What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

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edisonplayer
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by edisonplayer »

I accept the fact that those were part of the culture of 100 some years ago. I listen to those records with that in mind. edisonplayer

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dzavracky
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by dzavracky »

I have two cylinders that have only been played once.

Doug already posted one of them… this green box Amberol

The second is this blue amberol titled “bears oil” sung by Golden and Hughes. Here’s the UCSB link to it.... https://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/deta ... 6&r=1&of=3

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Marc Hildebrant
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by Marc Hildebrant »

In my Podcast # 11 (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1449838) I play and talk about a "Coon Song".

It's a subject that can be difficult to talk about and I gave it a try.

Marc

GeorgeDixon
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by GeorgeDixon »

The Morman Coon by Bob Roberts (Columbia & Busy Bee) is offensive although amusing in the context that some stereotypes die hard.

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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by gramophone78 »

1913 Victor 12" 35280-A New Orleans Minstrels (No.27) Minstrel Record by Victor Minstrel Company / 35280-B Unlucky Mose "Darky" Specialty by Golden & Hughes.
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Wolfe
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by Wolfe »

Friggen Golden and Hugues. Goddamnit.

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drh
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by drh »

TinfoilPhono wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:45 pm I have two odd versions of "Mammy's Little Alabama Coon." One is a Lioret No. 2 cylinder that dates to 1896 (shown as #24 in that year's catalog). Lioret made English-language records for the British market, but it's odd to find an American 'coon song' since he had no market in the US. The other is a Royal Purple Edison sung by German soprano Frieda Hempel. It's absolutely dreadful-- and unimaginable. An opera singer doing a rendition of a racist low-brow song? Yikes.
Well, after all, Edison had the Scottish Maggie Teyte, who would go on to be her generation's supreme interpreter of French art song and a noted exponent of Debussy's Peleas et Melisande (which she studied with the composer), record something called "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" and George Clutsam's dreadful "Ma Curly-Headed Babby." She wasn't alone in that one; Hempel and Hulda Lashanska both recorded it for Victor. Singers were wont to give audiences what they'd pay for, and the walls between "popular" and "classical" were not nearly as formidable as they are today.

And oh, by the way, no less than Rosa Ponselle also recorded "Little Alabama Coon," in her case for Columbia.

Shifting gears, some very catchy banjo tunes had titles that wouldn't pass muster today. I'm thinking in particular of "The Darky's Dream," "The Darky's Awakening," and "Darky Tickle."

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drh
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come acro

Post by drh »

CharliePhono wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 7:36 pm Then there's the ubiquitous "Two Black Crows" set of Viva-Tonal discs. It seems those turn up in just about every record pile I've perused or purchased from New England to California (literally). I can only assume they were very popular.
Parts 1 to 4 do, but parts 5-6 are less common, and 7 and 8 seem to show up very seldom. I think there's good reason for that; the last two sides are just not funny, with a bunch of stuff about one of the guys threatening the other with a knife. Incidentally, at least one of the earlier sides turns up in alternate takes with slightly different dialogue. In one, the discussion of the dog has something like "He's a long dog like that, he's long. He's about half a dog high and three dogs long"; the other has "He's a tall dog like that, he's tall...." At least, that's how I remember the difference.

I think the four records are all of "Two Black Crows." If they did parts 9 and 10, I've never seen or heard of them. There were some other Moran & Mack issues unrelated to the main series, including "Two Black Crows in the Jailhouse" and "Esau Buck." Here's a YouTube link to the last-named; hang in there--after some typcial blackface stuff, the story at the end is worth it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytAv1y391Pk

According to their Wikipedia article, Moran & Mack were indeed extremely popular on radio and in vaudeville and even made movies. They had a connection with W.C. Fields, too.

And yes, remove the "black crows" label, and many of the jokes are just silly and innocuous. I trot some of them out myself now and again--my family has learned never to mention dreams, or I'll pop up with "I had a dream last night. I dreamed I was awake, and when I woke up, I was asleep. And I had another dream: I dreamed I was eating flannel cakes, and when I woke up the blanket was gone...."

edisonplayer
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by edisonplayer »

What about the original lyrics to Old Man River where the N word is used in the verse?edisonplayer

melvind
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Re: What’s the most offensive/non-PC record you’ve come across?

Post by melvind »

edisonplayer wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:43 am What about the original lyrics to Old Man River where the N word is used in the verse?edisonplayer
https://youtu.be/GeqCr-G69AI

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