Best classic song about a Gypsy:

[asthmaticeog]

[LDS Jock]

1. Gypsies Tramps and Thieves

how could you forget Cher?

[Kikosexy2]

3. You...

read my mind!! The absolute cheesey but wonderful song that it is!

[fluffernutter]

2. what? no Gypsies Tramps and Thieves by Cher?

bahaha. just kidding :D

[NightTrain]

4. The Ink Spots, "The Gypsy." The Impressions, "Gypsy Woman."

[JVS]

5. Just pick a random Fritz Kreisler tune, or go with "dark eyes"

[Magrittes Pipe]

6. Van Morrison, "Caravan."

Idiot. :P

[Moloch]

7. I'm glad that it is still funny to make

caracatures of gypsies and applaud untalented musicians for it.

This is racism.

[Taxloss]

8. Thank you. I agree. n/t

[NightTrain]

11. Van Morrison is untalented?

Methinks the DUer doth protest too much.

[Taxloss]

12. Talent aside, this post is racist in concept

and is tending into racism in content.

But I'm not saying this is by design.

[NightTrain]

13. As Tom Lehrer said...

When correctly viewed,
everything is lewd.
I could tell you things about Peter Pan,
and the Wizard of Oz, THERE'S A DIRTY OLD MAN!

[Taxloss]

14. One of the big problems about discrimination against gypsies

is that a lot of people, through no fault of their own, don;t see it as a problem. Would you feel comfortable with a post that said "What's your favourite song about a Jew?"

And yes, I'm aware that's a hypothetical question ... :)

[Magrittes Pipe]

15. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

Of course.

[dolo amber]

17. Ummm..."Jesus Loves Me"...

:shrug:

ps- I'm Hungarian AND Jewish, so I get to be DOUBLY offended. :P

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taxloss]

25. What part of "Gypsies, tramps and thieves"

doesn't associate gypsies with tramps and thieves? What, you want people discussing the relative merits of the Horst Wessel song here?

[Guaranteed]

33. That's a song, not the post.

Just because a post mentions that song, it's racist?

And the word is most likely just defined as "freespirited wanderer," not any actual ethnicity.

[Beware the Beast Man]

37. SELF_DELETE

Tasteless, even for me. A joke, but tasteless :hi:

[asthmaticeog]

38. I didn't include that song in my poll.

Not one of the songs I did include is disparaging.

On edit: I just saw post 30.

[Taxloss]

42. I had no idea what your ethnicity was until you told me.

I was using Jews as a counter-example because they have experienced a similar diaspora and similar persecution and attempts at eradication.

What element of my argument was specious?

[yardwork]

49. It's a dumb song but in its defense it defends gypsies

and criticizes the hypocrites who visit gypsies while being biased against them. It was meant to be an enlightened song. I know, it doesn't succeed very well, but it was intended to be a sensitive song about the plight of the gypsies. I think.

I can't believe I'm defending it anyway.

[Guaranteed]

22. Where's the discrimination against gypsies in this post?

I mean, how are they "getting the shaft?"

[Taxloss]

31. Please see post #30. n/t

[NashVegas]

24. You're In Britain, Aren't You?

People in the US are generally unaware of the historic attitudes re: the racial aspects of Gypsies & pograms, etc. About the closest thing we have to them is Hell's Angels, and that's a stretch - not exactly a racial thing for one, and for another, they're thugs.

Surely you realize most, if not all, of the songs listed above are based on the idealized version of a voluntary social outcast - no matter how far from the truth of the life - that gets filtered to these shores. A little understanding, por favor.

[Guaranteed]

28. I think "gypsy" isn't used so much in the ethnic sense in our country-

it's used as a synonym of "nomad." It just means "free-spirited wanderer."

[NashVegas]

32. Exactly - It's Romanticized

Not to be confused with Romany.

When you consider the people singing those songs, themselves, have spent 1/4 or more of their lives on the road ...

[Taxloss]

34. The terms are used differently in the UK. Please see post #30.

[Taxloss]

30. Fair enough. I understand. You are right.

But I live in a country where massive institutional discrimination against gypsies is only just beginning to be rolled back, and where attitudes towards the nomadic populations are finally changing. It has taken so much work over so many years, and still they are the group most at risk of discrimination.

They are a genuine ethnicity and a genuine culture. It has taken so much work here to establish that ... I'm sorry I got so wound up.

[NashVegas]

40. Thanks for Understanding

I've never been to your side of the pond, but have encountered enough in pop culture from there to have an idea where you're coming from.

Even in British movies where the attitudes towards nomads is depicted, it still gets filtered. Think: Brad Pitt or Gabriel Bryne emerging from an RV camper. That's what we get to see.

[Moloch]

35. It's still racist...

I watched a British sitcom and at the end of it, it featured the cast preforming a song in Black-face. I was appalled. My friend who I was watching it said that in Britian, Blacks have not faced the history of discrimination that they have here in the states and it would not be viewed as racist there. Does that make black-face ok? Shall we bring back Al Jolson?

[Taxloss]

39. A separate set of racial and cultural sensibilities is involved.

This is the point.

[saltpoint]

51. In the music of this poll --

-- and in other tunes using similar references, the romantic energy involves a dionysian rebel thought by the observer as opposed to a racist caricatured picture of a gypsy.

That is, some of us rooted for the Cheyenne in the old westerns. And for the Apaches. And for the Sioux. The mustang and not the plowhorse.

