Fascinatin' Rhythm; Early Black Songwriters; Part 2

Bill Johnson said one day, to his Eliza May [Music] We've been to nearly every place in town. Could you suggest to me [Music] to me some of the novelty where we can go and do this [Music] thing around. His sweetest [Music] sweetest said "My dear, there is this place I hear, I got it straight from [Music] [inaudible] who brings the clothes. It's honky tonky town down [Music] down where them gals wear brown [Music] That's where that music flows. [Music] Come on and let's go down. To honky tonky town [Music] it's underneath the ground. Where all the fun is found. There'll be [Music] they'll be singing with us. Singing syncopates. Dancing to piano [Music] piano played by Mr. Brown. Piano he plays, my dear. He plays [Music] all by ear. You want [Music] want to stay here. That music got you here. Make you act a monkey. Dancing [Music] Dancing to ya funky. Down in Honky Tonk Town. [Music] That Hulahula dance don't even stand a chance. [Music]

You've got to see them folks get down [Music] and me. They do the "te-nana?" and then you know somehow [Music] you must be back in old New Orleans. [Music] It's got to be a fad, with every girl and lad to go to [Music] Honky Tonky Town at night. [Music] These girls cry to go. Down when she's by her boat she yells out [Music] with all her might. [Music] Come on. Let's go down. To Honky Tonky Town. [Music] It's underneath the ground where all the fun is found. [Music] They'll be singing with us. Singing syncopates. Dancing to [Music] piano player Mr.Brown. Piano he plays my dear [Music] He plays it all by ear. You want to stay [Music] Here. That music that you hear make you act a monkey [Music] dancing til funky. Down in Honky Tonky Town. [Music] The cast of One More Time with Down in Honky Tonk Town.

Before he became a songwriter, Chris Smith had performed in a medicine show in South Carolina. Many Black songwriters began their careers as performers and many of them continued to perform, even though their writing succeeded. Of all the early Black songwriters, the most important performer was Bert Williams. Between 1910 and 1921, when Shuffle Along opened on Broadway. Williams was the only Black star in the New York theater. Despite the color line, Florenz Ziegfeld hired him for the Follies, and he became one of Broadway's most popular attractions. He also wrote many of the songs he performed. This is Bert Williams in the 1913 recording of his 1905 signature song Nobody. When life seems full of clouds and rain [Music]

and I am full of nothin' and [Music] pain. Who soothes my thumping, bumping brain? [Music] Nobody. [Music] When winter comes with snow and sleet, [Music] and me with hunger and cold feet, [Music] who says "Here's twenty-five cents, go ahead and get somethin' to eat?" No- [Music] Nobody. But I [Music] I ain't never done nothin' to nobody [Music] I ain't never done nothin' to nobody, [Music] no time. So until [Music] I get somethin' from somebody sometime. I'll [Music] never do nothin' for nobody, no time [Music]

When summer comes all cool and clear [Music] and my friends see me drawing near [Music] who says "Come in, have some beer" [Music] Nobody. [Music] When I was in that railroad wreck and thought [Music] thought I'd cashed in my last check [Music] Who took the engine off my neck? [Music] Not a soul. [Music] So I ain't never done nothin' to nobody [Music] nobody. I ain't never [Music] never done nothin' to nobody, no time [Music]

I feel like it's something from nobody sometime [Music] Sometime. I'll never do nothin' for [Music] nobody, no time. [Music] Even though nobody is a plea for racial understanding, most of the songs Bert Williams wrote with his partner George Walker were comic. Walker and Williams were especially good at depicting the attitudes of their people with sympathetic irony. From the 1964 off Broadway review Tintypes. Here are two of their songs; "She's getting more like the white folks every day" and "When it's all going out and nothing coming in". I've never seen such a monstrous change since the day that I was born. [Music]

