African American Music in America–Gone Are the Days

On our website, we take the time to thoroughly review all of the contributions of African-American forms of music, before and after slavery was abolished, and the influences of that music on American composition. Even here on our Facebook page, we have shown how the Negro Spiritual had a mighty effect on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and how that effect translated itself into the historic song “Ol’ Man River.” We have shown the influence on George Gershwin, first in the form of blues (“I’ve Got Rhythm”) and then through Gospel music (“I’m on My Way”).

It is fair to say that American music, after 1900, took on the tone, the rhythm, the somber reality of African-American music, lurking just below the surface of any song, comedic or dramatic. Stephen Foster, who died at age 37, was strongly influenced as a child by Spirituals and Shouts and went on to write any number of songs that were heavily influenced by the African-American music he heard as a child. His first songs were filled with joy and laughter, like the sound of a banjo in “Louisiana Belle” or “Oh! Susanna,” both written in 1847.

Foster’s last great “Minstrel” song was “Old Black Joe” which was also known as “Gone Are the Days.” It was published in 1860 and represents a final transformation in the words and music Foster used, especially as sung by Robeson in a Gospel style. Listening to Robeson’s voice, we can hear the weary acceptance of loss and pain as the only rewards one can expect in this mortal existence.

Yet, listen more attentively the second time you play it, and you will sense the unbowed head, the spirit that was never touched by mortal strife; the dignity of a man whose soul is still intact.

We think this is how Foster felt when he wrote the song. Between the two men, composer and singer, we begin to understand what the lack of freedom felt like in 1860.