The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1922-05-16
THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT
DEFINED IN TIN PAN ALLEY
Jazz Shops Decree That Northern
and Western States Lack
Musical Appeal


States that is going to interest you.
II cant, in the scheme of things, for
apparently there is little circle Of
euphoniously named southern states
that is getting about everything in
the line of geographical words and
music.
Referring to the map, we start at
Tennessee and draw lines radiating
therefrom into Kentucky, Alabama,
Georgia and Virginia, and even as far
as Marylad and Louisiana. That vii!
be about all for the composer, if he
wants to make living writing songs
IN which the states figure.
If you take a song into anv i"zz
shop in ''Tin Pan Alley and the
cynical individual in charge takes
your script and sees a mention of
some such state as Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island or Nebraska, he hands
the thing right back and you start
for the next shop, only to have the
thing happen again. After you have
gone up and down ''Tin Pan Alley"
Until you know just how far out of
rune each piano in that resonant
thoroughfare happens to be, you
Yield to the demands Of convention
snd 20 back home and substitute the
name of a regular" song state TO!
the, outlaw state you have chosen.
..Don't Have the Song Goods"
Nobody can tell why songs are so
limited geographically. In "Tin Pan
Alley" you get dubious head-shakings
when, the matter is mentioned.
'.The other. states simply don't
seem to have the, song goods, that's
ail,," said one Of the experts at what
seemed Co be the busiest of the alleys
factor&es. If you write song about.
the beautiful Hudson, you're through
before yan start. but. if goa make 1t
about some river dowc. South, you've
got it sold: Southern names seem to.
lend themselves more to jazz treat
ndent, too. Take 'On the Gin-Gin-Gin-
nv shore You can't, say on the
'Hud. .Hud-Hudson shore A singer'd
make it sound ike Dad instead of
sHud' and the song surely'd be dud.
lots of people have tried to put the
East over in song, but few have sue
ceeded when you compare their work
with the songs about the South. Why,
they even capitalize their bum luck
down there, as somebody's put over
song about the 'Boll-weevil Blues
Can you beat that?"
3obviously, nobody could. One
could not imagine an eastern song
writer popularizing an orchardist's'
Jazz melody entitled "The San Jose
Scale Blues" nor middle western
songster having any chance with
song about the Kansas wheat rust. As
the man in the music shop said, the
South can get away with murder
when it comes to music-and some
times it does.
But study of the map reveals
that not all the southland is to be in
clnded in the state song 100 per cent
class. Virginia is a top-notcher, OF
course, but who sings of West Vir-
ginia? And neither North Carolina
nor South Carolina figures with any
exactitude. There are vague songs
about Carolina, but no one knows
whether the northern or southern
state is meant, and apparently no
body cares. Florida got off with a
big start in early years when Stephen
Foster picked the Suwanee River to
sing about, but it has limped sadly IN
recent song writing.
Such states have been handicapped
on account of bad naming, apparent
ly. They have the same moon and
plenty of flowers and the breezes are
caressing, and all that, but the legis-
latures should change the state
names to something voted by "Tin
Pan. Alley" on euphonic grounds.
Reno Kills Nevada's Chances
New England and the middle At
lantic states apparently are hopeless.
Too mnay people live there and
know all about them. You can't be-
guile New Yorker with any song
about beautiful climate. His song
hits must have to do with the light
ing effects Of Broadway-not of the
pale moon that floats over the Cats
kills or Adirondacks. He has put his
approval on songs about Coney Is
land, but not Long Island. That's
another song "dud."
The middle western tier of states
ought to be in the song catalogue, but
Tboro