The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the same district of Manhattan. The end of Tin Pan Alley is less clear cut. Some date it to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930s when the phonograph and radio supplanted sheet music as the driving force of American popular music, while others consider Tin Pan Alley to have continued into the 1950s when earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged by the rise of rock & roll.
Tin Pan Alley was originally a specific place in New York City, West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. There is a plaque on the sidewalk on 28th St between Broadway and Fifth with a dedication. This block is now considered part of Manhattan's Flatiron District.
The origins of the name "Tin Pan Alley" are unclear. The most popular account holds that it was originally a derogatory reference to the sound made by many pianos all playing different tunes in this small urban area, producing a cacophony comparable to banging on tin pans. With time this nickname was popularly embraced and many years later it came to describe the U.S. music industry in general.
The term is also used to describe any area within a major city with a high concentration of music publishers or musical instrument stores - a good example being Denmark Street near Covent Garden in London. In the 1920s the street became known as "Britain's Tin Pan Alley" because of the large number of music shops, a title it holds to this day. The Tin Pan Alley Festival is held there each July.
The music houses in lower Manhattan were lively places, with a steady stream of songwriters, vaudeville and Broadway performers, musicians, and "song pluggers" coming and going.
Aspiring songwriters came to demonstrate tunes they hoped to sell. When tunes were purchased from unknowns with no previous hits, the name of someone with the firm was often added as co-composer (in order to keep a higher percentage of royalties within the firm), or all rights to the song were purchased outright for a flat fee (including rights to put someone else's name on the sheet music as the composer). Songwriters who became established producers of commercially successful songs were hired to be on the staff of the music houses. The most successful of them, like Harry Von Tilzer and Irving Berlin, founded their own publishing firms.
"Song pluggers" were pianists and singers who made their living demonstrating songs to promote sales of sheet music. Most music stores had song pluggers on staff. Other pluggers were employed by the publishers to travel and familiarize the public with their new publications.
When vaudeville performers played New York City, they would often visit various Tin Pan Alley firms to find new songs for their acts. Second- and third-rate performers often paid for rights to use a new song, while famous stars were given free copies of publisher's new numbers or were paid to perform them, the publishers knowing this was valuable advertising.
Initially Tin Pan Alley specialized in melodramatic ballads and comic novelty songs, but it embraced the newly popular styles of the cakewalk and ragtime music. Later on jazz and blues were incorporated, although less completely, as Tin Pan Alley was oriented towards producing songs that amateur singers or small town bands could perform from printed music. Since improvisation, blue notes, and other characteristics of jazz and blues could not be captured in conventional printed notation, Tin Pan Alley manufactured jazzy and bluesy pop-songs and dance numbers. Much of the public in the late 1910s and the 1920s did not know the difference between these commercial products and authentic jazz and blues.
Tin Pan Alley
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Things was too hot down there, couldn't stay very long
Hey hey hey hey, Alley's the roughest place I've ever been
All the people down there, livin' for their whiskey, wine, and gin
I heard a woman scream, yeah and I peeped through the door
Some cat was workin' on Annie with a, Lord with a two-by-four
Hey hey hey hey, Alley's the roughest place I've ever been
I heard a pistol shoot, yeah and it was a .44
Somebody killed a crap shooter 'cause he didn't, shake, rattle, and roll
Hey hey hey hey, Alley's the roughest place I've ever been
All the people down there, killin' for their whiskey, wine, and gin
I saw a cop standin', with his hand on his gun
Said "this is a raid boys now, Lord nobody run"
Hey, hey, hey, Alley's the roughest place I've ever been
Yeah they took me away from that Alley
Lord and took me right back, to the pen
The song "Tin Pan Alley" by Stevie Ray Vaughan is a blues tune that depicts the rough and dangerous life in Tin Pan Alley, which was a section of New York City known for its music publishing industry in the early 20th century. The lyrics describe the singer's experience of visiting Tin Pan Alley and witnessing the violence, crime, and addiction that was rampant in the area. The singer describes the place as rough and highlights how it was filled with people living for their addiction to whiskey, wine, and gin. Vaughan's guitar playing perfectly matches the sorrowful tone of the lyrics, enhancing the emotions that the lyrics convey.
