- This article refers to a particular song type of American blues music, and a comedic style prevalent in blues and country music. The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. For other use, see hokum (disambiguation)
Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos. The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression This trope goes back to early blues recordings, and is seen from time to time in modern American blues and blues-rock. Blues-rock is a hybrid musical genre combining Bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended Boogie jams with Rock
An example of hokum lyrics is this sample from Meat Balls, by Lil Johnson, recorded about 1937,
- "Got out late last night, in the rain and sleet
- Tryin' to find a butcher that grind my meat
- Yes I'm lookin' for a butcher
- He must be long and tall
- If he want to grind my meat
- 'Cause I'm wild about my meat balls. Lil Johnson (dates and places of birth and death unknown was an African American Singer who recorded bawdy Blues and Hokum Songs "
The Technique of Hokum
In a general sense, hokum was a style of comedic farce, spoken, sung and spoofed, while masked in both risqué innuendo and "tomfoolery". The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits variety acts dancing, and Music, It is one of the many legacies and techniques of 19th century blackface Minstrelsy. Blackface in the narrow sense is a style of theatrical Makeup that originated in the United Like so many other elements of the Minstrel Show, stereotypes of racial, ethnic and sexual fools were the stock in trade of hokum. The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits variety acts dancing, and Music, Hokum was stagecraft, gags and routines for embracing farce. It was so broad that there was no mistaking its ludicrousness. Hokum also encompassed dances like the cakewalk and the buzzard lope in skits that unfolded through spoken narrative and song. This article is about the form of music and dance For the musical notation program see Cakewalk (sequencer. W.C. Handy, himself a veteran of a minstrel troupe, remarked that, "Our hokum hooked 'em," meaning that the low comedy snared an audience that stuck around to hear the music. William Christopher Handy ( November 16 1873 &ndash March 28 1958) was a Blues Composer and Musician, often Low comedy is a type of Comedy characterized by "horseplay" slapstick and/or Farce. In the days before ragtime, jazz or even hillbilly music or the blues were clearly identified as specific genres, hokum was a component of "all around" performing, entertainment that seamlessly mixed monologues, dialogues, dances, music, and humor. Ragtime (alternately spelled Rag-time) is an American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918 Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States Old-time music is a form of North American Folk music, with roots in the Folk musics of many countries including England, Scotland, The Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue notes It emerged as an accessible form of self-expression
The Minstrel Show Origins of Hokum
The Minstrel Show began in Northern cities, primarily in New York's Five Points section, in the 1830s. Joel Walker Sweeney (1810 – October 29, 1860) also known as Joe Sweeney, was a musician and early Blackface minstrel performer The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits variety acts dancing, and Music, Five Points may be Census-recognized communities in the US: Five Points Alabama Five Points Florida Five Minstrelsy was a mélange of Scottish and Irish folk music forms fused with African rhythms and dance. It is difficult to tease out those strands, considering the mixed motives of the showmen who presented the Minstrel Show, and the mixed audience who patronized it. It is said that T. D. Rice invented the ‘Buck and Wing’, as well as the ‘Jim Crow’, by imitating the stumbling of an old lame black man, and added numerous steps and shuffles, after watching an African American boy improvise a version of an Irish jig in a back alley. Thomas Dartmouth (TD "Daddy" Rice ( May 20, 1808 &ndash September 19, 1860) was a comedian in the Blackface form of comedy Soon, the confusion became so complete that almost any minstrel tune played upon the banjo became known as a jig, regardless of time signatures or lyric accompaniment. Banjo player Joe Ayers told old time musician and writer Bob Carlin that “the origins of playing Irish jigs on the banjo probably go back to minstrel banjoist Joel Walker Sweeney’s appearances in Dublin in 1844. Joel Walker Sweeney (1810 – October 29, 1860) also known as Joe Sweeney, was a musician and early Blackface minstrel performer ” Genuine appreciation among White observers for music and dance, so clearly, if not purely African in origin, existed then and now. Charles Dickens praised the intricacies of the "lively hero" (believed to be Master Juba) who he watched in a New York performance in 1842. Master Juba (c 1825 – c 1852/1853 was an African American dancer active in the 1840s Many songs that originated in Minstrelsy (such as "Camptown Races" and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny") are now considered American classics. " Camptown Races " sometimes referred to as "Camptown Ladies", is a comic song in broad stereotyped African American "dialect" by Stephen "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" is a song which was written by James A While it was originally performed by Whites costumed in either fanciful "dandy" gear or pauper's rags with their faces covered in burnt cork or blackface, the minstrels were joined in the 1850s by Black African American performers. A dandy (also known as a beau gallant or flamboyant person is a man who places particular importance upon Physical appearance, refined language and leisurely hobbies Blackface in the narrow sense is a style of theatrical Makeup that originated in the United The dancer, William Henry Lane (better known by his stage name Master Juba), and the fiddling dwarf Thomas Dilward were also "corking up" and performing alongside Whites in such touring ensembles as the Virginia Minstrels, the Ethiopian Serenaders, and Christy's Minstrels. Thomas Dilward, also known by the Stage name Japanese Tommy, was an African American dwarf who performed in the Blackface Minstrel troupes composed entirely by African Americans appeared in the same decade. After the American Civil War, traveling productions like Callender's Georgia Minstrels would rival the White ensembles in fame, while falling short of them in earnings. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South The difficulties racism presented to any African American entrepreneurs during postwar Reconstruction made touring a dangerous and precarious livelihood.
