Let Me Be Your Lemon Coon by Thomas S. Allen (1907) 🍋

Download audio/video/sheet music (with clean version):

Let Me Be Your Lemon Moon by Thomas S. Allen (clean) 🍋

Thomas S. Allen was an American vaudeville composer in the Tin Pan Alley era. He is most remembered for the classic folk song Low Bridge (or Erie Canal), sung by artists like Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. He also wrote comic novelties and coon songs.

Coon songs used to be one of the most popular music styles. While race was a common theme, it was rarely meant to be "offensive" even by today's standards. A common slang term in these songs is "yaller" for a light-skinned black person (yaller/lemon coon).

The instrumental section was arranged in 1908 by R.E. Hildreth. Its form is a "Schottische", a polka-related country dance that may have originated from Bohemia and which was popular in the Victorian era. Ragtime was strongly influenced by the Schottische.

Wow, have never heard this one, not even OF it. A veritable find. Dig your digging, thank you! P.S. This subdued singing style becomes you and the song very well.

I have discovered *hundreds* (close to a thousand) of songs like this that have NEVER been recorded before or even discussed online. They only exist in obscure digital collections of various universities, libraries and governments. Hard to describe how special this is!

That title! Oh, my! Sitting under a spreading oak on spacious land wooing a nice young lady in song. Foundring, if you don't qualify as a professor of this musical and cultural history, no one does. No one. Not a one. You are utterly special and unique.

I'm going to intersperse the comical with the beautiful. Many of these songs are absolutely a riot, but others are crafted with such delicate care, it's hard to describe. This one in particular is one of the most finely crafted melodies I've ever heard, and there's more to come!