Kosh's Shadow 7/16/2020 5:09:42 PM

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The Yiddish song that kicked off the Swing Era is due for a comeback

Hitler’s Germany was obsessed with “Bei Mir Bist du Schön” (“To Me You Are Beautiful”), the 1937 song that catalyzed the era of Yiddish swing.

RTWT, but first, jukebox

buzzsawmonkey 7/16/2020 5:44:12 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 1:

Nice.  BTW, here's Mary Martin doing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," which has a certain klezmer ring to it also.

I must, however, contemptuously contest the opinion expressed in the article, if I've read it correctly, that "Bei Mir Bist du Shön" created some kind of "legitimacy" for Jews in America.   Jewish musicians were involved in jazz performance from the time it first crossed the color divide; Jewish songwriters picked up on ragtime (pre-jazz) from its start, and were writing jazz songs from the get-go.

Kosh's Shadow 7/16/2020 5:48:16 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 2:

I knew you would find errors in the article.

buzzsawmonkey 7/16/2020 5:57:37 PM

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In #3 Kosh's Shadow said: I knew you would find errors in the article.

It's what I do. Sometimes.

Seriously, though, I'm fucking tired of these ignorant assholes creating phony "1619" moments for ethnic points.  Jews were involved in the entertainment industry from the late-19th century on---as vaudeville performers, as theater owners, as vaudeville bookers/agents, as songwriters, as a major part of the burgeoning film industry, as writers and producers of Broadway shows.  To peg Jewish self-esteem on one single song, as the writer tries to do, is not merely stupid and wrong---it's ahistorical, and it is lowering "Jewish self-esteem" to the level of a BLM harridan.

Meanwhile...

buzzsawmonkey 7/16/2020 6:06:07 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 3:

To amplify, with moderately less spleen, the poor little ignorant writer has Found Something that he can point to, but the real point is that "Bei Mir Bist du Shön" is totally unexceptional, because the Jewish influence in jazz went back at least 20 years, and the Jewish songwriting influence probably another 20 more.  "Bei Mir Bist du Shön" was merely a natural outgrowth of all of this, not a sudden Venus-Arising-From-the-Sea event.

Meanwhile, here's my favorite too-ill-known Harold Arlen paean to the US.

Kosh's Shadow 7/16/2020 6:15:19 PM

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Don't forget the song about "beer goggles":

By Bier Bist du Schoen

Kosh's Shadow 7/16/2020 6:17:58 PM

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In #4 buzzsawmonkey said: Meanwhile...

Reference to George M. Cohan - an Irishman with a Jewish name!

buzzsawmonkey 7/16/2020 6:28:06 PM

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Let me just say that I love jazz---jazz before it got to be inbred and atonal, as it did in the bebop era; jazz when it expressed joy, and was designed for people to dance to.  

I think it is the voice of America---blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles, all working together, the "cultural appropriation" of blacks using Western instruments and riffing off the Western musical canon merely part of the mix.  Musicians working together regardless of color or ethnicity, and working also to integrate public performances at a time when color bars still existed.  It exemplifies the best of American ideals, which is why I react so strongly, and reflexively negatively, to someone trying to make A Big Thing out of a single record side.

Kosh's Shadow 7/16/2020 6:30:31 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 8:

You raaacist! Blacks, whites, hispanics, etc all must live separately because integration  is raaaaaacist!

/Modern liberal "thinking"

MLK is spinning in his grave

buzzsawmonkey 7/16/2020 6:33:49 PM

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In #9 Kosh's Shadow said: MLK is spinning in his grave

Can we harness him as a source of "green energy?"