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From the War on French to the War in France: World War II and Cultural Identity

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French Louisiana Music and Its Patrons

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Abstract

World War II transformed the music culture of French Louisiana by exposing Southwest Louisianans to a national pop and country music soundtrack that was, both on the home front and on military bases, the aural backdrop of a bombastic American nationalism. Country music, heralded by Nashville promoters as the language of patriotism, blared over radios on American military bases. Kate Smith proclaimed in the 1942 “My Great, Great Grandfather” that her Revolutionary War ancestor had migrated to the United States because “in America, a man is free,” and in “This is My Country,” Fred Waring asked “What difference if I hail from North or South/Or from the East or West?” The World War II years heightened Southwest Louisianans’ awareness of the outsider status of French Louisiana language, music, and heritage as they joined other Americans in rallying around symbols of national culture.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Morton Sosna, “Introduction” to Remaking Dixie, The Impact of World War II on the American South, ed. Neil R. McMillen (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997), xv.

  2. 2.

    Sosna in Remaking Dixie, ed. Neil McMillen, xvi.

  3. 3.

    Harvard Sitkoff, “African American Militancy in the World War II South,” in Remaking Dixie, ed. McMillen, 73.

  4. 4.

    Neil McMillen, “Fighting for What We Don’t Have: How Mississippi’s Black Veterans Remember World War II,” in Remaking Dixie, ed. McMillen, 94–95.

  5. 5.

    Cobb, “World War II” in Remaking Dixie, ed. McMillen, 5–6.

  6. 6.

    Sosna in Remaking Dixie, ed. Neil McMillen, xviii.

  7. 7.

    Michael L. Kurtz, “deLesseps S. Morrison: Political Reformer,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, 1 January 1976, Vol. 17 (1): 20.

  8. 8.

    J. Heppen and D. Mesyanzihnov, “Political Geography and Regionalism in Louisiana: The Impact of the French Influence in the post-World War II Era, Political Geography, 2003, Vol. 22(5): 521.

  9. 9.

    Kurtz, “deLesseps Morrison,” Louisiana History, 29.

  10. 10.

    Kurtz, “deLesseps Morrison,” Louisiana History, 36–37.

  11. 11.

    C.A. Mouisset, The Méridional (Abbeville) October 8, 1881.

  12. 12.

    Adapted from Cécyle Trépanier, “The Cajunization of French Louisiana: forging a regional identity,” The Geographical Journal, Vol. 157, No. 2. (July 1991): 161.

  13. 13.

    Times-Picayune, July 14, 1942.

  14. 14.

    Times-Picayune, May 19, 1942.

  15. 15.

    Times-Picayune, July 15, 1942.

  16. 16.

    Times-Picayune, June 21, 1940.

  17. 17.

    Times-Picayune, January 14, 1941.

  18. 18.

    Times-Picayune, April 2, 1941.

  19. 19.

    Times-Picayune, September 18, 1944.

  20. 20.

    Shane K. Bernard, The Cajuns, Americanization of a People (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003), 14.

  21. 21.

    Craig Havighurst, Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 118.

  22. 22.

    Havighurst, Air Castle, 199.

  23. 23.

    William H. Young and Nancy K. Young, Music of the World War II Era (Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing, 2007), 157.

  24. 24.

    Havighurst, Air Castle, 114.

  25. 25.

    Colin Escott, The Grand Ole Opry: The Making of an American Icon (New York: Center Street, 2006), 85.

  26. 26.

    Barry Jean Ancelet, Cajun and Creole Music Makers (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1999), 25.

  27. 27.

    Malcolm L. Comeaux, “The Cajun Accordion,” Louisiana Review 7 (1978): 117–128.

  28. 28.

    Barry Jean Ancelet, Cajun and Creole Music Makers (Jackson, University of Mississippi, 1999), 25.

  29. 29.

    Ronald Flynn, Edwin Davison, and Edward Chavez, The Golden Age of the Accordion (Schertz, Flynn Publications, 1984), xviii.

  30. 30.

    “A History of the Accordion in Americana Music,” Accordion Americana, https://accordionamericana.com/2017/09/01/a-history-of-the-accordion-in-americana-music/

  31. 31.

    Bernard, The Cajuns, 6–7.

  32. 32.

    Pat Mire, dir., “Mon Cher Camarade.” DVD. Pat Mire Films, 2008.

  33. 33.

    Pat Mire, “Mon Cher Camarade.”

  34. 34.

