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Tommy Jackson - Have You Heard of Ernie Washington?

from Round 28, Week 4 by Monday Morning 3AM Music Club

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about

Back in the mid 1900's in New York City, in order to play at music venues, musicians had to have a form of identification called a "cabaret card". Looking back on it now, it was a form of control and usually targeted the black population negatively. Police officers would arrest musicians and take away their cabaret card, making it illegal for them to play/work in the nightclubs and essentially taking away their ways of making a living. Jazz musician Thelonious Monk was targeted for revocation of his cabaret card numerous times. It got to the point where he came up with the idea to go under another name whenever this occurred. Ernie Washington was the pseudonym he used whenever his card had been revoked.

lyrics

It’d been a while since anyone saw Monk’s name on the bills
They’d took his cabaret card and barred against his will
Devised as a privilege and not a right He played music under a shadow
Cast by the threat of a cabaret card At the whims of the cops revoked

Arrested on 42nd street They drove him out of town
Said he couldn’t work But monk always found a way around
he said Ernie could make it So they put his name up on sign
Ernie show up and looked a lot like monk And even played all of monk’s lines

Have you heard of Ernie Washington No ones ever seen his face
When monk was down, ernies name showed up To take his place
Monks gone but ernies here So make sure to pay him in cash
Cuz Ernie Washington earns the Washington’s On the loneliest monks behalf

Arrested in 1948 Banned from playing clubs
They took his chances To earn a wage And what he had wasn’t enough
So he showed up and played anyway And said pleased to meet you Ernie is my name
Then he told his friends They can take my card But they can’t take away my soul

Have you heard of Ernie Washington No ones ever seen his face
When monk was down, ernies name showed up To take his place
Monks gone but ernies here So make sure to pay him in cash
Cuz Ernie Washington earns the Washington’s On the loneliest monks behalf

Targeted because of bizarreness And the color of his skin
He sweat it out in frisco and Paris aNd Berlin
He used his own name Everywhere Except in nyc
But when he came home he changed his name to Ernie

credits

from Round 28, Week 4, released July 27, 2020

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Monday Morning 3AM Music Club Winston Salem, North Carolina

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