“This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage”
—Toby Keith, Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue
R.I.P. Toby Keith. Happy Fourth of July week Swappers.
What would our Fourth of July parties be without music?! They’d still be awesome, but the tunes add a little something, don’t they? They’re like the seasoning on that burger you’re grilling. Or that lime in your Topo Chico. Music takes it to another level!!!
If you need a good Fourth of July playlist, Adam and Kody have been working on one that goes back at least five years. Not every song is about America, but every song is “Merican.”
We promised some sporadic content throughout the summer. Well, here it is. A world-renowned history professor is here to take you on a little history lesson about Led Zeppelin and the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927. It showcases the importance of music in our country’s history and we hope it inspires you to season your Fourth of July with some American tunes.
Bonus Track: Led Zeppelin and the Great Mississippi Flood by Thomas S. Kidd
Looking back on my music-listening youth, I am struck by how incurious I was about the meaning of lyrics, even from some of my favorite songs. I was reminded of this recently as I have been working on a second edition of my American History textbook (B&H Academic). One of the joys of writing a history textbook is that you can tailor it according to your interests, so my textbook probably has more content on popular music than other such books.
In the new edition I wanted to add a short section on the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, but I initially had no idea how many blues and country songs were inspired by that flood. One such song was “When the Levee Breaks,” the best-known version of which appeared on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album. How many times have I listened to that song – certainly hundreds – without even wondering what levee the song meant? Or what river?
The Great Mississippi Flood was one of the most cataclysmic American disasters of the twentieth century. Flooding was a perennial issue along the Mississippi, and in the late 1800s and early 1900s a system of levees was constructed to contain floodwater. But these proved disastrously inadequate during the heavy rains of 1927, when almost 150 of the levees broke and flooded some 26,000 square miles along the lower Mississippi River. Hundreds of people died, and many more lost their homes. Cotton plantation owners faced the prospect of losing much of their labor force, and resorted to coercion and extortion to keep black workers from leaving the region.
However, the Mississippi flood accelerated black and poor white out-migration from the Mississippi Delta, as hundreds of thousands of sharecroppers left with the hope of finding better jobs in Chicago, Detroit, and other northern cities. The flood was so scarring to the region’s residents that it inspired comment by most prominent black writers of the period, including W.E.B. Du Bois, and provided the setting in several William Faulkner stories about Mississippi. The flood theme also inspired dozens of country and blues songs. These included “Blind Lemon” Jefferson’s “Rising High Water Blues,” and “When the Levee Breaks,” originally recorded by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe in 1929.
Led Zeppelin was influenced by American blues music, among other genres. They reworked “When the Levee Breaks” on their untitled fourth album in 1971. “Led Zeppelin IV” went on to sell tens of millions of copies, one of the best-selling albums in rock music history. Album tracks like “Stairway to Heaven” and “Black Dog” are better known today, but “When the Levee Breaks” is a gem and maybe the band’s most historically evocative song.
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Thomas S. Kidd is a history professor who teaches courses on colonial America, the American Revolution, and American religious history. He has authored numerous books and has written for publications like the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Kidd also loves good music! His first concert was Van Halen in 1986 and his favorite artist to listen to while writing is Charlie Parker.
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Let us know what you’re listening to this week. We’ll see if there are any songs to add to Adam’s USA! USA! USA! playlist.
Happy Fourth of July!
-TheMusicSwap