| One of the most respected popular song writers of the period was Paul Dresser, brother of Theodore Dreiser. An innocent sentimentalist, Dresser personally felt all the thoughts he put into his songs. One example is the song widely considered to be the best that Dresser ever wrote: On the Banks of the Wabash, now the Indiana state song. Leading musicologist Sigmund Spaeth once said that the simple first measures of the chorus were worth more than all the rest of his songs put together. | Every now and then a song comes along with a nonsense chorus that appeals to the public. The 1890s had its own candidate with Ta-Ra-Ra- Boom-De-Ay. This title originated in a well-known recreation place in St. Louis run by a notorious woman named Babe Connors, who had a host of attractive black girls in her entourage. The girls are credited with initiating “Ta-Ra-Ra- Boom-De-Ay,” and it was supposedly stolen by an advance man of a road company who added it to his show, which expired quickly. However, it was picked up by a popular comedienne named Lottie Collins who introduced it in London. With a few high kicks sandwiched between the demure verses, the song turned into a smashing success both abroad and back in America.
| Before the Civil War the United States had recognized bimetallism, but in the 1870s Congress passed a measure abolishing the coinage of silver. Soon this affected not only the silver miners but many farmers as well. William Jennings Bryan, during his Nebraska Congressional campaign then, exclaimed at a meeting, “The people of Nebraska are for free silver and I am for free silver. I will look up the arguments later.” In 1896 he was nominated for president on a platform that urged a return to bimetallism and the free coinage of silver at a ratio of sixteen to one. His opponent, William McKinley, urged the retention of the gold standard. Many campaign songs were composed by both sides, and even after Bryan lost, supporters began encouraging a second Bryan nomination in the next election with songs such as Free Silver and Bryan in 1900. |
