‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’: a contextual, textual and popular music semiotic analysis of the recording by ‘Glenn Miller and his Orchestra’ Alex Germains It is arguable that, in a variety of ways, the ‘boogie woogie’ piano form is one of the most commonly reoccurring forms within the popular musics of the culture and society known generally as ‘the west’ (where ‘the west’ refers to post-industrial revolution Europe, America, and any other societies on which they have been a cultural influence). Therefore it is also arguable that this form is an important one within these cultures. In the course of researching material that indicates the lineage of the form, it is possible to pick out ‘interobjective comparison material’ Tagg 1999: 36 from many sources, since both online and in print there exists a large amount of opinion, rhetoric, and research into the roots of boogie woogie see bibliography/internet sources/accompanying CD. For example, a recording of ‘Weary Blues’ by ‘The Louisiana Five’ from ca. 1919 features a boogie woogie piano left hand, starting at around thirty-five seconds into the song see accompanying CD. The piano bass-line typical of boogie woogie is identifiable as a variation on an ostinato bass figure, usually utilising eight quaver notes to each bar. Continued use of this variable bass figure underpins much of the popular music of the following years, particularly the ‘swing’ era, ca. 1935-1945 Stearns 1970: 197-217, Silvester 1988: passim . The presence of the boogie woogie form in ‘big band’ music is displayed by the omnipresent piano left hand, its replacement or reinforcement with bass drum, double bass and trombone, and then its harmonic and melodic ‘right hand’ comprising of higher register brass, woodwind and vocal/s (it is also arguable that the ‘mirroring’ of the boogie woogie piano by the swing orchestra presents us with self-reflexive interobjective comparison material within the recording). Utilising the work of Tagg, Middleton, and Barthes 1999, 1990, and 1977 respectively, an analysis with particular reference to the piano left hand or its replacements, the vocal performance, and the ‘intro’ of the song, should reveal some important semiotic elements that might help us in an attempt to deconstruct and evaluate the denotation transmitted, and the connotation received, by the listener. We might consider the presence of ‘paramusical fields of connotation’ Tagg 1999: 27 present in either the piano left hand or the vocal, further considering the work of Richard Middleton on generative theory in music, to address issues regarding any ‘deep structure’: It may be that we understand the syntax of popular songs we have never heard before not only through knowledge of phonological, musematic and combinatory codes but also through reference to deep structures into which specific details (notes, rhythms, musemes, and so on) can be slotted. Middleton 1990: 192 Barthes’ ideas on ‘the grain of the voice’ Barthes 1977: 179-189 might further aid in our understanding of any potential connotation generated by the vocal performance. It is also useful to consider other concepts posited by Tagg, such as the presence of sonic, kinetic and tactile anaphones, episodic markers, genre synecdoche, and style indicators Tagg 1999: 23. Combining these methods with Middleton’s structural approach might aid in our attempt to understand the relationships between signifiers such as the boogie woogie bass, the vocal performance, and other important signifiers within the song. We must discuss how our reception of those signifiers, in isolation and in combination, works to create meaning. The specific cultural connotations present in boogie woogie help create further meanings, and when contextualised within the musical and performance environs of ‘swing’, these connotations are recontextualised and re-presented in a way that might relate both processually and metaphorically to historically important events in American culture and society. Therefore, it should be possible to pick out many interesting semiotic elements at both a micro and a macro level. ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’ was written circa 1939 by Don Raye, Hughie Prince, and Eleanor Sheehy Eder 2008 [online], See internet sources (n.b. some sources also include Ray McKinley as co-writer). Bruce Eder’s biography of Raye in particular states that he ‘helped define jive and boogie-woogie at the end of the 1930s and the dawn of the ’40s’ Ibid.. There are several recorded versions of the song see accompanying CD , all of which rely on the rhythmic essence of the boogie-woogie bass/piano line. The first recorded version was by Will Bradley’s orchestra circa 1940, see accompanying CD. According to Peter Silvester, ‘the tune was issued on both sides of an American Columbia 78 record and within the first month of its release 1,000,000 copies had been sold’ Silvester 1988: 206. Silvester also attempts to explain the genesis of the song through anecdotal evidence from pianist Ray McKinley: There was one part where I had a drum break and for some reason or other, that night, instead of playing the break, I sang out - 'Oh beat me Daddy eight to the bar'. After the set, Hughie called me over to the table and asked if they could write a song using that break. I told him to go ahead, and they offered to cut me in on the tune. ibid: 205 One striking difference in the arrangement of Bradley’s version, when compared to that of Glenn Miller, is