Subversion and Confrontation
Although mainly Northern in origin, many Minstrel Shows, Black or White, celebrated "Dixieland" and presented a loose concoction of "Negro Melodies" and "Plantation Songs" infused with slapstick, wordplay, skits, puns, dance, and stock characters. This article is about the form of music and dance For the musical notation program see Cakewalk (sequencer. Slapstick is a type of Comedy involving exaggerated physical violence or activities which exceed the boundaries of common sense such as a character being hit in the face with Word play is a Literary technique in which the nature of the words that are used become the main subject of the work Sketch comedy consists of a series of short Comedy scenes or vignettes called "sketches" commonly between one and ten minutes long The hierarchies of the social order were satirized, but seldom challenged. While hokum mocked the propriety of "polite" society, the presumptions and pretensions of the parodists were simultaneous targets of the humor. "Darkies" dancing the cakewalk might mimic the elite cotillion dance styles of wealthy Southern whites, but their exaggerated high stepping exuberance was judged all the funnier for its ineptitude. This article is about the form of music and dance For the musical notation program see Cakewalk (sequencer. The Cotillion is a type of patterned Social dance that originated in France in the 1700s and was originally made up of four couples in a square formation the forerunner Nonetheless, styles of song and dance that began as inversions of the social structure were adopted among the upper echelons of society, often without a trace of self consciousness.
Social insults were more overt. As the underclass being ridiculed shifted shapes, the racist lampoons and blackface burlesques sometimes gave way to other conflations, such as the stage Irishman Paddy, drunken and belligerent, a cruel caricature often in blackface himself. Political nativism and xenophobia encouraged similar mean-spirited responses to the perceived threats of the time. Nativism is an Opposition to immigration which originated in United States politics with roots in the country's historic role as a Melting pot. Xenophobia is an intense and/or irrational dislike and sometimes fear of people from other countries After 1848, when the first substantial influx of Chinese immigrants began seeking their fortunes in the California Gold Rush, "Chink" characters joined the minstrel walkaround. The California Gold Rush (1848&ndash1855 began on January 24 1848 when Gold was discovered by James Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California Chink is an Ethnic slur for any person of Chinese descent It is also commonly used to insult people of general East Asian descent A walkaround (also spelled walk-around or walk around, or called a horay) was a Dance from the Blackface Minstrel shows Hokum enjoyed the license to be outrageous, since the clowning was purportedly "all in fun".
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the hierarchy of social mores that sanctioned stereotyping came increasingly under attack. W. E. B. Du Bois's book the Souls of Black Folk linked the subjective self appraisal of African Americans to their struggle with pejorative stereotyping in his essays about "double consciousness". William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (duːˈbɔɪz ( February 23, 1868 August 27, 1963) was an American Civil rights activist The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work of American literature by W Double consciousness, in its contemporary sense is a term coined by W This inner conflict was central to the African American experience, “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity”. Anticipating social psychology, DuBois had identified a whole sphere of comparative attitudes that allowed for the reinterpretation of the black "mask". While black minstrel performers were once seen as the degraded victims of a racist spectacle, subsequent commentators could now celebrate these culture bearers for creating a subversive space for the advancement of their art and aesthetic. African American minstrels, Karen Sotiropoulos observed, "did not just attempt to hook audiences with hokum; they subverted and manipulated stereotypes as they struggled to present black identity. " This critical perspective has the performers looking over the jeering crowd into the eyes of sympathetic conspirators, and giving them a wink to signal their mutual confidence.
