The Laughing Song - George W. Johnson

[instantdeath99]

The chorus is terrifying. Terrifyingly awesome. 

[sherwood49523974]

I was listening to 'The Laughing Policeman' by Charles Jolly / Penrose in 1922 who obviously got the idea from this song.Very important to have this recording on record.

[francesjay120]

the song is simple but its hard to make it now even we got everything we have

we cant even sing this song its to hard to sing this when we laugh its just plastic

[z0mz0m]

@francesjay120 I can sing this song

[francesjay120]

@z0mz0m just means youre a nomad

[ScottHumberstone]

the oldest person i've ever heard in mi ears... 1898. wow. thanks utube.. profound realli... get's me thinking about copirights??? invented to make monei. Expand u'r horizons. don't be a shell.. thei don't arrest for downloading with pure intentions yet me thinks. karma; Listen... :-)

[z0mz0m]

@ScottHumberstone this recording has been in the public domain for some time. this creative work is a historical and cultural artifact and no one owns the rights or has to be paranoid about its "unauthorised duplication".

[ScottHumberstone]

@z0mz0m sweet. i like this

[lewism1995]

him laughing makes me laugh!

[shelljunebug]

I can't do anything but CRY!!!! during this recording..........so fucking magical!!!!pure alchemy.

[dumphuq]

how can someone not like this?! this is a brilliant version!

[Eddy2730]

@dumphuq Well said!

[karlsalz]

it doesn't sounds like 19th century,

but it is

[benkocw]

he had died almost 100 years but his sound remains in the world...what an incredible recording.

[link0zeldarulz89]

I have this cylinder! And i'm 16

[Nostalgico80]

First ragtime ever recorded.

[Earthbound64]

that must be a very hard time and after this he is such in a happyness! :....(

Times go and go.....

[EveryTongueShallTell]

10 weeks in the #1 spot in 1891. I remember me and my friends listening to this while beating up our black slaves and killing any Indian trespassers on our rightful land, those were the days I tell ya! Gosh, I'm so old now my willy is starting to fall off.

[KawhackitaRag]

That's a great ragtime piano coda at the end! Who is the pianist? Christopher Booth? Frank P. Banta?

[m7743g]

(APPLAUSES)

[TiedTogetherWithYou]

great idea! whenever you run out of lyrics, just start laughing. best cure for drawing a blank!

[rotunda57]

Was the beginning garbled on purpose to be PC? I remember the words as "As I was comin' around the corner, one bright and sunny day, here comes an elder darky here he comes, this way."

[z0mz0m]

"As I was comin around the corner, I heard some people say, "here comes a dandy darky, here he comes this way."

[dovestones]

@z0mz0m You wouldn't get away with those lyrics these days.

[stonethemason]

@rotunda5 

I can hear him say darky....say, you wouldnt happen to be one of those "rush dumbulb" morons, would ya?

[MazJax]

wow this is old. older than my great grandfather

[Neurozumim]

I don't think he's simply the first "black artist" to be recorded, he's the first major pop star. Not that this song was even remotely as popular as "After The Ball", but "After The Ball" was recorded by tons of different people, whereas Johnson made this song "his" and people associated it with him. Though the biggest pop star in the 1890's would probably be Yvette Guilbert in France.

[jonthedrummer]

It has been written that he recorded this song 40,000 times as it was a big hit and they didn't have wax stampers(master copy) yet. The first recorded blues was Mamie Smith's crazy blues in 1920. This is just some vaudeville type song. He died penniless after drinking away his meager pay for this recording. No copyright law or royalties. Another rip off story.

[luvmyrecords]

Actually, I understand that recording pioneer Len Spencer got him a job at the stage door of the Lyceum Theater here in NYC, and that's how he spent his last days, working. I haven't read anything about his drinking or being penniless. I hope I'm right and that you're misinformed (but I'm NOT saying that you are!!!)

[chibisqueak]

This is Creapy..But at the same time Cool

[MCLJJ]

this is fucking scary

[Navyseals3]

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HAAAA..... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HAI! HAI! ha....

[LexxKelsey]

they say this is the 1st blues song

[z0mz0m]

'they'?

[theguyof1900]

its not

[LexxKelsey]

THEN WHAT IS

[theguyof1900]

Minstrel.

[Shelton1967]

I would guess that there is not much laughing in BLUES tunes. This would , in my opinion, be classified as a novelty record.

[atruelover123]

THIS COULD BE A HIT TODAY!

[ilove1994]

johnson was born in 1846 you where close though .

[z0mz0m]

I understand the census says he was born in 1850 and that there's still controversy around the year of his birth.

