Honky tonk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A honky tonk is a type of bar with musical entertainment common in the Southwestern and Southern United States, also called honkatonks, honkey-tonks, tonks or tunks. The term has also been attached to various styles of 20th-century American music. As of 2006, honky tonk seems to be the most recognized and mainstream subgenre of country music.
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[edit] Derivation
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that the origin of the word honky tonk is unknown. However, the earliest source explaining the derivation of the term (spelled honkatonk) was an article published by the New York Sun in 1900 and widely reprinted in other newspapers[1]. It states uncategorically that the term came from the sound of geese which led an unsuspecting group of cowboys to the flock instead of to the variety show they expected. Also, the OED states that the first use in print was in 1894[2] in the Daily Ardmorite (Oklahoma) newspaper where it was honk-a-tonk. However, honkatonk has been cited from at least 1892 in the Galveston Daily News (Texas)[3] where it referred to an adult establishment in Ft. Worth.
Other sources speculate that the "tonk" portion of the name may well have come from a brand name of piano. One American manufacturer of large upright pianos was the firm of William Tonk & Bros. (established 1889[4]), which made a piano with the decal "Ernest A. Tonk". These upright grand pianos were made in Chicago and New York and were called Tonk pianos. Some found their way to Tin Pan Alley and may have given rise to the expression of "honky tonk bars". It is unlikely, however, that a Tin Pan Alley piano manufactured in 1889 would influence the vocabulary in either Texas or Oklahoma Territory by 1892 or 1894.
There are no reliable sources stating that "Tonks" were originally specifically African American institutions; similar establishments that catered to Whites acquired the name Honky Tonk, from the slang honky, referring to a white person. Although there may be multiple examples of oral history and writings by African Americans born in the 19th century referring to African American establishments as "honkey tonks" or "honk-a-tonks", none were written contemporary to the events.
[edit] Honky tonks
[edit] Origins of the honky tonk establishment
Although the derivation of the term is unknown, honky tonk originally referred to bawdy variety shows in the West (Oklahoma and Indian Territories and Texas) and to the theaters housing them. In fact, the earliest mention of them in print refers to them as variety theaters[5] and describe the entertainment as variety shows[6]. The theaters often had an attached gambling house and always a bar. For an additional charge, the patrons (always men) could obtain a private box where the female performers, while not on stage, would visit them for private entertainment.
In recollections long after the frontiers closed, writers such as Wyatt Earp and E.C. Abbott referred often to honky tonks in the cowtowns of Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, etc. of the 1870s and 80s[7]. Their recollections contain lurid accounts of the women and violence accompanying the shows. However, in contemporary accounts these were nearly always called hurdy gurdy shows, although they mention the associated prostitution, lawlessness, and violence.
As late as 1913, Col. Edwin Emerson, a former Rough Rider commander, hosted a honky-tonk party in New York ("COL. EMERSON'S NOVEL PARTY; Rough Rider Veteran Gives 'Old Forty-niners’ Honky-Tonk Fandango'." New York Times, New York, N.Y., February 23, 1913. pg. C7). The Rough Riders were recruited from the ranches of Texas and New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Indian Territories, so the term was still in popular use during the Spanish American War.
[edit] Bars
The distinction between honky tonks, saloons, and dancehalls was often blurred, especially in cowtowns, mining districts, military forts, and oilfields of the West. Eventually, as variety theaters and dancehalls disappeared, honky tonk became associated mainly with lower class bars catering to men. Synonymous with beer joint and like terms, honky tonks usually serve beer or hard liquor and may or may not have a bandstand and dance floor. Many furnish only a juke box. In the Southeastern US, honky tonk gradually replaced the term juke joint for bars primarily oriented toward blues and jazz. As Western swing slowly became accepted in Nashville, Southeastern bars playing Western swing and Western swing influenced country music, were also called honky tonks.
[edit] Other information
Honky tonks were rough establishments, mostly in the Deep South and Southwest, that served alcoholic beverages to working class clientele. Honky tonks sometimes also offered dancing to piano players or small bands, and sometimes were also centers of prostitution. In some rougher tonks the prostitutes and their customers would have sex standing up clothed on the dance floor while the music played. Honky tonk bars were also prone to bar brawls due to the nature of most of its customers who were usually bikers and truckers passing by. Such establishments flourished in less reputable neighborhoods, often outside of the law. As Chris Smith and Charles McCarron noted in their 1916 hit song "Down in Honky Tonk Town", "It's underneath the ground, where all the fun is found."
[edit] Honky tonk music
The first genre of music to be commonly known as honky tonk music was a style of piano playing related to ragtime, but emphasizing rhythm more than melody or harmony, since the style evolved in response to an environment where the pianos were often poorly cared for, tending to be out of tune and having some nonfunctioning keys. (Hence an out-of-tune upright piano is sometimes called a honky-tonk piano, e.g. in the General MIDI set of standard electronic music sounds.)
Such honky tonk music was an important influence on the formation of the boogie woogie piano style, as indicated by Jelly Roll Morton's 1938 record "Honky Tonk Music" (recalling the music of his youth, see quotation below), and Meade "Lux" Lewis's big hit "Honky Tonk Train Blues" which Lewis recorded many times from 1927 into the 1950s and was covered by many other musicians from the 1930s on, including Oscar Peterson and Keith Emerson.
