When the woke folk find out that tune was written by a Confederate it'll be toast. And anybody or any place that plays the tune will be attacked. Soon, retail establishments will quit playing it - and will monitor their employees' social media to see if they play it and fire them if they do - so as to avoid being a target. And then you'll be FREE !As someone who had to work through a Christmas season at a department store that played Christmas music non-stop, I think this guy should be taken out and--severely reprimanded!
Sounds good to me! Now, what do you think that the chances are that "Frosty the Snowman" was written by a Confederate?When the woke folk find out that tune was written by a Confederate it'll be toast. And anybody or any place that plays the tune will be attacked. Soon, retail establishments will quit playing it - and will monitor their employees' social media to see if they play it and fire them if they do - so as to avoid being a target. And then you'll be FREE !
I don't know but we could make social media claims that it was and just stand back and watch. There's always hope.Sounds good to me! Now, what do you think that the chances are that "Frosty the Snowman" was written by a Confederate?
The author of the song "Jingle Bells" was a proud Confederate soldier of the 5th Georgia Cavalry named James Lord Pierpoint (1822 - 1893). He also wrote other timeless classics such as "Our Battle Flag", "Strike for the South", and "We Conquer or Die".
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Poor you.As someone who had to work through a Christmas season at a department store that played Christmas music non-stop, I think this guy should be taken out and--severely reprimanded!
I had to learn Jingle Bells for a fife and drum corps set, and the music director told us that back in the day, it was also considered a song about young people having a wild time on a fun ride, as much as it was a Christmas carol. Kind of like the Beach Boys singing about the Little Duce Coup:Poor you.
I cannot walk into a store that's playing hackneyed seasonal music the day after Thanksgiving (and sometimes even before) without feeling profound pity for the staff. But you can't blame ol' Jimmy for trying to make a buck -- I'm sure he didn't foresee the damage his song would cause!
I had no idea that "Jingle Bells" was that old. I thought it was some nostalgic monstrosity from the 1940s-50s, or maybe the 20s at the earliest... but the article that Claude Bauer linked said 1857!
Imagine that -- a small-time antebellum songwriter releases a hit that becomes so popular that, even 160 years later, it is still performed often enough to put every retail worker in America on the edge of a nervous breakdown by mid-December each year.
Not only that: according to the Faber piano book (Level 4) that I had as a kid, "Jingle Bells" went on to become the most-recorded popular song of all time.
Whatever you say about the song, staying in the "oral tradition" that long at all, let alone being #1, is pretty danged impressive.
The same piano book said that "St. Louis Blues" by W.C. Handy takes second place for most recordings made, and that wasn't published until 1914.
I don't know if I will ever be able to number "Jingle Bells" among the songs that I only started liking when I learned the story behind them.
But I suppose I've got to show it a little respect now.
1857. Sheeesh.
I wonder how it ended up there? @DBF here is a story for you to follow - I'd really like to know about this man!Confederate cavalry seems a strange place for the son of a Boston abolitionist, only recently arrived in the South. His father was a Union army chaplain.
As someone who had to work through a Christmas season at a department store that played Christmas music non-stop, I think this guy should be taken out and--severely reprimanded!
If you read his Wikipedia entry, "In 1832, James was sent to a boarding school in New Hampshire. He wrote a letter to his mother about riding in a sleigh through the December snow." Then he ran away to sea in a Nantucket whaler. Had quite an adventurous youth. Returned to Boston after a spell in the Gold Rush. In 1856, his father became pastor of a Unitarian congregation in Georgia, but it was forced to close down because of its antislavery sentiments. Dad returned to Boston in 1859, son remained in Georgia and became a Presbyterian. Might have been some dodgy father/son dynamic complicating his decisions.I wonder how it ended up there? @DBF here is a story for you to follow - I'd really like to know about this man!
Then he knew about two different types of sleigh rides! The snow kind and the Nantucket kind!Then he ran away to sea in a Nantucket whaler.
Pierpoint composed a number of songs for blackface "Minstrel" groups in the '50s.The song might have even orginally been performed in blackface, according to a 1857 playbill