Sound Beat

You’re listening to Wynonie “Mr. Blues” Harris’ 1949 chart-topping single, “All She Wants to do is Rock.” And, you’re on the Sound Beat

Harris dropped out of Creighton University in his hometown of Omaha to join a travelling revue. By 1940, he had relocated to LA and became a nightclub favorite, performing with the leading orchestras of the day, including Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton. After recording for a series of labels in the late 40s, Harris joined King Records, which released this tune, the most successful of his solo career and his second #1 record.

And who says bluesmen aren’t poets? The second line, “stop all the clocks,” is said to be an homage to W.H. Auden’s 1936 poem of the same name, later renamed “Funeral Blues”.

You’re listening to one of the many English folk ballads brought to American shores, and

You’re on the Sound Beat

Those young drifters; Seems they’d use anything to get a fair maiden to their bed. In this case it was the Foggy, Foggy Dew. Carl Sandburg recorded this version in 1937, one of the songs he collected for his seminal work, The American Songbag.

In almost hilarious contrast to lyrics found on today’s airwaves, this song was considered quite bawdy at the time…and even later. Burl Ives claimed to have been jailed in Montana in 1940 for performing the song.

Learn more about Sandburg’s American Songbag right here.

Photo: Actress Marilyn Monroe is shown with poet Carl Sandburg in this December 1961 photo taken in New York City. Photographer Len Steckler shot the black-and-white images of Monroe when she unexpectedly arrived at his apartment in December, 1961, to visit his friend, Pulitzer-prize winning poet Sandburg.

Experts believe Giacomo Casanova’s legacy might have surprised him. There’s little doubt that his womanizing exploits were the stuff of legend, but he was also an astrologer, a spy, even author of one of the first science fiction novels. And… one neglectful librarian. When poverty late in life forced him to take a position in a castle 60 miles north of Prague, he despaired…even contemplated suicide. At his physician’s urging, he wrote his memoirs… all 3,700 pages of them.  He probably should have been…you know…doing “librarian” sorts of thing…but the exercise probably saved his life. “What pleasure,” he wrote, “in remembering one’s pleasures!”

You’re listening to Johann Strauss II’s operetta “Casanova”…The plot is a bit Lifetime Channel, “inspired by true events”.  Strauss’ Casanova flees not poverty, but the jealous husbands of Venice.

Where’s he’s soon up to his old tricks again.

The film Aleksandr Nevsky is a recounting of a 13th century prince’s rise to national hero-dom. But parallels to the storyline echoed through the USSR in the 1930’s.

The 1938 film involved a couple of Sergeis, director Eisenstein and composer Prokofiev. You’re listening to the 5th movement, and climax of the film, the Battle on the Ice. Teutonic invaders threaten the Soviet motherland, prompting leaders to consider a treaty. When battle is seen as the only option, Aleksandr leads forces against the invaders. In a cunning move, he lures the enemy onto a frozen lake where the sheer weight of the army cracks the ice, sending them to their deaths.

Fast forward 7 centuries, with Soviet and German forces nearing the brink of war. Only a few months after the film’s completion, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact of his own with Germany, and the film was promptly banned. But in 1941, German forces invaded the Soviet Union, and Aleksandr Nevsky’s popularity, and patriotic importance, was reborn.

Looking for a little more info?  Go here.

You’re listening to the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University sing Peter on the Sea, from 1927, and you’re on the Sound Beat.

Fisk University struggled financially from its very founding just six months after the end of the Civil War. On the verge of closure, the Jubilee Singers began a series of fund-raising tours in 1871. By appearing in many venues in the U.S. and embarking on a visit to Europe where they sang for Queen Victoria, the Jubilee Singers broke color barriers and made an enormous impact on the world of music. Oh, and they saved the University. As a matter of fact, the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University continue to sing today.

In their words “We stand on the shoulders of the original Jubilee Singers, continuing their legacy, as we sing Negro Spirituals”.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Tesia Elder as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

For more on the Jubilee Singers past and present, click here.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Libraries.

A glimpse into…the zoo: after hours.

