"Old Black Joe" is a parlor song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1860.[1] Ken Emerson, author of the book Doo-Dah! (1998), indicates that Foster's fictional Joe was inspired by a servant in the home of Foster's father-in-law, Dr. McDowell of Pittsburgh. The song is not written in dialect.
Emerson believes that the song's "soft melancholy" and its "elusive undertone" (rather than anything musical), brings the song closest to traditional African-American spirituals.[2]
Harold Vincent Milligan describes the song as "one of the best of the Ethiopian [contemporary parlance for blackface minstrel songs] songs ... its mood is one of gentle melancholy, of sorrow without bitterness. There is a wistful tenderness in the music."[3] Jim Kweskin covered the song on his 1971 album Jim Kweskin's America.[4]
The song has sometimes been recorded as "Poor Old Joe", including by Paul Robeson who recorded it several times, for example in 1928 and 1930.[5][6] Other notable recordings were by Bing Crosby (recorded June 16, 1941),[7] Jerry Lee Lewis (1959) and Al Jolson (recorded July 13, 1950).[8]
^"Old Black Joe". Retrieved September 5, 2011.
^Ken Emerson. 1998. Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster and the rise of American popular culture Da Capo Press. pp. 256-9.
^Harold Vincent Milligan. 1920. Stephen Collins Foster: a biography of America's folk-song composer. p. 87.
^Lundborg, Patrick (2004). "Woody Guthrie on Acid". Ugly Things (22): 114–117. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
^Scott Allen Nollen (2010). Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer. McFarland. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-7864-5747-2 – via Google Books.
^Brian Rust; Allen G. Debus (1973). The Complete Entertainment Discography, from the Mid-1890s to 1942. Arlington House. p. 553. ISBN 978-0-87000-150-5 – via Google Books.
^"A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
^"jolson.org". jolson.org. Retrieved August 5, 2017.
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