http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/l/New+Orleans+LA+70130:4:US
Fingers crossed....
The official Song of Louisiana--> You Are My SUNSHINE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC6kVoYBYHM
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Back to the plantations.
1. The Plantation Era was also called Antebellum era (1781-1860). Then came The Civil War, 1861-1865. I only have time to present it with two other songs about Dixie, a word which means The South...Dixieland.
I Wish I Was in Dixie :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prBXNwxjU4I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQmO-WfEkk4
The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down (Joan Baez):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnS9M03F-fA
Google the name of the song and the word "lyrics" and you can find the words to each song.
2. During (and after) the time of slavery, work on the Southern plantation was often made more lively and more bearable by the singing of work songs. We've already looked at Negro spirituals. Singing made the work go faster and made the physical labor and drudgery a little easier to bear. A bale of cotton weighs 500 pounds (227 kilos), which is more than anyone could really pick during just one day.
Here's your homework.
Learn this easy song. Everyone. It's easy. We can sing it on the coach and in the classroom!
This is not disrespectful nor racist, as some people wrongly consider this song to be. It is a part of history, not to be forgotten.
Listen first:
Pick a bale of cotton ... So many have sung this song.
You choose, but please listen to the first and second one on this long list. And do you remember Leadbelly? (Post 1 on March 9th!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ILbUduwBkg
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=XkMfjZ7v9NQ Lonnie Donegan, with lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiJUQvyr-iQ Derek Ryan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdC3-LSacH4 Joe Dassin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkHGRI0uUvo ABBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_s01hE4yFs Johnny Cash
and Leadbelly, the first one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChYeb8ACjqw
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Now, it's your turn to sing these verses:
CHORUS:
Oh, Lordy, pick a bale o' cotton
Oh, Lordy, pick a bale o' day
VERSES:
Jump down, turn around
Pick a bale o' cotton
Jump down, turn around
Pick a bale a day.
(CHORUS)
Me an' my buddy gonna
Pick a bale o' cotton
Me an' my buddy
Gonna pick a bale a day.
(CHORUS)
I b'lieve to my soul I can
Pick a bale o' cotton
I b'lieve to my soul I can
Pick a bale a day. (CHORUS)
Can you sing as fast as Leadbelly?
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Singing and dancing. Do you remember Congo Square in New Orleans? (Post 20) Thanks go to my student, Françoise, (a dance teacher) who has been dancing for more than 60 years, for this additional information:
CONGO SQUARE
From about 1786 to the 1880's, Blacks used to get together every Sunday for
singing and dancing. One could hear African drums accompanying the dances : bamboula (jawbones scraped by a stick) and banjo. They danced: bamboula, calenda, coonjaille, jig and breakdance.
Most dances originated from the Caribbean.
The dancers formed a circle and a couple entered inside and did
a basic step, the flat-footed shuffle. All around the spectators greeted the
performance by acclamations and the clapping of hands: the Patting Juba.
The excitation rose, the dance became more and more frenetic to
the point of ecstacy, the couple would fall and then they would be replaced by
another couple.
It was a tourist attraction for the Whites. An observant wrote: "These dances
are a frenzy ; they were furious, frantic and wild… madness. »
« The assemblies of slaves for the purpose of dancing or
other merriment, shall take place only on Sundays and solely in such open or public places as shall be appointed
by the Mayor and no such assembly shall continue
later than sunset. »
(1817 the New Orleans City Council, art.6 )
http://historywired.si.edu/detail.cfm?ID=210
Jane
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- back to = returning to
- bearable = supportable
- drudgery = http://www.wordreference.com/definition/drudgery
- pick a bale "a" cotton = pick a bale "of" cotton
- buddy = friend
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