Joey “The Lips” as a False Prophet

At first, Joey “The Lips” Fagan seems like the savior of The Commitments. Joey brings a sense of genuine Soul artistry to the group of Irish misfits, being that he claims to have toured in America with professional Soul artists. But when he brings his talent to The Commitments, the reader starts to see that he may not be the genuine Soul artist he claims to be, and rather, is a poser attempting to appropriate black culture. I believe that Doyle intended for the reader to doubt the authenticity of Joey’s character and his music because he does not believe that the Irish and African American experiences are comparable.

Joey acts as a vessel that brings American Soul to Ireland. He is able to transmit the basic tropes of Soul to the band, but does not seem genuine in his performance of the music. He specifically sets boundaries in what the band can perform, describing them as “corners.” He claims these corners are to prevent the band from delving into the realm of Jazz, a music that he believes is too intellectual and against the working man. This is troublesome because Jazz was created by working-class American blacks. He intentionally sets limits on the black music he is able to perform, showing that he worships black music but cannot access it entirely due to his distance from American black culture. Hints that point toward Joey being a wealthy man also lead to this conclusion because they show he is not a member of the working class, and therefore cannot properly connect with the music of the working man. He also seems to believe that he cannot genuinely perform Soul music due to his own lack of blackness.

Joey’s frustration with not being born black penetrates the novel in often uncomfortable ways. He describes some of the greatest Jazz musicians as not genuinely black and even goes as far to say Charlie Parker had “no right to his black skin.” This shows that he believes the ability to genuinely perform black music comes from having black skin, not entirely from musical talent. When the band inevitably breaks up, Joey comes to the conclusion that Soul just wasn’t right for Ireland, revealing that he does not believe non-blacks can have a genuine appreciation of black music. When Joey tells Jimmy that he is going back to America to perform with a dead artist, this implies that he has realized he is nothing more than an appropriator and ultimately cannot live as the great Soul artist he formerly saw himself as.

 

Irish vs. Irish American in The Commitments

Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments gave us an opportunity to explore and compare the different ways that Irish Americans and Irish gesture towards the black experience. As Prof. Kinyon mentioned in class, Joey could be taken to be an Irish American. After all, he has supposedly spent a good amount of time touring in America with different legendary soul singers. And, once one crosses the Atlantic, they are never the same again. 

While Joey’s gestures and connection seem to be the strongest at first, the initial illusion eventually fades and the audience realizes that his comparisons fall short in often very problematic ways. When he makes gestures toward the black experience and soul music, he is more concerned with giving himself power than making genuine connections and trying to establish a link between his Irish American identity and the black American identity. We are not sure whether Joey even put much time into trying to understand the music and black culture before he started playing soul music. He wants to be an authority and be in charge of the group and claiming to be the authority on the black experience allows him to do that.  His own privileged background is far from the suffering of African Americans, yet he still romanticizes the idea of being black. Joey hijacks black culture and tries to assimilate into the black identity, even stating that he wishes he was born black. In trying to make the line between Irish American and African American indistinguishable, Joey misunderstands the black experience. These inappropriate statements and connections between the two experiences lead to his inability to tap into the connection that the other band members have. 

The others in the band can be taken to represent the Irish. Unlike Joey, the band members seem to be gesturing to African Americans for a sense of camaraderie and solidarity. They hope to bring soul to Ireland and all work very hard and dedicate a lot of time and effort to trying to learn this type of music before they even start to play together. They immerse themselves in the culture of the music so that they can learn its intricacies and be better suited to play it. As a result, these members are able to make a connection with the music and the African American experience. They also do not merely collapse the African American and Irish experience. They seem to take soul music and also bring something uniquely Irish to it. This can perhaps be seen in the “Night Train” song, when they add Irish cities to the list of the American cities. They do not remove the cities, as they are not trying to erase or claim that their cities are the same as the others. Rather, they extend the city list and add theirs in an attempt to form a bond with the people across the Atlantic. While they seem to be able to access a deeper and more appropriate connection than Joey, their attempts still fall short in some places. As we mentioned, social class does not equal race and that is something that even Doyle failed to realize. No gesture by the Irish to the black experience is ever going to be completely perfect. They all will have their faults and fail in some way—and perhaps that is part of the reason why the band was destined to break apart. Nevertheless, the Irish gestures seem to be a closer and more respectful fit than those made by Irish Americans, such as Joey.

