Coon, Coon, Coon
{{Short description|1900 song}}
File:Coon Coon Coon sheet music cover 1901.jpg in blackface inset]]
"Coon, Coon, Coon" is a "coon song" from 1900. The words were written by Gene Jefferson and the music by Leo Friedman. The lyrics are about an African American concerned with his appearance including his skin color and hair type while not being accepted by a woman. He makes efforts to acquire Caucasian characteristics but fails and is called out. Songsheet cover for the music include caricatured African American faces and a photograph of minstrel performers of the song inset.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xViTBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Coon%21+Coon%21+Coon%21%22&pg=PT59|title=Skin Acts: Race, Psychoanalysis, and the Black Male Performer|first=Michelle Ann|last=Stephens|date=August 24, 2014|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=9780822376651|via=Google Books}}
The song was performed by Lew Dockstader. Arthur Collins and Joe Natus recorded a rendition of the song on Edison Records in 1901.{{Cite web|url=https://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/lib/ark:/48907/f3f76b9p|title=Coon, coon, coon - Alexandria Digital Research Library | Alexandria Digital Research Library|website=www.alexandria.ucsb.edu}} The University of California Santa Barbara has a brown wax phonograph cylinder recording of the song.{{Cite web|url=http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder5217|title=Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project|first=Santa Barbara Library Department of Special Collections|last=University of California|date=November 16, 2005|website=cylinders.library.ucsb.edu}} A version of the songsheet has a photograph of Irving Jones inset.{{Cite journal|url=https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_b/14|title=Coon Coon Coon / music by Leo. Friedman; words by Gene Jefferson|date=January 1, 1900|journal=Sheet Music, 1900-1909 |last1=Friedman |first1=Leo |last2=Jefferson |first2=Gene }} In 1902, "Coon! Coon! Coon!" was published in the Song-book of the Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania, A. Groux, printer.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LMYVAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Coon%21+Coon%21+Coon%21%22&pg=PA16|title=Song-book of the Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania|date=February 22, 1902|publisher=A. Groux, printer|via=Google Books}}
File:"Coon. Coon. Coon" LCCN2015650722.jpg
The Library of Congress has a photograph of two Caucasian children pointing at an African American described as illustrating a line from the song.{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2015650722/|title="Coon. Coon. Coon"|website=Library of Congress}}
A version of the song was recorded in the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection.{{Cite web|url=https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/145/160|title=145.160 - Coon, Coon, Coon. The Most Successful Song Hit of 1901. | Levy Music Collection|website=levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu}}
File:1900s SM Coon Coon Coon.jpg inset.]]
Coon songs such as this one ridicule African Americans.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=diQEAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Coon%21+Coon%21+Coon%21%22&pg=PA103|title=The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow|first=Richard|last=Wormser|date=February 5, 2003|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780312313241|via=Google Books}} The derisive term coon, a shortened form of raccoon alluding to cunning, was used to refer to Native Americans, Whigs, and "sly rustic" types before being used to describe African Americans.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaDHBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Coon%21+Coon%21+Coon%21%22&pg=PT277|title=The Vulgar Tongue: Green's History of Slang|first=Jonathon|last=Green|date=September 3, 2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-939816-4|via=Google Books}}
Gid Tanner and Fate Norris recorded the song in 1928 as did Will Gilmer and R.O. Mosley. The Taylor Trio recorded it in 1930.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSvHK-Co9ssC&dq=%22Coon%21+Coon%21+Coon%21%22&pg=PA1033|title=Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942|first1=Tony|last1=Russell|first2=Bob|last2=Pinson|date=October 7, 2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-988154-3|via=Google Books}}
In 1945, William Howland Kenney gave a partial defense of Arthur Collins singing the lyrics of the song and described it as bathetic.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lw4ABwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Coon%21+Coon%21+Coon%21%22&pg=PT56|title=Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945|first=William Howland|last=Kenney|date=July 8, 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-988014-0|via=Google Books}}
Charles Kenyon incorporated a Caucasian woman struggling to perform the song in
the 1929 movie Show Boat.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fC-fA4wLHeAC&dq=%22Coon%21+Coon%21+Coon%21%22&pg=PT197|title=Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical|first=Todd|last=Decker|date=October 5, 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-996813-8|via=Google Books}}