The 12-bar blues instrumental "Honky Tonk" by the Bill Doggett Combo with a sinuous saxophone line and driving, slow beat, was an early rock and roll hit. New Orleans native Antoine "Fats" Domino was another legendary honky tonk piano man, whose "Blueberry Hill" and "Walkin' to New Orleans" became hits on the popular music charts.
In the last third of the 20th century the term Honky Tonk started to sometimes be used to refer to what had previously been known as Hillbilly music. More recently it has come to refer primarily to the primary sound in country music, which developed among rural populations relocated to urban environments in the southern US in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Originally, it featured the guitar, fiddle, string bass and steel guitar (an importation from Hawaiian folk music). The vocals were originally rough and nasal, like Hank Williams, but later developed a clear and sharp sound with singers like George Jones. Lyrics tended to focus on rural life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness and alcoholism.
During World War II, honky tonk country was popularized by Ernest Tubb. In the 1950s, though, honky tonk entered its golden age with the massive popularity of Hank Locklin, Lefty Frizzell, George Jones and Hank Williams. In the mid to late 1950s, rockabilly, which melded honky tonk country to rock and roll, and the slick country music of the Nashville sound ended honky tonk's initial period of dominance.
In the 1970s, outlaw country music was the most popular genre, and its brand of rough honky tonk gradually influenced the rock-influenced alternative country in the 1990s. During the 1980s, a revival of slicker honky tonk took over the charts. Beginning with Dwight Yoakam and George Strait in the middle of the decade, a more pop-oriented version of honky tonk became massively popular. It crossed over into the mainstream in the early 1990s with singers like Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Clint Black. Later in the 90s, the sound of honky tonk became even farther removed from its rough roots with the mainstream success of slickly produced female singers like Shania Twain and Faith Hill.
[edit] Endnotes
- ^ Reno Evening Gazette (Nevada), 3 February 1900, pg. 2, col. 5. "Every child of the range can tell what honkatonk means and where it came from. Away, away back in the very early days, so the story goes, a party of cow punchers rode out from camp at sundown in search of recreation after a day of toil. They headed for a place of amusement, but lost the trail. From far out in the distance there finally came to their ears a 'honk-a-tonk-a-tonk-a-tonk-a,' which they mistook for the bass viol. They turned toward the sound, to find alas! a dock [sic] of wild geese. So honkatonk was named—N. Y. Sun".
- ^ The Daily Ardmorite (Oklahoma), February 26, 1894, pg. 2, col. 1. (Oklahoma Historical Society, Microfilm #110). "The honk-a-tonk last night was well attended by ball heads, bachelors and leading citizens. Most of them are inclined to kick themselves this morning for being sold."
- ^ Galveston Daily News (Texas), July 26, 1892, pg. 6. " "FORT WORTH, Tex. (...) A youth named Goodman, who arrived here from Wilbarger county this evening, entered Andrews’ honkatonk on Fifteenth street and was ordered out on account of his age." (Honky Tonk (not from Tonk pianos), retrieved July 9, 2006)
- ^ Pierce, Pierce Piano Atlas.
- ^ The Daily Oklahoman, Sunday, September 5, 1915, pg. 1., col. 1. "There is scarcely an old-time gambler in the United States who does not remember the Reeves gambling house and 'honkytonk' in Guthrie. ...a stage and rows of curtained boxes, was built as an addition for the purposes of a free-and-easy varity show."
- ^ Reno Evening Gazette (Nevada), 3 February 1900, pg. 2, col. 5. "The programme is made up largely of specialties. Whatever the feeling of a long-suffering public, the honkatonk vocalists never will permit “Sweet Rosie O’Grady” and “Just One Girl” to perish from the earth, and coon songs are sung as May Irwin never did and never will sing them. Always at least one drama is presented, the entire company, vocalists, dancers and all, participating. Among the most popular plays are “The Dalton Boys” and “Mildred, the She-Devil of the Plains,” for the old traditions still are respected to a certain extent, though the participation of the audience is no longer solicited."
- ^ Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas, pg. 832. "I went to Dodge City, the honkatonk town, cleaned up an bought a suit of clothes, and left for San Antonio, reaching home July 1, 1885."
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- American Dialect Society. Honkatonk (1900, from wild geese?). American Dialect Society, December 27, 2005. (Retrieved July 16, 2006.)
- Hunter, J. Marvin (editor). Trail Drivers of Texas: Interesting Sketches of Early Cowboys. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993 (Reprint of 1925 edition). ISBN 0-292-73076-4
- Pierce, Bob; Larry Ashley. Pierce Piano Atlas. Pierce Piano Atlas; 10th edition (June 1996). ISBN 0-911138-02-1
[edit] Additional reading
- Abbott, E.C. We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8061-1366-9
- Boyd, Jean Ann. Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. ISBN 0-292-70860-2
- Dary, David. Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries. University Press Of Kansas, 1989 (reprint edition). ISBN 0-7006-0390-5
- Kienzle, Rich. Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-94102-4
- Lake, Stuart. Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. Pocket, 1994 (reprint edition). ISBN 0-671-88537-5
- Shay, Anthony. Boys Night Out in Leadville. (Retrieved July 16, 2006.)
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