Uncategorized Notes
This is a subset of "Yes: Note" - return to full list
This is a subset of "Yes: Note" - return to full list
We encourage inclusion of the song's second verse.* State lawmakers have rejected repeated attempts to formally adopt the verse as part of the state song since its writing in 1987 by Carol Beery Davis (Alaska’s 1967 State Poet Laureate). Davis (a white woman) devoted much of her life to learning and writing about native Tlingit songs and culture and wrote the additional verse specifically because the initial verse made no mention of Alaska’s indigenous people:
The original verse, written by Marie Drake in the 1930s, speaks of “the gold of the early sourdough’s dreams,” a reference to the largely white gold miners who rushed up from the Lower 48 more than a century ago. The lyrics build from a description of the state flag, which features the Big Dipper and was designed by a native boy, Benny Benson, though he is not mentioned in the song. reference
The reasons for not making the verse official include the usual variety (the song is a historic artifact that should not be altered), as well as criticism of the quality of the verse and how it flows with the first, and that the verse was not written by an indigenous person. Yet no concerted effort has been made to develop an alternative verse. The importance of the recognition of the state’s indigenous population in a state song which memorializes only its settlers cannot be overstated:
“It hurts that they won’t act on it,” said Tlingit elder Selina Everson, a former grand president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood. “Our people need something to lift them up sometimes, spiritually, emotionally. …It really hurts our Native community that they wouldn’t honor something like this.” (reference)
The latest failed effort was launched by a group of school children at Sít' Eetí Shaanáx (Glacier Valley Elementary) in 2020. Reference
*The second verse is owned by the University of Alaska Foundation (907-786-1111; foundation@alaska.edu). The Foundation’s name must be listed on any program when singing the 2nd verse.
Along the Road to Gundagai is admissible, having no racist lyrics or messaging. Interestingly, this song -- known as one of the great Australian folk songs, and which "became for a couple of generations more widely accepted as truly Australian than any other music, including the song Waltzing Matilda" -- is part of a genre of Australian music that has been noted as being influenced by American blackface minstrelsy, a humiliatingly racist American "art form." This influence occurred during the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century and includes instrumentation, stylistic elements, and in some cases even the use of terms such as “mammy” and images of Aboriginal people replacing the American enslaved. In a 2006 lecture discussing musical influences in Australia, well-respected Australian musicologist Roger Covell noted that:
[The success of] “blackface minstrelsy, imported from the United States in partial and complete form from the 1830s … was not only prodigious but also of surprisingly important consequence for music in Australia. … Quite separate from the exportable parodies of black American speech and behaviour, the appeal of the sentimental or rhythmically driving tunes of the blackface minstrel tradition left a deep impression here. …
“[Exposure to American blackface minsrelsy created a] second wave of influence, from around the period of World War I. … This was the era in which a vogue for Australian place-name songs, embodying the nostalgia of the wanderer for his (it is usually his) birthplace, deliberately echoed an American minstrel genre best known to us from the historically early example of Stephen Foster's Old Folks at Home. Songs asserting the lure to the homesick traveler of many smaller country towns appeared in large numbers, borrowing the style of syncopated tunes and characteristic harmonies from the United States and even some examples of typical verbal expression from American sources (including the use of 'mammy' and its - in this context - American overtones, and the occasional presence of property [Aboriginal people], arranged like drapery in the texts of the songs in lieu of their American counterparts). …wartime experiences, renewed contact with American sources of minstrel music and the nostalgia of returning home after a dreadful war combined to produce a new and [for Australians] distinctive series of place name songs…the most familiar examples of the genre [to many Australians] are a group of songs by Jack O'Hagan, including his famous Along the Road to Gundagai, published in 1922.…
The striking fact is that this genre of place-name songs in minstrel style was taken to heart by Australians and regarded as quintessentially Australian while borrowing its musical idiom and much of its verbal form from the song styles of another country.
This song is admissible for performance, but has a long and nuanced history. It was written by a man who spent decades as a slave trader and later repented and became a minister and abolitionist. Because of its presence in many different Christian denominations and Civil Rights struggles, this song can be an example of the link between society and music.
We hope that ensembles will explore the research here (and much more available on-line) so that appropriate context and consideration of both its racial and religious history can be given to members and audiences.
Medleys with this Song
Amazing Grace / Old Time Religion medley
Never Ever (with Amazing Grace)
Something in the Water (unattributed medley)
This is a patriotic/feel-good song about immigration and the American dream and is admissible. Ensembles may want to consider how this song will be understood by audiences (e.g., as political or -- given the insertion of lyrics from "My Country, Tis of Thee" near the end -- patriotic), and who is left out of the version of the story portrayed in the song. Noah Berlatsky writes in The Observer:
But wonderful as “America” is, it’s still not exactly an anthem for all Americans. Indigenous people didn’t come by ship to a “new and a shiny place;” on the contrary, the people on those ships took the shine right off their homes. And you can’t really say that people brought here in the Middle Passage [slave trade] were coming to America for “freedom’s light burning warm,” nor even that they had a “dream to take them there.” The experience of White Jewish Eastern immigrants can stand in for the experiences of many people and can be inspiring to many people. But it specificity excludes others.
Of note too, many White Jewish Eastern Immigrants endured hardships of their own -- crammed into tenements on the Lower East side. forced to work in sweatshops and enduring much discrimination. The writings and photographs of Jacob Riis, especially his book How the Other Half Lives, documents the horrible conditions these immigrants faced. Despite this, some of these Jewish immigrants went on to play a large part in shaping Broadway, the movie industry, and American popular song. This was possible because they could assimilate by changing their names to sound less “Jewish.”
Additionally, this song may engender politically tinged reactions:
In the aftermath of 9/11, the lyric "they're coming to America" has been used as a reference to terrorists and immigrants coming to "take away" from current citizens.
The conditions at the United States southern border and the broken American immigration system don’t at all match the drama and grandeur of Diamond’s song and are used as a political football, raising ire across the political spectrum.
While Basin Street Blues does not have a racially problematic history or message, ensembles choosing to perform this song should be aware of the nature of the New Orleans district it celebrates and its racial implications.
Historian Emily Epstein Landau writes: “As the ‘birthplace of jazz,’ Storyville has been romanticized. The business of Storyville, prostitution, and the women who engaged in it, have lost their central role to become supporting characters in the more palatable story of art overcoming adversity. It was, after all, a commercial sex district where poor women turned tricks for loose change. Many musicians in the district were also pimps…. The celebration of jazz as an African-American art form—and the only authentically American art form—has obscured rather than highlighted the force of racism and the imposition of Jim Crow in early twentieth-century New Orleans.” [1]
It is important to note that Black and White brothels coexisted in Storyville; but Black men were barred from legally purchasing services in either Black or White brothels. And “the city offered booklets or brochures guiding visitors to the various ‘services,’ providing pricing information, ‘specialized services,’ and even a description of the ‘stock.’”[2]
Thus, Porsha Dossie concludes that “as a place where White men could dominate Black women in the name of sexual mastery and White supremacy, Storyville is important to study not only as a physical space, but as a fantasy fully actualized during a time where the remnants of slave society permeated all aspects of daily life for those living in the South. The ability to dominate Black women in the slave market and plantation would end with the Civil War, but in the brothels and cribs of Storyville, the imagery of fair skin and insatiable sexuality would be used to sell black women up until WWI. Sex with black prostitutes especially, allowed White men to relive a trip to the slave market. In a brothel or bordello they could view their commodity, examine it, and then purchase it. In Storyville the antebellum slave market was alive and well, but this time the proprietors were Black women. There were very few jobs outside of domestic work for Black women following the Civil War. Sex work offered steady income that far surpassed a week’s work as a maid or laundress.” [3]
References:
This song is admissible because the song itself is not offensive or derogatory in any way. However, it should be noted that snatches of Blues in the Night are included in a controversial animated short titled Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943).