The Artistic Dilemma
Race and sex were the pole stars of hokum, with booze and the law defining loose boundaries. Transgression was a given. How performers navigated through these waters varied from artist to artist. High and low culture had yet to converge as mainstream or popular culture. Popular culture (or pop culture) is the Culture — patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance — The convergence of performance styles, from different races that Minstrelsy and by extension hokum represented, helped to define a central, ongoing tension in American culture. The cycle of rejection, accommodation, appropriation and authentication was set in motion. The infantilized and grotesque enactments and racist and misogynistic content caused many better educated observers of the day to dismiss both the Minstrel Show and hokum as simply vulgar. Some of the white artists, whose contributions to minstrelsy are most valued today, struggled to rise above its cruder forms in their lifetimes. Stephen Foster composed for years in obscurity, while the minstrel troupe leader Edwin P. Christy claimed credit for his songs. Stephen Collins Foster (July 4 1826 – January 13 1864 known as the "father of American music" was the pre-eminent Songwriter in the United States Edwin Pearce Christy ( November 28, 1815 &ndash May 21, 1862) was an American composer singer actor and stage producer By 1852, Foster still wanted the pride of authorship, but wrote to Christy,
“I had the intention of omitting my name on my Ethiopian songs, owing to the prejudice against them by some, which might injure my reputation as a writer of another style of music. But I find that by my efforts, I have done a great deal to build up a taste for the Ethiopian songs among refined people by making the words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some of that order. ”
The same contradictions and ambiguities were endured by African-Americans like the composer James A. Bland, the actor Sam Lucas, and the bandleader James Reese Europe. James Alan Bland (also known as Jimmy Bland) ( 12 October 1854 &ndash 6 May 1911) was an African American Musician Sam Lucas (1850 – 5 January 1916) was an African American Actor, Comedian, Singer, and Songwriter. James Reese Europe ( 22 February, 1881 &ndash 9 May, 1919) was an American Ragtime and early Jazz The classically trained African-American composer Will Marion Cook, who toured throughout the United States and gave a command performance for King George V in England, struggled to raise his music to a public perception of distinction and merit, but was thwarted by marketing that distinguished author and music only by skin color. Will Marion Cook (1869&ndash1944 was a composer and violinist from the United States.
Cook wrote what he called "real Negro melodies" and what he envisioned as "opera. " He sought to market the syncopated sounds emanating from black expressive culture, but his compositions would be sold as "coon songs" suitable for variety stages. Coon songs were a genre of music popular in the United States from 1880 that presented a Racist and stereotyped image of African Cook's music fits most comfortably in the genre now known as "ragtime," but at the turn of the century, critics used the terms "ragtime" and "coon song" interchangeably. Like minstrelsy, the "coon song craze" sold racist stereotypes to mass audiences. Not unlike African-American minstrel performers, black songwriters capitulated in varying degrees to white racist expectation to market their music. [1]
The use of dialect or faux African American (or even Irish) speech patterns also caused many minstrel compositions to be lumped into categories with interchangeable "coon song" connotations. Coon songs were a genre of music popular in the United States from 1880 that presented a Racist and stereotyped image of African "Wake Nicodemus," published in 1864 by Henry Clay Work, in Chicago, could neatly fit into the modern definition of a "protest song", and his later hits such as "Marching Through Georgia" identified his strong abolitionist convictions (his father was famous as a stalwart supporter of the "Underground Railroad"). Henry Clay Work ( October 1, 1832 - June 8, 1884) was an American Composer and Songwriter. The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and Safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States Yet many of his songs were minstrel show staples. His compositions were widely performed by the Christy's Minstrels in particular who appreciated compositions such as "Kingdom Coming". This song was "full of bright, good sense and comical situations in its 'darkey' dialect", as the publisher and songwriter George Frederick Root described it in his autobiography "The Story of A Musical Life".
There is no glossing over the fact that most "coon songs" reveled in ridicule. The reception of "coon songs", however, was by no means uniform. White performers embraced the "coon song craze" as it suited them. The North Carolina Piedmont pioneer Charlie Poole was an acrobatic jokester with a banjo beating out a "barbaric twang", but he didn't perform the "coon songs" he covered in black dialect or in blackface. Black is the Color of objects that do not emit or Reflect Light in any part of the Visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of Poole preferred to hone his own identity and style. While his comedy marked him as "hokum", his music was drawn from the "hillbilly" polyglot of Tin Pan Alley, marches, blues, Appalachian Scots Irish old time fiddle tunes, two-steps, early vaudeville, Civil War chestnuts, event songs, murder ballads and the rest of the mix, with the minstrel tunes another important source. Hillbilly is a term referring to people who dwell in remote Rural, Mountainous areas of the United States, primarily southern Appalachia and Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City -centered music publishers and Songwriters who dominated the popular Vaudeville was a Genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s Murder ballads are a sub-genre of the broadsheet ballad, the lyrics of each being a Narrative poem that tells a tale of Murder. minstrel was a medieval European Bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories about distant places or about real or imaginary historical events
