Who Will Be Great - Ii

If you look at Stephen Foster, who wrote songs for the minstrel shows, you wouldn’t expect a genius that all of the world would know. He was another bookkeeper for a steamship company, until he started writing tunes that to this day sound masterly. Today those same minstrel shows seem quite insulting to good minds, they weren’t exactly ‘High Culture’ way back in Foster’s time, but the man wrote Old Susanna, and My Old Kentucky Home, the Swanee River, Camptown Races, and Hard Times Come Again No More. Even Beautiful Dreamer, and Genie With The Light Brown Hair, the amount of hits this man wrote can drive musicians to despair. From throw-away entertainment that never got a second look, this man alone wrote the core of The Great American Songbook. That he still remains relevant, even known at this late date, show that we never can predict who exactly will be great.