Welcome Paradoxers!
This blogspot will be our new home to share updates on everyone's new cd's, links to music venues, and other activities.
You can also post remembrances, photos, and any other memorabilia you would like to share. It would be great if this could become like an archive for the Paradox -- then and now.
More information to follow as I figure this out. In the meantime, please add your comments and keep the site alive and growing.
I remember songs like this in my school books as a kid. I just happened to stumble onto this searching the web for music. It is totally amazing, how we as a country could ridicule a race of people for such a long time. Maybe we have made some progress, but I'm afraid we still have a long way to go.
Gary, one of the things that most amazes me about my time at the Paradox is that race and ethnicity were never considered an issue. It never even registered in my little teenage brain. When you think about the times, and how difficult it must have been for black and Hispanic and other musicians, this is truly an amazing legacy of the Paradox and the world that Bob and Helen chose to create around them.
Gid Tanner and the Skillet lickers...Particulary rotten racist stuff.
Uncle Ned. Aside from the vernacular, and the subtitle, I see tears of love and respect of a hard working musician and man he will never see the likes of again. Uncle Ned was loved. Where do you see ridicule?
Hi Rand, It's a terribly sad song, but in today's world, I think it's the language used, just wouldn't be acceptable. As far as the Paradox goes, we always had a very white audience, it was the hood we were in.
Yes, the audience may have been predominantly white, but I heard Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry and Jose Feliciano at the Paradox -- all of whom, given the times, were probably not able to play in certain white venues. It was around this period, for example, that people complained about all the black musicians at the Light House (a jazz club) in Hermosa Beach.
I also heard Big Mama Thorton at the Prison of Socrates and Taj Mahal at the Ash Grove.
When you read the history of race in this country during that mid- to late 1960s period, we lived in a world apart. I feel lucky to have been at the Paradox then.
I had a pretty complete old scrapbook of newspaper articles from the San Jose Mercury. Someone had collected them long ago, around 1930 or so. Just terrible. The most racist, hateful, joking, ridicule one could imagine. I gave them to an Afro-American friend for his collection. I do understand about this stuff. There are many cases of literature literature that are being reconsidered. Intent is the thing I look for. Uncle Ned seems to have benevolent intent. Oh, well, Sorry to carry on I feel that stereo-typing all whites of all times as racist is just as bad as stereo-typing anybody else.
No not stereo-typing. I'm trying to make a general statement that what was once perceived as socially acceptable has changed dramatically over the years, and we have moved on somewhat as a nation. For instance...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIxHfwhckcs Does this exhibit benign intent? Maybe I'm just re-stating the obvious...So I think I better stop too.
Tips the scale. Offensive. Almost argueable, but not really. Too bad. It seems like they tried to be even-handed but but it comes out too strong on the Afro-Americans.
I suppose I have, by accident of birth (and no, my birth was no "accident"), a unique view of this post. Being a "damn Yankee", who lived on both coast's three times apiece between 1941 and 1955, I more or less was unaware of just how strongly such feelings were held by some. In 1959, after basic training, I was posted to Fort Gordon, Georgia. I flew from LAX to Atlanta and then had to take the old "Grey Dog" to Augusta. When I "de-bussed", as it were, I (dressed in regulation Army "Class A Greens") found myself in a waiting room with luggage. Seated on a bench at the far side of the room were three old (they must've bee in their 50's) black gentlemen. "xcuse me Sah?" Inquired one of them: "Is you lookin' fo' yo' luggage?" I said "Yes sir.", and was told, "Oh. You'll find them in the 'front' waiting room.". Following his directions, I went through a door and found myself in a corridor with four rest rooms, and two drinking fountains, all clearly marked "White" and "Colored". I remember thinking to myself, "Didn't we fight a Civil War over this almost a hundred years ago?". I was also on a local bus one day when an older (to me, then) black woman with bags of groceries got on and, while heading for the back, the driver purposely started forward with a lurch trying to cause her to fall (she didn't), while two young, college age women tittered openly. And