Helen Gone: Early Hidden Messages?

[Victrolacollector]

I just received my copy of Vulcan's reproduction Lambert Issue of "Helen Gone" by Arthur Collins. It sounds as if this song was using to Hell and Gone disguised as a female name. I am wondering if I have this right or if I am wrong. If this is the case there must have been a degree of censorship at that time as far as phonograph records.

[phonogfp]

There's another similar title called Oh Helen! (This one even made it to an Edison Disc!)

Oh hell, oh hell, oh Helen please be mine.
Your feet, your feet, your features are divine.
I swear, I swear, I swear I must be true.
Oh damn, oh damn, oh damsel, I love you.

Pretty racy stuff.

George P.

[PeterF]

Outrageous, George!

If you would listen to the rest of the lyric, you would know that Helen's suitor stutters, and thus what you are interpreting as improper language is instead simply the result of his verbal struggles.

How dare you think otherwise! Take your mind out of the gutter, man. Edison would never stoop so low.



P.S. This reminds me of a sign that was prominently displayed at the electronics hobby store I frequented in my youth:

"Our Credit Manager is Miss Helen Waite. If you want credit, go to Helen Waite."

[phonogfp]

Outrageous, George!

If you would listen to the rest of the lyric, you would know that Helen's suitor stutters, and thus what you are interpreting as improper language is instead simply the result of his verbal struggles.

How dare you think otherwise! Take your mind out of the gutter, man. Edison would never stoop so low.

As a retired Speech/Language Pathologist, I have always found records making fun of stuttering (or "stammering" as it was then called) to be interesting. In 1999 I gave a presentation at an ARSC convention called The Hung Groove: Stuttering in Early Recordings. In it, I played a number of early (pre-1930) recordings which poked fun at stutterers. Among these was Oh Helen! At the time, I had been unable to locate a copy of The Stuttering Monologueist on an early Victor. Naturally, about a year later, I found a clean copy - - and have played it exactly once.

George P.

[52089]

Also, "The Whole Dam Family" appeared on more than one label.

[PeterF]

Gosh, I had forgotten about your former profession, George. This is likely due to my overwhelming jealousy of your current RETIRED status.

The rest of youse should know I am teasing George in the prior post, just for the halibut.

[phonogfp]

The rest of youse should know I am teasing George in the prior post, just for the halibut.

Don't believe him. He's a dirty dog.

George P.

[Cody K]

As 52089 pointed out, the Dam Family was a thing too -- the mother's name in this 1905 film is, of course, Hellen Dam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuC18lX-zwM

Interesting that that one is a remake of a film made a few months earlier by Edwin Porter. I guess the concept was considered so rich at the time that they just had to? It's not like filmmakers had exhausted many tropes by 1905.

As to the original subject, for anybody reading the thread who hasn't heard Helen Gone, here's a version with a vocal by Buddy Burns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u3sk5hKgvU I've got this somewhere around here on a 78, but dam'd if I know where...

[VintageTechnologies]

I'll mention two records that were very risqué for their time.

1) "YOU'LL DO IT SOMEDAY, (SO WHY NOT NOW)" YALE COLLEGIANS VOCAL TRIO - EDISON 52108 L
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-4d2XX0Rl8
I'll bet the Old Man didn't hear that one.

2) "Ol' Man Mose", by Eddy Duchin 1938. Vocals by Patricia Norman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbDKNHMDrEU
There is considerable debate over the lyrics people claim to hear. I'll let you decide....

[Cody K]

I am wondering if I have this right or if I am wrong. If this is the case there must have been a degree of censorship at that time as far as phonograph records.

You're right about Helen. But apart from the early efforts of the ridiculous Anthony Comstock*, I think there was mostly self-censorship on the part of lyricists and musicians, who knew what they could or couldn't get away with. In the case of Helen Gone, it's really just a harmless double-entendre, a play on words, much like the Dam Family thing. It's presented with a wink because it pushes the envelope (very slightly) of what could be considered "good taste". People watched their language in those days as a matter of habit; in the media, most didn't wanna hear anyone talking really dirty.

It was also a class marker to not speak roughly. Records like It's Tight Like That as performed here by Clara Smith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmcDJB_yKIQ weren't intended for a "respectable" social class. Around the same time Bessie Smith recorded You've Got to Give Me Some https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC_diro-0fM, which is easy to decipher if you have an even minimally dirty mind (and who doesn't?). And even that's tame as milk when compared to a record I wouldn't even dare link to on an all-ages website like this one: but you can find it, if you wish, on YouTube by searching "shave me dry by lucille bogan (bessie jackson)". That's about as raunchy as you could get then, or even, for that matter, now.

I guess that's enough of a derail, but I'm interested in the social circumstances that produced the vast range of records we -- well, I guess celebrate is the word -- here on the forum.







* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Comstock