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The 1900's --- Music hath charm to soothe the savage beast or Make it RAGTIME!

Following is a song popular in 1900, sung by Peter Dawson. I believe it to be a later version by the original artist, as there is no announcement at the start of the cylinder and it is a 4 minute cylinder (which wouldn't appear until 1908) The song is titled THE MINER's DREAM of HOME, and gives a feel of immigrants thinking of their ancestral home far away... It was likely a Vaudeville favorite come New Year's Eve. The song would remain somewhat popular for decades.
 
The biggest hit of 1901 would become a Columbia Graphophone recording of John Phillip Sousa's THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER. This March was first publicly played at Willow Grove Park outside of Philadelphia to great acclaim and has remained a favorite ever since.
Sousa wrote that he composed the march on Christmas of 1896. He was on board an ocean liner on his way home from a vacation with his wife in Europe and had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, the manager of the Sousa Band. He composed the march in his head and committed the notes to paper on arrival in the United States.

Historically, in show business and particularly in theater and the circus, this piece is called "the Disaster March." In the early 20th century, when it was common for theaters and circuses to have house bands, this march was a traditional code signaling a life-threatening emergency. It subtly notified personnel of emergency situations and ideally allowed them to organize the audience's exit without causing the chaos and panic that an overt declaration might. Except for impending disaster, circus bands never played the tune under any circumstances
 
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ABSENTS MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER, sung by Harry Macdonald EDISON Record.
 
ANY OLD PLACE I CAN HANG MY HAT IS HOME SWEET HOME TO ME, sung by Will Denny:
 
GOOD MORNING CARRIE (Southern love song) was composed by two Black men, Smith & Bowman This copy is played on a wonderful 1898 EDISON Concert Machine. The 5" Concert cylinders were much louder than the 2" brown wax cylinders, and so the larger cylinders were used at exhibition halls for large crowds. Yes, people would often pay to hear a PHONOGRAPH as these machines were still rather expensive. Even a very cheap machine ran about $10.00 --- that was well over $330.00 in today's money. To go to an exhibition hall might cost 5 or 10 cents a ticket and often a magic slide show accompanied the various cylinders played. Anyway, here is the Song sung by Dan Quinn:
 
HELLO CENTRAL, GIVE ME HEAVEN ("Hello Central" refers to the Telephone Operator predial era)---- sung by Byron G. Harlon, The song relates a young girl wishing to use the telephone to speak to her departed mother, and was inspired by an actual newspaper story relating the attempt of the seven-year-old daughter of a widower to make such a call. Postcards were printed after the song's publication with the "kind permission" of Harris showing little girls using the telephone to call their dead mothers. The cignant (or swan neck) horn didn't appear until 1909. It was a great innovation at the time, as it allowed for a bigger horn that didn't stick outward into the room but went upward above the machine. The 2 minute record is from 1901 and this song was still very popular even in 1913.
 
This is a time before radio programs, television, and even motion picture STORIES (The 1st being THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY by Edison filmed in NJ in 1906). Vaudeville and London & Broadway Musicals were the escape of the day and would find their way in part onto the records of the period. Here we have an UNCLE JOSH gem from 1901, again on a very rare 5" Columbia GRAND (same as an Edison Concert) Cylinder recording of the period. Uncle Josh/Cal Stewart was the proverbial storyteller of the era. UNCLE JOSH's HUSKING BEE DANCE:
 
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"Music hath charm to soothe the savage beast"​

I like that quote, a lot. Being a lover of music.

But did you know the actual quote says ""Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. To soften rocks, or bend the knotted oak."

I was somewhat disappointed in the original quote, it should have said "beast" imo.
 
FLORADORA would be as big a hit on Broadway as it was in London. Various songs would become a hits in 1901, and among them was IN THE SHADE OF THE PALM. At least two artists would have a hit with this song. Harry Macdonough : and John. W. Myers:
 
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In 1897 a song was composed just in time for both the Boer's War and the Spanish American War. GOODBYE DOLLY GRAY would remain popular through World War I sung by

Harry MacDonough​

In 1901 the song would be recorded a be quite the hit.
 
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This Cakewalk was popular in 1899 and when records became more prevalent this tune would find it's way on a recording. Here is a 1901 recording of WHISTLING RUFUS and it was quite popular as it would still be recorded years later and would even be whistled by MICKEY MOUSE in his first talkie STEAMBOAT WILLIE in 1928. Here is the same tune (though different rendition) played on a Columbia Graphophone of this period. This record in this case is a COLUMBIA Cylinder the cylinder begins about halfway through if you wish to advance past the talk about the player...
 
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As I mentioned earlier, there was a big musical comedy hit out of London called FLORADORIA that opened in 1899. It would open in New York on Broadway and would be a smash hit there also in 1900. Soon, the pop tunes from this show began to appear on records. Here we have the SEXTETTE FROM FLORADORIA --- TELL ME PRETTY MAIDEN recorded in 1902 on a COLUMBIA DISC RECORD (Columbia at this time produced both cylinder and disc records): . In 1930 there was a movie made called THE FLORADORIA GIRLS. This was based loosely on the show FLORADORIA and this scene from that movie will give you an idea of how this show appeared back in early 1900's:

In 1906 Evelyn Nesbit (a former FLORADORIA girl ) would find herself in a scandal involving a deadly love triangle between railroad scion Harry Kendall Thaw (Evelyn Nesbit's husband) and architect Stanford White. White would be publicly shot by Thaw at THE MADISON SQUARE GARDEN that White designed.
 
