information about the connection between "La Hoola Boola" and "Boola Boola".
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN SONG "LA HOOLA BOOLA" From https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/2552 Yale Alumni Magazine Arts & Culture “You can quote them” by Fred Shapiro | Sep/Oct 2009
Yale law librarian Fred R. Shapiro is editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.
"The authorship of Yale's iconic fight song “Boola Boola” has traditionally been ascribed to Allan M. Hirsh, Class of 1901...
But the claim of two men with no Yale connection -- Robert Allen “Bob” Cole and Billy Johnson -- appears to shift the role of Hirsh (and his classmates) from creating to adapting. Hirsh himself acknowledged as much, if somewhat obliquely, in his 1930 letter.
Cole and Johnson were extremely popular African American singer-songwriters of the time. They wrote, directed, and produced the first full-length musical with an all-black cast and all-black management, which opened on Broadway in 1898.* Also in 1898, they copyrighted a song called “La Hoola Boola.” In addition to using the word “Boola,” their song, according to James J. Fuld's authoritative Book of World-Famous Music (1971), has the same melody “virtually note for note in the important bars” as the Yale song. Fuld adds that, when the first edition for piano of “Yale Boola” (with A. M. Hirsh listed as author) was published in 1901, it included a notice: “Adapted by permission of Howley, Haviland & Dresser.” Howley, Haviland & Dresser was the successor publisher of “La Hoola Boola.”
In his 1930 letter, Allan Hirsh wrote: “The song was not altogether original with us, but was undoubtedly adapted from some other song but we were unable to definitively designate this song, although later on we did discover that there had been published a song, which at that time was out of print, called 'La Hula Boola,' and the air was quite similar but the time was different.” Given that Hirsh's publisher had felt obligated to get permission for adapting “La Hoola Boola,” Hirsh seems, at the least, to have failed to give proper credit to Cole and Johnson.”...
-snip-
* The Robert Allen "Bob" Cole and [William] Billy Johnson Broadway production in 1898 was "A Trip To Coontown".
****
From The Book of World-famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk, James J. Fuld [Google Books, p. 150]
"The first printing of this melody [for "Boola Boola"], virtually note for note in the important bars is in the song “La Hoola Boola” where the words “Hoola Boola” are also frequently used. “La Hoola Boola” was copyrighted by Howley, Haviland and Company in 1898 although the year in the copyright notice on the music is from the previous year. “La Hoola Boola” is described as “an Hawaiian Ditty” ...Up To Dated” by Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. First edition front cover [of the musical score] has a drawing of two Hawaiians and is orange, black, and white in color..."
-snip-
I've not been able to find either the words to the song "La Hoola Boola" or any rendition of that song online. However, given the description of that song by James L. Fuld , it's very likely that "La Hoola Boola" includes a refrain similar to that of the Yale song "Boola Boola" except for the word "hoola" instead of the first "boola". Here's the refrain for "Boola Boola":
"Well-a Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boo,
Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boo!
Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola,
Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola,"
-snip-
The complete lyrics to the Yale song "Boola Boola" are found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boola_Boola
****
THE WORD "HULA" AND THE SONG "'HOOLA BOOLA"
The word "hoola" is pronounced the same as the word "hula", a form of hip shaking/hand motion dance that is now (if not in the late 19th century) very closely associated with Hawaii. It seems very likely to me that that dance and its association with Hawaii is the meaning of the word "hoola" in that Cole/Johnson song. And the word "boola" is a word with no meaning that rhymes with the word "hoola" ("hula").
According to this website http://www.ovrtur.com/show/124809, the song “La Hoola Boola” was later added to the production of Bob Coles & Billy Johnson's Broadway play "A Trip To Coontown". That website includes a complete list of the songs that were featured in that production.
An excerpt from the article "Forgotten Manuscripts: A Trip to Coontown" written by Krystyn R. Moon, David Krasner, Thomas L. Riis, and included in African American Review Volume 44, Numbers 1-2, Spring/Summer 2011 (pp. 7-24 | 10.1353/afa.2011.0012) provides interesting information about that 1898 play and one of the songs that was originally written for that play “The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon” (1897)”:
..."Bob Cole and Billy Johnson’s A Trip to Coontown first appeared on the stage during the 1897–98 season. Although African Americans had written numerous short theatrical and musical works, none had written a full-length musical production. To add to its historical significance, A Trip to Coontown was performed, directed, and produced by African Americans, an astounding feat in an era where few independent theaters could even consider taking a chance on such a production. Unfortunately, the play—like so many other nineteenth-century African American documents and artifacts—was lost, and scholars could only make conjectures (based mainly on newspaper reviews) about what it looked and sounded like.
...In A Trip to Coontown, Cole and Johnson reworked a skit originally titled At Jolly Coon-ey Island that Cole had written for Black Patti’s Troubadours (the operatic variety company formed by Sissieretta Jones) and named the new production to spoof one of the most popular musicals of the 1890s, A Trip to Chinatown (1891).3 Despite positive reviews in the fall of 1897, Cole was unable to produce his work except in third-rate American and Canadian theaters over the course of several weeks. By the end of the nineteenth century, the theater industry was owned and operated by a handful of European American men who could blacklist any performer and destroy his/her career. Not until after World War I did actors and writers have some success unionizing, but African Americans were almost unilaterally excluded. Cole’s previous employers organized a boycott of Cole and Johnson’s play because they chose to work independently. Despite this hurdle, its success grew, and Klaw and Erlanger, one of the major theatrical booking agencies in New York City, finally broke the boycott in April 1898 and opened A Trip to Coontown at the Third Avenue Theater.4A Trip to Coontown toured the United States for..."
-snip-
[end of Project Muse excerpt]
https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/african_american_review/v044/44.1-2.moon.html
-snip-
As per this article, the original title for the play "A Trip To Coontown" was "At Jolly Coon-ey Island". That title includes a clever play on words since "Coney Island" was (and still is) a popular amusement location in New York City and "coon" was a somewhat common referent for a Black person. [The word "coon" as a referent for a Black person is considered a pejorative referent and as such is no considered appropriate to use.). The word "coney" in the name "Coney Island" is an English adaptation of a Dutch word for "rabbit". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coney_Island.
Given that the first cover of "La Hoola Boola"'s musical included drawings of two Hawaiians (as per the statements of James J. Fuld), and given that song's later inclusion in the play "A Trip To Coontown", it could be said that that composition provided a stereotypical depiction-albeit probably "friendly" stereotypical depiction- of Hawaiians. Since the play "A Trip To Coontown" apparently also included other stereotyped depictions, I can see how the song "La Hoola Boola" was added to that production.
