I'd Rather Be a Nigger Than a Poor White Man by Harry Earle (1894)

This song might be the most obscure piece of music you will EVER hear in your life. It was NEVER recorded and was lost for 132 years. Until Now. Please support my efforts in reviving these forgotten classics. Download sheet music/audio/video:

Provocative title aside, this is truly a remarkable find and one of the rarest songs you may ever hear in your life! It's certainly one of the most obscure songs I've discovered in my historical music preservation project. I could find almost NO biographical information about composer Harry Earle and it appears only 2 of his songs survive. You can download the original 1894 sheet music from the Levy Collection of Johns Hopkins University: The only other surviving score by Harry Earle I could find is "Dat Gal From Baltimore" from 1893, available here: From this source I found Earle wrote another song called "What Yer Gwine to Do in de Winter?" in 1895: It does appear 3 of Earle's songs were recorded by pianist Lee Spencer in the late 1890s, but none have been digitized and may be lost forever: In addition to this song I just recorded, it includes the "Winter" song as well as another called "It's Hard to Be a Nigger" which appears to have been published in 1891. The sheet music does not survive but the lyrics do: HOWEVER, there is ANOTHER song with the same title from 1883! It was written by J. Haygood Armstrong and the original score DOES survive: The lyrics in the chorus of both songs are similar enough that it's likely Earle repurposed the older song and added new lyrics. This practice was very common during the minstrel era. Using snippets of sheet music advertisements and newspaper clippings, I was able to track down a bit more info about Earle's life. He appears to have been a regular performer in several popular minstrel troupes, which was common for many musicians and performing artists of the time. In the sheet music for the 1882 song "Charley Don't You Do It" it lists another song for sale at the very end called "Baby and I" and describes it as being sung by Harry Earle of Haverly's Minstrels: Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels was a very popular minstrel troupe in the late 1800s, founded by J. P. Haverly: Although the minstrel tradition is generally considered "reprehensible" by mainstream academia today, this narrow view tends to overlook a lot of historical nuance. Dressing up like other cultures in a performance setting is a tradition that goes back thousands of years. When different cultures are exposed to each other, the idea of parodying the other in comedy and entertainment settings is a natural human reaction. While it's claimed today that this enhances "harmful" stereotypes, a counter argument can be made that it can also alleviate racial tensions via humor and fun. For example, here's a description of a common performance of Haverly's Minstrels in the 1880s: "In addition to size, the Mastodons' shows emphasized lavish scenery and extravagant expense. The program for an 1880 show addressed the audience: "The attention of the public is respectfully called to the magnificent scene representing a Turkish Barbaric Palace in Silver and Gold." The sketch began with minstrels portraying Turkish soldiers on a mountain. The scenery then changed to a royal palace, the scene of a dancing contest. For the finale, a number of unrelated scenes appeared, representing "Base-Ball", "The Dying Athlete", "The Strong Defending the Weak", and "United We Stand". The third act consisted of a circus burlesque, called "PEA-TEA-BAR-NONE'S KOLLOSAL CIRKUSS, MUSEUM, MENAGERIE AND KAYNE'S KICKADROME KAVALKADE". The segment featured acrobats, bareback riders, clowns, tightrope walkers, and minstrels in elephant costumes." Imagine seeing a performance like this in 1880s America, before movies even existed! It must have been an incredible spectacle and unforgettable experience. This was the environment in which Harry Earle must have forged his career. I found another clue about Earle's life in a Texas newspaper clipping from 1886: This describes Harry Earle performing with another minstrel troupe called McIntyre and Heath, and in this performance Earle sung a song called "Cricket on the Hearth." That's all I could find! In addition to the 2 songs he is credited with performing, it appears he published about 4 others, and only 2 survive, at least digitally, and this is one of them! IOW, I'm the first person to record any of his work in about 130 years! This guy is just about as obscure as they get, it's so cool to get a glimpse into the past like this. Also, the "Polly" in this song is referencing the illegal "numbers game" lottery popular in the late 1800s called the policy: It was essentially a Mafia racket, and it was very popular among poor Americans, black and white alike. The popular meme "4-11-44" as a "winning" number in the policy is a common trope of many songs from the era: As a final note, while this song has been discarded along with this entire era for being "racist" I think this does a great disservice to the preservation of history and the understanding of our past. Many of these words were NOT considered "offensive" slurs when this music was written. Although this song is very likely written by a white minstrel performer, the message isn't entirely "racist and evil" is it? Many of these old songs ultimately subvert expectations and are not as one-sided as they are portrayed today. For example, another song I revived called "Never Trust a Nigger With a Gun" is actually a pro-black and pro-2nd amendment anthem when you actually listen to the lyrics. These songs must be considered in the context of the time. Through humor certain tensions were eased and it allowed us to heal quicker during the tumultuous post-Civil War era. That's not to excuse the racial inequalities of the time, but by completely erasing our history we inevitably WILL repeat it. Thanks for listening and reading! I hope Harry Earle gets a kick out of the fact that he gets to be heard again after a century of silence! Much love, -Kylan

Outstanding!!! Bringing American History back one song at a time!

I've done over 80 in the last year!

The people were cooking in the 1800's 😭

Best one of these so far I think. Where do you find them?

They are sitting in various digital libraries online. There are hundreds of thousands of brilliant unrecorded songs like this. It's absolutely mental that I'm pretty much the only living musician actively learning and performing them. Honestly it's proof civilization is dying.

being a poor black is probably very easy. 50 IQ, drinking all day, sitting on a porch, and scratching your own ass.

Bro.... Again.... Thank you for another construction site banger. We will jam to this tomorow.

So sad one word in the lyrics triggers rejection. This beautiful song speaks of being content with your lot in life rather than punishing yourself for not keeping up with the Joneses. Seems most of these bangers are filled with such wisdom!

This one is way better:

Do you do corporate events?

Another banger! (Expected nothing less!) and that breakdown after each chorus is freaking awesome!

Given the state of hand-outs today and systemic protection, they're fail proof despite their nature.

I certainly would not.

🔥🔥🔥

It do be like that

Reminds me of early country too... I was trying to think of the song today. "I'd rather be a N***** than a poor white man" "I wish I had a nickel for every tear you shed last night"

Incredible

An absolute masterpiece

Damn it’s so catchy 👏🏻 👏🏻 🔥 🔥 well done

You're doing the Lord's work. Keep our musical heritage alive!

my and my friends' favorite coon song

I must disagree🤣

I start laughing before you even begin singing 🥳😂 I've said it before — children would love you 😘💕

Gotta say as a really REALLY poor White man, I'm glad I'm not a nick ghur

You have a way of peppering the final chorus of these songs with the most hilarious embellishments. Love this one 🤣

Another great performance! I like the diddy, too.

Well that does it. I got this sheet music and I had the chorus running thru my brain all morning torturing me.

You can see how it was popular in its day -- great tune, great fun!

"When the season rolls around" Love the melody in this part.

You have inspired me. I asked Grok to create a jewface yiddish type song. I never heard of jewface till I listened to your live concert

Where can I purchase this song? I need a new ringtone.

Maybe there is a reason it was never recorded and forgotten?

Yes, but it's not what you think. There are 100s of thousands of songs from this era that only exist in sheet music form. This was largely before the era of recorded music. Once that tech was introduced, they only recorded "new" songs. The vast majority of old songs are 100% PC.