The name of the song was “The Whistling Coon.”
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George W. Johnson may not be a household name, but he has a singular place in music history — the former slave and New York City street performer is, according to most accounts, the very first African-American recording artist.
The phonograph, or “talking machine,” had been invented by Thomas Edison only few years before Johnson tracked a rendition of “The Whistling Coon,” a racist minstrel song. That recording helped give birth to what we now know as the record industry. [NPR]
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The song:
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George Johnson reportedly had a talent for turning in consistently strong, clear and flawless recordings:
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In the earliest days of the recording industry, every record was a “master“. A singer with a strong voice could make three or four usable recordings at once, with as many machines running simultaneously with their recording horns pointed towards the singer’s mouth. Johnson would sometimes sing the same song over and over again in the recording studio fifty or more times a day.
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This is in the days of no overdubs and no second takes.
The lyrics:
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(Verse 1)
Oh I’ve seen in my time some very funny folks
But the funniest of all I know
Is a coloured individual as sure as you’re alive
As black as any black crow
You can talk until you’re tired but you’ll never get a word
From this very funny queer old coon
He’s a knock-kneed, double-jointed hunky-punky mook*
but he’s happy when he whistles in tune.(Verse 2)
Oh he’s got a pair of lips like a pound of liver, split
And a nose like an india-rubber shoe
He’s a limpy, happy, chuckle-headed huckleberry nig
And he whistles like a happy killy* loon
He’s an independent, free-and-easy bad and greasy ham
With a cranium like a big baboon
Oh I never heard him talk to anybody in my life
but he’s happy when he whistles in tune.(Verse 3)
Oh he’ll whistle in the morning through the day and through the night
And he whistles when he goes to bed
He whistles like a locomotive engine in his sleep
And he whistled when his wife was dead
One day a fellow hit him with a brick upon the mouth
His face swelled like a big balloon
But it didn’t faze the merry happy huckleberry nig
And he whistled up the same old tune.
It’s a peculiar irony of recording history that what started with a “very funny queer old coon” would lead to something like “Say It Loud” or “Fight The Power” or “Happy” or “Drunk In Love.” That’s what America is all about because people like George Johnson took the slings and arrows.
–(Btw, am I the only one who is wondering what a huckleberry is?)
But t-
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