Sound Beat

There are about 1,000 twisters every year in the United States, and most of them, go figure, happen in an area known as Tornado Alley. It’s loosely defined as the area from Rocky Mountains to Appalachians. Why this region? It’s the meeting place for cold dry air from Canada and the Rockies, warm moist air from Mexico and hot dry air from the Sonoran Desert. Most tornadoes last about 10 minutes,  but the longest one in history is thought to be the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, reported as lasting 31/2 hours.  It was the deadliest tornado in American history, killing 700 people in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. It travelled twice speed of an average twister, 60-70 mph, and…perhaps the most terrifying fact ever mentioned on Sound Beat, it didn’t have a funnel cloud. Translation…it was nearly invisible.

You’ve been listening to Kokomo Arnold with “Mean Old Twister”in a Decca recording from 1937. How did Prohibition help Arnold’s music career? Find out right now at soundbeat.org

Tomato, to-mah-to, potato-po-tah-to…no matter how you say it, you’re on the Sound Beat.

Most married couples admit to occasional, let’s say…differences of opinion. Seldom are those…again, just differences of opinion,  as productive as Ira and Lenore Gershwin’s. Their opposing pronunciations of words like “tomato” and “potato” led to the hit song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,”. It’s a conversational tune written by Ira and his brother George.

You’re listening to the silk-smooth vocals of The Ink Spots, who recorded this song for Decca in 1937. Since then, the song has been sung by artists like Billie Holiday and performed as a duet by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performed it, on rollerskates mind you, in the 1937 movie Shall We Dance.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Jill Comoletti as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership. Find out more about the Partnership at soundbeat.org.

Ahhh, the Roaring Twenties. Americans, enchanted with the burgeoning economy and sudden influx of new consumer goods, embraced more care-free lifestyles. On the dance floor, this seemed to translate to more energetic dances. Now, the 20’s will perhaps always be associated with “The Charleston”. But can you name another from the period? The “Black Bottom ” dance was reflective of characteristics of African dance, and first featured in the Harlem stage play “Dinah” in 1924. But when it was featured in the “Scandals of 1926” the dance became a national, then global, craze.

This episode was written in part by Mika Posecion as part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Intended to give voice to union workers during the progressive era, the song was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes in 1949. The Hammer Song was the breakout hit for their musical group The Weavers and released on their label, Hootenanny Records, in March of 1950. The song paved way for their commercial success, leading to hits “Kisses Sweeter than Wine,” and “Wimoweh,”

The song’s original intent spoke well to the civil rights movement, and also helped to kickstart another group’s career. Peter, Paul and Mary’s 1962 version was their first big hit…their next was Puff the Magic Dragon.

This episode was co-written by Kelsey Francella, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Photo credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Pete_Seeger_1986.jpg

The U.S. Coast Guard was officially established in 1915, but its roots go back to the late 18th century . In 1790, Congress allowed for the building of 10 cutters, medium-sized ships charged with enforcing tariff laws. It was given the no-frills name The Revenue Cutter Service, and the first cutter, the USRC Massachusetts, hit the water in 1791. Perhaps the coolest of these ships was the Naugatuck, a gun battery capable of submerging. 

 Over the years, Coast Guard ships have helped destroy derelicts, transport dignitaries and government officials, assist vessels in distress, enforce neutrality laws and serve as convoy escorts. The establishment of Homeland Security greatly increased the Coast Guard’s role in protecting US waters and shorelines.

Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” has fascinated blues lovers, and envious slide guitarists, since Columbia Records released it in 1927. But the biggest compliment to Johnson’s work came in 1977 when it was immortalized in a gold record and shot into space aboard the Voyager spacecraft.

“The Golden Record” complied by a team headed by Carl Sagan, represents life on earth with sounds like crickets chirping, a kiss, and 27 songs from different cultures. This song was included to express a timeless human pain: facing nightfall with nowhere to sleep.  Today Johnson’s song, far beyond our solar system, is still ready to play for one very long, dark night.

This episode was co-written by Maggie Cregan, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership. Photo: Voyager Golden Record, courtesy of Wikipedia.

You’re listening to an Edison Blue Amberol Cylinder from 1914, featuring William Davidson and the words of “Scotland’s favorite son”. And,

You’re on the Sound Beat.

Robert Burns was also known as “the Ploughman Poet” and, in Scotland, simply, “The Bard”.  This song, Afton Water, was based on his poem “Sweet Afton” and set to music by Jonathan E. Spilman in 1837. Burns’ birthdate, January 25th, is celebrated throughout Scotland with “Burns Night.” Not only that, a national poll taken in 2009 named him “The Best Scot Ever’, narrowly edging William Wallace. We’ll spare you the “Great Scot” joke we had planned if you promise to check us out on Facebook, @onthesoundbeat on Twitter and our home on the web, Soundbeat.org

Photo: Copyright Bill Copland and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

James Earle Fraser created the Native American depicted on the flip side of the coin from a composite of three chiefs that sat for him, among them Chief Iron Tail of the Lakota Sioux and Chief Two Moons of the Cheyenne. All in all, 1.2 billion were printed from 1913 to 1938. Today most are worth less than ten bucks. Still pretty good for a nickel. But the most valuable coin in US history is a variation of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel, valued at approximately 4.5 million dollars. (Or 90 million nickels.) Why so rare? Turns out 5 of them were printed illegally by a US mint worker that year. Get the whole story right now.

Sound Beat is made possible by in part by a grant from the John Ben Snow Foundation.

This song, Since Henry Ford Apologized to Me, is a response to events surrounding Ford’s newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. One of the largest publications in the US in the 20’s, it printed many anti-semitic articles, “The International Jew” among them. That particular gem proffered that “International financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the international Jew: German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews.” Lawsuits stemming from such articles eventually lead to the paper’s demise. Ford would later issue a statement apologizing for claims.

Enter Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, the Happiness Boys, with a tongue-quite-in-cheek forgiveness. Sheet music for the song was, allegedly, the first to mention Hitler by name, though some hear it as “Edsel”. For our money, it kind of sounds like the names are blended together, but you decide.