This short is one of the worst examples of the degrading and racist—and quite popular—cartoons of the day and is indeed one of the “Censored Eleven.” Coal Black “throws virtually every black stereotype into the mix:'' the mammy, the pickaninny, the zip-c**n (zoot-suited, gold-toothed male), and the lascivious Jezebel. It also includes “anti-Japanese sentiment: the firm ‘Murder Inc.’ advertises that it does not charge to kill ‘Japs’.” … While this short contains snatches of Blues in the Night and Sing, Sing, Sing, it does not include Satin Doll, as would have the stage adaptation, Satin Doll and the Seven Little Men, had it been produced. (reference 1, reference 2)
We have decided, however, that the use of songs as background music in these highly offensive and racist productions, does not taint songs that are otherwise inoffensive and popularized in inoffensive performances and recordings.
This song is admissible because it was not created to demean, and both lyrics and message are innocuous, with no racial references at all. It remains a popular standard to this day, having been recorded nearly 600 times, since its release through 2021. Its popularity, no doubt, is what led to its use by bad actors as noted below.
Segregationists used Bye Bye Blackbird to taunt Black civil rights protestors in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama marches for voting rights. On “Bloody Sunday,” loudspeakers blared Bye Bye Blackbird as jeering state troopers, armed with tear gas, bullwhips, and billy clubs brutally beat back the marchers, injuring hundreds, with many hospitalized.
The song was also racially weaponized in the following ways:*
1927 Chicago Mayoral race: supporters of the incumbent mayor sent calliopes “through the streets playing Bye Bye Blackbird and distributed cartoons showing a trainload of Negroes coming up from Georgia, piloted by Thompson [the mayor’s challenger].”
1983 Chicago Mayoral race: “Who can forget the blatant racial appeals of the 1983 mayoral campaign in Chicago, when opponents of Harold Washington sang "Bye Bye Blackbird" and wore campaign buttons that pictured a crossed-out watermelon?"
2013 President Obama visit to Arizona: “A protester waves a sign “bye bye black sheep” and a small chorus chimes in and puts it to the popular song ditty of Bye Bye Blackbird in front of Desert Vista High School in Phoenix where President Obama spoke about housing finance reform.”
*screenshots of references regarding the above are provided at the end of this document.
Bye Bye Blackbird was also appropriated by Nazis during World War II, using lyrics designed to demoralize the Allied forces.
Medley with this Song
Bye Bye Blackbird / Bye Bye Baby Medley
As implied by the title, this song includes clapping in a syncopated rhythm associated with calypso music. Calypso first emerged in the eighteenth century in Trinidad among communities of enslaved Africans. The musical style was an evolution of West African kaiso, and the satirical lyrics often mocked slave masters through double entendre. Please refer to the following references:
Calypso Music Guide: A Brief History of Calypso Music - 2023 - MasterClass
Reevaluation: Sep 27, 2022: change from YES to YES: Note
This song contains the lyrics:
Champion strut you’ve got the know-how,
champion strut sing high or low brow
The notion of “highbrow” vs “lowbrow” has racist origins based in the pseudoscience of phrenology. “Some of humanity’s most shameful episodes of socially condoned bigotry,” phrenology posits that the shape of the skull indicates intelligence and character, with a high forehead indicating superiority. Phrenology became extremely popular in the late 19th century and well into the early 1900’s. It was used by many to justify slavery and the subservient roles of the lower classes “and led eventually to the racial theories of the Nazis, for whom the Jewish cranium and pale, sunken face were clear indications of Jewish racial inferiority.” (reference)
While phrenology has long since fallen out of favor, the terms highbrow, lowbrow, and middlebrow have evolved to be used to describe taste and categorize culture, arts, and entertainment. The SAT Subcommittee feels these terms are sufficiently divorced from their racist origins to NOT warrant a required lyric change. However, performers might consider that the terms may leave a bad taste for some ensemble and audience members.
Further, it seems the larger issue lies not so much with the origins of the words used to categorize, but with the act of categorizing itself. In a research blog, Kylie Danton notes:
We certainly do live in a culture that still enjoys its rankings. Whether we identify those rankings as highbrow, lowbrow, pop, mass, or prestige, however, doesn’t seem to be the greater issue. Perhaps our discomfort with (and at times our begrudging acceptance of) these terms betrays a deeper insecurity about how we assign worth. Does the persistent hierarchical valuation of culture—entrenched even today in class, race, gender, and general condescension—look any better when we label the ranks differently? If we divorce hierarchy from the brows, are we denouncing an antiquated and disturbing means of understanding the mind, or are we comforting ourselves in avoiding a hard look at the way we actually process culture?
The Chipmunk Song is admissible and presents no issues in its lyrics or message. However, it is closely associated with another problematic Ross Bagdasarian song Witch Doctor, in which Bagdasarian first developed the high pitched, squeaky Chipmunks voice. Both songs were #1 Billboard hits in 1958; a Chipmunks version of Witch Doctor appears on their 1960 second album; both are included in Chipmunk compilations (including the 1999 greatest hits album); and both are featured in the 2007 Alvin and the Chipmunks feature film.
In Witch Doctor the singer asks a witch doctor for romantic advice, the witch doctor responds in a high-pitched squeaky voice with the nonsense gibberish incantation earworm: Oo-ee, oo-ah-ah, ting-tang, walla-walla bing-bang. Along with the picture on the original album cover, the song presents a disrespectful racist caricature of Vodou.
Vodou is a religion originating in West Africa and practiced in the Caribbean (it is Haiti’s official religion) and in the southern United States (especially Louisiana), where its history is intertwined with slavery. White enslavers viewed the religion as primitive, bloodthirsty, and violent. Throughout the era of slavery and beyond, Voodoo has been used to perpetuate damaging stereotypes of the Black community and deepen the act of "othering." This imagined version of Voodoo was picked up and further distorted by Hollywood and tawdry thrillers.
There is anecdotal concern about the title “Chopstix'' and possible allusions to anti-Asian rhetoric.
The song was originally written as The Celebrated Chop Waltz, and the original song and sheet music had no racial or ethnic references at all.* (reference ) However, the publisher did use stereotypical Asian illustrations for at least one early sheet music cover (reference).
In later years, the song was re-titled “Chopsticks,” and stereotyped imagery was used on newly published versions of the sheet music. However, most current sheet music does not contain the problematic imagery.
The song’s origin is innocuous, and the song is Admissible.
*Please see the research below for further details on how the song got its name (not Asian-related) and song history.
In order for this song to be rated Admissible, the song (melody) upon which it is based--Chopsticks--must also be admissible.