As bounced up here in the las' four weeks [Music] 'Tween me an' Miss Sally Horn [Music] She apparently [par'ntly] had a normal constitution, with common sense to spare [Music] But since she's been following the white folks, they've put Miss Sally in the air [Music] My trouble they got started since at the big hotel she stayed [Music] A lady sent for her up there, to come and be [Music] the maid. Where we used to go to the restaurant. Plain pork [Music] chops they will do. But [Music] now she wants a porter house steak and a bottle of champagne, too [Music] She's getting mo' like the white folks everyday [Music] Tryin' to do jus' like 'em every way, once she was stuck on calico patterns. Now all she wants is silks and satins. She's [Music] getting mo' like the white folks everyday. [Music change] Money is the root of evil, no matter where you happen to [Music]

go, but nobody has any objection to that [Music] route. Now ain't that [Music] so. You know how it is with your money, [Music] how it makes you feel at ease. The world puts on big broad smile [Music] and your friends are as thick as be. [Music] But hold, [Music] When your money is running low and you're clinging to a [Music] solitary dime, your creditors are numerous and your friends [Music] are few. That is an awful [Music] time. [Music] That is the time, oh, that is the time. When [Music] to call going out, and nothing coming in. That is [Music] the time when your troubles begin. Money getting more. [Music] People stay they told you so. And you can't borrow a penny from many [Music] depend when it's all going out and nothing's coming in. That is the time [Music]

time. Well that is the time. When it's all going out [Music] going out, and nothings coming in. That is the time when your troubles begin. [Music] Moneys getting mo'. People say they told you so. [Music] I just can't borrow a penny from many [Music] of your kin. When it [Music] When it's all going out and nothing's come. [Music] The cast of Tintypes with "She's getting more like the white folks every day", and "When it's all going out and nothing's coming in". If will Marion Cook and Bob Cole belong to the first generation of Black songwriters, Sheldon Brooks was an important member of the second. In 1910, when he was 24, he auditioned for vaudeville headliners Sophie Tucker. She started to perform his song almost immediately, and

it quickly became her signature. Here's Sophie Tucker with "Some of these days". [Music Starts] You'll miss me, honey. [Music] Some of these days, you're gonna be so lonely. [Music] You'll miss my hugging. [Music] You're gonna miss my kissin', you're gonna miss me honey, [Music] When I'm far away. Said I feel so lonely. Just [Music] for you only. For you know, honey. You'll [Music] You'll have your way. When you leave me. You know [Music] You know it's gonna grieve me. Gonna miss your big fat momma. Your mom [Music]

ma some of these days. Too sweet hot [Music] hot coated happily for quite a while. "Mid simple aisle" for country folk. [Music] The laddie told the girlie "he must go away" and [Music] a little heart with grief most broke. [Music] She said "You know, I love you, honey. I love you best [Music] Best of all. You darling don't you [Music] Don't you go away". [Music] Just as he went to go. "He [inaudible]" the girl he so [Music]. So, "he works he heard her say; "some [Music] some of these days, you'll [Music] You'll miss me, honey. [Music] Some of these days you're gonna be so lonely. [Music] You'll miss my huggin' [Music] You're gonna miss my kissin'. You're gonna miss me, honey. When I'm far away. Said I feel so lonely. Why [Music] you won't leave. 'Cause you know, honey [Music]

You've had your way. And when you'll need me, you know, [Music] You know it's gonna grieve me. Gonna miss your big fat momma. [Music] Your momma. Some of these days. [Music] Sophie Tucker, "Some of these days," Buck and Bubbles were one of the foremost Black vaudeville song and dance teams for more than 20 years. In the 1930s, John Bubbles originated the role of Sportin Life in Porgy and Bess. But just before World War One, he and his partner introduce what would become Spencer Williams' best known song. Like so many other Black compositions, it brought the feel of the blues to mainstream popular music. John Bubbles sings "I Ain't Got Nobody". [Music Starts] There's been a sayin' goin' around. [Music]