The first verse describes how the singer went down to Tin Pan Alley to check out what was going on but had to leave shortly after as the place was too dangerous. The second verse talks about how the singer heard a woman scream and saw someone attacking her with a two-by-four. The third verse talks about how a crap shooter was shot and killed, highlighting the lawlessness of the area. The fourth and final verse describes the singer seeing a police officer announcing a raid and how they took him away from Tin Pan Alley and back to prison.
Overall, the lyrics of "Tin Pan Alley" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble provide a vivid and raw picture of the dark side of life in Tin Pan Alley at the time.
Line by Line Meaning
Went down to tin pan Alley, see what was going on
I went to Tin Pan Alley to check out what was happening
Things was too hot down there, couldn't stay very long
It was too dangerous to stay there for a long time
Hey hey hey hey, Alley's the roughest place I've ever been
Tin Pan Alley is the most violent and tough place I've ever visited
All the people down there, livin' for their whiskey, wine, and gin
Everyone in Tin Pan Alley is addicted to drinking and relies on it to survive
I heard a woman scream, yeah and I peeped through the door
I heard a woman scream and looked through the door to see what was happening
Some cat was workin' on Annie with a, Lord with a two-by-four
I witnessed someone brutally attacking Annie with a piece of wood
I heard a pistol shoot, yeah and it was a .44
I heard a loud gunshot, which turned out to be from a .44 caliber gun
Somebody killed a crap shooter 'cause he didn't, shake, rattle, and roll
Someone murdered a gambler for not following the rules of the game 'shake, rattle, and roll'
All the people down there, killin' for their whiskey, wine, and gin
In Tin Pan Alley, people are willing to kill for their addiction to alcohol
I saw a cop standin', with his hand on his gun
I saw a police officer ready to draw his gun
Said "this is a raid boys now, Lord nobody run"
The police officer announced a raid on the area and ordered everyone not to run
Yeah they took me away from that Alley
Lord and took me right back, to the pen
I was arrested and taken away from Tin Pan Alley, only to be transferred back to prison
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Robert Geddins
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
David Ghost
ABSOBLUESLY AMAZING.🎵🎸🔊
gucktare e
Never was much of a blues person introduced to his music after his death. I SOOOOOOOO love this guys guitar!
theblackswan x
comming back to this tune, ever so often. It is just AMAZING
dengor1945
I'm pretty certain this is the studio version of Tin Pan Alley; Stevie was messing around and playing loud, acting the fool, and the guys got on him for it, and he went to the other extreme, and recorded my favourite SRV performance of all time. I think his voice is at its best in this recording. Great video!!!
Joshua Jet Vaughan
Behind the scenes info: Stevie was using his white strat w/ lipstick pickups, a TS9 tube screamer, gutted out and replaced w/ TS8 components. A Leslie stompbox and an octavia. For this song his string sizes were 11, 15, 17, 26, 36, and 52. He was using a Marshall 100 watt 4x12 cabinet, which had no reverb so he had a spring reverb built into the Marshall head. And he would consistently go in and out of pressing off and on his stompbox EQ. Just for all those SRV lovers who wanna know what he was using for this.
Trent Turner
Joshua Jet Vaughan was that the only amp he was using here?
LARRY GUY GUITAR INNOVATIONS
Possibly the greatest guitar performance EVER RECORDED. Only Jackbooth2, to my knowledge, can cover this performance even close to SRVs studio version. ALL TIME GREATEST guitar performances 1) RedHouse, J Hendrix 2) Tin Pan Alley, SRV 3) Little Wing, SRV 4) Machine Gun, Hendrix at Filmore East 5) Crossroads, Robert Johnson 6) Texas Flood, SRV 7) Statesboro blues, D. Allman 8) Ry Cooders slide work in Crossroads duel 9) Sky is crying, Elmo James 10) Down Slow, J Winter--
LM
Splendide, je ne m'en lasse pas !! Merci!
owenhawley
I was buying a used window for my 97 Toyota Camry. Thieves had smashed it to get in, popped the trunk open, tore me apart. Auto glass installer had the radio playing, and this song came on.
I hadn't heard this music for thirty years. I had to sit down and think.
From hatred and anger, I was transposed back to my foundation.
I love humanity...I won't be evil...
I recognize the Lord.
fytito
this song has so much depth...