Loadstar 220/220.d81/t.foster three

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 2KB | 69 lines

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        F O S T E R  T H R E E

   Text and Music by Corky Cochran


    These next 10 songs include many
of Mr. Foster's finest -- such greats
as Old Kentucky Home, Jeanie With The
Light Brown Hair, plus the wonderful
Beautiful Dreamer.

    Mr. Foster made a good living from
his song writing, but never really was
paid for all of this work. In those
days it was common for people not to
pay performer's rights for any song
they used. So he never recieved the
money rightly due him. Also the
copyright laws of the time did not
protect an author from people
rearranging his music and using it for
their own gain.

    His earlier bookkeeping job did
help him as he kept his own account
books. In his lifetime he earned only
$15,091.08 for his royalties on his
work (a yearly earnings of $1,371 over
his 11 years of work) -- and almost
nothing in performance rights. His
heirs, wife Jane and daughter Marion,
earned another $4,199 in royalties,
making his total earnings for
copyrights of $19,290.

    In today's market his work would
be worth millions. And in his time he
should have earned tens of thousands
of dollars.

    At his death is 1864 at the age of
37 he had only 38 cents in his
pockets. As his brother Henry said of
his demise, "He had suffered from a
fever for days and was confined to
bed. As he got up to get the
chambermaid, he collapsed, falling
against a washbasin next to the bed.
It shattered and gouged his head; it
took 3 hours to get Stephen to the
nearest hospital where he died several
days later."

    One thing Mr. Foster should be
remembered for -- he changed the way
the mistrel songs were written. In
particular, he used the terms wife and
lady in his songs, terms that were not
used for black women in his time. So
as you play these song, remember that
he was a man who believed in all
people having equal value as humans,
with the same human emotions and
longings for family and home.

 CC