****
SOUND FILES OF THE YALE FIGHT SONG "BOOLA BOOLA" AND THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA FIGHT SONG "BOOMER SOONER"
The SingALong Gang - Boola Boola
Technotherapie, Uploaded on Dec 17, 2011
****
Boomer Sooner (University of Oklahoma fight song)
2011mrkingofkings, Published on Dec 7, 2013
My third Big Eight Conference fight song.
One of my favorite fight songs of all time, it's Boomer Sooner by The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band, which WWE play-by-play man and Sooners fan Jim Ross uses as his theme music...
-snip-
A "fight song" is a song that is used to cheer on the athletes in a competitive game.
Here's information about the University of Oklahoma Fight Song "Boomer Sooner":
"Boomer Sooner" is the fight song for the University of Oklahoma (OU). The lyrics were written in 1905 by Arthur M. Alden, an OU student and son of a local jeweler in Norman. The tune is taken from "Boola Boola", the fight song of Yale University (which was itself borrowed from an 1898 song called "La Hoola Boola" by Robert Allen (Bob) Cole and Billy Johnson)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomer_Sooner
-snip-
The lyrics to the University of Oklahoma song "Boomer Sooner" are found on that song's Wikipedia page.
****
ADDENDUM: TWO UNRELATED SONGS WITH SIMILAR TITLE OR TUNE
BOOLA BOOLA
ABAKFAY,Published on Jul 8, 2013
-snip-
There are several videos or sound files of this song on YouTube. Those performances are credited to Abdallah Lee. From the comments and summaries I believe that this song is Afar music from Somali, Africa.
****
Indonesia National Anthem "Indonesia Raya" (Great Indonesia)
NationalAnthems12, Published on Oct 9, 2012
The official national anthem of Indonesia "Indonesia Raya" (Great Indonesia)
Lyrics include in both languages Indonesian and English
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post presents information about the 1898 song "La Hoola Boola" that is documented as the source of the Yale University Fight Song "Boola Boola" & The University Of Oklahoma song "Boomer Sooner. Documentation about the connection between these three songs, and a sound file example of "Boola Boola" are also given in this post.
In addition, an example of an unrelated Somalian (Northeast Africa) song with the name "Boola Boola" and an example of the also unrelated Indonesian national anthem whose tune is quite similar to "La Hoola Boola" are included in the Addendum section of this post.
The content of this post is provided for folkloric, historical and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Bob Cole and Billy Johnson for composing the song "La Hoola Boola". Thanks also to the vocalists who are featured on these sound files and videos and thanks to the publishers of these sound files and videos on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
Hat tip to Slam20011 for sharing the information about the connection between "La Hoola Boola" and "Boola Boola".
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN SONG "LA HOOLA BOOLA" From https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/2552 Yale Alumni Magazine Arts & Culture “You can quote them” by Fred Shapiro | Sep/Oct 2009
Yale law librarian Fred R. Shapiro is editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.
"The authorship of Yale's iconic fight song “Boola Boola” has traditionally been ascribed to Allan M. Hirsh, Class of 1901...
But the claim of two men with no Yale connection -- Robert Allen “Bob” Cole and Billy Johnson -- appears to shift the role of Hirsh (and his classmates) from creating to adapting. Hirsh himself acknowledged as much, if somewhat obliquely, in his 1930 letter.
Cole and Johnson were extremely popular African American singer-songwriters of the time. They wrote, directed, and produced the first full-length musical with an all-black cast and all-black management, which opened on Broadway in 1898.* Also in 1898, they copyrighted a song called “La Hoola Boola.” In addition to using the word “Boola,” their song, according to James J. Fuld's authoritative Book of World-Famous Music (1971), has the same melody “virtually note for note in the important bars” as the Yale song. Fuld adds that, when the first edition for piano of “Yale Boola” (with A. M. Hirsh listed as author) was published in 1901, it included a notice: “Adapted by permission of Howley, Haviland & Dresser.” Howley, Haviland & Dresser was the successor publisher of “La Hoola Boola.”
In his 1930 letter, Allan Hirsh wrote: “The song was not altogether original with us, but was undoubtedly adapted from some other song but we were unable to definitively designate this song, although later on we did discover that there had been published a song, which at that time was out of print, called 'La Hula Boola,' and the air was quite similar but the time was different.” Given that Hirsh's publisher had felt obligated to get permission for adapting “La Hoola Boola,” Hirsh seems, at the least, to have failed to give proper credit to Cole and Johnson.”...
-snip-
* The Robert Allen "Bob" Cole and [William] Billy Johnson Broadway production in 1898 was "A Trip To Coontown".
****
From The Book of World-famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk, James J. Fuld [Google Books, p. 150]
"The first printing of this melody [for "Boola Boola"], virtually note for note in the important bars is in the song “La Hoola Boola” where the words “Hoola Boola” are also frequently used. “La Hoola Boola” was copyrighted by Howley, Haviland and Company in 1898 although the year in the copyright notice on the music is from the previous year. “La Hoola Boola” is described as “an Hawaiian Ditty” ...Up To Dated” by Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. First edition front cover [of the musical score] has a drawing of two Hawaiians and is orange, black, and white in color..."
-snip-
I've not been able to find either the words to the song "La Hoola Boola" or any rendition of that song online. However, given the description of that song by James L. Fuld , it's very likely that "La Hoola Boola" includes a refrain similar to that of the Yale song "Boola Boola" except for the word "hoola" instead of the first "boola". Here's the refrain for "Boola Boola":
"Well-a Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boo,
Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boo!
Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola,
Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola,"
-snip-
The complete lyrics to the Yale song "Boola Boola" are found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boola_Boola
****
THE WORD "HULA" AND THE SONG "'HOOLA BOOLA"
The word "hoola" is pronounced the same as the word "hula", a form of hip shaking/hand motion dance that is now (if not in the late 19th century) very closely associated with Hawaii. It seems very likely to me that that dance and its association with Hawaii is the meaning of the word "hoola" in that Cole/Johnson song. And the word "boola" is a word with no meaning that rhymes with the word "hoola" ("hula").
According to this website http://www.ovrtur.com/show/124809, the song “La Hoola Boola” was later added to the production of Bob Coles & Billy Johnson's Broadway play "A Trip To Coontown". That website includes a complete list of the songs that were featured in that production.
