Word: guitar
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Mocking Bird in which credit for writing the song, Listen to the Mocking Bird, is given to the late Septimus Winner. The review does go on to state that "Sep" got the idea for his most famous song from "Whistling Dick," a Negro beggar who used to strum his guitar and whistle like a bird...
This statement about "Whistling Dick" (Richard Milburn) is very much less than adequate. Milburn was a barber who worked in his father's shop on Lombard Street in Philadelphia. He was a guitar player and a marvelous whistler, and it was he who originated the melody and at least the title of Listen to the Mocking Bird. Winner only set down the melody and arranged it after it had been played and whistled and sung over to him by Milburn. Winner may have furnished most or all of the words as published, but the life of the song springs...
...abolish slavery, passenger railroads were about to be realized when Septimus Winner was born in Philadelphia in 1827. Joseph Winner, his father, made violins and Septimus studied music almost from the cradle. "Sep" got out of the Philadelphia High School at 20, began to give lessons on the banjo, guitar and violin, and married a watchman's daughter named Hannah Guyer. He played at balls and parades, was a member of the Philadelphia Brass Band. Hit by the hard times, he wrote in his diary: "Delightful out of funds, came to the conclusion to go to the poorhouse . . . didn...
...idea for his most famous song from "Whistling Dick," a Negro beggar who used to strum his guitar and whistle like a bird. But shortly after it was published in 1855 Winner sold his copyright on Listen to the Mocking Bird for $5. Lee & Walker, the purchasers, made a fortune. The song sold over 20,000,000 copies, was a favorite of Edward VII as a boy. Lincoln said: "It is as sincere and sweet as the laughter of a little girl at play." Many an ante-bellum baby was named after Hally, the fictitious girl over whom the song...
...Society's first reissue, out this week, is Three Blind Mice played by the Chicago Loopers, a disc full of the sad harmonics and eccentric lyrical twists characteristic of the great Chicago-style. Such masters as Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer (saxophone), Carl Kress (guitar), and Don Murray (clarinet) formed the band. On the two sides of the record, the masters take turns showing what they can do with variations on the common mouse theme...