March 21
“My Buddy,” Music by Walter Donaldson, Lyrics by Gus Kahn, Performed by Henry Burr (1922)
I couldn’t actually find a lot of information about this particular song, but I still felt it was a good one to include in this series. The main reason I chose this song is that, even though it was published 4 years after the end of WWI, it became a popular song at gathering spots for veterans, like the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. In other words, it became a sort of ballad for veterans who had lost friends in WWI. I felt it was important to include a song that arose from that incredibly important worldwide event that took place in the mid to late 1910s. There is also speculation that the song has homoerotic undertones, which I can see. It was most definitely a time when it would have been too scandalous for a song to be overtly about homosexuality, so something with more of a friendship tone to it would be a good cover. Of course, it’s also okay for men to just be friends and miss one another! It doesn’t always have to be about sex!
Henry Burr was a very popular recording artist of the time, a tenor of the operatic style. He was also a part of the Peerless Quartet, which had several top 100 hits during this era. Burr was the first to record this particular song, though it was also recorded by some other popular singers later. The song apparently also featured in an episode of Boardwalk Empire in 2012. Anyway, enough of the limited information I found on this song. Give it a listen, and consider the feeling of loss it portrays.
The song:
Resources:
Another blogger's thoughts on the song: https://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2020/05/my-buddymurfin-home-confinement-music.html
A few thoughts and the lyrics: https://heritageamerican.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/life-is-a-book-that-we-study/
About Henry Burr: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Burr
No comments:
Post a Comment