    Robin Meche Kube, “Cajun Soldiers During WWII: Reflections on Louisiana’s French Language and People,” Louisiana History, The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association,” Vol. 35, No. 3. (Summer 1994): 345–349.

  35. 35.

    Alan Lomax, dir., “American Patchwork: Cajun Country.” DVD. 2006.

  36. 36.

    Pat Mire, “Mon Cher Camarade.”

  37. 37.

    Michael Tisserand, The Kingdom of Zydeco (New York: Avon, 1998), 94.

  38. 38.

    Bernard, The Cajuns, 11.

  39. 39.

    Bernard, The Cajuns, 7.

  40. 40.

    Twelve-year military veteran Henry Murphy, quoted in Remaking Dixie, The Impact of World War II on the American South, ed. Neil R. McMillen (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1997), 101.

  41. 41.

    Donald Meckiffe and Matthew Murray, “Radio and the black soldier during World War II,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 15:4: 341–343.

  42. 42.

    Andy Bradley and Roger Wood, The House of Hits, The Story of Houston’s Gold Star/Sugarhill Recording Studios (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010), 12.

  43. 43.

    Robert Gordon, Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters (New York: Back Bay Books, 2002), 70.

  44. 44.

    Gareth Murphy, Cowboys and Indies, The Epic History of the Record Industry (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2014), 75.

  45. 45.

    Young, Music of the World War II Era, 90.

  46. 46.

    Bradley and Wood, The House of Hits, 17–18.

  47. 47.

    Bradley and Wood, House of Hits, 21.

  48. 48.

    Broven, South to Louisiana, 31.

  49. 49.

    Broven, South to Louisiana, 37–40.

  50. 50.

    R. Brasseaux, Cajun Breakdown, 141.

  51. 51.

    Chris Strachwitz, “Cajun Music on LP – A Survey,” The American Folk Music Occasional (New York: Oak Publications, 1970), 27.

  52. 52.

    Broven, South to Louisiana, 52.

  53. 53.

    Dewey Balfa, Interview with Barry Jean Ancelet in Basile, 1981, AN.193, Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

  54. 54.

    Francois, Yé Yaille, 169–170.

  55. 55.

    Savoy, Ann. Liner notes for “Iry Lejeune, The Definitive Collection,” Ace Records UK, CDCHD 428, 5.

  56. 56.

    Savoy, Cajun Music, 4.

  57. 57.

    Shirley Bergeron, “French Rocking Boogie,” Ace Records UK, CDCHD 353, 1993, compact disc, liner notes.

  58. 58.

    Bergeron, “French Rocking Boogie,” liner notes.

  59. 59.

    Revon Reed, liner notes, “Nathan Abshire, The Great Cajun Accordionist,” Ace Records UK, CDCHD 401, 1992, compact disc, liner notes by Revon Reed, 1973, 4.

  60. 60.

    Chris Strachwitz, “J’ai Été Au Bal, The Cajun and Zydeco Music of Louisiana,” Vol. 2, Arhoolie Records, CD 332, 1993, compact disc, 11.

  61. 61.

    R. Brasseaux, Cajun Breakdown, 170; 179–180.

  62. 62.

    Sexton, Rocky L. “Cajun Mardi Gras: Cultural Objectification and Symbolic Appropriation in a French Tradition,” Ethnology Vo. 38, No. 4 (Autumn, 1999): 300.

  63. 63.

    Broven, South to Louisiana, 30.

  64. 64.

    Bernard, The Cajuns, 37.

  65. 65.

    Savoy, Cajun Music, 330.

  66. 66.

    Nathan Abshire, “French Blues,” liner notes.

  67. 67.

    TVTV, “The Good Times Are Killing Me,” 1975, DVD.

  68. 68.

    Reed, Lâche pas, 76.

  69. 69.

    R. Brasseux, Cajun Breakdown, 179.

  70. 70.

    Francois, Yé Yaille, 445.

  71. 71.

    Ancelet, Cajun and Creole Music Makers, 103–105.

  72. 72.

    “Nathan Abshire, The Great Cajun Accordionist,” liner notes.

  73. 73.

    Francois, Yé Yaille, 474.

  74. 74.

    Joseph A. Conforti, Imagining New England, Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 310.

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  1. Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA, USA

    Patricia Peknik

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Peknik, P. (2019). From the War on French to the War in France: World War II and Cultural Identity. In: French Louisiana Music and Its Patrons. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97424-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97424-8_3

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