...dies
Jan 13, 1864 : Stephen Foster dies
Stephen Collins Foster
143 years ago today, in the charity ward of New York's Bellevue Hospital, Stephen Foster, America's first professional songwriter, died at the age of 37.
Stephen Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1826--the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He developed his talent for music early and while still young began to compose in the style of Negro minstrel music.
His first hit as a professional songwriter was Oh! Susanna, which he sold to a publisher for $100 in 1848. In 1849, he was hired to write songs for the minstrel troupe of E.P. Christy. One of the songs he wrote in 1851was Old Folks at Home (also known as Way Down Upon the Swanee River.) It became one the most popular songs from this period.
page from Foster's notebook.
Between 1850 and 1860, Foster wrote many of his most famous songs, including Camptown Races and My Old Kentucky Home. Also among his most popular songs are: Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair (1854), Gentle Annie (1856), Beautiful Dreamer (1862), and The Voices That Are Gone (1865).
Despite his success and the hundreds of songs in his catalogue of hits, copyright laws were rarely enforced in music at the time, and he reaped few financial rewards from the widespread performance and publication of his songs.
In 1857, economic difficulties led him to sell all rights to his future songs for just under $2,000. Near the end of his brief life, he lived alone in New York City and suffered from alcoholism.
In 1864, he died in Bellevue Hospital. He had been taken to the hospital after suffering from a protracted fever which left him so weak that he collapsed and hit his head on a washbasin. Foster composed more than 200 songs in his lifetime, many of which are still popular today.
Perhaps interestingly, many of Foster's lyrics aren't quite PC to modern ears. Thus, perhaps Foster's famous song, My Old Kentucky Home, which is performed and sung by the julep-fueled crowd at the Kentucky Derby each year, has been "cleaned up." Below, you can see the original lyrics as published ten years before Foster's death in 1853.
Adopted as the Kentucky state song in 1928, the inspiration for the song may have been Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1851. Foster's first draft in his song workbook is entitled Poor Uncle Tome, Good Night.
Adopted as Florida's state song, The Old Folks at Home, or Swanee River is criticized as offensive to black people for its use of 19th century black vernacular. Officially anyway, the Florida legislature has never adapted the original lyrics to make them less offensive.My Old Kentucky Home
Stephen Collins Foster - 1853
Verse 1:
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home
'tis summer, the darkies* are gay, [* "people" is substituted here now, but KY retained the "gay" word]
the corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
while the birds make music all the day.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor
all merry, all happy, and bright.
By'n by hard times comes a-knocking at the door,
then my old Kentucky home, good night.
Chorus:
Weep no more, my lady,
oh weep no more today.
We will sing on song for the old Kentucky home,
for the old Kentucky home far away.
Verse 2:
They hunt no more for the 'possum and the coon
on meadow, the hill, and the shore.
They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon
on the bench by that old cabin door.
The day goes by like a shadow o'er the heart
with sorrow where all was delight.
The time has come when the darkies have to part
then my old Kentucky home, good night.
Chorus:
Verse 3:
The head must bow and the back will have to bend
wherever the darky may go.
A few more days and the trouble all will end
in the field where sugar-canes may grow.
A few more days for to tote the weary load,
no matter, 'twill never be light.
A few more days 'till we totter on the road,
then my old Kentucky home, good night.
Chorus:
Foster himself supported the North in the Civil War and sympathised with the plight of the black Americans in his day. W.E.B. DuBois considered it "an authentic song of the Negro race." In 1997, former state representative Willy Logan presented an unsuccessful motion to have the song replaced, on the grounds that it was racist. At many public performances, words like "mama," "darling," "brothers" or "dear ones" are often used in place of "darkies."
As the official state song of Florida, it had become a tradition for the tune to be performed as part of the inaguration ceremony for incoming governors. However, the newly elected governor, Charlie Crist decided not to include it in his 2007 inaguration so as not to possibly offend the state's black population.
Old Folks at Home
1st verse
Way down upon de Swanee ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation
And for de old folks at home.
Chorus
All de world am sad and dreary,
Ebry where I roam,
Oh! darkeys how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home.
2nd verse
All round de little farm I wandered
When I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder
Happy was I
Oh! take me to my kind old mudder,
Dere let me live and die.
Chorus
3rd verse
One little hut amond de bushes,
One dat I love,
Still sadly to my mem'ry rushes,
No matter where I rove
When will I see de bees a humming
All round de comb?
When will I hear de banjo tumming
Down in my good old home?
Chorus
Foster is buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania near where he grew up and lived most of his life.
Originally Posted by Mike Rich