the greater emphasis on the ‘swing’ rhythm in Miller’s version. Bradley’s version of the song is a strict ‘eight to the bar’, not the syncopated ‘off-beat’ style common in much boogie-woogie music, and also in swing see Glenn Miller’s version of ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’ on accompanying CD. Comparing the two styles, it might be argued that the looser off-beat style employed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra links paramusically Tagg 1999: passim with the ‘honky-tonk’ musical and lyrical narrative of the song. This broad appraisal of the rhythmic style can be thought of as genre synecdoche: the swing/boogie-woogie left-hand elements of the orchestra create sonic and kinetic anaphones reminiscent of the ‘clip-clop’ sound of horse’s hooves when at a canter, and, perhaps more meaningfully, the ‘chugging’ of a steam engine and the sound of its wheels on the track. These elements further suggest the places from which they seem to come: the purported home of boogie-woogie, Texas, and therefore the culture of the rural south in general. This idea is reinforced in the mind of the listener through the lyrical narrative: In a little honky-tonky village in Texas, there’s a guy who plays the best piano by far… He can play piano any way that you like it, but the way he likes it best is eight to the bar… When he plays, it’s a ball, he is the daddy of them all… The above composite anaphones therefore act as signifiers of movement. This movement, when viewed through the musical evolution and hybridisation of boogie-woogie and swing, might relate at its root to the ‘great migration’ of black people from the southern states to cities such as Chicago and New York, as described by James Grossman in ‘Land of hope: Chicago, Black southerners, and the Great Migration’ Grossman 1991: pp. 3-4: Approximately one-half million black southerners chose to “say fair wel [sic] to this old world” and start life anew in northern cities during 1916-1919, and nearly one million more followed in the 1920s. From cities, towns, and farms, they poured into any northern city where jobs could be found. New York’s black population grew from 91,709 in 1910 to 152,467 in 1920; Chicago’s, from 44,103 to 109,458 In terms of interobjective comparison material, the rhythmic emphasis on the ‘off-beat’ displayed in Miller’s version of ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’ bears similarities to traditional piano boogie woogie. It is as though the atmosphere of trains and travel connoted in earlier recordings such as ‘Honky Tonk Train Blues’ by Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis first recorded circa 1927 – see accompanying CD , and ‘Pinetop’s Boogie’ by ‘Pinetop’ Smith 1928 - see accompanying CD , among others, is reinforced through the use of the ‘left-hand’ elements of piano, drums, bass, and trombones, and the ‘right-hand’ elements of higher-register brass, piano and even vocal. The connotation of ‘the old west’ is denoted primarily through the vocal delivery of the initial line ‘in a little honky tonky village in Texas’. Since the connotation of trains and train travel in boogie woogie music is fairly well documented Silvester 1988: passim, the additional idea of travel by horse might be accidental, yet it is arguable that it is present nonetheless, as its codification as a paradigm in American culture was already well established Blake 1995: passim. Furthermore, the importance of the vocal to the successful integration of boogie woogie into swing might allow for the idea that a large part of the meta-connotation created by the Glen Miller recording of ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’ could stem from the use of the vocal, lyric, and vocal delivery of said lyric. As Silvester notes, ‘The introduction of lyrics into boogie-woogie compositions was probably the chief factor for its emergence into the popular-music field’ Silvester 1988: 212. Richard Middleton’s proposal that the concepts of generative grammar can be helpful in ‘explaining the perception and cognition of musical structures’ Middleton 1990: 192 might support these arguments further. The basic structure of ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’ is, broadly speaking, an eight-bar blues. The connotation and cognition engendered by what was even at the time of its release a familiar chord structure must be considered. At the point at which the vocal enters, the structure is as follows: I, IV, I, (II) V, I. Comparing this with virtually all blues-based music before or since this recording, we see parity of structure, particularly when adding the rhythm and tempo of boogie woogie into the overall form. Middleton notes that ‘if we look for the form of the signified, we shall find the abstract level of deep structure’ ibid. p. 201. Therefore, the basic blues structure forms part of the connotation generated by the recording, in such a fashion as to create cultural associations on the part of the listener. These ideas combine well with Tagg’s ‘genre synecdoche’ Tagg 1999: 23, connoting rurality, authenticity, and perhaps also a sense of nostalgia, based on the notions associated with early 20th century blues and country music and boogie woogie in general. In this context, it is possible that the use of the ‘Honky Tonk’ vocal style serves as a marker of race, perhaps ‘whitening’ the overall presentation of the text. Using Jimmie Rodgers’ ‘T for Texas’ circa 1927, see accompanying CD as further interobjective