An excerpt from the article "Forgotten Manuscripts: A Trip to Coontown" written by Krystyn R. Moon, David Krasner, Thomas L. Riis, and included in African American Review Volume 44, Numbers 1-2, Spring/Summer 2011 (pp. 7-24 | 10.1353/afa.2011.0012) provides interesting information about that 1898 play and one of the songs that was originally written for that play “The Wedding of the Chinee and the Coon” (1897)”:
..."Bob Cole and Billy Johnson’s A Trip to Coontown first appeared on the stage during the 1897–98 season. Although African Americans had written numerous short theatrical and musical works, none had written a full-length musical production. To add to its historical significance, A Trip to Coontown was performed, directed, and produced by African Americans, an astounding feat in an era where few independent theaters could even consider taking a chance on such a production. Unfortunately, the play—like so many other nineteenth-century African American documents and artifacts—was lost, and scholars could only make conjectures (based mainly on newspaper reviews) about what it looked and sounded like.
...In A Trip to Coontown, Cole and Johnson reworked a skit originally titled At Jolly Coon-ey Island that Cole had written for Black Patti’s Troubadours (the operatic variety company formed by Sissieretta Jones) and named the new production to spoof one of the most popular musicals of the 1890s, A Trip to Chinatown (1891).3 Despite positive reviews in the fall of 1897, Cole was unable to produce his work except in third-rate American and Canadian theaters over the course of several weeks. By the end of the nineteenth century, the theater industry was owned and operated by a handful of European American men who could blacklist any performer and destroy his/her career. Not until after World War I did actors and writers have some success unionizing, but African Americans were almost unilaterally excluded. Cole’s previous employers organized a boycott of Cole and Johnson’s play because they chose to work independently. Despite this hurdle, its success grew, and Klaw and Erlanger, one of the major theatrical booking agencies in New York City, finally broke the boycott in April 1898 and opened A Trip to Coontown at the Third Avenue Theater.4A Trip to Coontown toured the United States for..."
-snip-
[end of Project Muse excerpt]
https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/african_american_review/v044/44.1-2.moon.html
-snip-
As per this article, the original title for the play "A Trip To Coontown" was "At Jolly Coon-ey Island". That title includes a clever play on words since "Coney Island" was (and still is) a popular amusement location in New York City and "coon" was a somewhat common referent for a Black person. [The word "coon" as a referent for a Black person is considered a pejorative referent and as such is no considered appropriate to use.). The word "coney" in the name "Coney Island" is an English adaptation of a Dutch word for "rabbit". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coney_Island.
Given that the first cover of "La Hoola Boola"'s musical included drawings of two Hawaiians (as per the statements of James J. Fuld), and given that song's later inclusion in the play "A Trip To Coontown", it could be said that that composition provided a stereotypical depiction-albeit probably "friendly" stereotypical depiction- of Hawaiians. Since the play "A Trip To Coontown" apparently also included other stereotyped depictions, I can see how the song "La Hoola Boola" was added to that production.
****
SOUND FILES OF THE YALE FIGHT SONG "BOOLA BOOLA" AND THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA FIGHT SONG "BOOMER SOONER"
The SingALong Gang - Boola Boola
Technotherapie, Uploaded on Dec 17, 2011
****
Boomer Sooner (University of Oklahoma fight song)
2011mrkingofkings, Published on Dec 7, 2013
My third Big Eight Conference fight song.
One of my favorite fight songs of all time, it's Boomer Sooner by The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band, which WWE play-by-play man and Sooners fan Jim Ross uses as his theme music...
-snip-
A "fight song" is a song that is used to cheer on the athletes in a competitive game.
Here's information about the University of Oklahoma Fight Song "Boomer Sooner":
"Boomer Sooner" is the fight song for the University of Oklahoma (OU). The lyrics were written in 1905 by Arthur M. Alden, an OU student and son of a local jeweler in Norman. The tune is taken from "Boola Boola", the fight song of Yale University (which was itself borrowed from an 1898 song called "La Hoola Boola" by Robert Allen (Bob) Cole and Billy Johnson)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomer_Sooner
-snip-
The lyrics to the University of Oklahoma song "Boomer Sooner" are found on that song's Wikipedia page.
****
ADDENDUM: TWO UNRELATED SONGS WITH SIMILAR TITLE OR TUNE
BOOLA BOOLA
ABAKFAY,Published on Jul 8, 2013
-snip-
There are several videos or sound files of this song on YouTube. Those performances are credited to Abdallah Lee. From the comments and summaries I believe that this song is Afar music from Somali, Africa.
****
Indonesia National Anthem "Indonesia Raya" (Great Indonesia)
NationalAnthems12, Published on Oct 9, 2012
The official national anthem of Indonesia "Indonesia Raya" (Great Indonesia)
Lyrics include in both languages Indonesian and English
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Friday, March 1, 2013
A White & A Black Version of The Song "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post is Part II of a two part series on two versions of song that are known as "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown". Part II features the lyrics of and sound files of these two songs.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-textual-analysis-of-two-versions-of.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents my textual analysis of the original 1905 lyrics of "What You Goin' Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?" (Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown) and the 1969 Rufus Thomas version of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and sociological purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
FEATURED SOUND FILE AND LYRICS
"Rufus Rastas Johnson Brown" (Von Tilzer) Ragtime song by Arthur Collins Victor 4432 C 1905
EMGColone, Published on Jun 3, 2012
"What you going to do when the Rent comes 'Round " Ragtime Song sung by Arthur Collins Victor 4432 [song starts at .31]
-snip-
LYRICS:
What You Goin' To Do When the Rent Comes 'Round? (Rufus Rastas Johnson Brown)
music by Harry von Tilzer; words by Andrew B. Sterling
First verse:
Who dat a knockin' at the door below,
Who dat a shivrin' in the hail and snow,
I can hear you grumblin' Mister Rufus Brown,
Just keep on a knockin' babe, I won't come down,
I wants to tell you that you can't get in,
Have you been a gamblin'
Honey, did you win?
what's that you tell me,
coon you lost your breath?
I hopes you freezes to death
(Chorus)
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round,
What you goin' to say,
how you goin' to pay,
You'll never have a bit of sense till judgement day;
You know, I know, rent means dough,
Landlord's goin' to put us out in the snow,
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round.
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round,
What you goin' to say,
how you goin' to pay,
You'll never have a bit of sense till judgement day;
You know, I know, rent means dough,
Landlord's goin' to put us out in the snow,
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin’ to do when the rent comes ‘round.
Second verse:
Keep on a bangin’ on the old front door,
In just a minute babe you’ll hear me snore,
If I goes to bed without a bite or sup,
You will be an icicle when I wakes up,
Where’s all the money that you said you’d bring,
Melted all away just like the snow last Spring,
Rufus I loves you, but this serves you right,
Guess that’s sufficient, “goodnight.”