no, I didn't like that either. (I use the vernacular as that not only depicts the "what" was said, but the "how" it was said as well.) All that said, I do not wish to see our current "tender sensibilities" used to shield us from the past. After all, we are not children (even if we, or at least most of "we" grew up in the '60's"). "Twain! Unexpurgated!" is my motto. Unless, of course, one wishes read "The Bard" in modern, politically correct English only. Historical study, without full historical context, is a pretty thin broth, indeed. Also, one of the (I believe intended) effects of this "word policing" is the atrophying of our ability to laugh at ourselves, for fear of offending someone else. Only, unfortunately, if they're of a "Protected Class", of course, and that is a concept which should be terminated, I believe. Look at our alleged bastions, or citadels of so-called higher learning, where the unfettered pursuit of knowledge through free and open debate is now throttled with "Anti-Hate Speech" rules morphing into laws to stifle everyone. It seems to me that the same crowd that screamed "Free Speech", "Let me do my own thing" and "Don't judge me by the way I look/dress/act/whatever", have, now that they're in charge, morphed into the very same narrow-minded bigots they railed against in their youth. I guess its true: "The more things change, the more they stay the same". Sorry for waxing politically philosophical in this, but I feel that if any one of your generation (I'm about 5 years older than most of you) could see clearly on this, you, the talented bright young minds I met so long ago, could. As you can tell, this struck a deep chord (no pun intended - honest!) of saddened discontent in me. Thanks for letting me vent.
By the way. Was that the very same "Prison of Socrates" in Balboa that was the home club of Tim Morgan? What a shock for that audience. I remember seeing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, as well as Son House at a club I used to play with Nancy shelton (Then Brown), Ted Staak and others, in Newport Beach near the pier, called "Sid's Blue Beet". What a joint that was (is still?).
18 comments:
Tell us about this Gary, We can't read it????
Got it Gary, I learned something new!
Where did you come across this politicaly incorrect sad song? We've come a long ways haven't we.
I remember songs like this in my school books as a kid. I just happened to stumble onto this searching the web for music.
It is totally amazing, how we as a country could ridicule a race of people for such a long time. Maybe we have made some progress, but I'm afraid we still have a long way to go.
Gary, one of the things that most amazes me about my time at the Paradox is that race and ethnicity were never considered an issue. It never even registered in my little teenage brain. When you think about the times, and how difficult it must have been for black and Hispanic and other musicians, this is truly an amazing legacy of the Paradox and the world that Bob and Helen chose to create around them.
Yes, I think we were way ahead of most of the country on that one.
Gid Tanner and the Skillet lickers...Particulary rotten racist stuff.
Uncle Ned.
Aside from the vernacular, and the subtitle, I see tears of love and respect of a hard working musician and man he will never see the likes of again.
Uncle Ned was loved.
Where do you see ridicule?
Hi Rand,
It's a terribly sad song, but in today's world, I think it's the language used, just wouldn't be acceptable.
As far as the Paradox goes, we always had a very white audience, it was the hood we were in.
Yes, the audience may have been predominantly white, but I heard Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry and Jose Feliciano at the Paradox -- all of whom, given the times, were probably not able to play in certain white venues. It was around this period, for example, that people complained about all the black musicians at the Light House (a jazz club) in Hermosa Beach.
I also heard Big Mama Thorton at the Prison of Socrates and Taj Mahal at the Ash Grove.
When you read the history of race in this country during that mid- to late 1960s period, we lived in a world apart. I feel lucky to have been at the Paradox then.
Rand...I was speaking as to what was deemed socially acceptable in those times, rather then lyric specific to Uncle Ned.
Here's one of Gid Tanners less controversial recordings and the video is a hoot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p952jSLddg
I had a pretty complete old scrapbook of newspaper articles from the San Jose Mercury. Someone had collected them long ago, around 1930 or so.
Just terrible. The most racist, hateful, joking, ridicule one could imagine. I gave them to an Afro-American friend for his collection.
