Should I whistle Dixie?

[peeplj]

If you don't care for the music, don't play it.

I doubt you made much just for that particular tune...so why give yourself a moral puzzle to solve?

--James

[Walden]

"Despite its prompt association with the southern cause, 'Dixie' remained one of President Lincoln's favorite tunes. Historian Cheryl Thurber says the very day the South surrendered, Lincoln asked a band to play 'Dixie' for crowds gathered outside the White House. " --NPR

[dubhlinn]

If you don't care for the music, don't play it.

I doubt you made much just for that particular tune...so why give yourself a moral puzzle to solve?

--James

I don't care for the politics behind "The Sash..."

It is a great melody with a grand solid rhythm and a serious attitude.

I would play it every day.. if I forgot about all the associations.

Slan,
D.

[cowtime]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n6JQlzmepo

[jim stone]

I think the song to which you kindly provided a link
is a great song, in truth. Not done so well in
the link, but it's background in the movie.
It's authentic, it expresses honestly
and the 'unreconstructed rebel' is somebody
real.

By the way it can be done to another tune,
'The State of Arkansas.' I don't know the
words to it but Pete Seeger adapted it
to the struggle to integrate Southern schools,
giving it these
words.

My name is Terry Roberts
From Little Rock I come.
I went down to the school house
The place they kept me from.
I went down to the schoolhouse
And this is what I saw.
State troopers with steel helmets
In the state of Arkansas.

Now listen Governer Faubus
And President Eisenhower too.
Give me the Constitution
That's what you got to do.
Give me that Constitution
I ask for nothing more.
That's what I want to study
In the state of Arkansas.

Well, you see:

Well I'm a good old Rebel
Yes that's just what I am.
For this great land of freedom
I do not care a damn.
I'm glad I fought against it
I only wish we'd won
And I don't want no pardon
For anything I done.

Well I can't take up my musket
And fight em now no more
But I ain't a gonna love em
Now that is something sure,
And I don't want no pardon
For what I was and am.
And I won't be reconstructed
And I do not care a damn.

But Dixie is something else--a bright, happy
tune, with hurrah hurrah words which
people played and sang on their way to die.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic is not
bright and happy and it says what's worth
dying for.

[Innocent Bystander]

I don't care for the politics behind "The Sash..."

Me neither.

[peeplj]

Well, I've been known to play both Dixie and the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and other patriotic songs besides...but you do have to pick your time.

I never want my playing to be insulting or offensive to the listener, so, depending upon the audience and the circumstance, there are times that either Dixie or the Battle Hymn might not be appropriate.

Typically, though, if I don't feel that it's right to play Dixie, I won't play the Battle Hymn either.

But that's just me.

--James

[jim stone]

Here's another cheerful song to the strains of which
people went off to die. From the Mexican Revolution (by way of wiki):

The lyrics consist of independent verses, often improvised. It is similar to Yankee Doodle, The Burning of the School or On Top of Old Smoky. One typical and most familiar verse is as follows:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
marijuana para fumar

English

The cockroach, the cockroach
Can't walk anymore
Because it doesn't have, because it's lacking
marijuana to smoke

The reference to marijuana arose during a period of time---approximately the time of the Mexican Revolution---when the word cucaracha was also a slang term for marijuana or a marijuana cigarette stub (hence the term "roach" in American slang).

Another example:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
La patita principal.

English

The cockroach, the cockroach
Can't walk anymore
Because it doesn't have, because it's lacking
The front leg

During the Mexican Revolution, rebel and government forces alike invented political lyrics. In some versions, the cockroach is President Victoriano Huerta, who was a notorious drunk, and considered a villain and traitor due to his part in the death of revolutionary President Francisco Madero. They may include lines like:

En el norte vive Villa
En el sur vive Zapata
Lo que quiero es venganza
Por la muerte de Madero

(English)

In the north lives Villa,
In the south lives Zapata
What I want is revenge
For the death of Madero

[rebl_rn]

Well, most "marching off to war" songs tended to be bright and happy with lots of hurrahs - it was a lot easier to get people marching off to war that way!

For example:

Over There

Over there, over there!
Send the word, send the word, over there!
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming ev'rywhere!
So prepare, say a prayer, send the word, send the word to beware!
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back 'til it's over Over There!

[I.D.10-t]

I take the Battle Hymn of the Republic to be the
quintessential Union song. I do play it on the street.

You mean "John Brown's Body"?

Many songs have many different backgrounds. It adds an interesting element to these songs. Should a person be concerned about the other versions of "Turkey in the straw", a song that is now used on ice cream trucks, and sampled in at least one rap tune? And what about Tramp, Tramp, Tramp? A POW song sang both in the North and the South now known better for it's newer lyrics. Or what about about "When Johnnie comes Marching home"? now almost a joke due to it's association with ants marching. "The Bonnie blue flag" used the melody of "The Irish Jaunting Car", but I couldn't tell you what either sound like. Do many people even know what many of the confederate songs are?

To me the history and context of a song makes it interesting to me, and if I eliminated the ones that have a questionable past, I would have few songs to choose from.

[jim stone]

OK here's some historical background. Not endearing.
wiki on dixie

Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular.[4] Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point of view, common to minstrelsy at the time, that slavery was overall a positive institution. The pining slave had been used in minstrel tunes since the early 1850s, including Emmett's "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry" and "Johnny Roach". The fact that "Dixie" and its precursors are dance tunes only further made light of the subject.[13] In short, "Dixie" made the case, more strongly than any previous minstrel tune had, that slaves belonged in bondage.[14] This was accomplished through the song's protagonist, who, in comic black dialect, implies that despite his freedom, he is homesick for the plantation of his birth:

I wish I was in de land ob cotton,
Old times dar am not forgotten;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land whar I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

The remaining verses drift into the common minstrel idiom of a comical plantation scenario, "supposedly [depicting] the gayer side of life for slaves on Southern plantations":[15]

Old Missus marry "Will-de-weaber,"
Willium was a gay deceaber;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
But when he put his arm around'er,
He smilled as fierce as a forty-pound'er,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

The final verse mixes nonsense and dance steps with the freed-slave scenario:

Dar's buck-wheat cakes an 'Ingen' batter,
Makes you fat or a little fatter;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
Den hoe it down an scratch your grabble,
To Dixie land I'm bound to trabble.
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.[16]

[cowtime]

Fascinating- give us more "behind the music" info-

please......

[missy]

but, see, Jim - that goes back to my first post on the subject.

You play it, but you also talk about the history of the song. Playing it doesn't say you are "for" slavery, playing it is a small history lesson.

We often play "Wayfaring Stranger". Here in this city, where there is a huge history of the Underground Railroad, where many houses had hidden areas in the basement, and were we, the taxpayer have spent millions on the "Freedom Center" - people have NO idea of the background of that song. That's sad.

[cowtime]

Tell me. ( I like to play that one on occasion at church as a communion hymn
or a congregational hymn if the rest of the music matches)

[peeplj]

You know, I have been known to play "Amazing Grace" when asked. I've had the sad occasion to play it on fife at a funeral.

I am not Christian.

Should I therefore not play this tune? Does Christianity "own" this tune, or has it become a common and iconic touchstone of an entire culture?

The tune "Amazing Grace" is the property of mankind, regardless of its history.

Ditto for Dixie.

--James