(Chorus)
Disclaimer:
The derogatory terms, images, and ideas that appear in some of this sheet music are not condoned by the University of Mississippi. They do represent the attitudes of a number of Americans at the times the songs were published. As such, it is hoped that the sheet music in this collection can aid students of music, history, and other disciplines to better understand popular American music and racial stereotypes from the 19th- and early 20th-centuries.
http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sharris/id/1645/rec/6
item date 1905
-snip-
Click http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/levy-cgi/display.cgi?id=150a.018.000;pages=4;range=0-3 for a larger image of this song's cover. The cover shows a drawing of an urban, middle age Black couple standing outside a house. The couple are wearing what I would call "dress up" clothes. Both the man & the woman are drawn with large, red lips, and the man has a cigar in his mouth.
****
Rufus Thomas -- Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown
HoYeahcorp, Published on Oct 13, 2012
"Do The Funky Chicken"Album.
1969.
-snip-
LYRICS: RUFUS RASTUS JOHNSON BROWN
(Rufus Thomas)
Background singers -Oh! Rastas! [with additional words ???]
Lead Singer: Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent come around,
Second Male voice: “I don’t know. I don’t know”.
Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay.
Ain’t gonna have no money till judgement day.
Second male voice: I’m broke. I’m broke.
Lead:Way down yonder about a mile and a half
I can see ole Rastus comin down the path.
He’s runnin, and skippin, and a-jumpin, and a yellin.
He got a pot full of chitlins and they are smellin.
Background singers – Pot!
Lead: Oh, Rufus!
What you been doin ole Rufus
Oh, Rufus,
What in the world do you want from me.
Lead Singer & background singers
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent come around,
Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay.
Ain’t gonna have no money till judgment day.
Lead: Oh, Rufus!
Oh, Rufus!
Oh, Rufus,
What in the world do you want from me?
Lead Singer & background singers
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent come around,
Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay.
Ain’t gonna have no money till judgment day.
Lead singer,
Oh, baby!
I gotta get a movin
Oh, baby!
I gotta get a movin
Rufus Rastus
Johnson Brown,
Rufus Rastus
Johnson Brown
[The Lead singer begins to scat while the background singers continue to sing the words “Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown”]
-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell from the sound file. The words in brackets with question marks mean that I was unable to decipher what was sung. The words in italics mean that I'm not sure about what I transcribed. Additions & corrections are very welcome.
ADDENDUM
I want to be clear that these two versions of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" aren't the only two versions of that song that exists. Some people are very familiar with versions of "Rufus Rastus etc" that ends with a portion of a song called "C. H. I. C. K. E. N." Here's a comment from the Mudcat Cafe discussion thread on "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" about those versions:
-snip-
That comment & both the Mudcat threads cited contain examples of the 1902 song "C-H-I-C-K-E-N".
****
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to the transcriber who is quoted in this post. Thanks also to the uploaders of these sound files.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post is Part II of a two part series on two versions of song that are known as "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown". Part II features the lyrics of and sound files of these two songs.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-textual-analysis-of-two-versions-of.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents my textual analysis of the original 1905 lyrics of "What You Goin' Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?" (Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown) and the 1969 Rufus Thomas version of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and sociological purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
FEATURED SOUND FILE AND LYRICS
"Rufus Rastas Johnson Brown" (Von Tilzer) Ragtime song by Arthur Collins Victor 4432 C 1905
EMGColone, Published on Jun 3, 2012
"What you going to do when the Rent comes 'Round " Ragtime Song sung by Arthur Collins Victor 4432 [song starts at .31]
-snip-
LYRICS:
What You Goin' To Do When the Rent Comes 'Round? (Rufus Rastas Johnson Brown)
music by Harry von Tilzer; words by Andrew B. Sterling
First verse:
Who dat a knockin' at the door below,
Who dat a shivrin' in the hail and snow,
I can hear you grumblin' Mister Rufus Brown,
Just keep on a knockin' babe, I won't come down,
I wants to tell you that you can't get in,
Have you been a gamblin'
Honey, did you win?
what's that you tell me,
coon you lost your breath?
I hopes you freezes to death
(Chorus)
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round,
What you goin' to say,
how you goin' to pay,
You'll never have a bit of sense till judgement day;
You know, I know, rent means dough,
Landlord's goin' to put us out in the snow,
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round.
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round,
What you goin' to say,
how you goin' to pay,
You'll never have a bit of sense till judgement day;
You know, I know, rent means dough,
Landlord's goin' to put us out in the snow,
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin’ to do when the rent comes ‘round.
Second verse:
Keep on a bangin’ on the old front door,
In just a minute babe you’ll hear me snore,
If I goes to bed without a bite or sup,
You will be an icicle when I wakes up,
Where’s all the money that you said you’d bring,
Melted all away just like the snow last Spring,
Rufus I loves you, but this serves you right,
Guess that’s sufficient, “goodnight.”
(Chorus)
Disclaimer:
The derogatory terms, images, and ideas that appear in some of this sheet music are not condoned by the University of Mississippi. They do represent the attitudes of a number of Americans at the times the songs were published. As such, it is hoped that the sheet music in this collection can aid students of music, history, and other disciplines to better understand popular American music and racial stereotypes from the 19th- and early 20th-centuries.
http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/sharris/id/1645/rec/6
item date 1905
-snip-
Click http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/levy-cgi/display.cgi?id=150a.018.000;pages=4;range=0-3 for a larger image of this song's cover. The cover shows a drawing of an urban, middle age Black couple standing outside a house. The couple are wearing what I would call "dress up" clothes. Both the man & the woman are drawn with large, red lips, and the man has a cigar in his mouth.
****
Rufus Thomas -- Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown
HoYeahcorp, Published on Oct 13, 2012
"Do The Funky Chicken"Album.
1969.
-snip-
LYRICS: RUFUS RASTUS JOHNSON BROWN
(Rufus Thomas)
Background singers -Oh! Rastas! [with additional words ???]
Lead Singer: Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent come around,
Second Male voice: “I don’t know. I don’t know”.
Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay.
Ain’t gonna have no money till judgement day.
Second male voice: I’m broke. I’m broke.
Lead:Way down yonder about a mile and a half
I can see ole Rastus comin down the path.
He’s runnin, and skippin, and a-jumpin, and a yellin.
He got a pot full of chitlins and they are smellin.
Background singers – Pot!
Lead: Oh, Rufus!
What you been doin ole Rufus
Oh, Rufus,
What in the world do you want from me.