There is anecdotal concern about the title “Chopstix'' and possible allusions to anti-Asian rhetoric. The song was originally written as “The Celebrated Chop Waltz”, and the original song and sheet music had no racial or ethnic references at all.* (reference ) However, the publisher did use stereotypical Asian illustrations for at least one early sheet music cover (reference).
In later years, the song was re-titled “Chopsticks,” and stereotyped imagery was used on newly published versions of the sheet music. However, most current sheet music does not contain the problematic imagery.
The song’s origin is innocuous, and the song is Admissible.
*Please see the research document for the song, Chopsticks, for further details on how the song got its name (not Asian-related) and song history.
Reevaluation: Sep 27, 2022: change from YES to YES: Note
This song contains the lyrics:
They say that when a highbrow meets a lowbrow walking along Broadway
Soon the highbrow, he has no brow
The notion of “highbrow” vs “lowbrow” has racist origins based in the pseudoscience of phrenology. “Some of humanity’s most shameful episodes of socially condoned bigotry,” phrenology posits that the shape of the skull indicates intelligence and character, with a high forehead indicating superiority. Phrenology became extremely popular in the late 19th century and well into the early 1900’s. It was used by many to justify slavery and the subservient roles of the lower classes “and led eventually to the racial theories of the Nazis, for whom the Jewish cranium and pale, sunken face were clear indications of Jewish racial inferiority.” (reference)
While phrenology has long since fallen out of favor, the terms highbrow, lowbrow, and middlebrow have evolved to be used to describe taste and categorize culture, arts, and entertainment. We feel these terms are sufficiently evolved from their racist origins to NOT warrant a required lyric change. However, performers might consider that the terms may leave a bad taste for some ensemble and audience members.
Further, it seems the larger issue lies not so much with the origins of the words used to categorize, but with the act of categorizing itself:
We certainly do live in a culture that still enjoys its rankings. Whether we identify those rankings as highbrow, lowbrow, pop, mass, or prestige, however, doesn’t seem to be the greater issue. Perhaps our discomfort with (and at times our begrudging acceptance of) these terms betrays a deeper insecurity about how we assign worth. Does the persistent hierarchical valuation of culture—entrenched even today in class, race, gender, and general condescension—look any better when we label the ranks differently? If we divorce hierarchy from the brows, are we denouncing an antiquated and disturbing means of understanding the mind, or are we comforting ourselves in avoiding a hard look at the way we actually process culture? (reference)
Reevaluation: Jan 2, 2025: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible. It has a connection to the American Civil Rights Movement of that era. While it was written as a party song and the original performers (Martha and the Vandellas) stated they did not intend any deeper meaning, it was released during 1964’s Freedom Summer project, “designed to draw the nation’s attention to the violent oppression experienced” in Mississippi during the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) campaign to register Black voters, and SNCC’s H. Rap Brown began playing it at demonstrations. As recounted by Amanda Parris:
In the summer of 1964, more than 1,000 people were arrested, more than three dozen Black churches were bombed or burned and at least three civil rights workers were killed. It was the summer that Malcolm X declared, “We want freedom by any means necessary,” and riots began in New Jersey, Chicago and Jacksonville. … [When the song] came out, young people were protesting and many heard "Dancing in the Street" as a call to action. Lines such as "Calling out around the world" and "Summer's here and the time is right" were interpreted as rallying cries, and "Dancing in the Street" meant it was time to mobilize.
(The Rasmus Krigström arrangement is rated Yes: Lyrics)
This song is admissible having no problematic lyrics or message. The lyrics contain “hoodoo” implying a magic love spell: “Day in-Day out / The same old hoodoo follows me about.”
However, Hoodoo is often confused with Vodou, and in fact, many lyrics sites incorrectly list “voodoo” in the lyrics instead of “hoodoo.” As a result, arrangements might also contain this error in the lyrics.
This is important because Vodou and Hoodoo are distinct spiritual practices with different origins, structures, and purposes, despite some overlapping elements due to shared African roots. The use of “voodoo” in song lyrics is problematic when it trivializes and distorts Vodou (see Vodou: Fact vs Fiction). While Voodoo is recognized as an organized religion with established rituals and a priesthood, Hoodoo is a system of folk magic used for personal empowerment.
Vodou is a religion with established rituals and an organized priesthood originating in West Africa and combined with Catholic rituals. It is practiced in the Caribbean (it is Haiti’s official religion) and in the southern United States (especially Louisiana), where its history is intertwined with slavery. White enslavers viewed the religion as primitive, bloodthirsty, and violent, a characterization spread by Hollywood films. Associations with “voodoo dolls,” devil-worship, curses, and love potions distort and trivialize what is a rich religion centered on the belief that everything is spirit and teaches the existence of a supreme creator deity and intermediary spirits known as lwa.
Hoodoo, in contrast, developed within the African American communities of the Southern United States, shaped by interactions with Native American herbalism and European folk magic. CulturesofWestAfrica.com notes that:
Hoodoo emerged in a context of oppression and exploitation, allowing African Americans to assert some control over their lives. It is primarily a folk magic tradition rather than a structured religion. While it lacks the organized rituals and communal worship seen [in Vodou], Hoodoo became a vital tool for African Americans seeking protection, healing, and prosperity in a hostile environment. It was often practiced in secret, with rootworkers (practitioners of Hoodoo) offering their services to those in need, performing spells to secure love, ward off enemies, or heal the sick.
Because Hoodoo does indeed incorporate love spells into its traditions, its use in this way in Day In, Day Out is not problematic. Concerns of cultural appropriation do exist (see references) but are not presented by this song.
References
Hoodoo in St. Louis: An African American Religious Tradition
Hoodoo Witches Speak Out on the Appropriation of Their Craft
Haitian Vodou | MOVING FICTIONS
Vodou | Definition, History, West African Vodun, & Facts | Britannica
We considered the use of the archaic term, “cayuse” in the lyrics. The term came from the horses of the Cayuse people of the Pacific Northwest and was sometimes “used in a derogatory fashion to refer to any small, low-quality horse, particularly if owned by indigenous people or a feral horse.” (reference) However, it was also commonly used to simply refer to a small horse without necessarily defaming the Cayuse people. It is, indeed, a recognized horse breed (reference 1, reference 2). So for that reason, it is left to the performing group to decide whether or not they wish to substitute another term (e.g., “on my old horse”) for “cayuse.”
This song is admissible because it carries no problematic issues in its message or history. Understanding its roots, including the important and often unacknowledged link to African traditional music, deepens the performance experience. In A Deep Dive Into Sea Shanties, Stephen Winick notes:
Shanties were a heterogeneous group of songs, with diverse origins. Some came to sea from shore, and we can trace individual shanties back to African American work songs and spirituals, theater songs of vaudeville and the music-hall, and even much older British songs and ballads. Others were pretty clearly written by sailors at sea.
And Scheherazade Khan writes in The Black History of Sea Shanties:
The various elements inherent to shanties, the call and response, rhythmic pounding and similarity to gospel music, were adaptions from work songs of enslaved people. British sailors involved in slave trading would have heard work songs in the Caribbean and American ports as slaves packed up cotton or other cargo for the ships. There they merged with British and Irish balladry to form what are recognizable today. … Moreover, the sea offered an escape for many enslaved Africans. The Common Wind by Julius Scott articulates how "Black people . . . tried to learn a smattering of nautical terminology to pass themselves off as sailors, going on to say that "It’s no coincidence that British sea shanties bear striking resemblances to Caribbean slave songs."
