Ha-Why, Oh, Ha-Why, Can’t We Move On From This

Fifty years ago, a woman appeared on a stage in New York City and gave a drug-induced performance of nostalgic tunes, some of which were of a questionable nature.

The woman was Judy Garland, and the venue was Carnegie Hall.  The album was the highlight of it's time, but now its contents sound like something you would hear coming out of certain kinds of bars.  It should be stamped "irrelevant" and placed in the back of a very deep, locked drawer.     

If you pumped me full of red ones and blue ones, I could probably give a performance of “Swanee” that would knock your socks off.

At times, the album conquers up images of America’s racist past.  Garland passionately performs “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody,” “Swanee” and “After You’ve Gone” with the descending glissandos characteristic of minstrel songs.  All three songs were recorded by Al Jolson, the most popular minstrel star of his time, who would perform them in black-face.  It is through these “Old South”-glorifying ballads that we see the true roots and spine of Judy Garland.  She was a minstrel.  In fact, she once sang a song that announced it with pride:

“For oh so many years I’ve been a minstrel girl,

singing for my supper in the throng.

And in that time my world has been a minstrel world,

and the history of my life is in my songs.”

Minstrel shows became popular decades before the Civil War, and, with the help of Judy Garland, the beloved menstrual minstrel, the music has endured to the present day.