Lead Singer & background singers
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent come around,
Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay.
Ain’t gonna have no money till judgment day.
Lead: Oh, Rufus!
Oh, Rufus!
Oh, Rufus,
What in the world do you want from me?
Lead Singer & background singers
Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown,
what you goin' to do when the rent come around,
Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay.
Ain’t gonna have no money till judgment day.
Lead singer,
Oh, baby!
I gotta get a movin
Oh, baby!
I gotta get a movin
Rufus Rastus
Johnson Brown,
Rufus Rastus
Johnson Brown
[The Lead singer begins to scat while the background singers continue to sing the words “Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown”]
-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell from the sound file. The words in brackets with question marks mean that I was unable to decipher what was sung. The words in italics mean that I'm not sure about what I transcribed. Additions & corrections are very welcome.
ADDENDUM
I want to be clear that these two versions of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" aren't the only two versions of that song that exists. Some people are very familiar with versions of "Rufus Rastus etc" that ends with a portion of a song called "C. H. I. C. K. E. N." Here's a comment from the Mudcat Cafe discussion thread on "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" about those versions:
In case anyone is still confused about why some versions of RUFUS RASTUS… have verses about chickens and some don't—it's because two different Tin-Pan-Alley songs somehow got blended together by the folk process. The songs are:
DAT'S DE WAY TO SPELL CHICKEN by Sidney L. Perrin and Bob Slater, 1902;
and
WHAT YOU GOIN' TO DO WHEN THE RENT COMES 'ROUND? by Andrew B. Sterling and Harry Von Tilzer, 1905
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=50037#1451385 Origins: C-H-I-C-K-E-N. [Mudcat: Rufus Rastus; Jim Dixon, Date: 04 Apr 05 - 12:15 AM]
-snip-
That comment & both the Mudcat threads cited contain examples of the 1902 song "C-H-I-C-K-E-N".
****
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to the transcriber who is quoted in this post. Thanks also to the uploaders of these sound files.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
A Textual Analysis Of Two Versions Of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post is Part I of a two part series on two versions of the song that are known as "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
Part II features lyrics and sound files of the original 1905 version of this song and of Rufus Thomas' 1969 version of this song.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-white-black-version-of-song-rufus.html for Part II of this series.
****
PART I
I first heard about the 1905 Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown in 2007 when I read about him on this Mudcat Cafe discussion thread: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=37834 "What You Goin' Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?" [hereafter given as Mudcat: Rufus Rastus].
I confess that I really don't like the image of Rufus Rastus that was drawn by Andrew B. Sterling, that song's lyricist. Sterling's description of Rufus Rastus fits the stereotype of a Negro coon, only he-Von Tilzer-following the customs of his time-would have written "Negro" with a small "n". Sterling's caricature of Rufus Rastus was that of a good for nothing man who stayed out late, and didn't have the sense to not gamble away his rent money. Von Tilzer's Rufus Rastus also fit the stereotype of a coon in that he was dominated by his wife - or at least his woman- who is actually the one who speaks in that 1905 song. The reason why I'm not sure if that was his wife or not was that Rufus Rastus didn't have a key to his own home. But maybe in the beginning 20th century USA folks, or just struggling poor folks didn't have keys to their homes. Maybe they secured the door with some kind of latch, and that is why that 1905 Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown couldn't get in to his house unless someone from the inside let him in.
And it seems to me that Rufus Rastus must have stayed out late more than just that one time that is recorded in that song. And it seems to me that he must have done some other real triflin things for his wife -or his woman- to have such a strong reaction to him staying out late that time. Maybe Rufus Rastus had a habit of gamblin away his money, even down to the rent money. Otherwise why did she jump to that conclusion that Rufus had been gambling just because he stayed out real late that night? But am I right in detecting some acceptance of Rufus Rastus gambling since she asked him "Did you win?" and "Where’s all the money that you said you’d bring"? Isn't that enabling Rufus Rastus' gambling habit? Hmmm.
Yet, according to how Andrew B. Sterling tells it, even before she asked if Rufus Rastus had won any money from his gamblin, his wife or woman- who was given no name in that song- was clearly not happy with Rufus Rastus. She called him out of his name (by calling him a coon), and she said that he didn't have any sense, and he wouldn't have sense to judgment day-which after all, is probably still a long time coming. And Rufus Rastus' wife (I'll give her that benefit of the doubt) called her husband "Honey" and "babe" and said she loved him. But she also said that she wished that he would freeze out in the snow. That was some strange kinda love...
While Andrew B. Sterling's depicted the silent Rufus Rastus as a coon, and even has Rufus Rastus' wife referring to him as such, Sterling's characterization of Rufus Rastus also has elements of the pretentious, living above his means, urban Zip Coon. It seems to me that the main thing in the song that implies that Sterling pictured Rufus Rastus as a Zip Coon was the fact that he gave that character four names instead of a total of three names that most Americans have. Three names - regular. Four names - pretentious. Not only that, I'm sure that it was no accident that Andrew B. Sterling gave that character the names "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
It's possible that in 1905 the name "Rufus" didn't bring to mind a picture of a poor, country Black man. However, although I only have anecdotal proof to back up this assertion, I believe that the name "Rufus" has carried those connotations for some time. My claim that the name "Rufus" is largely associated with Black males is supported by this comment by a blogger on that Mudcat Folk & Blues discussion thread that I referred to earlier:
"In _A Death in the Family_ by James Agee, a little white boy whose name happens to be Rufus is taunted by the neighborhood bullies for having a "n****r name"*, and they use that song. That would have been about 1915.
Then there was
"What does you lahk bestes', Rastus?"
"Ah lahks asbestos, Rufus."
So, yes, the names carry some baggage. Maybe they will manage to shed it by & by." "[Mudcat: Rufus Rastus; Joe_F, Date: 11 Sep 07 - 09:21 PM]
-snip-
* The "n word" is fully spelled out in this comment.