Hokum in Early Blues Music
After the First World War, the fledgling record industry split hokum off from its Minstrel Show or vaudeville context to market it as a musical genre, the hokum blues. The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943) often credited simply as R World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The record industry is the part of the Music industry that sells Sound recordings of Music. The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits variety acts dancing, and Music, Vaudeville was a Genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set Early practitioners surfaced among the Memphis, Tennessee jug bands heard in Beale Street's saloons and bordellos. A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments Beale Street is a street in downtown Memphis Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street a distance of approximately. The light-hearted and humorous jug bands like Will Shade's Memphis Jug Band and Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers played good time, upbeat music on assorted instruments, such as spoons, washboards, fiddles, triangles, harmonicas, and banjos, all anchored by bass notes blown across the mouth of an empty jug. Will Shade ( February 5, 1898 – September 18, 1966) was an African-American Memphis blues musician best known for his The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s Gus Cannon ( 12 September 1883 — 15 October 1979) was an American Blues Musician who helped to popularize Their blues was rife with popular influences of the time, and had none of the grit and plaintive "purity" of the nearby Delta blues. The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of Blues music. Cannon's classic composition "Walk Right In", originally recorded for Victor in 1930, resurfaced as a Number One hit 33 years later, when the Rooftop Singers recorded it during the Folk Revival in New York's Greenwich Village, and a jug band boom ensued once more. Victrola redirects here For other uses see Victrola (disambiguation The Victor Talking Machine Company ( 1901 – 1929 The Rooftop Singers were a progressive folk singing trio in the early 1960s best known for the hit " Walk Right In " The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s Greenwich Village (ˌgrɛnɪtʃ ˈvɪlɪdʒ often simply called the Village, is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern Manhattan A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments
Hokum blues lyrics specifically poked fun at all manner of sexual practices, preferences, and eroticized domestic arrangements. Compositions such as "Banana In Your Fruit Basket", written by Bo Carter of the Mississippi Sheiks, used thinly veiled allusions, which typically employed food and animals as metaphors in a lusty manner worthy of Chaucer. Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon ( March 21 1893 &mdash September 21 1964) was a popular early Blues Musician The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential Guitar and Fiddle group of the 1930s Geoffrey Chaucer (c 1343 – 25 October 1400? was an English author poet Philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and Diplomat. The hilariously sexy lyric content usually steered clear of subtlety. "Bo Carter was a master of the single entendre," remarked the Piedmont blues guitar master "Bowling Green" John Cephas at Chip Schutte's annual guitar camp. The Piedmont blues (also known as Piedmont fingerstyle or East Coast' blues) is a type of Blues music characterized by a unique fingerpicking method on the Cephas & Wiggins is an American blues duo comprised of guitarist John Cephas and Harmonica player Phil Wiggins The bottleneck guitarist Tampa Red was accompanied by Thomas A. Dorsey (performing as "Barrelhouse Tom" or "Georgia Tom") playing piano when the two recorded "It's Tight Like That" for the Vocalion label in 1928. Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the Guitar. Tampa Red ( January 8 1904 - March 19 1981) born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an influential Thomas Andrew Dorsey ( July 1, 1899, Villa Rica Georgia - January 23, 1993, Chicago) is known as "the father Vocalion Records was a Record label historically active in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The song went over so well that the two bluesmen teamed up and became known as the Famous Hokum Boys. Both previously performed in the band of the Mother of the Blues Ma Rainey, who had traveled the vaudeville circuits with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels as a girl, later taking Bessie Smith under her wing. Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey ( April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest known Vaudeville was a Genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit('s Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots" was a long running minstrel and variety troupe that Bessie Smith (July 9 1892 or April 15 1894&ndash September 26 1937 was an American Blues singer The Hokum Boys recorded over 60 bawdy blues songs by 1932, most of them penned by Dorsey, who later picked up his Bible and became the founding father of black gospel. Gospel music is Music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life as well as (in terms of the varying music styles to Dorsey characterized his hokum legacy as "deep moanin', low-down blues, that's all I could say!"
