Re: More on Jews in R/B and Jerry Ragovoy

[Alex Lubet <lubet001...>]

But one must ask, I think, if there is an almost exclusively behind the 
scenes role throughout popular culture for Jews, when exceptions are all 
either forthrightly assimilationist or strangely filtered/marginalized, 
what's truly going on?  Could it be that so few Jews really wanted to be 
media stars?  Seems to me that's what most American kids want to be at 
least at some point in their maturing years.  There is a cloak of ineffable 
otherness on the Jewish role in pop performance that doesn't seem to be 
going away.

At 05:23 PM 12/2/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
>Jewish involvement in R&B and soul music is a fascinating subject, and one 
>could of course include jazz and blues as well (though unfortunately 
>they're a bit beyond my ken!). I'd love to delve into the issue a bit more 
>later on, but right now I'd just like to throw in a few comments, which I 
>hope won't be considered too far off-topic. First of all, concerning the 
>"behind-the-scenes" role of Jewish song writers, producers etc....I would 
>that that regardless whether the recording artist is black or white, pop 
>or soul, the song writers/producers etc. (regardless of ethnic origin) 
>usually remain in the shadows, so to speak, despite the fact that they are 
>often all-important in shaping the sound of the artists. It's also worth 
>noticing that once they decide to make records themselves, as Carole King 
>did, they often become quite succesful. I don't know if I'm getting my 
>point across here-what I mean is that someone like Jerry Ragovoy would 
>probably rather write and produce for R&B artists than go out on his own 
>as a singer/songwriter. That's probably the case with many others in the 
>record industry as well. That doesn't mean that their contribution to the 
>music should not be acknowledged, of course.
>
>Another point is that there are of course many non-Jewish white 
>producers/musicians/song writers who have done seminal work, but who are 
>often not known to the greater public. I'm thinking of people like Rick 
>Hall in Muscle Shoals, Jim Stewart at Stax and other mainly Southern 
>producers/musicians/writers, who are responsible for some of the deepest 
>and most heartfelt music in R&B and soul history (Aretha, Wilson Pickett 
>etc.). I suspect that one reason for this is that we like to think of 
>genres as "pure"....you know, "black" music is regarded as created, 
>played, sung by black people, whereas white "country" music (to take one 
>example) is considered "lily white"...which is quite far from the truth. 
>There seems to have been a lot of mixing and cross-fertilization between 
>styles that has not really been fully acknowledged so far.
>
>Seth R wrote:
>
>Jerry
>Ragovoy is a first cousin -- his father and my grandfather were brothers
>who, after they immigrated to the U.S. from Odessa by way of Hungary,
>spelled their Russian names slightly differently. p.p.s. Jerry's =
>grandfather
>was a chazan. p.p.p.s. Jerry worked in a record store in a black
>neighborhood of Philadelphia as a teenager and soaked in the music =
>during
>that time. the result, as we now know, includes "A Piece of My Heart" =
>(Janis
>Joplin), "Time Is On My Side" (Irma Thomas, the Rolling Stones), pretty =
>much
>Howard Tate's entire oeuvre (including his terrific new comeback CD) and
>tons of other r&b hits. --
>
>Jerry Ragovoy is one of my musical heroes! I love his work with Howard 
>Tate, Lorraine Ellison ("Stay With Me Baby") and others, and I had the 
>immense pleasure of seeing him and Howard Tate on their European tour and 
>of getting my copy of their Verve recordings signed. Howard was in 
>wonderful voice and his singing (as well as his life story, of course) was 
>so moving that some in the audience were actually crying during his 
>performance ("I Learned It All The Hard Way" should be his signature 
>tune).....people who'd been waiting for some 30 years to see him perform! 
>Sorry, about the gushing, but I just can't believe that I'm talking to a 
>relative of Jerry R.
>
>Have to stop here and apologies for the O.T.
>
>Eva
>
>

Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
University of Minnesota
100 Ferguson Hall
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 (o)
612 699-1097 (h)
612 624-8001  ATTN:  Alex Lubet (FAX)

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