Costumes of Identity in “The Commitments”

Beyond just the music played by the titular band, The Commitments also shows the variety of other ways in which the group adopts black identity, which can lead to issues of appropriation and misinterpretation of African-American culture.   In Joey the Lips’ insistence that the female back-up singers wear black when they perform, this literal costume shows both the band’s donning of the cultural facade of African-American identity and culture and hints towards Joey’s deep desire to possess and fetishize black bodies.   He constantly attempts to take leadership of the band because of the persona he creates for himself as a session player for countless blues and soul acts.  His sort of artificial blackness which he uses to gain the position of de facto leader is later revealed as a possible sham, touring with a dead musician in America. His seduction of the Commitmentettes despte their considerable age difference shows what lengths he will go to posses the image of blackness, both sexually and in his knowledge of soul music.

His criticism of Charlie Parker also shows Joey’s deep envy of “blackness,” feeling that Parker wastes his race and identity creating jazz music, whichb Joey feels is inauthentic to black culture and art because it is not simple enough.  This effectively exposes Joey’s love for “blackness” as superficial, without much concern for the artists themselves and only focusing upon how he can take what they have created and make it his own.  This performance acts as a kind of microcosm of Doyle’s subtext of the novel, in which these Irish characters can find connections to African-American art and expression but soon their wish to possess it more fully and place their own troubles upon the same level as that of African-American leads to failure, seen in the band’s quick ascent and later dissolution.

When Jimmy first starts working with the Commitmentettes, he also shows  desire to put on an authentic portrayal of soul music, even to the extent that he strips the girls of their distinct Irishness.  As he insists “An’ yis shouldn’t be usin’ your ordin’y accents either.  It’s Walking in the Rain, not Walkin’ In De Rayen,” this push for artistic authenticity poses threats to both the band’s Irish background and also the African-American songs which they perform.  By consciously switching their voices in order to fit the appropriate form for the song, they strop themselves of their Irish background for the sake of adopting another culture for their own.  Likewise, their goal to repurpose these songs for their own artistic performance suggests that black identity is something that can merely be switched on or off if you practice and learn it, which also severely undercuts the racial burdens of African-Americans.  Despite the clear love and admiration Doyle has for this culture, he shows in The Commitments that trying to quickly and effectively adapt a foreign identity and experiences has many problems, approaching the territory of appropriation.

Even though Doyle approaches this comparison from an economic and political lens, as African-Americans and Irish both suffer from broad societal issues of poverty and oppression, his use of the band’s efforts to bridge this transatlantic gap show that despite the great connections brought about the exchange of ideas, commodities, and identities, it opens up even more room for differences and inappropriate comparisons.

An Octoroon Presentation & Discussion Questions

 

I have attached a link to my presentation below. Hope you guys enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OQmWhzZcjlgQwifu4zWD8YD8HOP15r01/view  

Discussion Questions:

  1. What does the addition of the Prologue in An Octoroon do for the play as a whole? 
  2. Does the slave dialogue remind you of other work that we’ve seen (Especially in Act 3)
  3. BJJ believes that Boucicault’s original ending is the best version, and how Boucicault intended the play to be seen. What does that tell you about the evolution of theater?
  4.  Given what we’ve seen the past few weeks, if you are of the culture you are portraying, are you exempt from “crossing the line”?

Blurred Lines in “The Commitments”

While Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments show us the different ways Irish and Irish-Americans understand the black experience, I begin to think about the influence of black culture on other cultures. For example, through Jimmy and Joey, they are without a doubt influenced by soul music, and are moved by it. And even though a genre of music may have been created by a specific group of people, it does not belong to any one person/ entity. With that being said, in class discussion there were a lot of questions surrounding Joey and his legitimacy within the group. While we have come to the conclusion that his role was more deceptive than reliable, I would argue against that position. I don’t argue that his tendencies and actions were problematic, but I am not quick to label him as a fraud.

