Fiddling with the Wu Tang ice cream truck?

September 21, 2020

Well, kinda.

What RZA wrote is a tune to be used by ice cream trucks, as an antiracist alternative to "Turkey in the Straw."

You can read all about the fowl (sorry) minstrel history of "Turkey in the Straw" here and here. Just don't say I didn't warn you about triggering language.

Since "Turkey in the Straw" was a fiddle tune first (and still is), I figured it was only fair that we fiddle-tune-ify RZA's ice cream truck song as well.

Learn it, and let's play it together?

Here's what I played in the video:

Here's an approximate transcription of the original version:

Finally, I also want to point you toward the The Black Music History Library. I've found it to be an invaluable starting place for filling in the gaps in my education and knowledge of Black music history.

(In fact, that site was the entrance to the rabbit hole that led me to finding out about this RZA/Good Humor collaboration in the first place!)

I still have a lot of work to do in this area, particularly as it relates to bluegrass and old-time fiddle. Do you? How many Black fiddlers can you name? If you don't like the answer, there's no time like the present to start catching up....