====== That Da-Da Strain ====== Lyrics credited to Mamie Medina and music credited to Edgar Dowell. ====== Dadaism: An Anti-Art Movement ====== [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada|Dadaism]] refers to an anti-art movement that was created out of bitterness toward the events of World War I, which ended in 1918. The movement protested the logic and reason associated with modern warfare by promoting art that went against [[https://thedali.org/dali-library-guide-1/dada-2/|social norms]] and purposefully shocked or confused its audience. It is said that the movement was founded by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ball|Hugo Ball]], who met with other artists at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland, who were seeking refuge from the war. While there is not a clear consensus on how the term "Dada" or "Dadaism" was coined, the given name supports the promotion of absurdity in the movement, as "Dada" could be considered a nonsense word. The lyrics for "That Da-Da Strain" are dated back to the 1920s, which would have been around the ending to the first World War. The phrase "Da-Da" is repeated frequently throughout the lyrics, seemingly relating to rhythm. In connection to Dadaism, the phrase does not seem to have a clear meaning, adding an element of ambiguity into the lyrics. ====== Form: External & Internal Rhyme ====== __"That Da-Da Strain" includes both external and internal rhymes that are most evident in the first stanza__: Have you heard it, have you heard it, That Da-Da **Strain**? It will **shake you**, it will **make you** Really go **insane**. Everybody's full of **pep**, Makes you watch your **every step**. Every **prancer**, every **dancer**, Starts to lay 'em down . . . (547) The rhythm in the form of the lyrics adds to the content, which is focusing on a song that makes everyone around want to start dancing: "Everybody when they hear it/ Starts to buzzing 'round" (548). The structure of these lyrics, including external and internal rhymes, creates an energetic mood that is strengthened by the repetition used in later stanzas: "Because this feeling/ Sets your brain a-reeling,/ Just like you're falling . . ." (548). ====== Composers and Performers ====== {{:omnipoetics:that-da-da-strain_-_poster.jpg?200 |frontispiece of sheet music from "That Da-Da Strain"; accessed from “A GOOD OLD GOOD ONE”: JON-ERIK KELLSO, ALBANIE FALLETTA, EVAN ARNTZEN, JEN HODGE (Cafe Bohemia, January 9, 2020)}} Little can be found on Medina and Dowell other than their names appearing on the music sheets. Famous performances of this song include artists such as Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band, Eva Taylor, and Mamie Smith, who bears a similar name to the Mamie Medina. In //SAF//, Rothenberg situates the year the song emerged as a historical marker for Medina as a composer. {{ :omnipoetics:screen-shot-2021-06-14-at-1.51.14-pm.webp?275|Maggie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds from https://afamwilsonnc.com/2021/06/14/mamie-smith-and-her-jazz-hounds-one-day-only/}}Chronologically, it appears the first recorded performance was done by Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds. Mamie Smith (1891-1946) was an American vaudeville and jazz singer. Around the time "That Da-Da Strain" was written, Smith had just entered the blues scene as the first African-American singer to record a blues song. While "That Da-Da Strain" doesn't appear alongside her popular discography, she nonetheless appears to be the first vocalist to perform the song over audio. {{:omnipoetics:6668766_1028779561.jpg?185 |Eva Taylor; source from Travalanche website}}Shortly after Smith (a mere 4 or 5 months), another recording appears by Eva Taylor (1895-1977). The recording appears under Taylor's birthname, Irene Joy Gibbons. Taylor was a prominent American blues singer and stage actress. She started her career in vaudeville performances and other stage performances before she married Clarence Williams, a pianist and publisher, where the two worked together to produce recordings. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, they created a lasting legacy of recordings/performances with other famous blues musicians such as Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Sippie Wallace and Bessie Smith. Taylor produced her first recording in 1922, the same year she recorded a version of "That Da-Da Strain." {{ :omnipoetics:muggsy_spanier_nick_s_new_york_1946-.jpg?250|Muggsy Spanier sourced from Wikipedia}}The final set of performers strongly associated with this song is Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band. Born Francis Joseph Spanier (1901-1967), Spanier was a jazz cornetist known famously for pioneering the "Chicago style" in jazz and swing. At the age of thirteen, Spanier began learning the cornet and by 1921 was performing with other prominent jazz musicians. During the 1920s, Spanier adopted the stage-name "Muggsy" after John "Muggsy" McGraw, the manager of the New York Giants. Sometime in the 1930s, Spanier formed an eight-man group called Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band. They later became known as The Great Sixteen which influenced the Dixieland Revival. Band members included George Brunies (trombone and vocals), Rod Cless (clarinet), George Zack/Joe Bushkin (piano), Ray McKinstry/Nick Ciazza/Bernie Billings (tenory sax), and Bob Casey (bass). While dates vary, Muggsy and His Ragtime Band most likely recorded their version of this song between 1940-44. This version also appears as entirely instrumental. It should be noted that "That Da-Da Strain" does not appear as a well-known track by any of these artists. ====== Rothenberg's (possible) Response Poem ====== Rothenberg wrote his own poem with this same title (minus the hyphen), which has a copyright of 1986. [[https://poets.org/poem/dada-strain | You can read it here.]] \\ [[https://www.ndbooks.com/book/that-dada-strain/ | Here are some of his descriptions of his volume of the same name]] and there is an uncited statement on his wikipedia biography that claims //"During this time and beyond it, he also engaged in a number of collaborations with musicians – Charlie Morrow, Bertram Turetzky, Pauline Oliveros, and George E. Lewis, among others – and took part, sometimes performing, in theatricalizations of his poetry: Poland/1931 for The Living Theater and That Dada Strain for Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Germany and the Center for Theater Science & Research in San Diego and New York. His New Selected Poems 1970-1985, covering the period since Poems for the Game of Silence, appeared in 1986,"// but I couldn't find a better reference to it, so we should be careful of accepting this information without further investigation. ====== Catalogue of Recordings ====== [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eNUIROM6VI|Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds]] \\ [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5rOyHLpVcU|Eva Taylor]] \\ [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkwdfNvFpLQ|Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band]] ====== References ====== “Dada.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada. “Hugo Ball.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ball. Onkel Greifenklau. “That Da Da Strain (Ethel Waters).” YouTube, 12 May 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wImYwcTFME. Piller, Ira. “Dadaism.” Salvador Dalí Museum, https://thedali.org/dali-library-guide-1/dada-2/.