{"id":9001,"date":"2024-11-15T16:58:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T22:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=9001"},"modified":"2024-11-15T16:58:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T22:58:24","slug":"way-down-home-and-barbershop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2024\/11\/15\/way-down-home-and-barbershop\/","title":{"rendered":"“Way Down Home” and Barbershop"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Library of Congress\u2019 \u201cNational Jukebox\u201d collection holds an abundance of songs from the 1920s that did not seem to surpass the test of time as there is a lack of evidence for many of these songs in the corners of the internet. The recording I looked at here is \u201cWay Down Home\u201d from 1925. The following is what I could understand of the lyrics. The dashes represent words I couldn\u2019t quite make out.\u00a0<\/span> 1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

I never felt so happy
\nI never so gay
\nI never felt so much like smiling at the \u2014– this very day
\nI\u2019m gonna roam back yonder
\nAmong the fields of green(of green)
\nI\u2019ll soon be on my way to heaven
\nDon\u2019t you know where I mean?
\nI mean way down home<\/p>\n

I\u2019d rather be there(I\u2019d rather be there)
\nIn a rocking chair(In a rocking chair)
\nWhere someone all alone
\nWill kiss and caress me
\nTo a hearty \u2014–
\nWe\u2019ll smile for money
\nI declare
\nI\u2019d be a \u2014- millionaire
\nWith all the \u2014 waiting there<\/p>\n

Waiting there(waiting there)
\nOn my knees I\u2019m ready to swear
\nWay down home
\nI\u2019ll wait from way down home<\/p>\n

I ain\u2019t forgotten about the corn and the cotton in the fields \u2014-
\nWay down yonder
\nThat\u2019s where I wonder wonder
\nThat\u2019s the end of perfect day<\/p>\n

I want to listen to the tune I\u2019ve been missing
\nWith a sail of of \u2014- bay
\nI want to buckle to my sweet honey suckle
\nWhen the preacher comes our way<\/p>\n

I mean home
\nWay down home
\nI\u2019d rather be there(I\u2019d rather be there)
\nIn a rocking chair(In a rocking chair)
\nWhere someone all alone
\nWill kiss and caress me
\nTo a hearty \u2014-<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll smile for money
\nI declare
\nI\u2019d be a \u2014- millionaire
\nWith all the \u2014 waiting there<\/p>\n

Waiting there(waiting there)
\nOn my knees I\u2019m ready to swear
\nI\u2019ll never walk away from my home, my home
\nMy sweet home, my home
\nMy sweet home, my home
\nWay from way down home
\nWay from way down home
\nDown home<\/p>\n

The song was written by Walter Donaldson and performed by a quartet called the Shannon Four: Franklyn Baur, Wilfred Glenn, Lewis James, and Elliott Shaw. Later the group changed their name to \u201cThe Revelers\u201d. 2<\/sup><\/a>The first thing that stood out to me was the exceptionally positive lyric choices. This contrasts the fact that the speakers are not in the place they are longing to be(home). It is possible that the exceptional positivity comes from the chord structure as well. Much of the piece is in a major key with predictably major chord progressions. Maybe it is the thought of home that maintains the speaker’s joy. This makes the last line especially stand out as a switch to minor. The song also doesn\u2019t offer a solution to the sad ending, possibly as a point to the lack of homelessness.<\/p>\n

Considering the time period and the fact that the performers and composer are all white, it can easily be assumed that the intended audience was also white. However, the tradition of barbershop quartets stem from a combination of Black American musical styles and white American musical styles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

1 <\/a>Donaldson, Walter, Walter Donaldson, Franklyn Baur, Shannon Four, Elliott Shaw, Wilfred Glenn, and Lewis James. Way Down Home. 1925. Audio. https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/jukebox-711535\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

2 <\/a>Hoffmann, Frank, ed. Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Group, 2004. Accessed November 15, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Library of Congress\u2019 \u201cNational Jukebox\u201d collection holds an abundance of songs from the 1920s that did not seem to surpass the test of time as there is a lack of evidence for many of these songs in the corners … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5299,"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":[1563],"tags":[1518,633],"class_list":["post-9001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-24-mus-345b","tag-1920s","tag-american-quartet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-2lb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9001","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\/5299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9002,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9001\/revisions\/9002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}