[Dr. Sivana]

Waiting for the Robert E. Lee--Byron Harlan and Arthur Collins (1912)

When I played that version, the voices sounded familiar. Sure enough, they are the same ones responsible for "WHEN THAT MIDNIGHT CHOO CHOO LEAVES FOR ALABAM" in the same year. Back in 3rd grade, my teacher brougth in her cylinder player and played that song. It made an indelible memory revived decades later thanks to YouTube.

Both songs have Alabama as a theme. The performers used blackface. I don't know what would happen to dear old Mrs. Skubby if she tried laying that today.

[Fiji Hill]

Harlan and Collins also recorded Bake That Chicken Pie in 1907, which is highly politically incorrect today. When we were kids, we had a cylinder player that had been passed down through the family and "Chicken Pie" was among the cylinders that came with it. We loved the song and didn't comprehend the racial overtones.

Unfortunately, the cylinder eventually broke--cylinders were made of bee's wax and therefore highly breakable. I didn't hear it again until Youtube came along.