Hokum in Early Country Music
While hokum surfaces in early blues music most frequently, there was some significant crossover culturally. When the Chattanooga based "brother duet" the Allen Brothers recorded a hit version of "Salty Dog Blues" refashioned as "Bow Wow Blues" in 1926 for Columbia's 15,000 - numbered "Old Time" series, the label rushed out several new releases to capitalize on their success, but mistakenly issued these on the 14,000 series instead. Columbia Records is an American Record label founded in 1888 Columbia is the oldest surviving Brand name in pre-recorded sound being the first record company
In fact, the Allen Brothers were so adept at performing white blues that in 1927, Columbia mistakenly released their "Laughin' and Cryin' Blues" in the "race" series instead of the "old-time" series. (Not seeing the humor in it, the Allens sued and promptly moved to the Victor label. ) [2]
Early Black string bands like the Dallas String Band with Coley Jones recorded the tune "Hokum Blues" on December 8th, 1928 in Dallas, Texas, and featured mandolin instrumentation. James Robert (Bob Wills ( March 6, 1905 &ndash May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician Songwriter A mandolin is a musical instrument in the Lute family (plucked or strummed They have been identified both as proto bluesmen and as an early Texas country band, and were likely selling to both Black and White audiences. Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. Both Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker played in the Dallas String Band at various times. "Blind" Lemon Jefferson ( September 24, 1893 or October 26, 1894 or July 1897 &ndash December 1929 was an influential Aaron Thibeaux Walker or T-Bone Walker or Oak Cliff T-Bone ( May 26 1910 — March 15 1975 Walker's recording Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, the seminal White Texas Swing band, recorded a hokum tune with scat lyrics in the early 1930s, "Garbage Man Blues", which was originally known by the title the jazz composer Luis Russell gave it, "The Call of the Freaks". Milton Brown ( 8 September 1903 Stephenville Texas - 13 April 1936 Crystal Falls Stephens County Luis Russell ( 6 August, 1902 - 11 December, 1963) was a Jazz Pianist and bandleader. Bob Wills, who had performed in blackface as a young man, liberally used comic asides, whoops, and jive talk when directing his famous Texas Playboys. James Robert (Bob Wills ( March 6, 1905 &ndash May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician Songwriter Blackface in the narrow sense is a style of theatrical Makeup that originated in the United The Texas Playboys were a Western Swing band long led by Bob Wills, and considered by many to be the definitive progenitor of that musical genre The Hoosier Hotshots, Bob Skyles and the Skyrockets, and other novelty song artists concentrated on the comedic aspects, but for many up and coming White country musicians like Emmet Miller, Clayton McMichen and Jimmie Rodgers, the ribald lyrics were beside the point. The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American Quartet of madcap musicians who entertained on stage screen radio and records from the mid 1930s into the 1970s Clayton McMichen (born January 26, 1900 - died January 4, 1970) was an American fiddler and Country musician Born in Allatoona Hokum for these white rounders in the South and Southwest was synonymous with jazz, and the "hot" syncopations and blue notes were a naughty pleasure in themselves. Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States In Music, syncopation includes a variety of Rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced In Jazz and Blues, a blue note (also "worried" note is a Note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the The lap steel guitar player Cliff Carlisle, who was half of another "brother duet", is credited with refining the blue yodel song style after Jimmie Rodgers became the first country music superstar by recording over a dozen blue yodels. The lap steel guitar is a type of Steel guitar, from which other types developed Cliff Carlisle ( May 6, 1903, Taylorsville Kentucky – April 5, 1983, Lexington Kentucky) was an American Jimmie Rodgers ( September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933) an early purveyor of Delta blues, known as "The Singing Brakeman" Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. "Super Star" redirects here for the Sibel Tüzün song see Süper Star. Carlisle wrote and recorded many hokum tunes and gave them titles such as "Tom Cat Blues", "Shanghai Rooster Yodel" and "That Nasty Swing". He marketed himself as a "Hillbilly", a "Cowboy", a "Hawaiian" or a "Straight" bluesman (meaning presumably, "Black") depending on whom he was playing for and where he played.
The radio "barn dances" of the 1920s and 1930s interspersed hokum in their variety show broadcasts. The first blackface comedians at the WSM Grand Old Opry were Lee Roy "Lasses" White and his partner, Lee Davis "Honey" Wilds, starring in the Friday night shows. White was a veteran of several minstrel troupes, including one organized by William George "Honeyboy" Evans, and another led by Al G. Field, who also employed Emmett Miller. Emmett Miller (1900 - 1962 was an American Minstrel show performer and recording artist known for his Falsetto, yodel-like voice By 1920, White was leading his own outfit, the All Star Minstrels. "Lasses and Honey" joined the Grand Old Opry cast in 1932. The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly Country music radio program and concert broadcast live on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee When Lasses moved on to Hollywood in 1936 to play the role of a silver screen cowboy sidekick, Honey Wilds stayed on in Nashville, corking up and playing blues on his ukulele with his new partner Jam-Up (first played by Tom Woods, and subsequently by Bunny Biggs). Wilds organized the first Grand Old Opry endorsed tent show in 