Hi there, here you can find complementary music and video material. Some works well for now, as it is only very short. Others, especially some of the videos might be better to take home and to watch them with more time.
Call & Response
You can hear a lot of Call & Response in the following music. It will be pointed out.
Syncopation
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A short clip where the musician sings syncopated and unsyncopated in turns.
Work Songs
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♫ Short Song recorded at Parchman Farm*
„These songs belong to the musical tradition which Africans brought to the New World, but they are also as American as the Mississippi River.“ – Alan Lomax
*Work songs, field hollers, chants, and blues traditions didn’t simply disappear after slavery. Some survived in Southern prison labor systems which are important in the history of preserving African-US-American work songs and hollers. Two major prison-recording sites are:
→ Parchman Farm, Mississippi — especially associated with Alan Lomax recordings from 1939, 1947–48, and 1959.
→ Angola, Louisiana — especially associated with Harry Oster’s 1959 recordings
You can hear Call & Response in this song.
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These songs are obviously recored much much later. In a prison known to keep a slavery system alive.
You can hear Call & Response in this song.
I Got a Hurtin‘ in My Right Side · Willy Rafus · Unspecified Prison Worksongs ℗ 1997 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Originally released on Arhoolie Records.
A like ~6min documentary called „Work Songs and Other Laborlore for Labor Day“ can be found here: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/08/work-songs-and-other-laborlore-for-labor-day/
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Recommended for later. If you want to dive into another rabbit hole: This is a documentary on how Mississppi found a loophole to continue slavery under a different name.
Field Holler
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Cornfield Holler (6629-B-5) · Charles Berry Mississippi Blues & Gospel 1934 – 1942 ℗ 1995 Document Records
Ring Shouts
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The first 50sec of this short clip of a documentary give you quite a nice inside into ring shouts.
One of the intervied people says: „In Africa when your knees are bent you are alive, when your knees are straight you a re dead“ – in Lindy Hop we dance with bent knees.
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You can hear Call & Response in here.
Spirituals
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„Roll Jordan Roll“ intepretated in the movie „12 Years a Slave“ – A group of people standing at a grave. Read more about the songs history here.
Lyrics
Went down to the river Jordan
Where John baptized three
Well I woke the devil in hell
Said „John ain’t baptized me!“
I said roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul’ll rise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan rolls
Well some say John was a baptist (Some say)
Some say John was a Jew (Hallelujah)
But I say John was a preacher of God
And my Bible says so too!
I said roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul’ll rise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan rolls
Hallelujah!
Roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul’ll rise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan rolls
Hallelujah!
Roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul’ll rise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan rolls
Everybody sing!
Roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul’ll rise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan rolls
Roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul’ll rise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan rolls
Hallelujah!
Roll, Jordan, roll
Roll, Jordan, roll
My soul’ll rise in heaven, Lord
For the year when Jordan rolls
When songs talk about the river Jordan, it is often a metaphor for the Oho river or the Mississippi river. Big rivers that were difficult to cross, but reaching the other side ment freedom.
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„Roll Joradon Roll“ intepretated by the Golden Gate Quartet with a Big Band and uplifting mood. Same song differente versions.
If you think of the first version of the song and its setting, do you really want to dance to this song?
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Man songs have many hidden codes in the lyrics and rythms. A coded resistance that white overseers might hear as simple Bible devotion, but fellow enslaved people recognized as a call to action and hope.
This song is an escape spiritual. (With clear Call & Response)
“Egypt” meant the Southern States
“Pharaoh” meant the slaveholder, and
“Moses” meant anyone who can lead them to freedom
Lyrics
Go down Moses
Way down in Egypt land
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go!
Oh when Israel was in Egypt land
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard, they could not stand
Let my people go!
So the Lord said, go down (go down) Moses (Moses)
Way (way) down (down) in Egypt land
Tell all Pharaoes
To let my people go (let my people go)
So Moses went to Egypt land
Let my people go!
He made old Pharaoh understand
Let my people go!
Yes the Lord said, go down (go down) Moses (Moses)
Way (way) down (down) in Egypt land
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go (let my people go)
Thus spoke the Lord, bold Moses said
Let my people go!
If not I’ll smite, your firstborn dead
Let my people go!
God the Lord said, go down (go down) Moses (Moses)
Way (way) down (down) in Egypt land
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go!
Way down in Egypt land
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go
“ Go down Moses“ interpretated by Louis Armstrong. Read more about the song.