Song Cue:

When the shades of night are softly creeping

Up across the garden at the zoo.

Sure, you’ve heard of Night at the Museum. But what happens when all the animals get tucked in? Let’s listen to Ada Jones with “Bedtime At The Zoo”, a Blue Amberol Cylinder from 1914.

Song cue:

…now the leopard hangs his weary head

Then the tawny tiger stops his growling

 Every beast is thinking of his bed.

Oh my!

Goodnight Mr Elephant, tiger cease your play.

Ada was one of the most popular performers of her era, particularly for her duets with Billy Murray and Len Spencer. You can hear this complete recording, along with more than 1400 others at the Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection. Just google BELFER DIGITAL, or go to Soundbeat.org

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archives, Syracuse University Libraries.

You’re listening to Victor Young and his orchestra and…

You’re on the Sound Beat

Wicked author Gregory Maguire did much to elicit sympathy for the Wicked Witch of the West. He gave her a name, something original Oz author L. Frank Baum didn’t do. Elphaba is a phonetic play on Baum’s initials. (Go ahead..L.F.B.)  And, I mean, how would you feel if someone dropped a house on your sister?

The main witches of Baum’s Oz books are the rulers of the four cardinal directions; Good in the North and South, and wicked east to west.  Glinda the Good was the only one to get a name in the first book, though her colleague in the north was later named Locasta. Our artichoke-hued friend to the West occupied the land of the Winkies, accomplished tinsmiths. When Dorothy…ahem… gave her the business, the Tin Woodman replaced her quite nicely.

Margaret Hamilton’s witch was so wicked, some of her scarier scenes were cut. So was her visit to Sesame Street. Find out more at soundbeat.org

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

I’m Brett Barry.

What kind of music comes mind when you think of college-aged musicians hanging around a coffeehouse? Probably some acoustic folk, maybe some bongo-based “world” music? How about…classical cantatas?

You’re on the Sound Beat.

That’s Bach you’re listening to, the piece composed when he was the head of the Collegium Musicum of Leipzig, Germany. They were groups of amateur and professional musicians who would gather regularly in public locales…a bit like an upscale open-mic night. The Leipzig group met at Café Zimmerman, a Kaffeehaus, as they say. Fitting then that this piece, some of Bach’s lighter fare, was called the Coffee Cantata.

Protagonist Lieschen (Lee-see-en) refuses her father’s requests to quit drinking coffee, calling it“more delicious than a thousand kisses, and sweeter than muscatel wine”. But when her father refuses to allow her to marry she relents. Though she have a rider in any future marriage contract: she must be allowed at least three cups a day.

Which sounds like an ok agreement for any marriage.

Photo credit: Harald Hoyer from Schwerin, Germany (Coffee Beans  Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Most politicians dream of the exposure the silver screen can bring. Pappy O’Daniel’s came a bit late, however, and was less than flattering.

The 2000 film O Brother Where Art Thou featured the scheming, manipulative Mississippi governor Pappy O’Daniel, played by Charles Durning. The true-life Pappy O’Daniel was governor of Texas in the late 30’s. But he too owned a flour manufacturing company, and would regularly sing at his campaign stops. And…he was a songwriter as well. You’re listening to Milton Brown and his Brownies with a Pappy O’Daniel original, Beautiful Texas.

O’Daniel beat Lyndon Johnson in a special election for Senate in 1941, the only man to ever beat him in an election. He retired in ‘48, and his reason? There was, quote, “only slight hope of saving America from the Communists.” Ennnnnnnnd quote.

Goethe’s Devil did it; superstitious ship captains and newsroom editors alike forbid it.  And NYU philosophy professor Charles Shaw went a step further in a New York Times article in 1931. “Whistling,” he said “is the unmistakable sign of the moron.” it’s only the inferior and maladjusted individual who ever seeks emotional relief in such a bird-like act as that of whistling.”

Joe Belmont would have differed. He made a career out of whistling, impersonating our feathered friends for dozens of recordings in the early 1900’s. You’ve been listening to “The Blue Jay and the Thrush”, an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder from 1914.