My Old Kentucky home - original lyrics

[packman]

?t=22


Two stanzas need to be reworked, if not done already:

"Tis Summer, the darkeys are gay"

and

"The time has come when the darkeys have to part"

Other than that, it is quite lyrical and nostalgic in tone

[JeaneRaye]

1. Reworked lyrics

Um.. those lyrics WERE reworked over 30 years ago by the Kentucky Legislature. I didn't listen to the video you posted, but if they contain the original lyrics, I'm sure you could find a more recent recording. It shouldn't be hard, since that song is played every Derby Day and at the end of every UK Basketball game. And probably many more times that don't come to mind right now.

[packman]

2. Thanks, thought it would be- just too damn lazy to research

[Old Crow]

3. Actually, the message is, essentially, "Gee, Kentucky's a great place to be a slave..."

"Much better than the Deep South where I'm headed, now that I've been sold down the river."

That may seem a little harsh, but it's an honest and straightforward explanation of the original lyrics. Apparently, it was inspired by the abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, but it's a bit of a contradiction because it seems to romanticize some aspects of slavery.

[JeaneRaye]

4. Well no.....

Actually, it is an anti-slavery ballad.

[Old Crow]

5. Sorry: anti-slavery ballads don't include the lyrics "The darkies are gay."

Furthermore, I'm fairly sure you didn't read beyond the first sentence of my comment.

[JeaneRaye]

8. In 1856 or thereabouts...

When the song was written, it WAS an acceptable term... kind of like Negro was accepted at one time but is not now a term you would use. And yes, I read your entire post.

[Old Crow]

9. Acceptable to whom? Racist Whites?

The word wasn't used by Blacks to describe themselves (who preferred African, Black, or Colored) and it certainly wasn't used by White abolitionists. Basically, darkies was a term used by racist Whites in the slave states.

But it isn't just a problem with the word "darkies." It's also the word "gay."

The ballad, written by a White male, romanticizes the experience of being a slave in Kentucky into a "gay" and enjoyable experience. As I said from the very start, the song's overall message is, "Kentucky's a great place to be a slave and I'm going to miss it now that I've been sold downriver by Massuh." Let's be clear: No place is a great place to be a slave.

[JeaneRaye]

11. I agree!

Well at least we can agree on your last sentence.

[treestar]

13. They did use it to describe themselves

As for "gay" these are antebellum, they have no idea how that word will be used in the future. There was nothing in Foster's mind about that.

People at that time may have thought it was better to be a slave in one place rather than another - this was likely even a fact. That doesn't mean we have to accept that now. It does not mean we accept slavery as the people of that era did.

[Old Crow]

16. Source?

Do you have a citation or source to back up your claim that Blacks used the word "darkies" to describe themselves?

[treestar]

17. You have a hard time believing that 1854 was not 2018?

See Huck Finn.

[Old Crow]

18. Swing and a miss.

Huck Finn doesn't contain the word darky, darkey, darkeys or darkies. Care to try again?

[struggle4progress]

12. Let hear what Frederick Douglass says of it:

... One flash from the heart-supplied intellect of Harriet Beecher Stowe could light a million camp fires in front of the embattled host of slavery, which not all the waters of the Mississippi, mingled as they are with blood, could extinguish. The present will be looked to by after coming generations, as the age of anti-slavery literature ... If the anti-slavery movement shall fail now, it will not be from outward opposition, but from inward decay. Its auxiliaries are everywhere. Scholars, authors, orators, poets, and statesmen give it their aid. The most brilliant of American poets volunteer in its service ... It would seem almost absurd to say it, considering the use that has been made of them, that we have allies in the Ethiopian songs; those songs that constitute our national music, and without which we have no national music. They are heart songs, and the finest feelings of human nature are expressed in them. "Lucy Neal," "Old Kentucky Home," and "Uncle Ned," can make the heart sad as well as merry, and can call forth a tear as well as a smile. They awaken the sympathies for the slave, in which antislavery principles take root, grow, and flourish ...
MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM
FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1855)
pp 461-462

The Hidden Racial History of 'My Old Kentucky Home'
... the song comes across as a nostalgic ode to a more genteel time in the life of the South. But that's not the song that Foster wrote in 1854. Inspired by the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, he instead penned a lament by a slave in Kentucky who's been sold down the river to the Deep South by his master. The slave is both saying goodbye to his old Kentucky home and preparing to meet his imminent death from overwork and brutal mistreatment in the "land where the sugar canes grow" ... Foster told the story by using words that are offensive to modern ears. In 1986, The Kentucky General Assembly passed a law that removed the words "darky" and "darkies" from the song and replaced them with "people." The same law requires that the new lyrics be sung at official state functions. Ken Emerson, author of a biography on Foster, describes the effect on the scene at Churchill Downs: "I find it very ironic that all these men and women in their lovely hats and fancy gowns are singing a song with adulterated lyrics and they think they are singing a song that is a celebration of the Antebellum South, with ladies in crinoline and dashing cavaliers" ...

[treestar]

14. Interesting

the new lyrics make the antebellum South appear not to have slavery. I.E., the lyrics offensive to modern ears were more sympathetic to the real slave.

[struggle4progress]

15. Our past is a different country than this one, and its language differs from ours

Our past has its own covert speech, just as we have our own: those who know what to hear will hear such speech differently from those who do not know what to hear

Foster's subtle subtext is that a slave likes good weather and a house full of children, and looks back on happy times, the same as any non-slave -- which in some quarters has always been obvious but in others has always been almost unthinkable and meets reactionary rage

Those who do not know what to hear will hear will hear only a song about looking back towards happy times, good weather, and a house full of children

Perhaps we should sing the refrain Foster originally wrote: not "old Kentucky home, good night!" but "poor old Uncle Tom, good night!"

[Bayard]

6. The lyrics were changed years ago

To, "the people" are gay. Although some old timers still sing the original.

Bayard in KY, and yes--I have been to the Derby with a couple of girlfriends when we first graduated high school. Very exciting, camped out overnight at the front gates to get in first to the infield. I won money, and some guy tried to pick my pocket. When we were in our sleeping bags Fri. night, we saw a hit and run right in front of us. The man died.

Ah, memories.....

[Duppers]

7. The good, the bad, the tragic memories.

Bet you do have lots of great memories.

[Aristus]

10. I attended a Derby party on Saturday, and we all watched the race.

We also saw the pre-race festivities, including the song.

They posted the lyrics of the modern version at the bottom of the screen while they were singing. I mentioned out loud that the original lyrics were much more racist.

That got some people's attention...