I'm not trying to answer for Steve with this, but part of the difficulty in my opinion is that people want to maintain their tribal status. I posted this link on my Facebook page with the words, "Historical song with a hidden meaning. More of the old music is like this than I knew." The only person to put a 'like' on it was my 90-year-ol…
I'm not trying to answer for Steve with this, but part of the difficulty in my opinion is that people want to maintain their tribal status. I posted this link on my Facebook page with the words, "Historical song with a hidden meaning. More of the old music is like this than I knew." The only person to put a 'like' on it was my 90-year-old conservative uncle.
Do people not want to know about such things, or do they fear being thought of a woke if they publicly like it? I didn't put it there to signal virtue or wokeness, I found it to be interesting a few days late for Black History Month.
I'm fairness I understand that my interest in history found in song is not exactly common.
I'm the book "Banjo Roots and Branches" it must have been painful for slave owners to give the detailed descriptions of their runaway slaves, but they wanted them back. "He is a skilled blacksmith and carpenter who speaks and reads English and French. He is also a fiddler who plays at dances for white people." That from people who justified being slave owners with the idea that black people were inferior, but passed laws making it unlawful to teach a black person to read with no apparent sense of irony. Something I learned because of my interest in the banjo.
I am currently working with Greg "Sule" Wilson's "Funky Banjo" instruction. Volume Two has a good bit about the history and meaning of the songs. Some black musicians refuse to play "Turkey in the Straw." He teaches the uncensored names of versions that we could not be comfortable singing. When you hear that ice cream truck coming down the street you don't think about that being "N****r Love a Watermelon Ha! HA! HA!" during the Coon Era and points out that watermelon were a taste from home.
He teaches "Run N****r; Run or the M.P. 'll Catch You" (without the asterix) with the explanation. "Yes, we get it. Most folks are NOT going to sing this song in public; to use the word "n****r" is still pretty volatile. Yet we include it. Why? A couple of reasons. One: ALL our history is not to be shut out least we not learn from our mistakes. Two: This folk expression of bravery and humanity, a testament to heart and perseverance, was taken and used against us. Let's all grow up, re-contextualize and heal."
I'm not trying to answer for Steve with this, but part of the difficulty in my opinion is that people want to maintain their tribal status. I posted this link on my Facebook page with the words, "Historical song with a hidden meaning. More of the old music is like this than I knew." The only person to put a 'like' on it was my 90-year-old conservative uncle.
https://youtu.be/UYJafpW1siE
Do people not want to know about such things, or do they fear being thought of a woke if they publicly like it? I didn't put it there to signal virtue or wokeness, I found it to be interesting a few days late for Black History Month.
That video was history, not wokeness or postmodernism. Thanks for it!
I'm fairness I understand that my interest in history found in song is not exactly common.
I'm the book "Banjo Roots and Branches" it must have been painful for slave owners to give the detailed descriptions of their runaway slaves, but they wanted them back. "He is a skilled blacksmith and carpenter who speaks and reads English and French. He is also a fiddler who plays at dances for white people." That from people who justified being slave owners with the idea that black people were inferior, but passed laws making it unlawful to teach a black person to read with no apparent sense of irony. Something I learned because of my interest in the banjo.
I am currently working with Greg "Sule" Wilson's "Funky Banjo" instruction. Volume Two has a good bit about the history and meaning of the songs. Some black musicians refuse to play "Turkey in the Straw." He teaches the uncensored names of versions that we could not be comfortable singing. When you hear that ice cream truck coming down the street you don't think about that being "N****r Love a Watermelon Ha! HA! HA!" during the Coon Era and points out that watermelon were a taste from home.
He teaches "Run N****r; Run or the M.P. 'll Catch You" (without the asterix) with the explanation. "Yes, we get it. Most folks are NOT going to sing this song in public; to use the word "n****r" is still pretty volatile. Yet we include it. Why? A couple of reasons. One: ALL our history is not to be shut out least we not learn from our mistakes. Two: This folk expression of bravery and humanity, a testament to heart and perseverance, was taken and used against us. Let's all grow up, re-contextualize and heal."
Should this history not be taught? Why?