One of many contemporary “Oh, You Kid!” themed illustrations. (Library of Congress)
You fans of our Phonographic Yearbook series have waited a long time for the newest one, so we have a little gift for you. We had a lot of great material from which to choose our playlist for “1909,” and we weighed and sifted our options to try to cut down the list. In the end we decided to give you an extra song (or two) over the usual. So it’s a total of 28 tracks and 77 and a half minutes of playing time. Is everybody good with that?
The year in music for 1909 is probably best remembered for the popularity of the slang phrase, “Oh, You Kid!”—especially in the form of the song, “I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife, but Oh, You Kid!” Other songs borrowed the phrase (and occasionally the musical motif) as well. Besides that, though, a number of songs deal slyly with the subject of marital infidelity to a degree that seems pretty shocking for our forebears. Thus, the subtitle, “Talk of Your Scand’lous Times.”
Archeophone Outtakes 