{"id":41967,"date":"2014-05-12T11:08:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T17:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/12\/perverting-and-redeeming-a-song.html"},"modified":"2014-05-12T11:08:57","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T17:08:57","slug":"perverting-and-redeeming-a-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/12\/perverting-and-redeeming-a-song.html","title":{"rendered":"Perverting (and Redeeming) a Song"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fascinating NPR article about the association between ice cream trucks playing "Turkey in the Straw" and the use of the tune in old minstrel shows in a sickeningly racist fashion (including in association with ice cream). \u00a0The question being, has the song been forever ruined?<\/p>\n

The author concludes (rightfully) not. Not only did it have a long history prior to its racist use, but the association has been (for better or worse) lost. \u00a0Indeed, much more has been done with the tune being used for kids over the last fifty years, as well as a country standard, as well as any number of other things (including Wakko's State Capitals song\u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/7QV87XZ3RYw<\/a>).<\/p>\n

(For the record, none of the ice cream trucks in the places I've ever lived played this tune.)<\/p>\n

In the late 18th Century, Franz Haydn composed a peaceful little tune for the Austro-Hungarian \/ Holy Roman Emperor's birthday, to accompany a poem hoping for long life for Francis II. \u00a0Some years later, someone else added some different words to it to make it an anthem for the German people in the cause of unifying Germany from the separate states it still existed in (something that eventually happened in the mid-19th Century). \u00a0That tune then became the national anthem of the united country, which was all fine and well until its association with the horrors of the Nazis in the mid-20th Century.<\/p>\n

A friend of my parents, with whom they played chamber music, was a survivor of the concentration camps. He would never play that particular Haydn tune, part of Haydn's Emperor Quartet, because of the association of the Deutschlandlied<\/i> (or, as it's known from its first line, "Deutschland, Deutschland \u00fcber alles").<\/p>\n

The Deutschlandlied<\/i>\u00a0is still the national anthem of Germany, used on state occasions. (http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deutschlandlied<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, there are a couple of Christian hymns set to that tune (http:\/\/goo.gl\/IyWCwH<\/a>), as well as the Alma Mater of the University of Pittsburgh (http:\/\/youtu.be\/5BOh-Ii58Ew<\/a>). It always gives me a twitch when it comes up at a church service, because of that incongruous association.<\/p>\n

Can a song be so tainted that becomes unacceptable to use, even after the association with that taint is forgotten? I hope so, because there's some lovely music out there that deserves better than how some folk have put it to use in the past.<\/p>\n

(h\/t +<\/span>Les Jenkins<\/a><\/span>)\ufeff<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Recall That Ice Cream Truck Song? We Have Unpleasant News For You<\/a>
\n This is the story of why our beloved ice cream truck plays blackface minstrel music that sends kids dashing into homes in a Pavlovian frenzy searching for money to buy a Popsicle.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fascinating NPR article about the association between ice cream trucks playing "Turkey in the Straw" and the use of the tune in old minstrel shows in a sickeningly racist fashion (including in association with ice cream). \u00a0The question being, has the song been forever ruined? The author concludes (rightfully) not. Not only did it have … Continue reading “Perverting (and Redeeming) a Song”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_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":[106],"tags":[586],"class_list":["post-41967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","tag-pluspost"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137866,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/19\/a-primer-on-tax-brackets-and-ice-cream.html","url_meta":{"origin":41967,"position":0},"title":"A primer on tax brackets. 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View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PIA14156-1920x12001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PIA14156-1920x12001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PIA14156-1920x12001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PIA14156-1920x12001.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PIA14156-1920x12001.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PIA14156-1920x12001.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":136278,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/06\/we-all-scream.html","url_meta":{"origin":41967,"position":3},"title":"“We All Scream …”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 6-May-18 5:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/18965459\/status\/993262993747017728 First ice cream truck of the season is trolling its way through the neighborhood. https:\/\/t.co\/2FQXIiY3m2","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13431,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/12\/15\/alma_mater_hail_to_thee.html","url_meta":{"origin":41967,"position":4},"title":"Alma Mater, Hail to Thee","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 15-Dec-08 10:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I am a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California\u00a0(Class of mutter-mutter), and it's been with some fascination that I've been watching the brouhaha over the school's Alma Mater tune,...","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/pomona_eager-thoughtful-reverent.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130342,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/31\/i-dont-see-myself-doing-this-to-get-a-job-but.html","url_meta":{"origin":41967,"position":5},"title":"I don't see myself doing this to get a job, but","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-Mar-16 9:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, wait a moment. 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