I began to think it's true, it's awful hard to love someone [Music] when they don't care about you. [Music] Once I had a lovin' girl, as good as any girl in town, [Music] but now she's gone and left me. [Music] She's done turn me down. 'Cause I [Music] got nobody and there's nobody [Music] cares for me. I'm [Music] "[inaudible] 'Cause" sad and lonely, Won't [Music] somebody come and take a chance with me? [Music] I sing love songs, all the time [Music] if she'll come with me, well sweet baby mine, 'cause I [Music] Ain't got nobody, and nobody [Music] cares about me. [Music] yeah yeah. [Music Solo]

Can't you see that I ain't got no nobody [Music] and there's nobody cares for me, [Music] that's why I'm so sad and lonely. Won't somebody [Music] come take a chance with me [Music] I'll sing sweet love songs, honey, all the time if you [Music] you only come and be a sweet baby [Music] Mine. 'Cause I ain't got nobody. And there's nobody cares for me. [Music End]

John Bubbles with Spencer Williams' "I ain't got nobody." At the same time, the Black songwriters were helping to shape American popular music, Black vaudevillians were performing in their own circuit of theaters. One of the most seasoned and professional of the Black teams was known on stage as Koot Grant and Chizik Wilson. Leela and Wesley Wilson were also prolific songwriters. Here's Carolyn Lee again with their best known song. [Music Starts] Up in Harlem every Saturday night, when the high- [Music] Browns get together it's just too tight. [Music]

They all congregate and all night strut. And what they do is tu- [Music] t-tut-tut. Old Hannah Brown from 'cross town [Music] town gets full of corn and starts breakin' em down [Music] Just at the break of day, you can [Music] hear Hannah [Music] Hannah say, give me a pigfoot and [Music] and a bottle of beer [Music] Play me boys, I don't care [Music] I feel like I want to clown, Give the piano player a drink be- [Music] because he's bring me down. He's gotta rhythm, yeah yeah, when [Music] When he stomps his feet, he sends me [Music] right off the deep. You betta check all your razors and your [Music] guns. We're gonna be rasslin' when the wagon comes [Music]

Give me a pigfoot and [Music] and a bottle of beer. Play me because I don't care. I sang, play me because I [Music] I don't care. I want [Music Solo] want me a pigfoot. Give me a bottle of beer [Music]

Come on, play me boys I don't care [Music] I feel just like I want to clown. [Music] Give the piano player a drink because he's bringing em down. [Music] He's got a rhythm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you betta check all your razors and [Music] and your guns. Do the shim-sham-shimmy until the rising [Music] sun. I want me a reefer and a gang of gin. Play me [Music] 'cause I'm in my sin. I say, blame me [Music] 'cause I'm full of gin. [Music] Caroli, give me a pig foot as early as 1905, lyricist Cecil Mack and other Black songwriters formed a company to publish

their own songs and in the process, avoid the degrading stereotypes on the sheet music put out by white publishers. Five years later, Mac and composer Ford Dabney published one of their best known songs. This is Cliff Edwards with Shine. Shine, sawy your bluesie [Music] Start with your shoesies. Shine each place up [Music] make it look like new, shine your face up; and wear a smile [Music] or two. Shine your these and thoseies [Music] You'll find that everything will turn out fine. [Music] Folks will shine up to ya. Everybody's gonna how- [Music] howdy do-ya. You'll make the whole world shine. [Music] Now, happy Jack. known around the town as some boot Black, never worked, doing work like [Music]

sin had to grin. Guaranteed to bring the business in. Every day, when they'd ask him [Music] him how he'd get that way, he would tell them, if you envy me, just try my [Music] recipe because my hair is curly [Music] and 'cause my teeth are pearly, just because I [Music] I always wear a smile. I [Music] I like to dress up in the very very latest style, 'cause [Music] when I'm living, take troubles smile'n [Music] I'm never whine, whine, whine, because [Music] because my color's shady (yes, you's a shady baby) That's [Music] That's why they call me Shine [Music Ends] Cliff Edwards with Shine. After "Cicilline?" and Shuffle Along opened in 1921, Broadway was accessible to Black songwriters and performers once again. A year later, Henry Creamer and Turner Layton wrote the score for a show called Strut Miss Lizzie.

