If there was some way to travel back in time—only for a visit, mind you—I would really like to go back to the early part of the 20th century, and witness firsthand some of the sax-hysteria that appeared to have gripped public officials.
Law makers and politicians seemed to have obsessed about how to deal with the low-brow artist, known as a saxophone player, and the low-brow art form he created.
In an article from the August 3, 1925 edition of the Youngstown Vindicator, the headline read: SAXOPHONE MUSIC IS BRANDED AS IMMORAL.
Apparently the Washington Police were trying to define “indecent music”. (I suspect you can see where this is going.) Fortunately for them, they had the expertise of Sergt. Ronda Milliken, of the women’s bureau to rely upon.
Milliken opined that “any music played on a saxophone is immoral”, and therefore should be considered “indecent music” under the then recently enacted statute.
Sergt. Milliken’s opinion did not go unchallenged, however. Officer Clarence Tally contradicted her views, since he had taken up playing the saxophone.
Any music played on a saxophone is immoral.
I have to ask myself, did other instruments have this tough a time with politicians? It would certainly be worth some research.
I am curious to know if instruments like the electric guitar, might have caused law makers and politicians some sleepless nights, as they thought about how it was causing the erosion of society as they knew it. Perhaps by then, society had shifted enough that instruments were no longer as easy a target.
What about before the saxophone. Did other instruments get singled out for persecution?
I found this pretty quickly. There’s probably more articles like this if I felt like digging harder. 😉
“But the rock n’ roll backlash (along with the payola trials) in 1959 hurt both Fender and Gibson. Les Paul sales declined, and Gibson replaced it in 1961 with the Les Paul/SG. Les Paul hated the new design, and terminated his deal with Gibson. Gibson would eventually re-issue the Les Paul in 1968, thanks to the popularity of blues players like Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton.
By 1966, Strat sales were so bad that Fender (now owned by CBS) considered discontinuing the model. It would take the emergence of one Jimi Hendrix to reverse the Strat’s fortunes.”
From http://www.sceneandheard.ca/article.php?id=1061
Hey Russ. How are you?
Sorry for replying so late. I’ve been up to my ass in proverbial alligators. I’m finally able to get a bit caught up.
That’s really interesting. I’m not surprised really. And yes, if a person did some digging, I’m sure that there would be lots of info on the guitar—and other instruments I’m guessing—that has/have raised the public’s ire because of their perceived association to something undesirable/immoral.
I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess that one instrument that likely never got legislated against, is the English horn. I can’t imagine anyone getting too upset about the use of one of these instruments. 😉 :devil2:
We have only to look at New Orleans LA and Fort-de-France MQ to learn what certain law-makers thought of the drum. :scratch:
I’m not familiar with those laws Paul. I take it the drum was seen as problematic.
Many cities in the US still require a separate ‘cabaret license’ if drums are to be played in a bar or restaurant. Even the electric guitar which has a much greater potential sound pressure is not singled out like this, although the two do tend to go together.
There are cultures that consider drumming to be the epitome of intemperance, suitable only in the highly regimented context of a military ensemble. There are others that consider drumming essential to a balanced life, the vibration of the drum quickening the world around us.
This morning, Google is not my friend. Instead of linking me to secondary and primary sources to “law against drumming” it has taken an almost perverse interpretation of the word “against” and given me much more than you or I ever wanted to know about the regulations regarding drummers in the various militias. Even Google Scholar was not very helpful. The closest I got was this link to a brief exchange on the Blindmans Blues Forum: When Drums Were Outlawed. Aside from a false interpretation of the lack of drums in early blues recordings—large drums were “banned” from all early recordings due to technical limitations of the media—there are at least some citations of sources for the comments.
I really didn’t expect much information to be available online for Martinique. Most of that is conserved by local historical societies with some archives maintained in European universities. I was rather disappointed with the results for Louisiana, since I seem to recall my searches were much more fruitful a decade ago. Too bad I didn’t bookmark the results back then. 🙁
The plus side of these “fuzzy” results is a few more books added to my “bucket list”:
Walker, Daniel E.; No more, no more: slavery and cultural resistance in Havana and New Orleans; University of Minnesota Press; 2004
Arnold, Morris S.; The Rumble of a Distant Drum: The Quapaws and Old World Newcomers, 1673-1804; University of Arkansas Press; 2007
Southern, Eileen; Music Of Black Americans A History; WW Norton; 3rd Revised edition edition; 1997
edited several times to improve formatting, fix links, fix typos, and add a clarifying paragraph