"Sue,Sue,What's A Coon To Do"- G.H. ELLIOTT

[MrJackmelling]

My dad sang many black songs and did black face. It never made me or anyone in mmy family prejudice as mot think. what it did do is open my heart to what the black folks went through. th song Honey Stay in Your own Back Yard was a good Example.

It alweays made me think of how sad it would be to be told you must not go out where the white folks go and Honey don't you cry so hard. Go out and play as much as you like but stay in your own back yard.

Jack Melling

[newheys]

Brilliant! I only looked it up when a friend mentioned seeng him in Blackpool I think.

[greshamjohn]

Wonderful stuff. Thank-you soooooo much for sharing.

History captured in wax.

[smurfswacker]

(Comment continued because the comment editor crashed after the first sentence of the last one). Seriously, though, this "coon song" is unusual because it lacks the standard stereotyped dialect, setting & situations. Change it to "Sue, what's a man to do?" and it's a standard boy-girl song. Did the writer repackage a leftover tune to meet customer demand?

[egapnala65]

It is certainly interesting. A lot of music hall comedians who did black face just did their usual act with no specific racial undertones at all. You wonder why they bothered.

Elliot spent his early life working with the American Minstrels before coming to England and that probably explains his style.

[smurfswacker]

Well, here's an alternate word for rhyming with "moon."