The name "Rastus" has a long tradition of being associated with Black males. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastus:
" "Rastus" has been used as a generic, often derogatory, name for black men at least since 1880, when Joel Chandler Harris included a Black deacon named "Brer Rastus" in the first Uncle Remus book. However, "Rastus" has never been particularly popular as a Black name. For example, the 1870 census reported only 42 individuals named "Rastus" in the United States, of whom only four were Black or mulatto.[2]
Rastus—as a stereotypically happy black man, not as a particular person—became a familiar character in minstrel shows. This is documented in Every Time I Turn Around: Rite, Reversal, and the End of Blackface Minstrelsy,[3] and Racism and Poverty in Ford City, PA, 1959: Minstrel Show,[4] and in fiction such as Adventures of Rufus Rastus Brown in Darktown (1906)[5] and Rastus Comes to the Point: A Negro Farce,[6] and in popular songs such as Rastus, Take Me Back (1909)[7] and (Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown) What You Going to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round (1905),[8] on radio,[9] and in films, most notably the Rastus series of short films,[10] with titles that included How Rastus Got His Chicken[11] and Rastus Runs Amuck.[12]"
I'm not sure whether in the late 19th century and the early 20th century the surnames "Johnson" and "Brown" were associated with Black Americans more than with Americans of any other race or ethnicity. However, if people make that connection now they might be surprised to know that, according to the 1990 United States census, "Johnson" is the second most common last name, and "Brown" is the fifth most common last name in that nation ("Smith" is the #2 most common last name in the USA).
http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm. Yet, however many White "Browns" there are, I've no doubt that Sterling selected the last name "Brown" for Rufus Rastus as a reference to that character's race. The name "Rufus Rastus Johnson Smith" doesn't have the same connotations as "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
By the way, in one line of that song, another way that Rufus Rastus' wife showed her disrespect for her man was by sneeringly referring to him as "Mister Rufus Brown", and not by his full name. I read the use of the title "Mister" as a taunt, as if Rufus Rastus' wife was implying that he really wasn't man enough to use the title "Mister". And, indeed, the use of "titles" for Black Americans was a new custom, particularly in the South, where before the end of slavery, the only "honorific" that could be used for a Black adult was "auntie" or "uncle".
Before I turn to Rufus Thomas' 1969 version of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown", I feel compelled to note the 19th century, early 20th century stereotypical "Negro" dialect that Andrew B. Sterling used in his lyrics to that song. Sure, some poor Black folks then said "dat" instead of "that". And some Black folks - then and now-incorrectly use incorrect grammar such as "I hopes you freezes to death", "If I goes to bed without a bite or sup", and what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round". But non-Black Americans also use such incorrect standard Emglish grammar. Nevertheless, that dialect is associated with negative stereotypes of Black folks. And because of the negative stereotypes associated with the depiction of Rufus Rastas & his wife, including the dialectic English, I believe that it would be very problematic if this 1905 version of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" were to be sung to the general public nowadays in any way except a part of an educational historical presentation.
Also, before turning to my briefer analysis of Rufus Thomas' Rufus Rastus song, here's an interesting comment from another Mudcat blogger which provides some background about how Harry Von Tilzer came up with the idea for this song:
"This rent lament is a classic from the late 19th century minstrel song school, and is also known by the compound name of its protagonist, Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown. Music historian Sigmund Spaeth describes how the author became inspired to write this song:
Harry Von Tilzer was standing on the platform of the railway station at Miami listening to the conversation of two negroes. The woman was berating the man, and after using every possible adjective to describe his low-down shiftlessness, she worked up to a climax with the question, "What you goin' to do when de rent comes 'round?" The rest was easy."" [Mudcat: Rufus Rastus; Charley Noble, Date: 01 Sep 01 - 03:25 PM]
In contrast to that 1905 depiction of Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown, Rufus Thomas' 1969 character of the same name is much more sympathetically drawn. In that 1969 song there is no mention of Rufus Rastus gambling, nor is there any wife taunting him- callin him out of his name- and refusing to let him in out of the cold. Unlike that earlier song, in Rufus Thomas' record, Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown actually says something. He says "I'm broke. I'm broke". And as any American of any race or ethnicity could tell you, there's more ways of being broke in the US of A then gambling. However, I get the impression from that R&B song that Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown must have been broke quite often, and that the lead singer is used to him coming to him to give him some money to help him pay his rent and his other bills. Yet, the picture I get from this song is that the lead singer is shaking his head and saying to himself or to Rufus Rastus "What am I going to do with you". He's not taunting Rufus Rastus, refusing to help him, or wishing that Rufus Rastus were dead.
Rufus Thomas' song is written in a form of African American vernacular English, for example the lines "Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay/Ain’t gonna have no money till judgment day." Then again, the Rufus Rastus character in that 1969 song says "I'm broke" and not "I'se broke". And the lead singer says "what you goin' to do when the rent come around" and not "what youse gwine do when the rent come 'round". As a 20th/21st century African American, that latter pronuciation and the rest of that 19th century/early 20th century "Negro dialect" associated with that 1905 "Rufus Rastas" song isn't at all funny to me.
I don't think that Rufus Thomas' depiction of Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown has any elements of Zip Coon. Those four names & some of the lyrics are lifted from that earlier song, and those names don't appear to be meant to convey pretentiousness as I believe they are meant to convey in that 1905 song. But, while I wouldn't say that Rufus Thomas' depiction of Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown is that of a coon, I believe that that 1969 depiction definitely has some coonish elements. Notice that the 1969 Rufus Rastus isn't described as a hard-working man or a man who has tried to find work and for some reason is down on his luck. Instead, Rufus Thomas says that "I can see ole Rastus comin down the path/He’s runnin, and skippin, and a-jumpin, and a yellin/He got a pot full of chitlins and they are smellin." That description fits the happy-go-lucky, irresponsible coon stereotype. However, when Rufus Thomas refers to Rufus Rastus as "ole Rufus", I think that word "ole" softens that description, and shows that singer has some affection for that man. (Of course, that may be an incorrect transcription of that word, and Rufus Thomas may have said "old" instead of "ole". Even so, I think that word also conveys some affection toward Rufus Rastus".)
I wonder whether the lead voice in that 1969 song was supposed to be a friend of Rufus Rastus or if he was supposed to be kin to Rufus Rastus. If that lead voice and Rufus Rastus were related, then the implication that Rufus Rastus hoped to get help from that lead voice fits the findings in one recent study that one reason why the household wealth of middle class Black American families is so much lower than the household wealth of middle class White American families is that Black American families give more money to assist their poor relatives. [http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/02/18/family-members-in-need/ Family Members in Need: Why Some Middle Class Blacks Can’t Get Ahead, Lisa Wade, Feb 18, 2013, at 12:00 pm]
There are many causes for poverty besides people gambling their money and otherwise being irresponsible. That brings me to my first reaction to the 1905 song "What You Goin' To Do When the Rent Comes 'Round? (Rufus Rastas Johnson Brown)" when I first read about it on that Mudcat Cafe discussion thread that I've previously cited:
..."Fwiw, I've never heard this song or the chicken song. And I doubt very much that many contemporary African Americans sing this song as the name "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" is quite stereotypical and the names "Rufus" and "Rastus" in particular remind folks of what weren't good ole days for many people. Maybe Rufus Rastus would have been able to pay his rent if there wasn't so much institutional and personal racism around.