I do understand about this stuff.
There are many cases of literature literature that are being reconsidered.
Intent is the thing I look for.
Uncle Ned seems to have benevolent intent.
Oh, well, Sorry to carry on I feel that stereo-typing all whites of all times as racist is just as bad as stereo-typing anybody else.
I'm going to take a class pretty soon.
It's called...
"How to shut up...."
Hopefully I won't get tossed out for talking in class.
No not stereo-typing. I'm trying to make a general statement that what was once perceived as socially acceptable has changed dramatically over the years,
and we have moved on somewhat as a nation.
For instance......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIxHfwhckcs
Does this exhibit benign intent?
Maybe I'm just re-stating the obvious...So I think I better stop too.
Tips the scale.
Offensive.
Almost argueable,
but not really.
Too bad. It seems like they tried to be even-handed but but it comes out too strong on the Afro-Americans.
I suppose I have, by accident of birth (and no, my birth was no "accident"), a unique view of this post. Being a "damn Yankee", who lived on both coast's three times apiece between 1941 and 1955, I more or less was unaware of just how strongly such feelings were held by some. In 1959, after basic training, I was posted to Fort Gordon, Georgia. I flew from LAX to Atlanta and then had to take the old "Grey Dog" to Augusta. When I "de-bussed", as it were, I (dressed in regulation Army "Class A Greens") found myself in a waiting room with luggage. Seated on a bench at the far side of the room were three old (they must've bee in their 50's) black gentlemen. "xcuse me Sah?" Inquired one of them: "Is you lookin' fo' yo' luggage?" I said "Yes sir.", and was told, "Oh. You'll find them in the 'front' waiting room.". Following his directions, I went through a door and found myself in a corridor with four rest rooms, and two drinking fountains, all clearly marked "White" and "Colored". I remember thinking to myself, "Didn't we fight a Civil War over this almost a hundred years ago?". I was also on a local bus one day when an older (to me, then) black woman with bags of groceries got on and, while heading for the back, the driver purposely started forward with a lurch trying to cause her to fall (she didn't), while two young, college age women tittered openly. And no, I didn't like that either. (I use the vernacular as that not only depicts the "what" was said, but the "how" it was said as well.)
All that said, I do not wish to see our current "tender sensibilities" used to shield us from the past. After all, we are not children (even if we, or at least most of "we" grew up in the '60's"). "Twain! Unexpurgated!" is my motto. Unless, of course, one wishes read "The Bard" in modern, politically correct English only. Historical study, without full historical context, is a pretty thin broth, indeed. Also, one of the (I believe intended) effects of this "word policing" is the atrophying of our ability to laugh at ourselves, for fear of offending someone else. Only, unfortunately, if they're of a "Protected Class", of course, and that is a concept which should be terminated, I believe. Look at our alleged bastions, or citadels of so-called higher learning, where the unfettered pursuit of knowledge through free and open debate is now throttled with "Anti-Hate Speech" rules morphing into laws to stifle everyone. It seems to me that the same crowd that screamed "Free Speech", "Let me do my own thing" and "Don't judge me by the way I look/dress/act/whatever", have, now that they're in charge, morphed into the very same narrow-minded bigots they railed against in their youth. I guess its true: "The more things change, the more they stay the same".
Sorry for waxing politically philosophical in this, but I feel that if any one of your generation (I'm about 5 years older than most of you) could see clearly on this, you, the talented bright young minds I met so long ago, could. As you can tell, this struck a deep chord (no pun intended - honest!) of saddened discontent in me. Thanks for letting me vent.
By the way. Was that the very same "Prison of Socrates" in Balboa that was the home club of Tim Morgan? What a shock for that audience. I remember seeing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, as well as Son House at a club I used to play with Nancy shelton (Then Brown), Ted Staak and others, in Newport Beach near the pier, called "Sid's Blue Beet". What a joint that was (is still?).
Just a few days ago we walked by Sid's Blue Beat. It's still called that, but without Sid. He must be quite advanced in age by now.
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