I'm chiming in here on the WWI music comments, so changing the subject line, but leaving the most recent prior emails copied below, from Melissa's thread: Re: [Phono-L] Victor III is Working! Thank you!
I too, find WWI music quirky and engaging, and at times very poignant, earnest and introspective, in addition to the audacious, indomitable upbeat numbers that are more often called to mind in the general public's perception of that conflict's music. It all depends on the record. I think my first WWI era 78 came to me from a friend of my mother's, around 1976 when I was 14. It was a song full of pathos bordering on schmaltz, recorded shortly after the war, called "Don't Steal Daddy's Medal" (subtitled "The Burglar and the Child"): "With Tears down her cheeks the little child cried, don't steal Daddy's medal - He won it for bravery - It was found by his side before he died, and sent to my mother and me...". It's fascinating to track how sentimentality played such a changing role in the WWI years leading up to and during America's involvement in the war, and then how records like Don't Steal Daddy's Medal and others kept it in the public awareness for years after. The newest WWI inspired record I'm aware of is "My Dream of the Big Parade", recorded more than seven years after the end of the war. In the early years when America was neutral, we had records like the fabulous pairing on Victor 17716 of "I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier" (from 1915), with its prophetic opening line "Ten million Soldiers to the war must go who may never return again", paired with "Stay Down Here Where You Belong". I think if I had to pick my favorite of a few dozen WWI records in my collection, it would be this title. It's a biting condemnation of war, with the construct of the Devil talking to his son who wanted to go "Up Above..". It was composed by none other than Irving Berlin (who later spent a lot of time and energy trying to keep it buried and prevent public performance of it). An example of one great line from "Stay Down Here Where You Belong" is "They're breaking the hearts of mothers, making BUTCHERS out of brothers. You'll find more HELL up there than there is down below". (My caps denoting emphasized, nearly shouted words in the recording). The flip side of this reco rd, noted above and set to a militaristic beat, has the sung lyrics as opposed to the more commonly found instrumental-only versions that were stripped of their words as the war heated up for this country. On a very heartfelt note, are three of the most popular introspective recordings of the period: There's a Long, Long Trail", "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and "Till We Meet Again". All are beautiful ballads worth well worth listening to, to get a flavor of this aspect of WWI popular music. There were many others like them. Naturally, the zealous songs, with George M. Cohan's "Over There" most representative of the genre, are what people usually call to mind: "Johnny get your gun, get your gun get your gun, send them on the run, on the run, on the run... Make your mother glad that she had such a lad... Tell your Sweetheart not to pine, to be glad her boy's in line...". This song, along with "Goodbye Broadway, Hello France" and numerous others tried to capture a certain spirit and rally public sentiment for "The Great War for Civilization". The novelty songs, like "Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip", "K-K-K-Katy" and "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers" and many others like them add some needed levity to any collection of WWI music. Don't forget Cal Stewart's "War Talk at Pun'kin Center" (recorded early in the war, before U.S. involvement). The jovial element in music of an otherwise tragic period, is carried through to perfection just after the war with "I've Got My Captain Working for me Now" (also by Berlin). The Al Jolson rendition on Columbia is probably the most animated version of this recording, bordering on gleeful. Other Post-World WWI recordings memorialized and rounded out the more somber aspects of the conflict. The only recording of Edison's voice sanctioned for public consumption tops this list, with his "Let Us Not Forget", tempering American enthusiasm with reminders of the sacrifices made by our Allies; "Their casualty lists tell the story. However proud we may be of our own achievements, let us remember always...". Across the ocean, trying to put a brave face on the struggle, which affected him so personally (he lost his only son to the war) is Harry Lauder's "The Laddies Who Fought and Won". A final post-script, improbably emerging in 1926, near the height of '20s hoopla, is "My Dream of the Big Parade" on Victor 20098, with a spoken segment by Billy Murray that brings back the horrors of the war and life in the trenches. Although the term "Post-traumatic stress disorder" wasn't known by those words in that time, there's an aspect of this recording that's clearly an example of it. That it remained in the Victor catalog until 1933 is an indication of how it resonated with the buying public of the day. All these examples are just the tip of the ice burg for this diverse category of recorded song. I too, like my '20s records, love my Helen Kane recordings and so many others of that escapist decade. Records from the first decade of the twentieth century are rich in the entertainment and imagery of those days (in addition to the charming simplicity of the recordings); records from the '30s (especially in the middle years of that decade, when you can find them) have the distinct flavor of that period. '40s, '50s, I enjoy them all. But for the sheer breadth, depth and richness of content in such a brief period of recording history, the music of World War One is hard to top. Andrew Baron Santa Fe On Oct 11, 2011, at 8:15 AM, Vinyl Visions wrote: > > I love the historical aspect of the music, as well. I guess that I'm stuck in > an era (the 20''s), which seems similar to the 1990's with the stock market > craze leading to the depression. That era produced some very good jazz. WWI > is an interesting historical era, but I find it to be somewhat conflicting - > like all wars. Playing catchy tunes at home, while people are being gassed in > the trenches -- all for what reason? Same with WWII swing music... goofy > lyrics apparently to escape reality. I hope you know that I wasn't making a > critical statement regarding your taste in music... > >> Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:49:33 -0700 >> From: riccib...@yahoo.com >> To: phono-l@oldcrank.org >> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Victor III is Working! Thank you! >> >> Hi, >> Thanks for the comment. We actually listen to a lot of jazz. I am a band >> teacher and have a jazz band at school. We play music from the 1920's on. We >> have a 1940's jukebox at home full of jazz. >> However, at the moment, I am really enjoying these quirky songs from the WW1 >> era. it is something different and it really shows what the mentality was >> back in the early 1900's. Being a history person, I just love the lyrics. I >> love how they sing about sending soldiers cigarettes and candy. I find these >> songs interesting, cute and catchy. >> Melissa >> >> >> --- On Mon, 10/10/11, Vinyl Visions <vinyl.visi...@live.com> wrote: >> >> >> From: Vinyl Visions <vinyl.visi...@live.com> >> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Victor III is Working! Thank you! >> To: phono-l@oldcrank.org >> Date: Monday, October 10, 2011, 11:22 PM >> >> >> >> The machine is great... but the music leaves a little to be desired. Try >> some 20's Jazz or Blues. Coon Sanders or Irving Aaronson and his Commanders >> would be great or even some Helen Kane (Betty Boop) to liven things up. >> Check out RedHotJazz.com for some ideas... Just a suggestion - everyone has >> different tastes. >> >>> Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:06:37 -0700 >>> From: riccib...@yahoo.com >>> To: phono-l@oldcrank.org >>> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Victor III is Working! Thank you! >>> >>> Hello Everyone, >>> Thank you again for helping us to solve our motor issue and for all the >>> comments about whether or not to restore our Victor II. It looks like we >>> will take our time searching for parts and restore the II. We will let you >>> all know how it comes out. The Victor III was our first outside horn >>> Victor machine so we are so happy to have it working. There is an old >>> repair to the spear tip oak horn that we will need to deal with and we >>> would like to have the tone arm re-plated but for now we are just happy to >>> hear it play! :) >>> Below are links to a video of our now working Victor III and our Home Model >>> D with wood grained metal cygnet playing our first ever royal purple >>> cylinder. Thank you again for all of your help! >>> Melissa >>> Victor III >>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHjh_Xfw1n0 _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.org
