Some Folks Do
July 4, 2018
STEPHEN FOSTER’S famous Some Folks Do is sung here by Charles Szabo.
Long live the merry, merry heart
That laughs by night and day
Like the Queen of Mirth, No matter what some folks say
“Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), known as “the father of American music”, was an American songwriter primarily known for his parlor and minstrel music. Foster wrote over 200 songs; among his best-known are “Oh! Susanna”, “Camptown Races”, “Old Folks at Home”, “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”, “Old Black Joe”, and “Beautiful Dreamer”. Many of his compositions remain popular more than 150 years after he wrote them. His compositions are thought to be autobiographical. He has been identified as “the most famous songwriter of the nineteenth century”, and may be the most recognizable American composer in other countries.” (from Wikipedia)
— Comments —
Patrick O. writes from Denver:
Thanks for the tribute to Stephen Foster. Beautiful melodies, easily sung, lyrics picturing a better America. He seemed to write about happy slaves and deceased girl friends — Foster was unhappy in marriage and died penniless in his 38th year. I heard his song “Old Black Joe” reviewed years ago by, of all people, NPR’s Terri Gross. Her comment about Stephen Foster, so stupid but sadly so expected from a liberal, was “how could there be so much hate in one man?” Well, it’s hard to see hatred in a white man from Pittsburgh writing affectionately about an old slave who misses acquaintances who have died, and who longs to see them in Heaven. But blindness to reality serves liberals well.
As well you mention the song “My Grandfather’s Clock,” by Henry Clay Work. Work was a rabid abolitionists and also wrote “While We Were Marching Through Georgia” and “The Kingdom Coming and the Year of Jubilee.” (Even if you have never heard of that title, I can guarantee that you know the melody.) I have taught my music students (Catholic school) perhaps dozen of Foster’s songs, and five songs by Work, including “Grandfather’s Clock.” Who would have thought that “Grandfather’s Clock,” written in 1876, would be enjoyed by today’s students? One fourth grade girl asked, “Is this a true story?”
Laura writes:
You’re welcome. Thank you for your observations. I would imagine many children would enjoy these songs which are not so hyper and over-charged as children’s songs today.
You write:
“But blindness to reality serves liberals well.”
Terry Gross’s comments, ascribing “hatred” to Foster for writing a song on the life of a slave, are not so much typically liberal as typically Jewish. NPR is a preserve of intense Jewish thought control, and Gross is one of its premier figures. To the Jewish establishment, a 19th-century (or 20th-century or 21st-century) white man who is not blisteringly ashamed of his heritage and culture is “hateful.” It used to be enough to call him “racist.” Now that’s too subtle. He is “hateful.”
You need to put Gross’s comments before a mirror and see them in reverse. It is she that is expressing twisted, neurotic hatred — and revenge.
Lydia Sherman writes:
Stephen Foster also wrote Hard Times, with the words:
Hard times, hard times,
Come again no more!
Many times you have lingered,
Around my cabin door,
Oh hard times, come again no more!
Even without the cabin, I’m sure many people can still relate to those words.
Mrs. Sherman writes:
This rendition is particularly moving; the Irish love Stephen Foster songs.
I hope you will listen to it yourself. It has a feeling in it.