Winick also notes:
Some of the most reliable sources on shanties tell us that often the most valued singer onboard a ship was a black sailor, and we can hear the connections between shanties and field hollers and other land-based work songs that African Americans knew. … Joanna Colcord, an American whose father was a ship captain and who grew up onboard tall ships, wrote in her 1924 book Roll and Go that “American Negroes” were “the best singers that ever lifted a shanty aboard ship.” Given this, it’s appropriate that shantying survives among African descendants in the Caribbean and in the African American community in the region where I live, especially among fishermen.
As with a lot of different genres, the foundation of African influence is recognized by scholars but often overlooked in popular culture when the cultural element (e.g., music, dance, art, fashion) becomes mainstream. Yet the African roots of sea shanties further ratifies the deeply entrenched influence of Black traditions in music, culture, and history.
Medley with this Song
Wellerman medley
This short musical phrase is admissible. It has a strong affiliation with horseracing, which has a problematic discriminatory history in the United States, as noted below.
Source: Race Horse Men: How Slavery and Freedom were Made at the Racetrack
As early as the colonial era, wealthy White southerners saw thoroughbred racing as a sport through which they could assert broad social and cultural supremacy and the racetrack as a place where that supremacy might be ritually enacted. Slavery was essential to all of it, but. . .slavery at the track entailed unusual intricacies because black men were among the finest horsemen in the United States.
Source: The Sad History of Racism in American Racing
Enslavers chose certain men as their jockeys — the best riders, the smallest men. . .a jockey could be starved down to an exact weight that suited his owner’s purpose. Sometimes, enslaved individuals were promoted to be trainers, but they were still commodities, just ones carrying ‘commensurately high price tags’ appropriate to their skill sets.
Source: The Forgotten History of African-American Jockeys
Black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 Derbies. Why? Because the first black jockeys had been born into slavery or grew up as children of the enslaved tasked with caring for the horses on plantations and farms.
Source: The Sad History of Racism in American Racing
By the turn of the 20th century, White authorities began to systematically exclude Black men and women from sports in which they’d long excelled.
Source: Jim Crow in the Saddle: The expulsion of African American Jockeys from American Racing
While the barriers have been lifted in recent years, Black jockeys have been unable to approach the level of performance that had once been commonplace, and horseracing has become another sad example of the legacy of Jim Crow.
This song is admissible, but one of the verses references “Cotton Eyed Joe.” This refers to the song/line dance “Cotton Eyed Joe.” However, the term may raise some eyebrows and so performers might consider leaving that lyric out. After exhaustive research, we are not mandating a lyric change because we could find no reference to the term being racially derogatory. We also extensively researched the song, Cotton Eyed Joe, because if it were deemed inadmissible, then a lyric change in this song (If You’re Gonna Play in Texas) would be mandated. It was decided that while some may find the history of the song problematic, it does not rise to the level of inadmissibility. The result of our research is detailed here.
This song is admissible because the song itself is not offensive or derogatory in any way, evoking a positive message about the circus. However, aspects of circus history have been quite problematic, reflecting racism, exoticism, and cultural appropriation in costume, representation, and imagery. Historian Michah Childress has examined the employment and labor practices of Black male circus employees during the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries in detail, concluding that "African American circusfolk endured harsh treatment, low pay, and vile racism." Black men were hired as cooks, waiters, or stable boys, and later as musicians. Those rare individuals taken on as performers “were relegated to the sideshow tent and generally given the duty to depict an African or a monkey-man combination.”
It wasn’t until 1999 that the first African American was selected as ringmaster for a major U.S. circus. Exoticization has been exemplified through the use of Native American dress as costume for non-Native performers, blackface makeup in conjunction with racist portrayals of Black people as objects of ridicule, using cultural dress such as Japanese kimono and makeup or movement to identify performers as Asian when they are not, and orientalist practices in the portrayal of Middle Eastern or North African characters or cultures."
The circus has exploited and dehumanized those deemed "different" or "other," as evidenced by side show exhibits of midgets (now referred to as "little people"), Siamese twins, giants, and fat ladies. Circuses during the American Guilded Age might also feature "alluring and forbidden 'Moorish,' 'Bedouin,' 'Persian,' 'Arab,' 'Indian,' or 'Egyptian' wonders, from exotic animals to fierce Bedouin warriors and seductive, veiled harem beauties."
Please see Reviewers’ Note here for information about PT Barnum, founder of Barnum and Bailey Circus. In addition to the references provided in the links above, additional references are found here.
SAT SUBCOMMITTEE NOTES
Reevalution: Jun 14, 2021: change from YES to YES: Note
How Deep is the Ocean remains ADMISSIBLE. However, we recognize that the history of the song should have been addressed in a Reviewers’ Note. As happens frequently, artists are inspired by their previous works and may use these as a germ of inspiration for subsequent work. The subsequent work, however, does stand on its own.
In this case, the lyrics—How much do I love you, I’ll tell you no lie, how deep is the ocean, how high is the sky—were adapted from Berlin’s previous song, To My Mammy, sung by Al Jolson in the 1930 film, Mammy. This song is indeed racist, due to its reference to Mammy and Al Jolson’s blackface performances.
In contrast, however, How Deep is the Ocean is a completely different song, with no racist content or meaning whatever. The Subcommittee feels the song stands on its own merits and should be judged as such. However, performers may use this information regarding the song’s inspiration to draw their own conclusion as to whether or not they are comfortable performing this song.
As noted in the Lyrics section below, the original lyrics For forty thousand years I've been / The first Australian are now known to be inaccurate. Current knowledge indicates indigenous Australians have existed on the continent for at least 65 thousand years, possibly as many as 80-100 thousand years. For this reason, Region 34 recommends changing 40,000 to 60,000 to more closely approximate current knowledge while maintaining the meter of the original lyrics.
This song is admissible, but the songwriter George Fairman wrote a number of extremely racist songs with very offensive lyrics and cover art on the sheet music. This particular song is not one of them. However, a song with an identical title - I Don't Know Where I'm Going But I'm On My Way - was written and performed about 10 years prior to Fairman's version.
The earlier song was written by Arthur Collins around 1906 and it is a "c**n song" with offensive lyrics and was routinely performed in minstrel shows in blackface. The two songs were probably performed in overlapping time periods.
The melody and lyrics of each song are significantly different, which suggests there was no intention by Fairman to associate his version of the song to the version written by Collins. Fairman may not have even been aware of the song by Collins. However, there is potential for confusion about the version and author and some websites incorrectly attribute songs written by Fairman to Collins.
Ensembles performing this song should be prepared with this information and consider taking steps to avoid potential confusion.
RAGGED but RIGHT. Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues & Jazz | Audio Recording: Collins song
Fairman songs with racist lyrics: Preacher and the Bear | Way Down South | Fever’s Gone
The overall message of I’m Australia – a song in which Australia speaks to its people – is not problematic. However, ensembles might consider that it renders invisible Indigenous Australians. Britain initially colonized what became Australia in the 18th century, displacing the continent's Aboriginal peoples and killing many thousands through armed conflict and disease. Therefore, it seems odd that an anthropomorphized Australia when speaking to its people, would lament that “Oh my children died in fourteen / They died in forty one” referencing World Wars I and II, but not mention the dying of its indigenous children in the 1700s.
