|
Have you North America readers ever wondered about the origins of "that song"? You know, the song that cartoons on television inevitably play every time they feature either a belly dancer or a snake charmer. That song that the 10-year-old boys sang as I walked past them one evening when I finished teaching my belly dancing class. That song that everyone seems to associate with belly dancing, but that I've been able to find on only one CD meant for use by dancers.Well, wonder no more! Here's everything you've always wanted to know but were afraid to ask about that infamous piece of music! Listen To It! According to The Book Of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk, the song as we know it today was created a century ago by Sol Bloom, a show business promoter who later became a U.S. Congressman. Bloom was the entertainment director of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, which was celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. One of its attractions, called Streets Of Cairo, included the famous dancer Little Egypt, snake charmers, camel rides, and other exciting things to entertain turn-of-the-century fair-goers. In his prestigious role, he made more money than the President of the United States--$1,000 a week. In his autobiography, Bloom claimed that he improvised the melody on the piano at a press briefing in 1893 to introduce Little Egypt. Since he didn't copyright the piece, several other composers of his time used the melody for their songs. Sheet music editions that featured the melody included:
Even famous composer Irving Berlin reportedly used the popular melody in his song, "Harem Nights." Although many variations on this same tune were copyrighted, only one has remained well-known today: The Streets Of Cairo, written by James Thornton. The Great Song Thesaurus states that the origins of this melody go back nearly 400 years. The sheet music for a French song published in 1857 says that the first phrase of the melody resembles almost note for note an Algerian song titled "Kradoutja," which became popular in France in the early 1600's. Unfortunately, modern-day scholars have not been able to locate any musical scores or lyrics for Kradoutja. It was the performance of Little Egypt that brought the "hoochy koochy" dance into the North America entertainment world. In an era where it would have been scandalous for a respectable New World woman to expose a shapely ankle, loosen her corset, or let her tightly-coifed hair down in public, the dancer wearing pantaloons and loose hair performing abdominal undulations made quite a sensation. Little Egypt rapidly become one of the leading attractions at the fair, able to compete on a par with "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show and John Philip Sousa's World's Fair Band. "When she dances," cried one barker, "every fiber and every tissue in her entire anatomy shakes like a jar of jelly from your grandmother's Thanksgiving dinner... She is as hot as a red-hot stove on the fourth of July in the hottest county in the state." When you consider the tightly-corseted fashions worn by the American women of the time, it's no wonder Little Egypt's performance prompted Sol Bloom to advertise her show as "Belly Dancing", a name that in North America has stuck with Oriental dance for over a century, along with the unfortunate association with the titillating "hoochy koochy" that modern-day dancers are still trying to dislodge. Anthony Comstock, founder of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, tried his hardest to shut down this outrageous exhibit, but he succeeded only in triggering a nationwide Little Egypt craze. Soon, the hoochy koochy was being performed on vaudeville stages throughout the country. Inspired by this influence, songwriter James Thornton penned the words and music to his own version of this melody, "Streets Of Cairo or The Poor Little Country Maid". Copyrighted in 1895, it was made popular by his wife Lizzie Cox, who used the stage name Bonnie Thornton. Soon it became the definitive song used by hoochy coochy dancers everywhere. The Lyrics
Chorus Verse 2 Chorus Verse 3 Chorus Is It Okay To Use This Song
For Belly Dancing? However, if you're trying to do a "straight" performance, where your intent is to plant an image in the minds of audience members of a skilled artist, graceful dancer, elegant performer, or sensuous woman, this would be absolutely the wrong music to select. It has too many associations with the burlesque hoochy koochy, and has been the subject of too many jokes over the years. If your audience is primarily fellow dancers and you do non-comedy performance to this music, some audience members will probably conclude you don't really "understand" what kind of music is appropriate for Oriental dance. The Strangest Places!This song pops up in the strangest places! If you listen carefully, here are some places you will find it:
Over the years, people have put a variety of their own lyrics to this familiar song. Here are some of them:
Would you like to do your own research in more depth on the history of music in North America? These books were helpful in researching this article:
Related Web Links
I'd like to thank Denis Kavemeier of the band Oasis for sharing his research with me as I was working on this story and giving me permission to incorporate it into this article. He pointed me to some very helpful sources. Have
a comment? Send us a
letter! Ready
for more? 9-23-99 Mailbox
Missives ...my little round
tumtum... |
Gilded
Serpent presents...
Verse 1