[ilove1994]

oh okay but according too wikipedia he was born in 46 but you may be right because wikipedia is wrong sometimes.

[z0mz0m]

well wikipedia didn't used to say that and the citation it has is unclear and is even paired with a census record saying he was born in May, 1850. I'm not really sure about it.

[vhsorbeta35]

My understanding is that this was recorded in 1891. Is this not true?

[Neurozumim]

It was a hit in 1891, but was probably recorded in 1890. Johnson was one of the first star of recording.

[ilove1994]

nope 98.

[KevinPwnsALL]

Yea, I don't really consider it blues, but its really the only thing you can lable it, its like that original pre jazz blues, Like a slave holler. Ragtime + Blues + Religious music = Jazz

[z0mz0m]

there's no reason to "lable" it and there's really no reason to call it blues.

[vhsorbeta35]

I agree, who gives a fuck what it's called. What matters is that we get to hear it. Thank You for doing your part.

[KevinPwnsALL]

Woo go first Blues song ever

[z0mz0m]

that's arguable for all sorts of reasons

[ilove1994]

love this song .

[whoareyou342]

Here's a man who went through hell. He was spitted on, treated like dirt, not even considered a human and here he is able to sing a song like this.

Remarkable.

[greenwichlirr]

And the fact that he had to sing this DOZENS of times a day (which was needed since the discs/cylinders were all cut "live" with just a few machines at a time) is even MORE remarkable.

[edisonphonographs]

That must have been very tiring. In 1902 they began to use a process of making a mold then using the mold to make several copies of the recording. I am not shure when they started to mold disc records but they began to mold cylinders in 1902.

Thanks

Thanks

[dagavaq1]

@whoareyou342 why did they treated him soo bad dont mean to ask an dumb question just where u got the story abou george johnson at?

[Caveman1006]

@whoareyou342 even though your not is 2 years ago and you still may not sign on lol i agree with all u said bro

[RealRockandRoll]

@whoareyou342 Yes very incredible..... almost unbelievable!

[BringBackTheGood]

this was considered as the first ever blues recording pretty sweet huh

[Shinmeiryu]

No, it wasn't.

[abraxas573]

Yes it is, google it. try to find an older one.

[Shinmeiryu]

I don't have to. I know this isn't a blues; it's a raggy, coon song. Learn a little bit about late nineteenth century music, then get back to me.

[ParkLaneHotelLondon]

Thank you from Bath, England for uploading this... really interesting and quite a find. So old!!!

[Mantis06]

We are listening to something recorded 110 years ago by a freed slave. Quite incredible.

[joeyxcorvusy]

@Mantis06 Humclebery fynn processed

Barack Obama president

Abolished slavery achieved

[abooker]

what is this song about exactly? laughing?

[z0mz0m]

it's about racism or something.

[Cwmbran1984]

110 year old recorded song. Amazing to hear a voice from the 1890's

[z0mz0m]

it's weird to know you're hearing someone sing who's been dead for almost a hundred years

[mickeydamon]

i like his laugh

[mynamemeansgoddess]

Amazing how its managed to be kept in one piece!

[z0mz0m]

what do you mean?

[PerisphereRec]

'Goddess' meant, this recording was originally on what's known as a brown wax cylinder. (Columbia didn't begin producing discs until 1901.) They're even more fragile than the disc records just starting to appear on the market back then.

[z0mz0m]

oh, I wasn't thinking about the original cylinder being kept in one piece. I thought they meant the track itself or something.

[crazydrunkweirdo]

thnx it helped me ith my research :D

[z0mz0m]

I'm glad. :]

I never thought uploading this would have any purpose, but there you go

[DrPeppernhisLHCB]

they changed the lyrics to this in the 1930s and rerecorded it as the laughting policeman

[z0mz0m]

I heard about that song but didn't know it was the same

[DrPeppernhisLHCB]

if you listen to it you will see that its the same

[killxthexliving]

Yay I love this song :D Thank you so much for uploading it!

[dappylu]

Interesting, never this one before.

[alles123456]

Thanks for posting this! I just heard about Johnson at a lecture yesterday. It's too bad the sound is so fuzzy. Is there any way to clean it up?

[z0mz0m]

there are, but it still can't sound perfect.

there are numerous other recordings of this song on internet. some are cleaner sounding than this, some are worse. I didn't copy the song from phonograph or mess with the song at all, I just uploaded it, as I don't know much about removing clicks and such.

[85scampi]

Wonderful piece of recording history, full of the mists of time!. Many thanks.