And yes, I know this song is to be sung just for fun. But still."...
[Mudcat: Rufus Rastus; Azizi, Date: 11 Sep 07 - 02:39 PM]
****
RELATED LINKS
Information about the coon and Zip Coon stereotypes are given in these articles http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/coon/ and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/deconstructing-caricature-of-zip-coon.html "Deconstructing The Caricature of Zip Coon & Other Minstrel Black Dandies"
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ACKNOWLEGEMENT AND THANKS
I can't bring myself to thank the composer & lyricists of that 1905 song. Yet, I recognize that in the early 20th century, the characterizations of Black people found in that song may have even been thought to be progressive. At least, the n word wasn't used in that Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown song.
I do acknowlege Rufus Thomas' writing and performance & I thank him for his musical legacy. I also thank each of the commenters and authors who are quoted in this post.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post is Part I of a two part series on two versions of the song that are known as "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
Part II features lyrics and sound files of the original 1905 version of this song and of Rufus Thomas' 1969 version of this song.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-white-black-version-of-song-rufus.html for Part II of this series.
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PART I
I first heard about the 1905 Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown in 2007 when I read about him on this Mudcat Cafe discussion thread: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=37834 "What You Goin' Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?" [hereafter given as Mudcat: Rufus Rastus].
I confess that I really don't like the image of Rufus Rastus that was drawn by Andrew B. Sterling, that song's lyricist. Sterling's description of Rufus Rastus fits the stereotype of a Negro coon, only he-Von Tilzer-following the customs of his time-would have written "Negro" with a small "n". Sterling's caricature of Rufus Rastus was that of a good for nothing man who stayed out late, and didn't have the sense to not gamble away his rent money. Von Tilzer's Rufus Rastus also fit the stereotype of a coon in that he was dominated by his wife - or at least his woman- who is actually the one who speaks in that 1905 song. The reason why I'm not sure if that was his wife or not was that Rufus Rastus didn't have a key to his own home. But maybe in the beginning 20th century USA folks, or just struggling poor folks didn't have keys to their homes. Maybe they secured the door with some kind of latch, and that is why that 1905 Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown couldn't get in to his house unless someone from the inside let him in.
And it seems to me that Rufus Rastus must have stayed out late more than just that one time that is recorded in that song. And it seems to me that he must have done some other real triflin things for his wife -or his woman- to have such a strong reaction to him staying out late that time. Maybe Rufus Rastus had a habit of gamblin away his money, even down to the rent money. Otherwise why did she jump to that conclusion that Rufus had been gambling just because he stayed out real late that night? But am I right in detecting some acceptance of Rufus Rastus gambling since she asked him "Did you win?" and "Where’s all the money that you said you’d bring"? Isn't that enabling Rufus Rastus' gambling habit? Hmmm.
Yet, according to how Andrew B. Sterling tells it, even before she asked if Rufus Rastus had won any money from his gamblin, his wife or woman- who was given no name in that song- was clearly not happy with Rufus Rastus. She called him out of his name (by calling him a coon), and she said that he didn't have any sense, and he wouldn't have sense to judgment day-which after all, is probably still a long time coming. And Rufus Rastus' wife (I'll give her that benefit of the doubt) called her husband "Honey" and "babe" and said she loved him. But she also said that she wished that he would freeze out in the snow. That was some strange kinda love...
While Andrew B. Sterling's depicted the silent Rufus Rastus as a coon, and even has Rufus Rastus' wife referring to him as such, Sterling's characterization of Rufus Rastus also has elements of the pretentious, living above his means, urban Zip Coon. It seems to me that the main thing in the song that implies that Sterling pictured Rufus Rastus as a Zip Coon was the fact that he gave that character four names instead of a total of three names that most Americans have. Three names - regular. Four names - pretentious. Not only that, I'm sure that it was no accident that Andrew B. Sterling gave that character the names "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
It's possible that in 1905 the name "Rufus" didn't bring to mind a picture of a poor, country Black man. However, although I only have anecdotal proof to back up this assertion, I believe that the name "Rufus" has carried those connotations for some time. My claim that the name "Rufus" is largely associated with Black males is supported by this comment by a blogger on that Mudcat Folk & Blues discussion thread that I referred to earlier:
"In _A Death in the Family_ by James Agee, a little white boy whose name happens to be Rufus is taunted by the neighborhood bullies for having a "n****r name"*, and they use that song. That would have been about 1915.
Then there was
"What does you lahk bestes', Rastus?"
"Ah lahks asbestos, Rufus."
So, yes, the names carry some baggage. Maybe they will manage to shed it by & by." "[Mudcat: Rufus Rastus; Joe_F, Date: 11 Sep 07 - 09:21 PM]
-snip-
* The "n word" is fully spelled out in this comment.
The name "Rastus" has a long tradition of being associated with Black males. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastus:
" "Rastus" has been used as a generic, often derogatory, name for black men at least since 1880, when Joel Chandler Harris included a Black deacon named "Brer Rastus" in the first Uncle Remus book. However, "Rastus" has never been particularly popular as a Black name. For example, the 1870 census reported only 42 individuals named "Rastus" in the United States, of whom only four were Black or mulatto.[2]
Rastus—as a stereotypically happy black man, not as a particular person—became a familiar character in minstrel shows. This is documented in Every Time I Turn Around: Rite, Reversal, and the End of Blackface Minstrelsy,[3] and Racism and Poverty in Ford City, PA, 1959: Minstrel Show,[4] and in fiction such as Adventures of Rufus Rastus Brown in Darktown (1906)[5] and Rastus Comes to the Point: A Negro Farce,[6] and in popular songs such as Rastus, Take Me Back (1909)[7] and (Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown) What You Going to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round (1905),[8] on radio,[9] and in films, most notably the Rastus series of short films,[10] with titles that included How Rastus Got His Chicken[11] and Rastus Runs Amuck.[12]"
I'm not sure whether in the late 19th century and the early 20th century the surnames "Johnson" and "Brown" were associated with Black Americans more than with Americans of any other race or ethnicity. However, if people make that connection now they might be surprised to know that, according to the 1990 United States census, "Johnson" is the second most common last name, and "Brown" is the fifth most common last name in that nation ("Smith" is the #2 most common last name in the USA).
http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm. Yet, however many White "Browns" there are, I've no doubt that Sterling selected the last name "Brown" for Rufus Rastus as a reference to that character's race. The name "Rufus Rastus Johnson Smith" doesn't have the same connotations as "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown".
