Kate Smith – Open Thread
Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” is a bullshit song. Woodie Guthrie answered the bullshit in real time by writing “This Land is Your Land” in response. So I’m never sad when that bullshit song gets exposed. Here are some other thougths on Kate Smith and the Flyers.
-The Flyers suck anyway, so maybe changing up the song may actually help.
– As “beloved” as Kate Smith is, if the flyers hired German rockers, Lucifer’s Friend and happened to actually win something, Lucifer’s Friend would instantly become a beloved tradition.
– To put Kate’s Smith’s egergious racist song into a hsitorical context, it was the 1930’s so white racist Americans were widely known as “all white Americans, (except Italians who were semi-black)”.
– Here are some of the lyrics to ‘That’s Why Darkies Were Born’ as sung by kate Smith:
“Someone had to pick the cotton,
Someone had to pick the corn,
Someone had to slave and be able to sing,
That’s why darkies were born;Someone had to laugh at trouble,
Though he was tired and worn,
Had to be contented with any old thing,
That’s why darkies were born;
Like I said thought – it was the 1930’s so Smith had no idea that this was racist as all fuck.
If it was intended as straight commentary and not satire, why did Paul Robeson sing it?
I find “God Bless America” more offensive than the song in question.
Oh, how ungentlemanly of you to bring this up. Keep it up.
Someone had to pick the cotton.
Someone had to fight the Devil,
Shout about Gabriel's Horn,
Someone had to stoke the train
That would bring God's children to green pastures,
That's why darkies were born.
Doesn’t sound like mockery to me.
I guess some outlsts have reprted it as mockery. I said, it was the 1930’s.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but if that song was sung about me, I would take it as a tribute. The only song I ever heard about myself was Randy Newman’s “Short People”.
Yeah, that well-known historically brutalized and subjugated cohort of…
**checks notes**
…racehorse jockeys
I remember when they used to lynch men under 5’8″ for whistling at women.
That’s OK, since short people got no reason to live.
Maybe they should form a grievance group. Wait, I just checked. There is one.
Of course, the Randy Newman song is ironic (I think). Like the Kate Smith song (I think).
I’m not a fan of “God Bless America.” Prefer “America the Beautiful” if we’re going to have patriotic songs at all. I wouldn’t sing either one at the ballpark.
America in 1931 was well know for it’s racially ironic art.
And Paul Robeson sang it because…?
How Manichean does your world view have to be for you to think that because something was rare it was therefore nonexistent?
A black guy sang it. That’s the evidence? OK. Seems like the black cop argument.
How about Pickaninny Heaven? Also a gag?
Mammy Doll… wow that was a real screamer.
C’mon dude.
A “black guy”? That’s all you know about Paul Robeson?
And no, “Pickaninny Heaven” is more problematic. But that’s not the song Jason quoted.
A “black guy”? That’s all you know about Paul Robeson?
Haha. No.
And no, “Pickaninny Heaven” is more problematic. But that’s not the song Jason quoted.
Yeah, well, I thought we were discussing the Kate Smith thing in general. I’d be a lot more sympathetic to your point (especially considering the Robeson argument) if there weren’t several more examples.
My point is about the song, not Kate Smith. If people aren’t sharp enough to ascertain satire when they hear it, I’m going to doubt their critical abilities on much else as well.
On Kate Smith herself, I apply my usual standard, which is it’s easier to pick on dead people’s choices 90 years ago than deal with what’s going on today. That’s not to criticize you — I know you do your part. But condemning Kate Smith at this remove is, very literally, the least someone can do.
Fair enough.
Oh, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9GBafFzjE
It’s better than “Angel of the Morning,” but maybe not as good as “Wild Thing.”
Thanks for this, Mike. Hadn’t heard it before.
Confirms my belief that women are great at writing heartbreak songs, and men are great at writing fuck-off songs.
Well, I hadn’t thought about that, but then I remembered this one…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-kjUWcr7d4