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1902 saw BILL BAILEY WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME hit number 2 on the sheet music charts. Cannon wrote the song in 1902 when he was working as a bar pianist at Conrad Deidrich’s Saloon in Jackson, Mich. Willard "Bill" Bailey was a regular customer and friend, and one night told Cannon about his marriage to Sarah. Cannon "was inspired to rattle off a ditty about Bailey’s irregular hours. Bailey thought the song was a real scream, and he brought home a dashed-off copy of the song to show Sarah. Sarah couldn’t see the humor.... yet accepted the picture it drew of her as a wife. They would eventually divorce... The song here is sung by Arthur Collins -recorded -1902.
 
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In 1902, one of the most popular ragtime songs composed before 1910 came out. It was to sell over 400,000 copies of sheet music quickly. The song is titles UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE. Here is a popular EDISON Record from that year, recorded by Arthur Collins and Byron Harlin: Collins would also also record the song on VICTOR and COLUMBIA Record labels. This song would also appear in the period (1903-1904) movie MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS in 1946:
 
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In 1902 a song was written that was almost ignored, the reason being the publishers all felt that once the Summer season was over, this song would be forgotten. What happened in this case the song was liked by Blanche Ring and placed in a show in 1902 titled THE DEFENDER and became quite popular. In 1903 The Haydn Quartette made a recording and the rest is history... A movie in1949 would bring a revival of the song forever connected with the summer months, vacation, fun, the beach, and fond memories of family outings and nostalgia for a past age of youthful innocence... IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME:
 
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In 1902 a wonderful song came out that would eventually be Lillian Russell's swan song. The title was; COME DOWN, MA EVEN'IN STAR. Miss Russell was a very highly regarded singer at that time and was loved by the general public. She was in many Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Here is the ONLY recording Miss Russell ever made. And it was recorded in 1912 (she was born in 1853 and so she would have been about 59 at that time). While the sheet music sold very well, no one seems to have made another recording of Lillian Russell's stage hit back in the day. During the production of Twirly Whirly, composer John Stromberg delayed giving her her solo for several days, saying it wasn't ready. When he committed suicide a few days before the first rehearsal, the sheet music for "Come Down Ma Evenin' Star" was found in his pocket. It became Lillian Russell's signature song.
 
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ANY RAGS is apparently an odd song today but would have been about a very common theme in 1902 ---especially in towns/urban America. The rag and bone man would come around and yell in the street as he pushed his cart for bones, rags, bottles, and paper. Let's call it early recycling (nothing new under the sun). The bones were used for making knife handles, toys, and trinkets. Bottles would be reused or melted down. Rags might be reprocessed or even made into fine writing paper, etc... Anyway, they (such Rag Men) would get out very early in the morning to make money, and their yelling would often be considered an annoyance. They would take ANYTHING they thought they could make money on. Back when I was a kid in the 1950's, we did have a "Trash Picker" who came through our "suburban" middleclass neighborhood, and he would take most anything that was scrap metal. Here we have Arthur Collins singing ANY RAGS:
 
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I'm putting this one on now as I just discovered it on YouTube. It was written by Scott Joplin in 1899, and really is credited as being the real beginning of RAGTIME MUSIC. This copy of the MAPLE LEAF RAG is really very cool. There was another way to record piano music at the turn of the last century --- and that was to make a pianola roll for a player piano --- a direct transcript... And it has happened that a long lost roll created by Scott Joplin himself was discovered in a mislabeled/wrong piano roll box that was sold on EBAY. This is a real treasure. And now you can here SCOTT JOPLIN play his MAPLE LEAF RAG as he intended it:
 
HIAWATHA as a song written about 1901 based on the The Song of Hiawatha, an 1855 poem in by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features Native American characters. The poem relates the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his love for Minnehaha, This particular recording is by Henry Macdonough on a very, very rare 1903 Pink Lambert "indestructible" celluloid Cylinder Record. This would also recorded on Edison, Columbia, Zone-o-phone, and VICTOR records. The song was indeed quite popular:
Here is a COLUMBIA Cylinder instrumental dance record from 1903. It was very popular:
 
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Again, while the USA had Vaudeville, the British had Music Halls and Variety Shows. And here we have a performer recorded in 1903 singing THAT's HOW THE LITTLE GIRL GOT ON:

THAT'S HOW THE LITTLE GIRL GOT ON as recorded by Marie Lloyd May 4th 1903
A clever young lady,
Charming Miss Sadie,
Her way to town one morning she was taking.
But she didn't try for
The paths that were high, for
She started in a humble way, dressmaking.

The firm that engaged her,
just like a bird they chase her,
All day the little darling was on show.
Her employers beamed upon her
And tried all their dresses on her,
For she took them to a fancy clothes show.

