Why is "You are My Sunshine" (potentially) America's best song? It probably has a lot to do with the way Jimmy Davis associated the song so intimately to his campaign and therefore shaped it to be American. Davis' version is very folksy and upbeat; he recreates the song with a playful tune - even the gloomy line "you shattered all my dreams" is sang almost amusingly, which can only really make sense in the light of irony. Alan Lomax elegantly explains this by revealing that to Americans, "love was something you laughed at or died of" and was basically sung of as a joke.
Ollie Gilbert's version is delicate and raw, maybe perhaps because it is sung a capella, but maybe also because it clearly evokes a sense of solemness, almost sadness, and not of cheeriness... Comparing Gilbert's and Davis' versions of the song produces radically different interpretations of its meaning. It was expressed in class that Ollie Gilbert was singing the song to just sing the song, and not to give it meaning. If this is indeed true, then why was it recorded? Or is it up to the listener (and not the performer) to assign the song some kind of meaning?
It's also interesting how the songs' precursor Heavenly Sunshine addresses God or Jesus as the sun, and the sunshine as the experience of praising Jesus. I'm curious to know the intermediate versions that rose between Heavenly Sunshine and the You are My Sunshine that we sing today...
Regarding the readings, Lomax's prefaces try so strongly to affirm that American folk music is an amalgamation of different cultures that have created America. Though he praises Black traditions for their contribution to the music, I can't help but notice his subtly prejudiced views... He emphasizes the Negros[sic] sexual and aggressive behavior as having a tremendous impact on their music - would a black American who was part of the slave culture of songs and dances express the same sentiment? How much truth can be attributed to Lomax's words? How much of this cultural movement of American folk music continues today?
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