By the way, in one line of that song, another way that Rufus Rastus' wife showed her disrespect for her man was by sneeringly referring to him as "Mister Rufus Brown", and not by his full name. I read the use of the title "Mister" as a taunt, as if Rufus Rastus' wife was implying that he really wasn't man enough to use the title "Mister". And, indeed, the use of "titles" for Black Americans was a new custom, particularly in the South, where before the end of slavery, the only "honorific" that could be used for a Black adult was "auntie" or "uncle".
Before I turn to Rufus Thomas' 1969 version of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown", I feel compelled to note the 19th century, early 20th century stereotypical "Negro" dialect that Andrew B. Sterling used in his lyrics to that song. Sure, some poor Black folks then said "dat" instead of "that". And some Black folks - then and now-incorrectly use incorrect grammar such as "I hopes you freezes to death", "If I goes to bed without a bite or sup", and what you goin' to do when the rent comes ‘round". But non-Black Americans also use such incorrect standard Emglish grammar. Nevertheless, that dialect is associated with negative stereotypes of Black folks. And because of the negative stereotypes associated with the depiction of Rufus Rastas & his wife, including the dialectic English, I believe that it would be very problematic if this 1905 version of "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" were to be sung to the general public nowadays in any way except a part of an educational historical presentation.
Also, before turning to my briefer analysis of Rufus Thomas' Rufus Rastus song, here's an interesting comment from another Mudcat blogger which provides some background about how Harry Von Tilzer came up with the idea for this song:
"This rent lament is a classic from the late 19th century minstrel song school, and is also known by the compound name of its protagonist, Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown. Music historian Sigmund Spaeth describes how the author became inspired to write this song:
Harry Von Tilzer was standing on the platform of the railway station at Miami listening to the conversation of two negroes. The woman was berating the man, and after using every possible adjective to describe his low-down shiftlessness, she worked up to a climax with the question, "What you goin' to do when de rent comes 'round?" The rest was easy."" [Mudcat: Rufus Rastus; Charley Noble, Date: 01 Sep 01 - 03:25 PM]
In contrast to that 1905 depiction of Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown, Rufus Thomas' 1969 character of the same name is much more sympathetically drawn. In that 1969 song there is no mention of Rufus Rastus gambling, nor is there any wife taunting him- callin him out of his name- and refusing to let him in out of the cold. Unlike that earlier song, in Rufus Thomas' record, Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown actually says something. He says "I'm broke. I'm broke". And as any American of any race or ethnicity could tell you, there's more ways of being broke in the US of A then gambling. However, I get the impression from that R&B song that Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown must have been broke quite often, and that the lead singer is used to him coming to him to give him some money to help him pay his rent and his other bills. Yet, the picture I get from this song is that the lead singer is shaking his head and saying to himself or to Rufus Rastus "What am I going to do with you". He's not taunting Rufus Rastus, refusing to help him, or wishing that Rufus Rastus were dead.
Rufus Thomas' song is written in a form of African American vernacular English, for example the lines "Ain’t got no money, you can’t pay/Ain’t gonna have no money till judgment day." Then again, the Rufus Rastus character in that 1969 song says "I'm broke" and not "I'se broke". And the lead singer says "what you goin' to do when the rent come around" and not "what youse gwine do when the rent come 'round". As a 20th/21st century African American, that latter pronuciation and the rest of that 19th century/early 20th century "Negro dialect" associated with that 1905 "Rufus Rastas" song isn't at all funny to me.
I don't think that Rufus Thomas' depiction of Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown has any elements of Zip Coon. Those four names & some of the lyrics are lifted from that earlier song, and those names don't appear to be meant to convey pretentiousness as I believe they are meant to convey in that 1905 song. But, while I wouldn't say that Rufus Thomas' depiction of Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown is that of a coon, I believe that that 1969 depiction definitely has some coonish elements. Notice that the 1969 Rufus Rastus isn't described as a hard-working man or a man who has tried to find work and for some reason is down on his luck. Instead, Rufus Thomas says that "I can see ole Rastus comin down the path/He’s runnin, and skippin, and a-jumpin, and a yellin/He got a pot full of chitlins and they are smellin." That description fits the happy-go-lucky, irresponsible coon stereotype. However, when Rufus Thomas refers to Rufus Rastus as "ole Rufus", I think that word "ole" softens that description, and shows that singer has some affection for that man. (Of course, that may be an incorrect transcription of that word, and Rufus Thomas may have said "old" instead of "ole". Even so, I think that word also conveys some affection toward Rufus Rastus".)
I wonder whether the lead voice in that 1969 song was supposed to be a friend of Rufus Rastus or if he was supposed to be kin to Rufus Rastus. If that lead voice and Rufus Rastus were related, then the implication that Rufus Rastus hoped to get help from that lead voice fits the findings in one recent study that one reason why the household wealth of middle class Black American families is so much lower than the household wealth of middle class White American families is that Black American families give more money to assist their poor relatives. [http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/02/18/family-members-in-need/ Family Members in Need: Why Some Middle Class Blacks Can’t Get Ahead, Lisa Wade, Feb 18, 2013, at 12:00 pm]
There are many causes for poverty besides people gambling their money and otherwise being irresponsible. That brings me to my first reaction to the 1905 song "What You Goin' To Do When the Rent Comes 'Round? (Rufus Rastas Johnson Brown)" when I first read about it on that Mudcat Cafe discussion thread that I've previously cited:
..."Fwiw, I've never heard this song or the chicken song. And I doubt very much that many contemporary African Americans sing this song as the name "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown" is quite stereotypical and the names "Rufus" and "Rastus" in particular remind folks of what weren't good ole days for many people. Maybe Rufus Rastus would have been able to pay his rent if there wasn't so much institutional and personal racism around.
And yes, I know this song is to be sung just for fun. But still."...
[Mudcat: Rufus Rastus; Azizi, Date: 11 Sep 07 - 02:39 PM]
****
RELATED LINKS
Information about the coon and Zip Coon stereotypes are given in these articles http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/coon/ and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/deconstructing-caricature-of-zip-coon.html "Deconstructing The Caricature of Zip Coon & Other Minstrel Black Dandies"
****
ACKNOWLEGEMENT AND THANKS
I can't bring myself to thank the composer & lyricists of that 1905 song. Yet, I recognize that in the early 20th century, the characterizations of Black people found in that song may have even been thought to be progressive. At least, the n word wasn't used in that Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown song.
I do acknowlege Rufus Thomas' writing and performance & I thank him for his musical legacy. I also thank each of the commenters and authors who are quoted in this post.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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