Spirituals are often sacred songs with a deeper meaning that we do not understand. Out of respect we should generally not dance to spirituals.
Minstrel Shows
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A 2 minute introduction to Minstrel Show (and Blackface).
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A 3 minute part of a longer documentary on Minstrel Shows. You’ll hear quite some music that’s been played back then. And it is informative but not quite as critical as you would talk about it today.
Cake Walk
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A very short film clip of a Cake Walk. (It does not have sound.)
Syncopated Brass Bands
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Rag Time
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Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin
Segregetion
Vaudeville
A 20min documentary on Minstrle Shows and (Black) Vaudville. Intersting, but maybe better to watched later
Plitical Charged Songs
A collection of a couple of political chareged songs. Many adressing collective trauma that Blacks have experienced and passed on throughout generations and that we as white people can not realte to.
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A change is gonna come by Sam Cooke. This song has so much strory, it has an own Wikipedia article.
Lyrics
I was born by the river
In a little tent
Oh, and just like the river, I’ve been running
Ever since
It’s been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gon‘ come
Oh yes, it will
It’s been too hard living
But I’m afraid to die
‚Cause I don’t know what’s up there
Beyond the sky
It’s been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gon‘ come
Oh yes, it will
I go to the movie
And I go downtown
And somebody keep telling me
„Don’t hang around“
It’s been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gon‘ come
Oh yes, it will
Then, I go to my brother
And I say, „Brother, help me, please“
But he winds up knockin‘ me
Back down on my knees, oh
There been times that I thought
I couldn’t last for long
But now, I think I’m able
To carry on
It’s been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gon‘ come
Oh yes, it will
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Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. This song is very specific. TW: it talks about Blacks being hung on trees. If you want to dig furhter into the songs story: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/StrangeFruit.pdf
Lyrics
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here’s a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here’s a strange and bitter crop
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Alabama Blues by J.B. Lenoir. J.B. Lenoir is talking about Alabama and the murders of family members and how he cannot return there because he is Black.
Lyrics
I never will go back to Alabama, that is not the place for me
I never will go back to Alabama, that is not the place for me
You know they killed my sister and my brother
And the whole world let them peoples go down there free
I never will love Alabama, Alabama seem to never have love for me
I never will love Alabama, Alabama seem to never have love for me
Oh God I wish you would rise up one day
Lead my peoples to the land of pea‘
My brother was taken up for my mother, and a police officer shot him down
My brother was taken up for my mother, and a police officer shot him down
I can’t help but to sit down and cry sometime
Think about how my poor brother lost his life
Alabama, Alabama, why you wanna be so mean
Alabama, Alabama, why you wanna be so mean
You got my people behind a barbwire fence
Now you tryin‘ to take my freedom away from me
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Mississippi Goddam by Nina Simone. Most songs describing a place in southern USA are political charged songs. They dealing with collective traumas and expereinces, some songs being more explicit others more subtle. You can read more about this song on Wikipedia.
Lyrics
Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Can’t you see it, can’t you feel it
It’s all in the air
I can’t stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer
Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
If you know this song
You can join in with us
Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day’s gonna be my last
Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don’t belong here, I don’t belong there
I’ve even stopped believing in prayer
Don’t tell me, I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I’ve been there so I know
They keep on saying „Go slow!“
Well, that’s just the trouble
„Too slow“
Washing the windows
„Too slow“
Picking the cotton
„Too slow“
You’re just plain rotten
„Too slow“
Too damn lazy
„Too slow“
Thinking’s crazy
„Too slow“
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don’t know
I don’t know
Just tryin‘ to do my very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
Cause everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
You afraid of that word?
Picket lines, school boy cots
They try to say it’s a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sisters, my brothers, my people and me
You lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
You’d stop calling me Sister Sadie
Oh but my country is full of lies
You’re all gonna die and die like flies
Cause I don’t trust you any more
You keep on saying „Go slow!“
That’s just the trouble
Too slow
Desegregation
Too slow
Mass participation
Too slow
Reunification
Too slow
Do things gradually
Too slow
But bring more tragedy
Too slow
Why don’t you feel it
Why don’t you see it
I don’t know
I don’t know
You don’t have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Cause everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Ronald Reagan
Everybody knows about Margareth Tatcher
Everybody knows about Ronald Reagan
Everybody knows about Jesse Jackson
Everybody knows about Michael Jackson
Everybody knows about
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Goddam