This song is admissible because its message and lyrics are benign. A snippet from this song, that is included in the cartoon I Love to Sing-a, was produced during a period when racially offensive content proliferated in early American animation and music-themed cartoons. [1]
I Love to Sing-a is a 1936 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The original film that I Love to Sing-a parodies, The Jazz Singer, deals with the son of a devout Jewish cantor who defies his father's wishes to pursue a career as a popular jazz singer. The star of that film, Al Jolson, was Jewish, but “has been referred to by modern critics as ‘the king of blackface performers.’”[2] Blackface is a form of racist caricature that was common in minstrel shows and vaudeville.
Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
The I Love to Sing-a cartoon and Owl Jolson’s performance of the titular song, “I Love to Sing-a” does not explicitly feature blackface [3], but its source material is deeply intertwined with this history of anti-Black racism, including the appearance of blackface by Al Jolson and other actors at the end of performing this song in the movie, The Singin’ Kid (1946).[4] The lyrics of the song include: With a cheer for Uncle Sammy and another for my mammy. The mammy is the “most well-known and enduring racial caricature of African American women.” While the term, “mammy,” was used by some southerners to refer to their mothers, it does not negate the potency of the harmful caricature and the response elicited whenever that term appears in lyrics. The song, I Love to Sing-a has been rated No (inadmissible) in the Song Evaluation Database.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author.
[1] Exploring the Hidden Racist Past of Looney Tunes
[3] Performance: I Love To Sing-a full length cartoon
[4] Performance: I Love To Sing-a, Al Jolson, et al.
This song is admissible, but one of the verses references “Cotton Eyed Joe.” This refers to the song/line dance “Cotton Eyed Joe.” However, the term may raise some eyebrows and so performers might consider leaving that lyric out. After exhaustive research, we are not mandating a lyric change because we could find no reference to the term being racially derogatory.
We also extensively researched the song, Cotton Eyed Joe, because if it were deemed inadmissible, then a lyric change in this song (If You’re Gonna Play in Texas) would be mandated. It was decided that while some may find the history of the song problematic, it does not rise to the level of inadmissibility. The result of our research is appended at the end of this document.
Regarding the original Mr. Moto lyric (“whoops, Mr. Moto I’m a coffee pot”). While it is not certain, some believe the reference is to the “Mr. Moto” that originated in a book series in which the character was not written in a racist manner. The issue is with the character’s portrayal in the Mr. Moto movies because of the despicable Hollywood practice of yellow-face. That said, Peter Lorrie’s portrayal and makeup is not akin to Mickey Rooney’s horrible buck-tooth, caricature of I. Y. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Reference 1 | Reference 2
For those who wish to change the reference -- because they are bothered by the “Mr. Moto” reference or prefer a reference that makes more sense to them -- some have substituted “Mrs. Olson” of Folger’s Coffee fame, or “brew my espresso in a coffee pot” (as in the Minihane arrangement), or "I need a Keurig, not a coffee pot."
Reevaluation: Jul 21, 2023: change from YES to YES: Lyrics & YES: Note
This song remains admissible but only with the omission of “Dixieland” and “Dixielanders” from the lyrics.*
Ensembles should also understand that contrary to what the lyrics in this song would suggest, Black jazz musicians – including those mentioned in this song: Joe "King" Oliver, Edward "Kid" Ory, Louis Armstrong, and many more—were motivated by more than "a better payin' job." They were forced to escape New Orleans due to an uptick in racism, prejudice, and violence against the Creole and African American population there. (reference1; reference2)
The departure of these Black musicians was, in fact, part of the Great Migration (1910-1970) when Black people fled the American South en masse “to escape racial violence, pursue economic and educational opportunities, and obtain freedom from the oppression of Jim Crow." Throughout the twentieth century, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. An excellent book on the topic is The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, which details how oftentimes Black people had to escape the south in secret and in the dead of night to avoid being arrested, as the South sought to prevent the loss of their cheap labor.
Isabel Wilkerson excerpt from Migration and the places we call home beginning at 16 minutes:
This was the first time in American history that American citizens had to flee the land of their birth, just to be recognized as the citizens they've always been. ... This great migration was not a move, it was actually a seeking of political asylum within the borders of one's own country. They were defecting a caste system known as Jim Crow. ... They became political refugees in their own country.
Given this history, ensembles might discuss and consider changing "better payin' job" to "better way of life," though this is not a required change.
*Note that concern about the term “Dixie” is not an indictment of the South. The issue is that the term, “Dixie”—not the South—has become inextricably associated with racist ideologies, since the days of minstrelsy to the present. “Dixie” evokes a very specific time in the south—a nostalgic romanticizing of the antebellum South with its devastatingly cruel and dehumanizing institution of slavery and the subjugation African Americans endured for over a century afterwards. Details and additional references
The Song Assessment Work Group team did additional research in reaching its decision of admissible for this song, not finding sufficient evidence that this song was racially derogatory. Please see ADDITIONAL RESEARCH and REVIEWER DISCUSSION NOTES, here [at the end of this submission], for details.
Medley with this Song
Dr. Jazz Medley
Please note that Jello -- as is the case with many products -- had aired racist commercials in the past.
1920 ad showing a black child serving Jello to the White mistress at the plantation, captioned: Mammy sent dis ovah! Written in the ad: “dainty enough for milady’s tea and appealing enough to turn the sinful, any color from their neighbor’s melon patch!”
1959-60 commercial depicting stereotypes of Chinese culture: using the exaggerated accent and mispronunciation of some words (bling instead of bring, strawbelly instead of strawberry, etc…) Then of course, Mother saves the day by offering baby a spoon, part of the Western culture - instead of the traditional chopsticks.
The stereotypes, however, were not depicted in the logo for the brand, nor are the lyrics of the jingle racially insensitive, nor demeaning of any marginalized group.
This arrangement does not include any of the original racially problematic lyrics (identified in the Let’s Do It research document). Therefore, it is rated YES: Note (instead of Yes: Lyrics): know that for some who are familiar with the offensive lyrics, this song may leave a bad taste.
Please see Let’s Do It research document for Reviewers’ Notes, history, and DEI information.
This song is admissible because the lyrics are innocuous, but the history of this song is not. Sharon Lafraniere noted in this 2006 NY Times article:
As Solomon Linda first recorded it in 1939, it was a tender melody, almost childish in its simplicity. … But the saga of the song now known worldwide as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is anything but a lullaby. It is fraught with racism and exploitation and, in the end, 40-plus years after his death, brings a measure of justice.
Please see details in the HISTORY OF THE SONG item (highlighted in yellow), here.
Medley with this Song
Katy Perry Medley
This song is admissible, however, the lyrics "I ain't nobody's fool" and "ain't no fool" may be perceived as African American English (AAE), though "ain't" and double negatives are also part of other dialects. In fact, according to linguist Tracey Weldon:
[AAE] and SWVE (Southern White Vernacular English) share many linguistic features in common. This is largely due to the fact that African Americans were (and remain to a large extent) heavily concentrated in the southeastern U.S. due to early patterns of enslavement. Because of this, the earliest forms of [AAE] were likely formed in close contact with southern white dialects. And there would have been mutual influence happening in those formative years and for generations since.
