“I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead” (PDF) from the Rebirth Brass Band album, Feel Like Funkin’ It Up

New Orleans songwriter and entertainer Sam Theard originally wrote and recorded “You Rascal You” in 1929, sung from the perspective of a vengeful husband offering the pet name to his partner’s lover: “I’ll be glad when you’re dead,” he sings, “you rascal, you.” Its playfulness resembles the anti-colonialism tone of early calypso, and it is difficult to imagine the insidious American traditions that my have influenced this composition. Despite its violent imagery, the song’s popularity has lasted in part due to the clever and creative rhyming pairs that evolve with the language over time.

Obviously, the performance is satire - a farce that a self-aggrandizing victim would plot their assault in song and verse - but when removed from its cultural context and historical perspective, the song can be easily weaponized as dangerous stereotyping. For example, prior to the American film industry’s enforcement of the Hays Production Code, producers would commercially exploit talent and audiences for capitalistic benefit, including infamous minstrel performances of “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead” by both Louis Armstrong and Sammy Davis Jr. - among countless others.

In its modern form as “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead” - more similar to the traditional “When The Saints Go Marching In” and “Mama Don’t Allow” - the lyrics’ use of innuendo, masquerade, and Bacchus behavior celebrate Mardi Gras culture. But outside of New Orleans and whitewashed of context, the satire and parody can still be misinterpreted for veiled bigotry.

Recommended reading: Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans by Matt Sakakeeny. Published by Duke University Press