It lasted only four weeks, even though we introduced their most important song, as they did for those four weeks on Broadway, Creamer and Leighton sing "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans". Way down yonder in New Orleans in the land of dreamy scenes [Music] There's a Garden of Eden, that's what I mean. [Music] Where Creole babies with flashin' eyes softly whisper with tender sighs."Then you stop". Won't you [Music] give your lady fair a little smile. And then you stop. You bet your life you'll [Music] linger there a little while. There is heaven right here on earth, [Music] with those beautiful queens. Way down yonder in New Orleans. [Music] Yes [Music] Where do you think I'm going when the winds are blowing? [Music] Yes. Where do you think I'm going when [Music]

the night starts flowing long. Well, I ain't going east. [Music] I ain't going west. I ain't going over the coocoo's nest. I'm I'm bound from the town I love the best. Well, "I'll be [inaudible] one sweet" [Music] song. And that's way down yonder in New Orleans. In the land of dreamy [Music] scenes. There's a Garden of Eden, that's what I mean. [Music] Where Creole babies with flashin' eyes softly whisper with tender sighs. Stop [Music] Won't you give your lady fair a little smile. Stop [Music] You bet your life you'll linger there a little while. There is heaven right here on [Music] earth with those beautiful queens. Way down yonder in [Music] New Orleans. How can I [Music] I get that sweet aroma and "[inaudible]" [Music] please throw me into a coma when the shadows play. How can I [Music] I see. "[inaudible], that's the you know" [Music] You know what I mean-o. She can shake a mean tambourine-o [Music] So I hear them say: Oh way down yonder in New Orleans. In the land [Music] of dreamy scenes. There's a Garden of Eden [Music]

That's what I mean. Where Creole babies with flashin' eyes softly whisper with tender sighs [Music] Then you stop. Won't you give your lady fair a little smile [Music] Then stop. [Music] You bet your life you'll linger there a little while. There is [Music] heaven right here on earth with those beautiful queens. Way [Music] down yonder in New - way down [Music] yonder in New Orleans. [Music Ends] Creamer and Layton, way down yonder in New Orleans, Blacks were free to write for Broadway in the 20s and 30s, but the pay was nowhere near what their white counterparts were getting. And most of the Black reviews closed soon after they opened. So things weren't wonderful, but they were better than they'd been. This has been an hour with the forgotten Black songwriters of the turn of the century. Dave Calabashes, the technical director. I'm Michael Lasser. The show's Fascinatin' Rhythm. [Theme Music] and little rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, the pit-apats through my brain; so darn persistent, the day isn't distant. [Music]

When it would drive me insane. Comes in the morning without any [Music] warning, and hangs around me all day. [Music] I'll have to sneak up to it someday, and I'll speak up to it. I hope [Music] it listens when I say Facinatin' Rhythm, got me on the go [Music] Fascinatin' rhythm. I'm all a-quiver. [Music] What a mess you're making. The neighbors want to know why I'm all shaking just like a flivver [Music] Each morning I get up with the sun. Start a-hopping, never stopping. [Music] To find at night no work has been done. [Music] Oh, but I know that once it didn't matter, but now you doing wrong. When you start to patter [Music] I'm so unhappy. Won't you take the day off? Decide to run along. Somewhere far away off [Music] and make it snappy. [Music] Oh, how I long to be the man [Music] I used to be! Fascinatin' Rhythm [Music] You gotta stop picking on me. [Music] [Music Mumbles] Oh, I long to be the man I [Music]

I used to be! Facinatin' Rhythm, you gotta stop picking on me. [Music Ends] Fascinatin' Rhythm is a production of WXXI. Rochester, New York. For a playlist of this week's show, send us stamped Self-addressed Envelope to WXXIFM care of Fascinatin' rhythm Box 21, Rochester, New York one four six oh one. "[Music] Nobody, and there's nobody.." Bob Cole, Will Marion Cook, and their contemporaries are long forgotten.

I'm Michael Lasser. Join me for a Fascinatin' rhythm as we rediscover the Black songwriters from the turn of the century. [Music Preview] [Music Cuts]