It is important to note the possible perception of AAE because Black people have been discriminated against due to their speech while at the same time non-Black individuals may "put on" AAE and other Black-originated mannerisms, hair, and clothing, without suffering the racism faced by the Black originators. And influencers, and corporations profit from the use of AAE and other aspects of Black culture, even as Black people suffer discrimination for the very things generating profit for others.
See this brief “Blackfishing” video and the AAE & Cultural Appropriation document for additional details, videos, and references.
Medley with this Song
Mama's Gone, Goodbye Medley
The message of this song on its face is not problematic and in fact is based upon an iconic poem — My Country by Dorothea Mackellar — regarded by many Australians as the universal statement of the country’s connection to the land. The Minster of Education has said “The words never tire and the words ever inspire when it comes to Australians' views of themselves and our nation. And we continue as a nation, though we have changed in many, many ways to interpret ourselves through the lens and eyes of Dorothea MacKellar.”
However, the poem renders invisible Indigenous Australians. At the time the poem was published (1908), Australia had only recently (1901) achieved nationhood within the British Empire. Mackellar's ancestors, like those of most White Australians, came from the UK. Britain initially colonized what became Australia in the 18th century, displacing the continent's Aboriginal peoples and killing many thousands through armed conflict and disease. It also asserted control over the continent's natural resources, including timber, gold, and opal.
Mackellar's patriotic poem omits this grim history, though it does mention the continent's "tragic"-looking "ring-barked forests." British colonists used ring-barking—stripping off rings of bark in order to kill trees without felling them—as a method of deforestation and land management. This practice left forests of dead trees standing in the southeast and other areas of the country.
In a 2016 speech on racism, indigenous Australian journalist Stan Grant quoted the sunburnt country verse with its mention of sweeping plains, saying that “It reminds me that my people were killed on those plains. we were shot on those plains, diseases ravaged us on those plains.”
Please see additional context in the Song History section, including discussion contrasting My Country to the 2013 film Charlie’s Country that provides an indigenous perspective.
Also note that Writing NSW has been holding a biennial “festival of Indigenous and culturally diverse writers” since 2017 with the title, Boundless. This is a reference to a line from My Country (“boundless plains to share”), yet this does not appear to have been met with resistance from Indigenous writers, indicating acceptance of the poem on some level despite its apparent erasure of Australia’s First Peoples.
This song achieved a rare feat in Billboard history when it simultaneously charted on the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts in March 2019. Controversy was sparked when Billboard removed it from the Hot Country Songs chart that month, raising allegations of racism and highlighting the historic cultural erasure of African Americans from both country music and the American frontier era. Like barbershop, country music has its roots in African American culture -- in this case it can be traced back to 17th century slave ships and Black instruments and traditions. (See links in Research References)
Reevaluation: Feb 9, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible but performing ensembles might be cognizant of the issue that might be presented if “was” is substituted for “were” as in “Pfft! You was gone!” There is overlap between southern dialect and African American English. So there is a risk that an audience or ensemble member might perceive it as mocking of both Black and White southerners. The song was featured on the television show Hee Haw during a time when rural television shows were very popular, though they could be condescending towards their rural characters. Gabe Bullard notes on The Weird History of Hillbilly TV, “As the first season of Hee Haw ended, it wasn't clear who was laughing with the cast and who was laughing at them.”
The Hee Haw Agenda | Television's 'Rural Purge' is the Reason So Many Classic '60s Sitcoms Were Canceled
Put Your Records On is a song of personal empowerment. A strong component of this empowerment for the composer has to do with her natural afro hair and her learning to embrace it. She is encouraging other Black women to love the natural hair that is a part of them as she has learned to do. While hair is of personal significance in one’s identity for all people, performers should understand the particular significance of hair among African Americans – which embodies not only personal identity, but political. Natural hair has been a documented source of discrimination in schools and the workplace.
Personal, Political And Professional: Everyone Has A Hair Story | KJZZ
12 States Have Passed The Crown Act to Legalize Black Hair In 2021
When Natural Hair Wins, Discrimination in School Loses | NEA
With regard to this song, the composer notes:
I’ve had a few experiences of wearing my hair out and natural for the first time. I used to just tie it back and have it permed and then I’ve had relaxed super straight hair. I remember when I first started wearing it out and feeling self conscious and people were making fun of me as well because it’s so different, and living in England, it was against what was considered to be a nice way to have your hair.
Given its significance, it is inadvisable to change the "afro" lyric, as this would detract from the integrity of the message of the song.
This song is admissible and does not contain racist lyrics or messages. There is one line of the lyrics, however, that might cause discomfort in some singers and audience members: Harlem dude saunters on with a comical flair might evoke for some, images of minstrelsy (see Cotton Watts) in which Black people were portrayed as comic buffoons. (See Blackface Minstrelsy & C**n Songs.)
The intent of the lyric was likely meant to evoke a Cab Calloway type image (see Geechy Joe from Stormy Weather) and the line is not racist, so no change to the lyrics is required. David Wright has noted he wouldn’t choose those lyrics today and suggests Harlem dude walks along with a rhythmical flair as a substitution.
SAT SUBCOMMITTEE NOTES
Reevaluation: Dec 9, 2021: change from NO to YES: Note
Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On was originally deemed inadmissible due to the lyrics containing the words “’ol man river.” Upon reconsideration, it was determined that the lyrics refer simply to the Mississippi River in that, thematically, there is no relation to the song, Ol’ Man River. While the song and the show from which it originates, Showboat, might be brought to mind, this in and of itself does not cause Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On to be inadmissible.
Performers should note that while both Ol’ Man River and Showboat have been criticized for potential racist content, the issue is nuanced. While we have not evaluated Ol’ Man River, please see the research document for Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine for reviewers’ notes on Showboat.
Reevaluation: Oct 4, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
This song remains admissible, but it is an example of a popular song written and marketed to capitalize on the popularity of racist c**n songs:
The original American sheet music cover is subtitled “An Ebony Jazz Tune” and the original French sheet music cover depicts African “natives” running wild, with the subtitle “Fox-Trot et Blues.” Both jazz and the foxtrot originated with African Americans.
While the use of “gal” did not originate with slavery, enslaved females were referred to as “gal” and "wench" (similar to men being referred to as "boy" and "buck"). At the time the song was written “gal” was a familiar marker for c**n songs (e.g. I’ll Make that Black Gal Mine, My Gal From Lagos, I Know a Gal Dat Lubs a C**n).
The song has what John Graziano (in “The use of dialect in African-American spirituals, popular songs, and folk songs,” Black Music Research Journal Vol. 24, Issue 2) terms “slangy lyrics” used in songs written to capitalize on the popularity of c**n songs:
While most of these songs had slangy lyrics in which final sounds were dropped ("hangin'” for example) and contractions were used ("ne'er"), they did not use dialect ("dere" and "dem").”
The first vocal recording of the song is by Miss Patricola who, Robert Loerzel notes (in “Miss Patricola, the Queen of the Cabaret,” Chapter 10 The Coolest Spot in Chicago: A History of Green Mills Gardens and the Beginnings of Uptown) often performed c**n songs though she was not a c**n shouter and performed “with a bit more subtlety than many artists did.”
In light of the above, it also becomes clear that the lyrics harken to c**n caricatures and contain familiar stereotypes of the day about Black people - wild, no inhibitions, lost control, being led astray by a “Jezebel.”