We come to understand that there is a difference in status between Joey and other members of the group. Therefore, their understanding of the music, and of black culture will naturally be different from each other. Joey seemingly is in a better financial situation than Jimmy and the others, which not only alters his experience of black culture, but of Irish culture. In addition, aside from the knowledge of the music, Joey has been in direct contact with, and has experience first hand the impact of soul music, which should mean that he is legit. Arguably, just because he surrounded himself with “those people” doesn’t mean he knows anything about them or their experience (but the same could be said for the band). Nevertheless, he is impacted by the music in some way. Even if his facade is in fact pretend behavior, it was most likely influenced by American culture. I say this because, although we have discussed the disconnect between Irish and Irish-Americans, if in this instance Joey represents the Irish-American perspective, he doesn’t seem to be in conflict with the other members. By conflict I am referring to a misunderstanding of each other’s Irish background.  Because it doesn’t seem that their issues are about their Irishness, rather their understanding of black culture. 

Along those lines, we see through The Commitments that the connection was being made from class and struggle. Jimmy and the other members were not black but yet connected with the music and with the culture. They were trying to associate with it, while maintaining their Irishness within the music. Yes, Joey formed a false-connection with the culture, but his lack of knowledge does not determine whether or not he actually liked the music. He doesn’t have to be able to recite all soul artists, or know everything about black culture (even though he pretends to). Even if he just liked one specific song, it is clear that he was impacted enough to want to put on a “charade”.  Whether it was joy, hate, or envy, the music makes you feel a certain way, and in that way you are impacted by it. 

In addition, I would argue that many cultures misunderstand the black experience, including blacks. For example, was InDahomey a misunderstanding of black identity or a redefining of black identity? The backlash that they received from the black community would suggest that they were wrongfully altering the black experience. Nevertheless, how is what Joey doing different? Maybe because he’s Irish and the two experiences are not the same. This may be true, but when you involve the arts (theater and music), the lines definitely get blurred.

Appreciation or Appropriation?

This week has really made me think critically about the cultural exchanges we’ve seen throughout the semester.  Especially through the medium of music. Music is a really important and poignant method of self reflection and culture. But it’s also really nebulous and, as artists often borrow from one another so liberally, it’s hard sometimes to trace the true origins of music (and I would argue that sometimes it doesn’t matter). I knew there were issues in the music industry, especially in America, over this “Love and Theft” idea — Elvis is the first example that comes to mind.  There is a history of the commodification of black culture, similar to the commodification of black bodies, and a seeming “validation” of those cultural forms and subsequent success when placed in the hands of, typically, white men. And there is blatantly something wrong with that — an erasure of history and context like what we discussed with the use of “Chain Gang” by The Commitments. What I hadn’t considered, was if this is a form of minstrelsy, a commodification of the performance of blackness? Is it a performance of blackness? I guess I’m still struggling with where to draw the lines. To what extent does music not belong to one specific people or history? What distinguishes artists that are influenced by soul music and jazz and the blues in a positive way, and those who try to remove it from or don’t recognize the people who created it? Is context that critical element that separates them? I don’t know.       

I think this consideration of context can go a long way towards coming up with a true and nuanced definition of the transatlantic and the black and green — especially as we read the appropriateness of these gestures.  Someone mentioned in class that The Commitments present a sort of spectrum of these gestures, from those we can see to those that are manifestly inappropriate. I really see the transatlantic as a space of encounter, and a place to try to understand the long standing histories of colonialism and what it meant to be colonized.  Within that however, there must also be an understanding of where the histories diverge and the differences between class and race. When The Commitments hit upon contexts that relate, their gestures help them to understand their situation. When they erase or don’t know the nuance of the oppressions of African Americans, the relation becomes problematic. No one comes to an encounter without their history.  In the same way artists, whether musical or otherwise, can’t enact this particular black and green encounter without a consideration not only of the similar histories, but of the different oppressions as well.