So clever, so clever,
Everyone said, "Did you ever?",
She was as peaceful as a swan.
She made all the johnnies gape,
They got mashed upon her shape,
And that's how the little girl got on!

The other young ladies
Were jealous of Sadie's
Advancement through the medium of her figure.
Her past life they raked up,
And touched up and faked up,
and then they threw it at her with a snigger.
(ha-ha-ha-ha!)

With much satisfaction,
They said her low extraction
Contaminated all the others there.
But the tricky little Sadie
Tried on for a titled lady, She said,
"'Tisn't what I was, it's what I wear!".
(ha-ha-ha!)

So clever, so clever,
Everyone said, "Did you ever?",
She was as peaceful as a swan.
And when they kicked her, jealous cats,
All the darling said was, "Rats!",
And that's how the little girl got on!

So clever, so clever,
Everyone said, "Did you ever?",
She was as peaceful as a swan.
And when they kicked her, jealous cats,
All the darling said was, "Rats!",
And that's how the little girl got on!
 
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Arthur Collins would have another big hit singing GOODBYE ELIZA JANE in 1903:

Here is the sheet music from the same period:
 
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In the early part of the 20th Century, Collins and Harlon were quite popular. They recorded for everybody at the time. This recording of HOORAY FOR BAFFIN'S BAY was one of their "hits". This recording is on another PINK LAMBERT Cylinder Record. The gentlemen here will explain some of the history or that long forgotten company. Unfortunately, they did seem to have a superior product, but litigation destroyed them. They had to navigate through both Edison and Columbia patent rights. Columbia and Edison would eventually issue their own celluloid cylinders, but this would occur approximately 5 years later. PS> I do love the machine used to play this cylinder. Columbia was very innovative, and you will notice that the machine has an actual tonearm. This allowed for larger horns, as did Edison's signet or S shaped horn. However these would evolve near the very end of practical cylinder recording/playback era...
​
HURRAH FOR BAFFIN'S BAY​
​
'Twas on the good ship Cuspidor, we sailed through Baffin's Bay
We tied her to the Ocean while the bul-warks ate some hay
The captain said, 'We'll tie the ship whatever else be-tied'
And drank a pint of gasoline with whiskey on the side
He had lost his breath, but soon it was restored
It was midnight in the galley, it was one beside the dock
But by the starboard watch 'twas only half-past nine o' clock
The first mate said, 'Unhitch the mules, we're going thorugh a lock.'
And then the bosun went and put the larboard watch in 'hock'
For the good ship didn't have a centre board.

Chorus: Avast! belay! hurrah for Baffin's Bay
We couldn't find the pole because the barber moved away
The boat was cold, we tho't we'd got the grip
So the painters put three coats upon the ship
Hip, hip, hip, hip, hip, hurrah for Baffin's Bay.

A brace of wild ducks perched upon the starboard mizzen clew
The Captain spliced the mainbrace and he braced us for a chew
He said, 'We'll dine on duck and wine, I know we'll have good luck.'
But there was no Piper Heidseick, so the bosum chased the duck
And he piped the chickens to the forward hatch
We were told to weigh the anchor but the scales were full if ice
We couldn't weigh it all at once, we had to weigh it twice
The second mate fell overboard, it dried him to the skin
He got aboard without a rope, we couldn't rope him in
For he lit aboard us with a parlour match.

Chorus: Avast! belay! hurrah for Baffin's Bay
A whale began to blubber, he was sorely tried one day
He mashed a sweet potato on a ship
But he found she was a Saratoga chip
Hip, hip, hip, hip, hip, hurrah for Baffin's Bay.​
 
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This Hit from 1903 features JOE BELMONT as the "nature singer" as they were called back in the day. This means he whistles/warbles imitative of birds. His chipping is very beautiful ---- and it's a shame that whistling is not as popular as it once was. Al Jolson and Bing Crosby were both once known for their whistling abilities. Anyway, whistling from an old phonograph has such a natural quality to it. BEAUTIFUL BIRD, SING ON
Harry Macdonough sings the song. It might seem hard to imagine now, but at one time a young lady would have loved to hear her beau sing such a song to her. It is sad how far we have moved on...
 
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Another ballad that was popular was DEAR OLD GIRL ---- and this hit of 1903 is sung by Richard Jose: This song has an interesting dissonant cord that runs through it... And no wonder, the man is singing of his dead wife (possibly at her gravesite) and reminisces of the life they once shared. The Victorians and Edwardians romanticized even death and true love. And here also for us is a rendition by the Sheet Music Singer:
 
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Here is a great recording that was quite popular in 1903. Now, imagine if you can that you live in a time when no one owned an automobile and now suddenly the first one comes down the road. This Len Spencer recording from 1903 will help to put things into perspective. An obviously rich man (also known in the vernacular of the day as a SWELL) comes flying down the road at likely the breakneck speed of 20 miles an hour and hits a mud puddle soiling a hayseed's suit. Let's listen to the story unfold along with great sound effects. REUBEN HASKINS' RIDE ON A CYCLONE AUTO
 
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