{"id":5720,"date":"2021-10-23T18:47:40","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T23:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=5720"},"modified":"2021-10-23T18:47:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T23:47:40","slug":"the-memphis-blues-becomes-the-memphis-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/10\/23\/the-memphis-blues-becomes-the-memphis-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Memphis Blues&#8221; Becomes The Memphis Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While I was looking through Sheet Music Consortium to determine my topic for this blog post, I decided I wanted to talk about representations of my hometown, Memphis, TN, and the perfect piece came up to do just that: \u201cThe Memphis Blues\u201d by W.C. Handy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Memphis Blues\u201d originated as an instrumental piece<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\" name=\"sdfootnote1anc\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a>. This is important. Lyrics can totally change the impact of a song, especially if the lyrics do not match the initial message, or \u201cvibe\u201d, if you will, that the instrumental version conveyed. To demonstrate this, I decided to do a little experiment. I passed my headphones to a friend this weekend and asked him to tell me what thoughts and images came to mind as he listened to this instrumental version of the piece<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote2sym\" name=\"sdfootnote2anc\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a>. I made sure that he had not heard it before and that he did not know the name.<\/p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6w88NLQTPS4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<p>Unprompted, he said, \u201cI feel like I\u2019m walking down the street in a city, like a southern city, maybe Tennessee vibes\u2026 Oh, now I\u2019m in a restaurant, like a barbecue restaurant, about to devour some ribs.\u201d WOAH!!! That\u2019s Memphis! (Granted, I think Memphis barbecue started closer to the mid-late 20th century, but still.) I said, \u201cWait, I didn\u2019t accidentally say the name of the piece, did I? It\u2019s called \u2018The Memphis Blues\u2019.\u201d He affirmed that I hadn\u2019t told him the title.<\/p>\n<p>I then asked him to listen to a 1915 recording<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote3sym\" name=\"sdfootnote3anc\"><sup>3 <\/sup><\/a>with lyrics by George A Norton, a white, non-Memphian, although, again, I said nothing about the version before passing the headphones.<\/p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CdRA8BdJQ0k?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<p>He said that this version had a very different feel, and reminded him of New York, appropriated, white ragtime. Interesting. \u201cThe Memphis Blues\u201d no longer seemed to reflect Memphis in the way that the original instrumental version did, but the lyricised version is what became popular.<\/p>\n<p>So how and why did a white, non-Memphian\u2019s lyricised version of a Black Memphian\u2019s instrumental song about Memphis become more popular? It all began when Handy sold the song to the music publisher Theron Bennett (Handy later said that he felt he was cheated out of the rights to his song)<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote4sym\" name=\"sdfootnote4anc\"><sup>4<\/sup><\/a>. Then, Bennett hired George A Norton to write the lyrics. Why? I believe Bennett was aware of the lucrative nature of minstrelsy, and knew that adding lyrics would help turn \u201cThe Memphis Blues\u201d into a minstrel song. If you read the <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalcollections.libraries.ua.edu\/digital\/collection\/p17336coll5\/id\/4099\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lyrics<\/a>, you\u2019ll notice there is lots of dialect, as well as commentary about the accepted musical roles for white people versus black people in the lyrics. Once the lyrics were written, Bennett convinced <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_%22Honey_Boy%22_Evans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Honey Boy Minstrels<\/a> to perform the piece.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5721\" style=\"width: 245px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5721\" class=\"wp-image-5721 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM-235x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM-235x300.jpg 235w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM-802x1024.jpg 802w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM-118x150.jpg 118w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM-768x980.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM-1204x1536.jpg 1204w, https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2021\/10\/Screen-Shot-2021-10-23-at-6.09.03-PM.jpg 1318w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5721\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">cover for the sheet music performed by the &#8220;Honey Boy&#8221; Minstrels<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote5sym\" name=\"sdfootnote5anc\"><sup>5<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>It only took a few years for the song to enter into the mainstream, but once popularized, the song was forever changed. While the song has always been upbeat, I believe the initial, un-lyricised version sounds like a simple, genuine, upbeat nod to Handy\u2019s home. Every recording I\u2019ve listened to with lyrics seems to be for the purpose of a laugh.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, if a song once was instrumental but now has lyrics, we should perhaps ask ourselves the question: Are those lyrics serving the original composer\u2019s intent and the mood of the instrumentation? Or was the purpose to make money?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Footnotes<\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote1\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\" name=\"sdfootnote1sym\">1 <\/a>\u201cMemphis Blues&#8221; by W.C. Handy. <i>Auburn University Digital Library<\/i>, Memphis: Theron C. Bennett Co., https:\/\/content.lib.auburn.edu\/digital\/collection\/pianobench\/id\/18.<a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\" name=\"sdfootnote1sym\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\" name=\"sdfootnote1sym\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote2\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote2anc\" name=\"sdfootnote2sym\">2 \u00a0<\/a>Handy, W.C. &#8220;The Memphis Blues by William Christopher Handy (1912, Blues piano)&#8221;. YouTube. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6w88NLQTPS4<\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote3\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote3anc\" name=\"sdfootnote3sym\">3 <\/a>Collins, Arthur &amp; Harlan, Byron G. &#8220;Collins and Harlan &#8216;Memphis Blues&#8217; by W. C. Handy (&#8216;Mister Crump&#8217; early blues) 1915 Columbia A1721&#8221;. YouTube. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CdRA8BdJQ0k<\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote4\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote4anc\" name=\"sdfootnote4sym\">4 <\/a>Charters, Samuel. <em>The Country Blues.<\/em> New York: Da Capo Press, 1975.<\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote5\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote5anc\" name=\"sdfootnote5sym\">5 <\/a>&#8220;Memphis Blues&#8221; by W.C. Handy and George A. Norton. <em>The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections<\/em>, Theron C. Bennett Co., https:\/\/digitalcollections.libraries.ua.edu\/digital\/collection\/p17336coll5\/id\/4100\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While I was looking through Sheet Music Consortium to determine my topic for this blog post, I decided I wanted to talk about representations of my hometown, Memphis, TN, and the perfect piece came up to do just that: \u201cThe &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/10\/23\/the-memphis-blues-becomes-the-memphis-joke\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,761,42,172,171],"class_list":["post-5720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blues","tag-lyrics","tag-memphis","tag-minstrelsy","tag-ragtime"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-1ug","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5725,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5720\/revisions\/5725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}