My Soul Isn’t Your Soul

In The Commitments, Jimmy attempts to stop some band members from smoking weed because “drugs aren’t soul” (Doyle 66). When the band counters that American soul musicians smoked marijuana, Joey the Lips Fagan takes over, saying, “Not true, Brother. Real Soul Brothers say no to the weed. All drugs. Soul says no” (67). Of course, as the band attempts to prove, Joey is wrong; Marvin Gaye, possibly the most famous Soul musician in history, used marijuana extensively, for example. On one hand, this exchange shows Joey’s false understanding of African-American music and musicians, later shown forcefully through his dismissal of jazz. However, more broadly, it shows the inadequacy of transferring black music directly to the Irish context. As bell hooks writes, “White folks who do not see black pain never really understand the complexity of black pleasure. And it is no wonder that when they attempt to imitate the joy in living which they see as the ‘essence’ of soul and blackness, their cultural productions may have an air of sham and falseness that may titillate and even move white audiences but leave many black folks cold” (Onkey 26). Joey’s assertion that real Soul brothers didn’t smoke weed shows an inability to understand black pain of oppression and the memory of slavery. He can recognize the political resistance offered within Soul music but cannot comprehend the pain that creates this resistance. One of the main reasons for drug use in the 1960s was escaping reality yet Joey cannot envision reasons why African-Americans would attempt to escape reality in the 1960s.

Rather than acknowledging that the experiences of the African-Americans when creating Soul music and the Irish when singing it are different, Joey and Jimmy attempt to homogenize the experiences. A heroin epidemic causes this anti-drug stance in Ireland. Drug use was a real problem in the context of Ireland in the 1980s but not so condemned in 1960s Black America. The Irish cannot attempt to properly take from black culture without recognizing the distinct history of African-American oppression. Our class-wide repulsion at the singing of “Chain Gang” is the best example of this homogenizing of experience. The Irish did not experience the chain gang. Yet, like the example of drugs, this discrepancy is glossed over by the band and black experience is mapped directly onto the Irish experience. Through this lens, the Irish performance of Soul music becomes appropriation, forgoing the potential for creating solidarity through similar feelings of oppression and placeless-ness. Without recognizing the context, The Commitments remove the important distinctions between the two experiences of oppression on different sides of the Atlantic which are necessary to avoid appropriation.

4/22 Discussion Questions

  1. “Ethnicity is not something that influences Irish American’s lives unless they want it to” (Eagan 28). How does the meaning of gesturing to the African American experience change when it is out of want rather than need?
  2. Specifically looking at Onkey’s discussion of the the 1863 New York draft riots (or applied to other instances), how can we reconcile the circum Atlantic identity with the direct interaction between Irish Americans and African Americans?

Discussion Question 4/22

  1. Since art (specifically music) is meant to be expressive and have “creative freedom”, should artist be exempt from misidentifying with African American culture.
  2. Does the African-American/Irish analogy degrade both cultures because of the comparison between Black-Americans and Irish-Americans?  Also, do these analogies  connect the Irish to whiteness more than to blackness?

4/22 Discussion Questions

  1.  Briefly throughout the film, especially in the beginning, we see other forms of music played which appear to be more authentically Irish.  Does the inclusion of other types of music mixed within scenes of The Commitments playing add dimensions to the culture of Ireland seeking definition at this time?
  2.   How do the articles approach the ideas of “readiness”? Does the blunt statement that “The Irish , when all is said and done, are no black” show that their apparent ability to at some point be ready to enter modernity exclude them from any comparison with non-white oppressed peoples?
  3. How does Onkey’s article directly show the issues of representation seen in both The Commitments as a novel and film?  Does the issue of minstrelsy, often adopted by Irish immigrants to America, complicate the broader social contexts of The Commitments and what it is trying to say about the potential to adopt an identity?