The song remains admissible, however, because unfortunately – as with blackface performances – c**n songs dominated American popular music at the time. Therefore, many songs from that era may have been associated with that racist genre. But if the song does not have offensive dialect in its original lyrics and became sufficiently divorced from its origins by achieving longstanding popularity outside those types of performances, we deem the songs admissible but ensure that ensembles know and understand its racist origins.
In the case of Runnin’ Wild, it became a jazz standard that has been very widely recorded through 2020 and is best known for its performance by Marilyn Monroe in the 1959 American classic film Some Like it Hot.
Medley with this Song
There'll Be Some Changes Made/ Runnin' Wild Medley
This song is admissible because the song itself is not offensive or derogatory in any way. However, it should be noted that Satin Doll was set to be used in 1955 in a “Disney Broadway production, a black-and-jazz version of the 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, titled Satin Doll and the Seven Little Men – which was itself a stage adaptation of a controversial animated short titled Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943).”
This short is one of the worst examples of the degrading and racist—and quite popular—cartoons of the day and is indeed one of the “Censored Eleven.” Coal Black “throws virtually every black stereotype into the mix:'' the mammy, the pickaninny, the zip-c**n (zoot-suited, gold-toothed male), and the lascivious Jezebel. It also includes “anti-Japanese sentiment: the firm ‘Murder Inc.’ advertises that it does not charge to kill ‘Japs’.” … While this short contains snatches of Blues in the Night and Sing, Sing, Sing, it does not include Satin Doll, as would have the stage adaptation, Satin Doll and the Seven Little Men, had it been produced. (reference 1, reference 2, reference 3)
We have decided, however, that the use of songs as background music in these highly offensive and racist productions, does not taint songs that are otherwise inoffensive and popularized in inoffensive performances and recordings.
This song is admissible because the song itself is not offensive or derogatory in any way. However, it should be noted that snatches of Sing, Sing, Sing are included in a controversial animated short titled Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943).
This short is one of the worst examples of the degrading and racist—and quite popular—cartoons of the day and is indeed one of the “Censored Eleven.” Coal Black “throws virtually every black stereotype into the mix:'' the mammy, the pickaninny, the zip-c**n (zoot-suited, gold-toothed male), and the lascivious Jezebel. It also includes “anti-Japanese sentiment: the firm ‘Murder Inc.’ advertises that it does not charge to kill ‘Japs’.” … While this short contains snatches of Blues in the Night and Sing, Sing, Sing, it does not include Satin Doll, as would have the stage adaptation, Satin Doll and the Seven Little Men, had it been produced. (reference 1, reference 2)
However, the use of songs as background music in these highly offensive and racist productions does not taint songs that are otherwise inoffensive and popularized in inoffensive performances and recordings.
Medley with this Song
It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing / Sing Sing Sing medley
This song is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics or message. It contains a small portion of the song Goin’ Home, which has lyrics written by a White lyricist to mimic a Negro spiritual. Even if the intent was to pay homage to the Negro Spiritual tradition, it belies a lack of comprehension and respect of the fact that Negro Spirituals are far more than a musical style--they are born of the pain, suffering, and indignities of enslavement. (Negro Spirituals reference)
Please see additional details in the Goin’ Home research document.
The lyrics and message of this song are meant to be a clever play on words, the narrator having found their love at an auction. However, the idea of finding a person at an auction may make some audience and ensemble members uncomfortable and may be associated with generational trauma and racism, given that enslaved people were bought and sold on auction blocks for centuries in America, as noted in historyonthenet.com:
Once in the Americas, slaves were sold, by auction, to the person that bid the most money for them. It was here that family members would find themselves split up, as a bidder may not want to buy the whole family, only the strongest, healthiest member.
Careful and deliberate delivery of lyrics and presentation of the song can convey that the lyrics are not actually about buying/selling people at auction. For those unfamiliar with the song, this may not be clear – especially as the lyrics are delivered quickly. An appropriate MC setup might be a good idea, where this is possible.
Nevertheless, the lines “Yeah we found love on the auction block / And I hauled her heart away” may present discomfort for some as it may evoke visions of the enslaved being sold and hauled away.
In evaluating this song, we did consider that early recordings (American Quartet, Marion Harris) include “my mammy” references as well as segments of Swanee River.* However, “my mammy” is not present in the original sheet music and subsequent recordings (e.g., Andrews Sisters, 1948 & Bing Crosby, 1957) do not contain either of these problematic elements (though a couple of recordings from the 40’s and 50’s did retain the Swanee River element, most do not). Therefore, this song is admissible.
*While Irving Berlin wrote the words and melodies of his songs, he never developed much skill with the piano, and did not write his own piano accompaniments. The original sheet music version is credited to Charles N Grant. (reference)
Reevaluation: Nov 17, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
This song has been rated Yes: Note because it contains a section of scat singing. Ensembles performing this song should be aware of the origins and significance of scat singing, a form of vocal jazz improvisation utilizing wordless, nonsense syllables and thus using the voice as an instrument. Like jazz, it originated with African Americans who comprise most of the best in this art form. Please see details and references in Origins & Significance of Scat Singing.
(Song Rating: Yes: Note / Yes: Lyrics depending upon arrangement)
This song is admissible ONLY with the omission of the Black dialect in the lyrics. And indeed, later recordings of the song (1950’s onward) were not sung with the original lyrics intact. See “Lyrics Issue” note at the end of this document.
Ensembles should also consider that this song was written by a White composer specifically to create a “Negro Spiritual.” Even if MacGimsey's intent was to pay homage to the Negro Spiritual tradition, it belies a lack of comprehension and respect of the fact that Negro Spirituals are far more than a musical style--they are born of the pain, suffering, and indignities of enslavement. (Negro Spirituals reference) Thus, what MacGimsey may have considered cultural appreciation is actually an example of cultural appropriation. See When Does Appreciation Become Appropriation (video).
This arrangement does not include the vernacular in the original lyrics, to which the Yes: Lyrics rating applies. The “note” aspect of the Reviewer’s Note still applies.
This song is often performed with scat singing (e.g., Ella Fitzgerald, Natalie Cole). Please see Origins & Significance of Scat Singing to understand the origins and significance of this form of vocal jazz improvisation utilizing wordless syllables and thus using the voice as an instrument. Like jazz, it originated with African Americans who comprise most of the best in this art form.
This song is from Cabin in the Sky, a 1940 musical about Black life written, designed, produced, and choreographed by white men. The Song Assessment Work Group team did additional research in reaching its decision of admissible for this song, not finding sufficient evidence that this song was racially derogatory. Please see the ADDITIONAL DETAILS section at the end of this document for more info.
This song plays on the cultural trope that love can be generated or controlled through spells, witchcraft or enchantment. The use of the term “black magic” may be off-putting for some. A large part of American vernacular contains color symbolism that some argue is rooted in colonialism and oppression. The color white has a connotation of pureness or goodness. Whereas, things that are negative or evil are marked by the color black — “white knight” and “blacklist” for example. “Black magic” falls into this category, as well as being associated with the connotation that African-rooted religions are somehow evil (see notes on Vodou here). Performers might consider this in deciding whether or not to include this song in their repertoire.
Let's Talk About Black Magic: What It Is, Where It… | What Is Black Magic?
