Vernacular

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 391, 20 December 1946, Page 11

Vernacular

S I begin this paragraph, my set is discoursing another’ cheerful but somewhat artificial attempt to revive the broad-bottomed vitality of music-hall. Stanley Holloway is in charge and a good time is being had by all. But when shall we make such direct and living popular song out of the immediate material of our own time? As _ usual,

what little progress is being made in this direction is the work of negroes, the latest recruits being those of the British West Indies and Trinidad in particular. Few of those who happily bawl "Rum and Coca-Cola" probably know this engaging ditty for what it is-a debased but genial version of the native calypso, written by I know not whom under the wartime impact of American garrisons on island life. A point of local colour is that the extraordinary vowel sounds which issue from the Andrews Sisters in their rendering are believed to be American efforts to reproduce or parody the long A which the negro voice has developed under British influence in these islands, These ladies in "Rum and Coca-Cola" have another relevance to the problem of modern vernacular song; when they come to deal with the mastering human passion, they desert the usual dreary romantic bleatings and venture to be healthily and heartily suggestive. This impulse, I think, should have further release. It plays so important a part in existing vernacular song among soldiers, students, and ordinary respectable citizens, that there can be no conceivable harm in letting it loose, within the bounds of natural harmlessness, on the popular air.