The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-06
nv wEsTBROOK PEGLER

ent writing finds us, not unhap-
PLY. in the grip of general strike
or general lockout in which the
big broadcasters and the great
central copyright pool and collec.
ton bureau known as ASCAP are
at odds over the royalty rate and
other issues. ASCAP's music is off
the air as to most of the stations,
and this organization seems to
think that the public will come to
it's rescue with great clamor for
the particular combinations of
suuawks, squeals and means to
which it holds title. I doubt, how
ever, that the old hands in ASCAP
privately entertain any such be-
lief, because they are all practical
men who know how easy it is to
steal new song from an old one
and must realize, therefore, that
| in a very short time the com
posers, so called, in the employ Of
the broadcasters can tinkle out ac-
ceptable limitations of their pri-
|vate stock.
Already, no doubt, free-lance
ghouls of the music trade have put
together half a dozen variations of
Three Blind Mice, a simple but APP
parently inexhaustible theme
which has been mined at great
profit by other vandals in the last
few years who have had the ef-
frontery, incidentally, to copyright
their thievings and demand royal
ties on the same.
Some Benefit
Possibly, if the public is given
a brief rest from those dreadful
sounds which have been called
music and hammered on the
NERVES and temperament of the
american people with ever-in-
|creasing emphasis as radio grew.
some benefit will come of this
|brawl. Old airs from the four-cent
song book are being revived which
have tendency to 'soothe rather
tha nto excite, and a spell OF rest
from the din might cause re-
vival of taste.
Certainly no other cheap and
trashy fake in any of the arts has
lhad the benefit of such pretentious
Endorsement as the jazz and, since
ljazz, the swing music of the last
80 years. The louder and more
revolving the noise the more artis-
tic or characteristic it was said to
be, when it was obvious that these
horrors were the work of Doors
and ignoramuses and often of COM
mon thieves.
Yet takers with an appetite for
publicity have indorsed jungle and
lbarnyard sounds as expressions of
the American artistic taste and
soul and the ripening of national
lmusic-which same opinions, II
true, were either an insult to the
American character or a just con-
demnation of vulgar breed.
Even the so-called red-hot man.
mas have been saluted as inter-
prefers of something in the spirit
|of the people although it was
known for a fact that this type
lof singing originated in low and
ldirty brothel on w. Madison st. in
lChicago and was characteristic of
that phase OF life and no other.
The torch song began as and re-
mains lewd and frowsy express
sion of the lust of back-room
bum and has been standardized
in its artless form out of consid-
Grafton for singers who cannot sing
and composers who can't compose
but only hitch together stock
phrases.
These two so-called American
art forms, pretty much alike, have
been brayed over the air for count
less hours, and, not content with
that imposition, the music indus
try, including radio itself, has ex-
plotted later offense called
swing, in which the executioners
seize on any decent work that
comes to mind and disembowel it
like savages torturing mission
ary.
Respectable Practice
Plagiarism, or grave robblng'
has become respectable artistic
and commercial practice in that
department of the trade which is
called creative Every song writer
or hack tinker is familiar with
the trick of stealing few bars
of some lovely thing and surround
ing it with trash, but SO common
is the practice that members OF
the craft stoutly defend it and IN
sist that stolen material should en-
ioy the status of an original crea-
ton in the name of the thief.
No nation on earth ever bought
as much music as the United
States has in the last 80 years, but
certainly no nation ever bought
music quite as bad, for not even
the Chinese have produced worse.
Probably it has done something 70
the nerves of the people, for tney
are beaten over the ears with IL
from dawn to dawn, and millions
| have become so numb that they
can sit for hours with the most
horrible sounds bouncing about
them and not even notice them.
Some people can even read the
funnies with this going on.
1t must be said that ASCAP
owns title to some very good
American music, along with the
Ihorrorc in tic pon1IJar library and