Reevalution: Aug 18, 2021: change from NO to YES: Note
A Tisket, A Tasket is based upon a late-18th century nursery rhyme that has several variations. The problematic variations involve the line “a little [blank] he picked it up.” In some variations a little doggie picked it up or a little boy. And in racist versions of the nursery rhyme it is a little darky or a little n-word. Importantly, in the song, it’s a little girlie that picks up the letter.
Because there are several variations of the nursery rhyme and because the song—composed by Ella Fitzgerald and Al Feldman (Van Alexander) in 1938—has never had racist lyrics, neither in the original nor in the nearly 70 subsequent recordings, we have deemed the song admissible.
Note, however, that the song does appear on some lists of songs with racist histories (e.g., this one), so it’s possible some performing members and members of the audience may be aware of the song’s problematic origins.
See research below for additional details.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
True Blue is admissible because there are no issues with its history or message. The song is seen in Australia as a national patriotic song. The term “true blue” did not originate in Australia, but it has been used there as representative of true Australian “mateship” and looking out for one another. Someone who is “True Blue” is honest and loyal. However, the song’s message could be misconstrued as being about “Whiteness.” The songwriter/performer John Williamson addressed this in a 2014 interview:
It was that bloke Todd Sampson. I knew his question was loaded and I reckon he thought the song was about being white. But what it means is old fashioned standards where a handshake means something and you care about your neighbors, no matter who they are. It's an Australian expression but I reckon there are true blue people all over the world.
Ensembles should be aware that far-right groups have nevertheless, misappropriated the song with one group (Reclaim Australia) using it at anti-Muslim rallies. Williamson quickly asked they stop using his song, garnering mostly support from his fans but also a vocal minority tossing insults his way.
Vogue is admissible because it presents no racially/ethnically problematic issues in its message or lyrics. Understanding the roots of its theme of “voguing” is important. Voguing is a dance style inspired by fashion models posing, as well as ancient Egyptian art. While the song is celebratory and fun, it has deep roots in the African American and Black/Latino queer culture.
This style of dance arose from African American Harlem ballroom cultures, as danced by African-American and participating Latino gay men and transfeminine individuals, from the early 1960s through the 1980s. The Harlem Renaissance shaped a distinctly African American and Latino LGBTQ culture in Harlem from 1920 to 1935, which included advancement in literature, arts and music and attempted to demonstrate that aspects of identity like race, gender and sexuality can be fluid and intersecting. [1]
Some of the dancers in the music video for "Vogue" came from the NYC ballroom scene, but while Madonna did bring ballroom culture into the mainstream with "Vogue", it had existed so much longer than that. [2]
Scholars and critics now often present Vogue as a complex legacy—both a milestone for LGBTQ+ visibility and a reminder of cultural appropriation dynamics.
The performer’s stage has always displayed a sense of cultural carnivalesque, having race, ethnicity and gender as a stable creative axis around which her persona revolves. Her history with urban sub/cultures is constantly under debate wherein appropriation and borrowing are the notions most contested within Madonna readership (Paglia; hooks; Robertson; Fouz-Hernández and Jarman-Ivens). Having established long-term affiliations with the Hispanic culture, the black culture, and the gay culture, her stage cites trends and hypes favored by these communities and found within their urban environments. [3]
Some of the criticism of Madonna’s “Vogue” relates to the fact that her lyrics only name white, mostly straight icons, while also erasing voguing’s original context as a creation of queer people of color. Beyoncé’s remix Break My Soul (The Queens Remix) is frequently cited as an intentional act of rebalancing that narrative. This lyrics link provides notes on the Black icons in verse 3 and also a “read more” link at the top of the page that provides additional information on Beyonce’s inspiration for the remix.
Beyoncé released a number of remixes of “Break My Soul,” the first single off her new album Renaissance, including one that heavily samples Madonna's “Vogue.” But in her version, she rewrites the 1990 song's spoken word rap to pay homage to her Black female predecessors and contemporaries, shouting out music legends like Nina Simone, Grace Jones, Lizzo, Missy Elliot, Aaliyah, Rihanna, Whitney Houston, and many more. The remix also pays tribute to the ballroom culture that originally inspired Madonna's “Vogue” and where so much of Beyonce's sound, vocabulary, and aesthetic on Renaissance comes from, naming the Houses of Xtravaganza, Revlon, LaBeija, and Amazon. At the time of “Vogue”'s release, it was one of the first pieces of mainstream pop culture to ever highlight this queer and minority-operated ballroom scene. [4],[5]
[1] Brief History of Voguing Article
[2] VanVogue Article: Ballroom History
[5] Beyoncé Reimagines Madonna's 'Vogue' for 'Break My Soul' Remix, Paying Tribute to Black Peers
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Song Assessment Site: Cultural Appropriation Section
Beyoncé & Madonna – BREAK MY SOUL (THE QUEENS REMIX) Lyrics
Video: What is Cultural Appropriation?
Documentary: “Paris is Burning” (1990)
TV Series: “Pose” (2018)
From the Love Ball to RuPaul: The Mainstreaming of Drag in the 1990’s, by Jeremiah Davenport. Doctoral dissertation in Music, 2017, Case Western Reserve University
This song is admissible because there are no problematic issues with its message or history. However, it is important ensembles understand that there is a direct line from African traditional music to shanties that is not well known. In A Deep Dive Into Sea Shanties, Stephen Winick notes:
Shanties were a heterogeneous group of songs, with diverse origins. Some came to sea from shore, and we can trace individual shanties back to African American work songs and spirituals, theater songs of vaudeville and the music-hall, and even much older British songs and ballads. Others were pretty clearly written by sailors at sea.
And Scheherazade Khan writes in The Black History of Sea Shanties:
The various elements inherent to shanties, the call and response, rhythmic pounding and similarity to gospel music, were adaptions from work songs of enslaved people. British sailors involved in slave trading would have heard work songs in the Caribbean and American ports as slaves packed up cotton or other cargo for the ships. There they merged with British and Irish balladry to form what are recognizable today. … Moreover, the sea offered an escape for many enslaved Africans. The Common Wind by Julius Scott articulates how "Black people . . . tried to learn a smattering of nautical terminology to pass themselves off as sailors, going on to say that "It’s no coincidence that British sea shanties bear striking resemblances to Caribbean slave songs."
Winick also notes:
Some of the most reliable sources on shanties tell us that often the most valued singer onboard a ship was a black sailor, and we can hear the connections between shanties and field hollers and other land-based work songs that African Americans knew. … Joanna Colcord, an American whose father was a ship captain and who grew up onboard tall ships, wrote in her 1924 book Roll and Go that “American Negroes” were “the best singers that ever lifted a shanty aboard ship.” Given this, it’s appropriate that shantying survives among African descendants in the Caribbean and in the African American community in the region where I live, especially among fishermen.
As with a lot of different genres, the foundation of African influence is recognized by scholars but often overlooked in popular culture when the cultural element (e.g., music, dance, art, fashion) becomes mainstream. Yet the African roots of sea shanties further ratifies the deeply entrenched influence of Black traditions in music, culture, and history.
Medley with this Song
Wellerman medley
This song is admissible; it has no problematic lyrics or message. Jimmie Davis (the registered songwriter) used it in his successful gubernatorial political campaigns (1944, 1960), running as a segregationist. But this iconic and very popular song (named “Song of the Century” and listed in CMT's 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music has not been irrevocably impacted by this stain on its history.