The message <iMGdnWMB2cXCboTVnZ2dnUVZ8h2dnZ2d@plusnet>
from Marjorie  contains these words:

> David Kilpatrick wrote:
> > Local paper got a letter from one our more sensitive regulars 
> > complaining about another regular, who performs George Formby songs 
> > (very well, and with an excellent Gibson gold series 1930s banjulele).
> > 
> > The complaint is about the racist nature of these songs which include 
> > words like 'chink', 'kaffir' and 'zulu' which is unacceptable in this 
> > age of zero tolerance to race hate.
> > 

> > We don't intend to censor songs as this is a thin end of a large wedge 
> > covering 300 years of political, music-hall, cornkister, Dixie, blues, 
> > jazz, rock, rap and countless other genres. Race now, gender tomorrow, 
> > war and violence next - there won't be any ballads left you can sing.
> > 

> > 
> > This may sound like a joke but it's potentially not a joke. There are 
> > influential people who would like to see the performance and 
> > broadcasting of a big chunk of current music banned (ref - Chumbawamba's 
> > collaboration with DJ Fusion). Half-a-dozen old George Formby ditties 
> > would be an easy target, and it only takes a formal repetition of the 
> > complaint against our club, made to the Police Hate Crimes Unit (sounds 
> > like something out of 1984) to bring a case to court.

> > 
> > No more singing 'The Three Gypsies' then...
> > 
> Good luck, David, we'll be rooting for you! I'm sure you'll be capable 
> of putting a sensible case for non-censorship of such material without 
> endorsing any racist sentiments, or implying that it would be acceptable 
> to use these words so casually now.
> The terms that now cause offence were probably so common as to have been 
> unremarkable at the time these songs were written . You can't separate a 
> song from its roots, and to try to ban Formby (or Steven Foster, or even 
> our old friend Anon) would be like banning Don Giovanni on the grounds 
> that its assumptions, plot and language are  unacceptably sexist.

Speaking as someone who has been in the middle of, I think, four fairly
serious rows about music content (once clouted off my seat, one splendid
punchup involving serial dobros and two quite scary arguments), it's an
interesting point as to what is allowable.

And I've never been able to make up my mind about it really.  One of
them, possibly the leat important, was the result of singing a song
called "the great fish finger disaster" which is a fairly funny song I
learned from a bloke from bristol. It relates at one point how his ship
is attacked by a chinese boat and the relevant line is "them slant eyed
heathens came at us, they was a fearful crew", and the bloke in question
took offence as his girlfriend, who wasn't at the club, was Chinese.  I
argued that it was a joke and that I had no objection to songs sung by
black people calling me a honky or whatver, and that it was a moutnain
out of a molehill.

But then I wonered whether I would have sung the song to a roomful of
Chinese people, who probaboy wouldn't find it very funny, and if I
wouldn't sing it then, why should I sing it to a roomful of non-chinese
people? The end result has been that I haven't sung it since, as I have
never managed to work out the answer.

It doesn't matter very much, because it's supposedly a funny song. and
not terribly important in the scale of things. But you remember Eric
Bogle's "Wogs is Dogs"? Newman's "Short People"?  They gave offence in
order to make people think.  Is it valid to do it to make people laugh?
And I must admit Stephen Foster songs and negro spirituals turn my
stomach. Maybe some songs should simply be outgrown.

Sorry this is so long, but this is an interesting thread, for once...

Miles Wootton? ... <pause> ... Yes, I still have the vinyl!

On Thu, 1 May 2008 21:28:46 +0100, Arthur Marshall
 wrote:
>
> One of
> them, possibly the leat important, was the result of singing a song
> called "the great fish finger disaster"

In message , Arthur Marshall 
 writes
>But then I wonered whether I would have sung the song to a roomful of
>Chinese people, who probaboy wouldn't find it very funny, and if I
>wouldn't sing it then, why should I sing it to a roomful of non-chinese
>people? The end result has been that I haven't sung it since, as I have
>never managed to work out the answer.

Then look to jokes for your answer. Jokes are *ONLY* funny in context. 
In the wrong context they are either unfunny or offensive. Your song is 
funny in the appropriate context.

Stephen
-- 
Stephen Kellett
Object Media Limited    http://www.objmedia.demon.co.uk/software.html
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