"Coon, Coon, Coon" is a "

coon song Coon songs were a genre of music that presented a stereotype of black people. They were popular in the United States and Australia from around 1880 to 1920, though the earliest such songs date from minstrel shows as far back as 1848, when they we ...

" from 1900. The words were written by Gene Jefferson and the music by

Leo Friedman Leo Friedman (July 16, 1869 - March 7, 1927) was an American composer of popular music. Friedman was born in Elgin, Illinois and died in Chicago, Illinois. He is best remembered for composing the sentimental waltz "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" w ...

. The lyrics are about an African American concerned with his appearance including his skin color and hair type while not being accepted by a woman. He makes efforts to acquire Caucasian characteristics but fails and is called out. Songsheet cover for the music include caricatured African American faces and a photograph of

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

performers of the song inset. The song was performed by

Lew Dockstader Lew Dockstader (born George Alfred Clapp; August 7, 1856 – October 26, 1924) was an American singer, comedian, and vaudeville star, best known as a blackface minstrel show performer. Dockstader performed as a solo act and in his own popula ...

. Arthur Collins and Joe Natus recorded a rendition of the song on

Edison Records Edison Records was one of the early record labels that pioneered sound recording and reproduction, and was an important and successful company in the early recording industry. The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by ...

in 1901. The University of California Santa Barbara has a brown wax

phonograph cylinder Phonograph cylinders (also referred to as Edison cylinders after its creator Thomas Edison) are the earliest commercial medium for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their heyda ...

recording of the song. A version of the songsheet has a photograph of

Irving Jones Irving Jones (1873 – March 9, 1932) was an American comedian and songwriter who specialized in a ragtime musical genre known as coon songs during their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th century. He sold close to 50 songs, many of which bec ...

inset. In 1902, "Coon! Coon! Coon!" was published in the ''Song-book of the Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania'', A. Groux, printer. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

has a photograph of two Caucasian children pointing at an African American described as illustrating a line from the song. A version of the song was recorded in the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection. 1900s SM Coon Coon Coon

Coon songs such as this one ridicule African Americans. The derisive term coon, a shortened form of raccoon alluding to cunning, was used to refer to Native Americans, Whigs, and "sly rustic" types before being used to describe African Americans. Gid Tanner and Fate Norris recorded the song in 1928 as did Will Gilmer and R.O. Mosley. The Taylor Trio recorded it in 1930. In 1945, William Howland Kenney gave a partial defense of Arthur Collins singing the lyrics of the song and described it as

bathetic Bathos ( ;''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st ed. "bathos, ''n.'' Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1885. , "depth") is a literary term, first used in this sense in Alexander Pope's 1727 essay " Peri Bathous", to describe an amusingly ...

Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon (November 2, 1880 – June 27, 1961) was an American screenwriter, who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for more than 110 films between 1915 and 1946. He was married to actress Jane Winton from 1927 to 1930. Kenyon was born i ...

incorporated a Caucasian woman struggling to perform the song in the 1929 movie ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...

''.

References

{{authority control 1900 songs Race-related controversies in music Anti-black racism in the United States Stereotypes of African Americans Songs about black people Ethnic humour