Re: Cohan: not a Jew.

[George Robinson <grcomm...>]

In fact, in the early days of his career, Berlin wrote in all the various
obnoxious dialect genres that Tin Pan Alley had to offer. If you read
Laurence Bergreen's bio, "As Thousands Cheer," you will learn that he wrote
Italian ("Sweet Marie, Make-a Ragtime-a Dance With Me") and Irish
("Alexander's Bag-Pipe Band") dialect songs, "coon" songs ("Colored Romeo")
and "hebe" songs with equal facility.

For your dismay and delectation, I offer these titles:

Abie Sings an Irish Song
Cohen Owes Me 97 Dollars (which  is a particularly odious ditty)
Jake!Jake! The Yiddisher Ball Player
The Yiddisha Professor
Yiddle on Your Fiddle Play Some Ragtime

One could argue that Berlin was merely a craftsman providing what the market
wanted and that as such he is a reflection of the changing tastes of a still
heavily nativist public. Needless to say, when he began to register hits, he
stopped writing stuff like this. But it is amusing/saddening to remember
that he began his career as a singing waiter in a place called "Nigger
Mike's" and that his first published tune, written for that joint, was
"Marie from Sunny Italy."

g


 "To announce that there must be no criticism
of the president, or that we are to stand by
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Eliott Kahn" <Elkahn (at) JTSA(dot)EDU>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 12:23 PM
Subject: Re: Cohan: not a Jew.


>
> >
> >5) In all his career he never wrote one racist "Hebe" song while his
Jewish
> >colleague Irving Berlin wrote over a dozen....
>
> Please be so kind as to list three of these.
>
> Eliott Kahn
>
>
>
>


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