I feel that these songs ask of listeners the possibility that the status quo is not for everybody, that there are other paths through the wilderness.

I also take a VERY strong lesson of Societal Safety vs. Adventurous Risk. In this view, the gypsy is the heralding angel of self-discovery.

[Moloch]

18. Yep.

Gypsies are ALL swindlers and fortune tellers, popular entertainment says so.. so it MUST be the case. Hell, the
word "Gyp" is about Gypsies, so it HAS TO describe what all of them do, right?

Did you know that Gypsies were one of the groups Hitler singled out to be exterminated in the holocaust? Yeah, just like the Jewish people. Except if someone were to make a crappy song about Jews, then it would be immediately condemned as racism. If someone writes a crappy song about Gypsies, it is praised on an internet BBS that is supposed to be for progressives.


:eyes:

[no name no slogan]

26. I believe the PC term is "Rom"

Which is the word in the 'original' gypsy language for "man". "Romani" is often used as the plural. Here's the best resource on all things Rom on the web.

[Magrittes Pipe]

29. "Rom" means "man?"

Gypsies are SEXIST! :o

[HEyHEY]

43. Ease up on them hammers

[ET Awful]

9. Love Potion No. 9 - The Searchers

I took my troubles down to Madame Rue
You know that gypsy with the gold capped tooth?
She's got a pad down on 34th and Vine
Sellin' little bottles of
Love potion number 9.

[reprehensor]

10. Sign of the Gypsy Queen - April Wine

[dolo amber]

16. Ummm....HELLO???

Crystal Waters - Gyspy Woman?? "La da di la di da" much, loser??? :eyes:

[no name no slogan]

19. "Gypsy Lady", Curtis Mayfield and "Djobi, Djoba" by the Gipsy Kings

Can't believe you have a thread about songs about Gypsies and don't mention the Gipsy Kings. Almost every one of their tunes is about a Gypsy!

[St. Jarvitude]

21. J. Strauß II: Der Zigeunerbaron (nt)

[greendog]

23. Spanish Harlem Incident ... Bob Dylan

Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem
Cannot hold you to its heat.
Your temperature's too hot for taming,
Your flaming feet burn up the street.
I am homeless, come and take me
Into reach of your rattling drums.
Let me know, babe, about my fortune
Down along my restless palms.

Gypsy gal, you got me swallowed.
I have fallen far beneath
Your pearly eyes, so fast an' slashing,
An' your flashing diamond teeth.
The night is pitch black, come an' make my
Pale face fit into place, ah, please!
Let me know, babe, I got to know, babe,
If it's you my lifelines trace.

I been wond'rin' all about me
Ever since I seen you there.
On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I'm riding,
I know I'm 'round you but I don't know where.
You have slayed me, you have made me,
I got to laugh halfways off my heels.
I got to know, babe, will I be touching you
So I can tell if I'm really real.

[NashVegas]

27. "Gypsy Davey" - Cordelia's Dad

..

[terrya]

36. "Everything's Coming Up Roses"

Well, it's about Gypsy Rose Lee...

Ok, I won't post in any more of your polls. :-)

T

[Cheswick2.0]

41. Stride La Vampa

it is an aria sung by a Gypsy woman who is describing watching her mother burned at the stake on orders of the evil Count di Luna.

She then later sings about it again in another aria...only this time she sings about throwing the counts child into the fire as revenge only to realize as the child burns that it is her own child that she has burned alive.

Naturally she goes crazy and comes to believe that the counts child is her own and she raises him.
The story continues in that mode.... it's Opera after all.

Verdi rocks

[saltpoint]

44. Gordon Lightfoot's "The Gypsy" rules.

"Step inside my tent," said she,
"I'd like to read your palm.
Leave your dollar in the jar;
This won't take very long.
Close your eyes, relax your mind
Leave the circus noise behind;
I'll tell you if you should quit now
Or if you should go on..."

Then I said, "Now what do you see?"
She said "Diddlee dum, diddlee dee."
"Where will I go and what will I be?"
She said "Diddlee dum, diddlee dee."

(Gordon Lightfoot, "The Gypsy")

[saltpoint]

45. Hello, asthmaticeog.

Sometimes I skip over the song polls, but other nights, I just jump in.

The theme of yours was enchanting to me and is one of the best I've seen on DU.

It was almost shell-shocked to see Gordon Lightfoot's tune "The Gypsy" in your poll. Seems like it was a mid-to-late 60s recording on United Artist records?

Next time you are in my neighborhood, I'm buying you the coldest damn beer in the world.

Great post. Thank you for the lift.

[asthmaticeog]

47. Hello, Old Crusoe.

I'm glad SOMEONE got a lift out of this unintentional trainwreck of a thread! It was getting pretty hairy for awhile, thanks for helping to bring it back around to the music. The Lightfoot album was "Back Here on Earth," from 1968.

FWIW, I myself voted for the Van Morrison tune.

:hi:

[saltpoint]

50. Yes -- that's it -- BACK HERE ON EARTH.

Thanks for the info.

And again, I really appreciate the poll here and with thanks to you, have dug into the archives and extracted "The Gypsy" -- which I have on a 90-minute TDK tape -- and am listening with great pleasure.

Good wishes to you.

[beanball]

46. Gypsy

"Golden Earrings"

[Tikki]

48. "Gypsy Love"...Silver Apples 1968

n/t

[Deja Q]

52. None of them?

Fleetwood Mac comes to mind, but I don't like their business practices.