comparison material, since it utilizes the same basic blues chord structure as ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’, it is feasible to suggest that the hybridisation of blues and country that Rodgers adopted is not present in Miller’s recording. Rather, whilst there is a definite ‘whiteness’ to the vocal delivery, it appears to rest on top of a more identifiable and, until the swing era, almost uniquely black music form. Roland Barthes notions regarding ‘the grain of the voice’ Barthes 1977: 179-189 can here be applied in a closer analysis of the vocal delivery. When contrasting the timbre of ‘white’ singers with ‘black’ singers, it is of course difficult to make any generalisations without veering into the area of racial essentialism and stereotyping. However, in this recording, we might understand the impact and affect of the vocal delivery in terms of the accentuation of racial difference, although almost certainly not for reasons of prejudice on the part of the performers. There are similarities between the grain of the vocalist (the identity of whom has been impossible to ascertain for this analysis) on ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’, and that of Jimmie Rodgers, as exemplified by the above-mentioned ‘T for Texas’. Since Rodgers might justifiably be regarded as a paradigm of the male country vocalist [online], see internet sources, and was popular in the years preceding the release of this and other versions of ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’, it can be argued that the codification of signifiers for an archetype of white country vocal delivery was established by the time of this recording’s release. This being the case, we might feel confident in asserting that there is a deliberate construction of a ‘grain’ here, a ‘pheno-type’ Barthes 1977: 182 of delivery, rather than a ‘geno-type’ ibid.. Importantly, this distinction as described by Barthes, leads us to the idea that the ‘constructedness’ of the vocal is meant to connote an overall impression of a style, and in line with the idea of genre synecdoche, a culture. The singer as individual is unimportant; his ‘grain’ is that of a representative of a culture, rather than that of an individual voice that is both instantly identifiable and loved for its unique qualities. The quality here is of familiarity, nostalgia, or humour. In other words, there is a deliberately created generative structure, one that might connote meanings that would resonate in the minds of Americans during this period. Middleton argues that ‘if these structures are conceived at a level of sufficient generality […] they are indeed abstractions’ Middleton 1990: 200. This being the case, it is logical to conclude that those abstract connotations of ‘the old west’, rurality, travel, movement, progress, and so on, are knowingly musically transmitted through specific individual elements on the recording that are then combined in order to create a hybridized group of further meanings. With reference to instrumental processes that engender and support these meanings, we might again turn to Tagg’s work, assessing the connotation created by the use of ‘episodic markers’ Tagg 1999: 27. Tagg asserts that these moments aid the understanding of the listener by ‘pointing the musical narrative in the direction of something new’ ibid. p. 28. It could be argued that the use of the brass sections at the start of ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’ represents a paradigm of this type of musical event. Their representation of the whistle of a steam train effectively connotes the idea of a train pulling out of the station at the start of a journey. The use of dissonance in the harmonic structure of the parts see accompanying CD, 0 secs. to 5 secs. approx. mimics the harmonic dissonance in a genuine train whistle. We might surmise that this dissonance is jarring enough to connote a warning, or a calling to attention, thereby explaining its use in both physical and musical contexts. Whilst the song is written in the key of B flat, during the intro the trumpet section plays a blues scale in E flat (the subdominant IV chord in the key of B flat; another feature implying the blues progression of I, IV etc.): E flat, the flattened 3rd of G flat, G natural and finally B flat, moving us into the B flat key. The flattened 3rd is common in blues music Kubik [online], see internet sources, and so again connotes rurality etc., albeit in this case subtly, since the overarching denotation here is of the train whistle. Another trumpet (or possibly clarinet) plays a descending F, E, E flat, and D. The lower register brass an octave lower repeats this line. Finally we hear what must be a combination of piano, double bass, and possibly trombone playing D flat, G flat, B and B flat. This combination gives us four independent and varyingly dissonant chords (shown below on the bass clef): 1) D flat/E flat/F 2) G flat/E/D/G flat 3) B/E flat/D flat/G Finally, the pattern resolves to the tonic chord of B flat major, although utilising only the first and third of the chord: 4) B flat/D/D/B flat This harmonic resolution is enough to induce an atmosphere of ‘completion’, implying that the train is pulling out of the station, beginning its journey into the unexplored, the new, the big spaces of America. The intro chords are played slightly ‘behind the beat’, placing less emphasis on the strict four beats to the bar time signature. This slow movement into the 4/4 rhythm