Monthly Archives: September 2017

  • Tough Guy Levi and the Jokey Jewish Cowboy Song Tradition

    Lame DogNovelty
    The September 1908 Edison Phonograph Monthly is out.  Let’s see what’s listed for sale. Hey, this looks interesting:   “A dandy new cowboy song with Western effects galore.  Among them — the tom tom, cowboy chorus, cowboy and Indian yells, hoof beats, etc.” The ad also says that  the vocalist “sings this number with the spirit and fire that the unusual words and music call for — so plainly too that not a word is lost, even in the yiddish dialect portion.”   Let’s have a listen:
     

    “I’m a Yiddish Cowboy” was performed by Edward Meeker (who had also sung the first recorded version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”).   The composers were Al Piantadosi and Halsey Mohr.  Of primary interest, however, is the overall theme as reflected in the lyrics of Edgar Leslie.  What was funny about Jewish cowboys?  And what about this one was viewed as Jewish in the first place?  His Yiddish vocabulary appears to be limited to a single word — “oi” — and, while he insists on sending for a rabbi to preside at his wedding, the bride is Native American.   Perhaps the key is his status as an upstart — brashly courting a “blue blood [sic] Indian maiden” and crassly refusing the offer of a peace pipe in favor of cigarettes.  What chutzpah!  Yet as a manly creature of the frontier, he appeared positioned to counter some negative stereotypes. 
     
    That promise was squandered in a follow-up song  in which our protagonist, Tough Guy Levi, makes a guest appearance.  Al Piantadosi again supplied the score, but this time the words were by Jeff T. Branen.  As far as I can tell, no recording has survived, but the cover for the sheet music shows a caricature of a man with a black beard and huge nasal appendage in an Indian headdress.  The lyrics state in part:  
     
              Cohen got tired of the simple life
              And turned his pawnshop over to his wife….
               [O]whoopska, owhoopska
               Big Chief Dynamite, oi, oi,
               I’m a tough Jew-Indian boy,
              Who’s afraid of the western life?
              What care I for the cowboy’s knife?
              Tough Guy Levi and his bunch,
              I will eat them for my lunch….
     
    Spoiler alert — he’s Big Chief Dynamite because he blows up Tough Guy Levi in the second stanza.
     
    Another specimen from the sheet music collections is almost as offensive.  The chorus of a song from 1907 went:

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  • An Awesome Singer You’ve Probably Never Heard

    Lame DogUncategorized

    Today the Dog is writing less as a wannabe critic than as a fan.  A few years ago, I came across a cover of a song that stopped me dead in my tracks.  Who was this woman?  Some further online rambling led to the recording below, a personal favorite.  If the lyrics sounds suspiciously literary, it’s because they were written by Jack Pendarvis, the author of several collections of short stories.  But the voice and phrasing perfect the mood:

     

    Kelly Hogan was born in 1965 in Atlanta, the daughter of a army helicopter pilot turned cop who modeled himself after the Great Santini.  She describes herself as having been a painfully shy nerd — so shy that the first time she performed publicly was at summer camp after her bunkmates stole her clothes and refused to return them for three days until she broke down and agreed to sing at the end of the season ceremony.
     
    Hogan later joined the band Jody Grind, two of whose members, along with another man, were tragically killed when a drunk driver collided head on with their van . (By happenstance, Hogan was not in the vehicle.)  In the years that followed, she relocated to Chicago and Wisconsin, sang in bars, tended bar, and served as an assistant to cartoonist Lynda Barry.  She also provided backup vocals for a long list of other performers including Mavis Staples and Jakob Dylan.
     
    In 2012, Hogan called in her professional chits and asked artists with whom she had worked over the years to contribute songs to her for a new album.  The result was “I Like to Keep Myself in Pain,” the collection sampled above.
     
    Hogan has said that she “hears melodies in everything” and even harmonizes with factory whistles and vacuum cleaners.  In addition to being talented and creative, she is strong and bold  — the sort of woman who sports a tattoo on her lower back that reads,

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  • Aqua Versus Barbie: The Day “Speech-Zilla” Demolished “Trademark Kong”

    Lame DogPop

    Twenty years ago this month, a lawsuit was filed that resulted in a significant ruling on First Amendment protection for satire, a subject close to the Dog’s heart. The defendants included MCA Records, a music distributor.  And the plaintiff was Mattel, the maker of what is probably the world’s most famous (and infamous) doll:  the Barbie.

     A few weeks earlier, the Danish eurodance band Aqua had released a single entitled “Barbie Girl.”  Almost immediately, it charted at Number 7 in the United States, the fastest rise ever for a new group according to Billboard.  In other countries, including Australia, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, it reached number one.  Not everyone was pleased; years later, a poll by Rolling Stone Magazine rated it the 11th most annoying song of all time.  But no one was more dismayed than Mattel, which complained that the “adult-oriented lyrics” detracted from their product’s “wholesome image.”
     
    Take a look at the famous Aqua video, which has been viewed over 400 million times.  And keep an eye on what happens to “Barbie” after two minutes and forty seconds:
     

    Mattel’s lawsuit was filed in a federal district court in California and assigned to Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr., who is best remembered for his decision dismissing charges against Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case based on governmental misconduct.  In essence, Mattel alleged that the song had infringed its trademark and confused the public concerning its brand.  To support its argument, it hired an expert to

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