Friday, May 4, 2012

AND THEY'RE OFF!!!

As loyal readers will know, I don't live anywhere near Kentucky.  I plan on road tripping into Louisville for a few days this summer to attend a jazz workshop, though (more on that later), and the more I research the place I'm visiting, the more I feel like I need to plan a longer trip in the future.  But Kentucky is on my mind for other reasons, too.  Namely, Derby Day!!

Derby Day is that day in spring when a bunch of horses, with sometimes outlandish names, run a 1.25 mile race with small-statured humans on their backs.  The race takes place at Churchill Downs in Louisville.  Tomorrow, I will be attending a fundraising function for the local symphony, that celebrates Derby Day.  While the Derby is mostly about the horses, Kentucky, big hats, mint juleps and roses, the musical theme of the event is Stephen Foster's My Old Kentucky Home

My Old Kentucky Home was written in 1921 (probably) for the 47th race.  As per the Kentucky Derby website:  "The Louisville Courier-Journal in its May 8, 1921, edition reported, "To the strains of 'My Old Kentucky Home,' Kentuckians gave vent their delight. For Kentucky triumphed in the Derby."  It is now traditionally sung before the big race, and is Kentucky's state song.  It was given state song status in 1928, and remained so until 1986, when Carl Hines, the lone black member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, felt that the song contained unacceptable racial connotations.  He was right, of course, and the term "darkies" was replaced with "people."  The song retains its state song status.

The song describes an idyllic day on a plantation and was a popular with minstrel shows and vaudevillians.

The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
'Tis summer, the people are gay;
The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day .

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