The Phrenologist Coon Explained

"The Phrenologist Coon" is a 1901 song written by African-American entertainer Ernest Hogan with music by Will Accooe.[1] [2] [3] Bert Williams recorded it[4] on Victor Records and sheet music was published for it.[5] [6] It was produced by Williams and Walker Co. and published by Jos. W. Stern & Co. in New York City.[7]

The song's lyrics describe a "conjureman" ironically engaging in phrenology – the pseudoscientific study of human characteristics according to the shape of the skull.[8] "In what is at first glance a demeaning stereotype, 'The Phrenologist's Coon' might, indeed, be something much more involved, because it suggests that black artists were self-consciously dialoging with political context prior to the modernist explorations of affirmative black identity by the Harlem Renaissance writers," suggests Paula J. Massood in Making a Promised Land: Harlem in Twentieth-Century Photography and Film (2013).[9]

The tune as a schottische was used for the 1902 song "Maiden with the Dreamy Eyes" by Cole and Johnson.[10]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Wonham, Henry B.. Playing the Races: Ethnic Caricature and American Literary Realism. June 17, 2004. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-803664-7. Google Books.
  2. Book: Daily Life of African Americans in Primary Documents [2 volumes]]. Herbert C.. Covey. Dwight. Eisnach. November 24, 2020. ABC-CLIO. 9781440866654. Google Books.
  3. Web site: Bert Williams, Son of Laughter: A Symposium of Tribute to the Man and to His Work. Mabel. Rowland. January 13, 1923. English Crafters. Google Books.
  4. Book: Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925. Frank. Hoffmann. B. Lee. Cooper. Tim. Gracyk. November 12, 2012. Routledge. 9781136592294. Google Books.
  5. Web site: The phrenologist coon. NYPL Digital Collections. 2021-08-07. 2021-07-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20210711140150/https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/95bd7947-913b-3c53-e040-e00a18063116. live.
  6. Web site: The Phrenologist Coon.. Ernest Hogan (lyricist). Will Accooe (composer). August 7, 1901. jscholarship.library.jhu.edu. Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries.
  7. Book: Performing Arts Encyclopedia. August 7, 1901. memory.loc.gov.
  8. Web site: Lyrics The Phrenologist Coon by Bert Williams | LyricsLand. www.lyrics.land. 2021-08-07. 2021-08-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20210807191157/https://www.lyrics.land/song/3527278/Bert-Williams-The-Phrenologist-Coon. live.
  9. Book: Massood, Paula J.. Making a Promised Land: Harlem in Twentieth-Century Photography and Film. Rutgers University Press. 2013. 13.
  10. Web site: Maiden with the dreamy eyes. January 1, 1902. Library of Congress.

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