again conforms to Tagg’s ideas of what constitutes an episodic marker: ‘short, unidirectional processes along at least one parameter of musical expression, such as short, quick upbeat, up-bow, initial, [and] rising run-ins to new musical material’ Tagg 1999: pp. 27-28. These ideas effectively describe what is happening here. In conclusion, the above elements, when combined with the many other elements present in the recording (which, for reasons of space, cannot be fully analysed here), combine to connote many of the themes that would have been part of the overall culture of America at the time. Along with the musical intro that connotes the train whistle alerting us to the train’s leaving the station, the ‘left-hand’ that connotes that train’s subsequent journey, and the vocal performance that connotes a ‘country’ style, we hear the use of the full big-band ensemble. It would be feasible to suggest that the use of increasingly large ensembles in cities such as New York and Chicago during the swing era encourages meta-connotations that reflect the expansion of those cities, upwards and outwards, and even more broadly, the expansion of American culture and society at this point in history. It is arguable that the use of boogie woogie forms to underpin the song in all its recorded versions correlates to the cultural connotations of what was at the time underpinning the increasing successfulness of the American civilisation: the necessary expansion of the railway system. Boogie woogie’s roots lie in the lumber and turpentine camps of Texas and other southern states Silvester 1988: passim, and its proliferation by the pianists that traveled – by train – from camp to camp to entertain the workforce, reflects a state of constant motion towards something new. Peter Silvester notes that Boogie-woogie was music of its time and it was shaped by elemental sounds heard and memorized [sic] by pianists. Trains provided endless themes, as it was possible to represent the haunting sound of whistles, expresses romping along on a full head of steam, wheels clattering over points and, of course, the insistent rhythm of the driving wheels ibid. p. 6 When combining this signification with the ‘bigness’ of the swing band, we see a musical representation of America’s rapid growth, and its joyful celebration of that growth. The narrative nature of the vocal, combined with its aforementioned ‘whiteness’, might serve as an indicator that a white American might begin to feel more comfortable with the cultural connotations of boogie woogie, despite the prevailing racial segregation of American society at that time. On a broader sociological note, this recording could be seen in the context of the appropriation of black musical forms by white musicians, and society in general, but also, more positively, the acceptance of black musical forms into mainstream American society. As Peter Silvester notes, it is not long before this point that Ray McKinley (one of the co-writers of ‘Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar’) ‘began to consider how the boogie rhythms of [Albert] Ammons, [Pete] Johnson and [Mead ‘Lux’] Lewis might be adapted for a big band’ Silvester 1988: 205. This adaptation, or integration, represents, in the broadest possible sense, the increasing acceptance of black American culture by white America, and perhaps as a result hints at a more important place for swing music in American history. Bibliography Barthes, R. (1977) Image Music Text, London: Fontana Grossman, J. (1991) Land of hope: Chicago, Black southerners, and the Great Migration, Chicago: University of Chicago Press Lopes, P. (2002) The Rise of a Jazz Art World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Middleton, R. (1990) Studying Popular Music, Buckingham: Open University Press Silvester, P. (1988) A Left Hand like God - A Study of Boogie-woogie, London: Quartet Stearns, M.W. (1970) The Story of Jazz, Oxford: Oxford University Press Tagg, P. (1999) Introductory Notes to the Semiotics of Music, Liverpool/Brisbane Internet Sources Blake, K. (1995) ‘Zane Grey and Images of the American West’ in Geographical Review, Vol. 85, No. 2, pp. 202-216 (Accessed 15 February 2011): JSTOR Eder, B. (2008) Don Raye Biography, All Music Guide (Accessed 10 February 2011) http://www.allmusic.com/artist/don-raye-p117281/biography Kubik, G. (2011), ‘Blue Note’, from Oxford Music Online (Accessed 19 February 2011) http://ezproxy.hope.ac.uk:2104/subscriber/article/grove/music/03310 No Author listed, Don Raye Biography, Songwriters Hall of Fame (Accessed 10 February 2011) http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/index.php/exhibits/bio/C99 No Author listed, Jimmie Rodgers Biography, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Accessed 15 February 2011) http://rockhall.com/inductees/jimmie-rodgers/bio/ Oliphant, D. (1996) Texan Jazz, Austin: University of Texas Press (Accessed 13 February 2011) http://books.google.com/books/utexaspress?id=dnGfoaI5eT4C&printsec=frontcover&cd=1&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false Other Sources Jazz, dir. by Ken Burns (2000), PBS CD Tracklisting: 1 Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar – Glenn Miller and his Orchestra 2 Weary Blues – The Louisiana Five feat. ‘Yellow’ Nunez 3 Beat me Daddy, Eight to the Bar – Will Bradley and his Orchestra 4 Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie – ‘Pinetop’ Smith 5 Honky Tonk Train Blues – Mead ‘Lux’ Lewis 6 T for Texas – Jimmie Rodgers 1