1940. The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly Country music radio program and concert broadcast live on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee For the next decade, he ran the touring show, with Jam-Up and Honey as the headliners. Pulling a forty foot trailer behind a four door Pontiac, and followed by eight to ten trucks, Wilds took the tent show from town to town, hurrying back to Nashville on Saturdays to do his Opry radio appearances. Many country musicians, like Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, Eddy Arnold, Stringbean and Roy Acuff, toured with the Wilds' tent shows from April through Labor Day. Uncle Dave Macon ( October 7 1870 - March 22 1952)—also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop"—was an William Smith Monroe ( September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American musician who developed the style of music known as Richard Edward Arnold (known as Eddy Arnold) ( May 15, 1918 &ndash May 8, 2008) was an American Country music David Akeman ( June 17, 1915 – November 10, 1973) was an American Country music Banjo player and comedy Roy Claxton Acuff ( September 15, 1903 &ndash November 23, 1992) was an American country Musician known As Honey Wilds' son David told No Depression magazine's co-editor Grant Alden:
Music was a part of their act, but they were comedians. They would sing comedic songs, a la Homer and Jethro. Homer and Jethro were an American Country music team with a long career from the 1940s through the 1960s sometimes known as "the thinking man's hillbillies They would add odd lyrics to existing songs, or write songs that were intended to be comedic. They were out there to come onstage, do five minutes of jokes, sing a song, do five minutes of jokes, sing another song and say, "Thank you, good night," as their segment of the Grand Ole Opry. The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly Country music radio program and concert broadcast live on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee Almost every country band during that time had some guy who dressed funny, wore a goofy hat, and typically played slide guitar. [3]
The Legacy of Hokum
Although the sexual content of hokum is generally playful by modern standards, early recordings were marginalized for both sexual "suggestiveness" and "trashy" appeal, but still flourished in niche markets outside the mainstream. "Jim Crow" segregation was still the norm in much of the United States, and racial, ethnic and class bias was embedded in the popular entertainment of the time. Prurience was seen as more antisocial than prejudice. The Miller test is the United States Supreme Court 's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled Obscene, in which case it is not protected The word prejudice refers to prejudgment making a decision before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case or event Record companies were more concerned about selling records than stigmatizing artists and minority audiences. Modern audiences might be offended by the packaged exploitation these stock caricatures offered, but in early 20th century America, it paid for performers to play the fool. The term " exploitation " may carry two distinct meanings The act of utilizing something for any purpose A caricature is either a Portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness or in literature a description Audiences were left on their own to interpret whether they themselves were sharing the joke or were the butts of it. While "race" musicians traded in "coon songs" crafted for commercial consumption by catering to White prejudice, "hillbilly" musicians were similarly marketed as "rubes" and "hayseeds". Class distinctions bolstered these portrayals of gullible rural folk and witless southerners. Assimilation of African Americans and appropriation of their artistic and cultural creations were not yet equated by the emerging entertainment industry with racism and bigotry. A region or society where several different groups are spontaneously assimilated is sometimes referred to as a Melting pot. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa
The eventual success of African American musical productions on Broadway like Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle's "Shuffle Along" in 1921, helped to usher in the Swing Jazz era. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located James Hubert Blake ( February 7, 1887 &ndash February 12 1983) was a Composer, Lyricist, and pianist of Ragtime Noble Sissle (b July 10 1889, Indianapolis Indiana - d December 17, 1975, Tampa Florida) was an American Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of Jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United This was accompanied by a new sense of sophistication that eventually disdained hokum as backward, insipid, and perhaps most damningly, corny. Audiences began to change their perceptions of authentic "Negro" artistry. Negro is a term referring to people of Black African ancestry White comedians like Frank Tinney and singers like Eddie Cantor (nicknamed "Banjo Eyes") continued to work successfully in blackface on Broadway. Eddie Cantor ( January 31, 1892 - October 10, 1964) was an American Comedian, Singer, Actor, They even branched out into vaudeville-based sensations like the Ziegfeld Follies and the emerging film industry, but cross racial comedy became increasingly out of fashion, especially onstage. History The Follies were lavish Revues something between later Broadway shows and a more elaborate high class Vaudeville Variety show. On the other hand, it is impossible to imagine that the success of comics such as Pigmeat Markham or Damon Wayans, or bandleaders like Cab Calloway or Louis Jordan does not owe some debt to hokum. Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham ( April 18, 1904 in Durham, North Carolina &ndash December 13, 1981 in The Bronx Damon Kyle Wayans (born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, Writer, and Actor who began his career Cabell "Cab" Calloway III ( December 25, 1907 &ndash November 18, 1994) was a famous American Jazz Singer Louis Jordan ( July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering American Jazz, Blues and Rhythm & blues White performers have thoroughly absorbed the lessons of hokum as well, with the "top banana" Harry Steppe, singers like Louis Prima and Leon Redbone or comedian Jeff Foxworthy being prime examples. Harry Steppe (born Abraham Stepner, March 1888 – November 22, 1934) was a Jewish-American actor comedian and hobo clown who worked in Vaudeville Louis Prima ( December 7, 1910 Legacy The Prima-Butera arrangements and recordings continued to be copied by younger musicians including David Leon Redbone (August 26 1949 He has cited his date of birth as October 29 1929 this wildly inaccurate date was the day of the U Jeff Foxworthy (born September 6, 1958) is an American Stand-up comedian and Actor. Offstage it is by no means extinct either, or only practiced by members of one race parodying another race. The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe has marched on Fat Tuesday since 1900 dressed in raggedy clothes and grass skirts with their faces blackened. The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club (founded 1916 is a Carnival Krewe in New Orleans Louisiana which puts on the Zulu parade each Mardi " Mardi Gras " ( French for Fat Tuesday) is the day before Ash Wednesday. A Krewe (pronounced in the same way as "crew" is an organization that puts on a Parade and or a ball for the Carnival season " Mardi Gras " ( French for Fat Tuesday) is the day before Ash Wednesday. Zulu is now the largest predominantly African American organization marching in the annual Carnival celebration. While the Minstrel Show, burlesque, vaudeville, variety, and the medicine show have left the scene, hokum is still here. The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits variety acts dancing, and Music, Burlesque is theatrical entertainment of broad and parodic humor which usually consists of comic skits (and sometimes a strip tease) Vaudeville was a Genre of variety entertainment prevalent on the stage in the United States and Canada, from the early 1880s A variety show or variety entertainment is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts especially Musical performances and Comedy Skits and Similar to the fabled gypsy bands of old Europe medicine shows were traveling Horse and buggy teams which peddled miracle medications and other products between various entertainment
Rural stereotypes continued to be fair game. Consider the phenomenal success of the syndicated television program "Hee Haw", which was produced from 1969 until 1992. For the EP by The Birthday Party, see Hee Haw (EP Hee Haw was a Television Variety show co-hosted Writer Dale Cockrell has called this a minstrel show in "rube-face". It featured country music stars, curvaceous comediennes, and banjo playing bumpkins whose pickin' and grinnin' picked on city slickers and grinned at the buxom All Jugs Band. The banjo is a Stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments City slicker, a synonym for Fop, is an idiomatic expression for someone accustomed to a city or urban lifestyle and unsuited The rapid fire one liners, Laugh-In rapid cross cutting, animations of barnyard animals, hayseed humor and continuous parade of country, bluegrass, and gospel performers appealed to an untapped demographic that was older and more rural than the young, urban "hip" audience broadcasters were routinely cultivating. Here Comes The Judge redirects here for the 1968 song see Shorty Long. In Political geography and International politics, a country is a Political division of a geographical entity Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of Country music. This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament It is still in syndication today, and is one of the most successful syndicated programs ever. Admirers of hokum warmed to its slyness and the seeming innocence that provided a context for simplistic shenanigans. In the rural south in particular, hokum held on. Cast members like Stringbean and Grandpa Jones were quite familiar with hokum (and blackface as well), and if bands named the "Clodhoppers" or the "Cut Ups" and other country cousins of this comedic form are fewer in number today, their presence is still a clue to the country and western, bluegrass, and string band tradition of mixing stage antics, broad parodies and sexual allusions with music. David Akeman ( June 17, 1915 – November 10, 1973) was an American Country music Banjo player and comedy Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones ( October 20, 1913 &ndash February 19, 1998) was an American Banjo player and Blackface in the narrow sense is a style of theatrical Makeup that originated in the United Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of Country music.
Examples of Hokum
- It's Tight Like That - Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, recorded 1928
- I Had to Give Up Gym - Hokum Boys, 1929
- Please Warm My Weiner - Bo Carter, 1930
- The Coldest Stuff in Town - Whistling Bob Howe & Frankie Griggs, 1935
- They're Red Hot - Robert Johnson, recorded 1937
- Meat Balls - Lil Johnson, probably 1937
- Bow Wow Blues - The Allen Brothers, 1926
- Southern Whoopee Song - The Anglin Brothers, 1938
- Sixty Minute Man - The Dominoes, 1951
- She Loves My Automobile - ZZ Top, 1979
- Entering Marion - Bob Forster, 1988
- Trucking My Blues Away - Blind Boy Fuller, 1936
- Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) - Big & Rich, 2004
- Salty Dog - Blind Willie McTell, 1956
- Big 10-Inch Record - Bull Moose Jackson, 1952
Hokum Collections
- Please Warm My Weiner - Yazoo L-1043 (cover art by Robert Crumb) (1992)
- Hokum: Blues and Rags (1929-1930) - Document 5392 (1995)
- Hokum Blues: 1924-1929 - Document 5370 (1995)
- Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts & Lollypops - Sony (1991)
- Let Me Squeeze Your Lemon: The Ultimate Rude Blues Collection - (2004)
Other Collections containing Hokum
- Traditional Country Music Makers, Vol. Tampa Red ( January 8 1904 - March 19 1981) born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an influential Yazoo Records is a Record label founded in the late 1960s by Nick Perls. Tampa Red ( January 8 1904 - March 19 1981) born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an influential Thomas Andrew Dorsey ( July 1, 1899, Villa Rica Georgia - January 23, 1993, Chicago) is known as "the father Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon ( March 21 1893 &mdash September 21 1964) was a popular early Blues Musician " They're Red Hot " is a song originally performed and written by Blues musician Robert Johnson. Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8 1911 – August 16 1938 is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians " Sixty Minute Man " is a highly successful and influential Rhythm and blues (R&B record released in 1951 by The Dominoes. The Dominoes redirects here For the 70s blues-rock supergroup see Derek and the Dominos. ZZ Top (ˌziːziːˈtɒp is an American rock band formed in late 1969 in Houston Texas. Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen) ( July 10, 1907 - February 13, 1941) was an American Blues Guitarist Big & Rich are an American Country music duo comprising two Singer-songwriters Big Kenny (aka Kenny Alphin former solo artist and lead singer for William Samuel McTell, better known as Blind Willie McTell ( May 5, 1898 (sometimes reported as 1901 or even 1903 – August 19, 1959 Benjamin Clarence "Bull Moose" Jackson ( April 22 1919 – July 31 1989) was an American Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943) often credited simply as R is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest Media conglomerates with 20 - Memphis Yodel - Magnet MRCD 020 (Cliff Carlisle and other artists)
- White Country Blues, 1926-1938: A Lighter Shade Of Blue - Sony (1993)
- Booze And The Blues (Legacy Roots N' Blues series) - Sony (1996)
- Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows 1926-1937 - Old Hat Records CD-1005 (2005)
Sources
- Lott, Eric (1993). Eric Lott (born 1959 is an American Professor of English and social historian. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507832-2.
- Toll, Robert C. (1974). Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-century America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6300-5.
- The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. DuBois (Penguin Classics, New York: Penguin Books, reprinted April 1996) ISBN 0-14-018998-X. Penguin Books is a British Publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane.
- Reminiscing with Sissle and Blake by Robert Kimball and William Bolsom (The Viking Press, New York, 1973)
- Staging Race: Black Performers in Turn of the Century America by Karen Sotiropoulos (Harvard University Press, 2006)
- Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World by Dale Cockrell (Cambridge University Press, 1997)
- The Story of a Musical Life: An Autobiography by George F. Viking Press is an American Publishing company currently owned by Penguin Books. Harvard University Press ( HUP) is a Publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in Academic publishing. Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP is a Publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534 Root (Cincinnati: The John Church Co., 1891; reprinted by AMS Press, Inc, New York, NY in 1973, ISBN 0-404-07205-4)
- We’ll Understand It Better By and By - Pioneering African American Gospel Composers edited by Bernice Johnson Reagon, "Wade In The Water Series" (Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1993)
- Black Gospel: An Illustrated History of the Gospel Sound by Vic Broughton (Blandford Press, New York, 1985)
- Where Dead Voices Gather by Nick Tosches, 2001, Little, Brown, USA, ISBN 0-316-89507-5 on Emmett Miller
- A Good Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry by Charles K. The John Church Company was a 19th century American Publishing company that specialized in Sheet music. The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of Emmett Miller (1900 - 1962 was an American Minstrel show performer and recording artist known for his Falsetto, yodel-like voice Wolfe (The Country Music Foundation Press and the Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, TN, 1999)
- Bluegrass Breakdown : The Making of the Old Southern Sound by Robert Cantwell (The University of Illinois Press, Chicago, 1984, Reprinted 2003)
- It Came From Memphis by Robert Gordon (Pocket Books, Simon and Shuster, New York, NY, 1995)
- Stephen Foster: America's Troubadour by John Tasker Howard, (Thomas Y. The University of Illinois Press ( UIP) is a major American University press and part of the University of Illinois. Crowell Co. , New York, 1934, 2nd edition, 1953)
- The Encyclopedia of Country Music edited by Paul Kingsbury (Oxford University Press, New York, 1998)
- Minstrel Banjo Style by various artists, liner notes, Rounder Records ROUN0321, 1994
- You Ain't Talkin' To Me: Charlie Poole And The Roots Of Country Music liner notes by Henry Sapoznik, Columbia Legacy Recordings C3K 92780, 2005
- Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows 1926-1937 liner notes by Marshall Wyatt, Old Hat Records CD-1005 (2005)
References
- ^ "Staging Race: Black Performers in Turn of the Century America" by Karen Sotiropoulos (Harvard University Press, 2006)
- ^ Charles Wolfe's entry on the Allen Brothers in "The Encyclopedia of Country Music", edited by Paul Kingsbury (Oxford University Press, 1998)
- ^ Grant Alden, No Depression, issue #4, Summer 1996, interview with David Wilds
Dictionary
hokum
-noun
- Meaningless nonsense with an outward appearance of being impressive and legitimate.
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