The Oklahoma Mixer
June 27, 2017 7:28 AM   Subscribe

The numerous incarnations of "Turkey in the Straw" (previously) over the course of the song's American history have usually focused either on the rural feel of its folk roots or the silly, irreverent and sometimes offensive lyrics. Yet in post-war Japan, the song began another life where it became known as "Oklahoma Mixer," or オクラホマミキサー, by serving as the musical accompaniment for a line-dancing event in school sports days around the nation for decades. More recently, it even provided the basis for a 2016 hit single.

In 1946, an American education officer named Winfeld Niblo was stationed in Nagasaki, working to help Japan integrate Western educational values such as equality of the sexes through co-ed programs and activities. One such activity that he came up with was to teach country line dancing in Japan. Traditional Japanese dances rarely involve partners or physical contact between dancers, and his new dance soon became wildly popular, so much so that supposedly some began referring to square dancing simply as Niblo Dancing.

As the trend continued spreading throughout Japan, the founder of the Japan Association of Teachers of Dancing, Takami Shinkichi(玉置真吉), helped integrate square dancing into the national curriculum. Apparently he was teaching a version of Schottische line dance called the Oklahoma Mixer but found that the tempo and some of the footsteps were difficult, so he replaced the music with the slower Turkey in the Straw and simplified the steps (at least according to blogs and comments).

Before long, the song and dance became a staple in school sports days, and now most people know the song by the name of the dance. Many Japanese people over 40 or 50 have a fondness for the song, presumably from memories of childhood crushes and nervous excitement as it was their first experience with co-ed dancing, and they'll still even bust it out once in a while at parties or social events.

Younger generations are less familiar as the sports day "folk dance" event has fallen out of favor, but some schools continue the tradition, and the song has made its way into other forms of pop culture from anime and video games to last year's popular uplifting anthemic version from J-Pop artist, AI.

AI's version adds original lyrics and a new title, "みんながみんな英雄" (roughly "Everyone is a Hero"), and was produced for a hugely popular series of AU commercials premised on friendship between the main characters of different Japanese folktales.
posted by p3t3 (16 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is so fascinating! Thanks for the informative post, p3t3!
posted by Krazor at 7:48 AM on June 27, 2017 [1 favorite]




Having lived in Japan for a while now, I was already aware of the "Oklahoma Mixer," and even had to join in it a couple times as an English teacher, but what prompted my rabbit hole digging for the FPP was the sudden realization that the recent pop version "みんながみんな英雄" was the same song.

I must have heard it over 20 times here on TV before I realized it was Turkey in the Straw; I guess the lyrics threw me off, but moreover the totally sincere and uplifting tone complete with gospel style backup singers. Such a different take on the tune. I can't imagine a version like that coming out of the States.
posted by p3t3 at 8:03 AM on June 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


I find endless personal delight in the fact that it's possible to sing "Battle-Hymn of the Republic" to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw." This never fails to annoy the few people I know who care enough.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:05 AM on June 27, 2017 [7 favorites]


This is wonderful. So what are (the gist of) the lyrics to the current pop version -- from the video it's about friends working together or something? Please tell me little children will be square-dancing to this pop song?
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:06 AM on June 27, 2017


So what are (the gist of) the lyrics to the current pop version

Maybe a better translator can give it a whirl, but lots of basic motivational stuff like "Heroes aren't so different from us, we all live under the same sky... We get by with support from friends, we keep trying and eventually reach our brighter future." And stuff along those lines.

One bit of sneaky advertising though, the word for heroism in the title, 英雄, is pronounced eiyu (or AU, the name of the telecom).

I haven't seen square dancing to the new version, I'd love to see a school try though!
posted by p3t3 at 8:22 AM on June 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


I find endless personal delight in the fact that it's possible to sing "Battle-Hymn of the Republic" to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw."

(cries from delighted laughter!)
posted by kimberussell at 8:29 AM on June 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


And here I only ever knew the song as "the one that Animaniacs did their 50 states & their capitals song to" ...
posted by aperturescientist at 8:36 AM on June 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


Neato! Thanks for the post.

And here I only ever knew the song as "the one that Animaniacs did their 50 states & their capitals song to" ...

I have the same thing with Arkansas Traveler, except that I hear Raffi singing Peanut Butter Sandwich.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:47 AM on June 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


The ice cream truck comes 'roun' on Sunday, playing this song.
posted by Oyéah at 8:50 AM on June 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


To these provincial western ears, みんながみんな英雄 sounds throughout the whole song as if it's just about to hit the breakdown and start up the backbeat.
posted by darksasami at 8:54 AM on June 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


And here I only ever knew the song as "the one that Animaniacs did their 50 states & their capitals song to" ...

o/`...CAN YOU THROW 'EM OVER YOUR SHOULDER LIKE A CONTINENTAL SOLDIER? DOOO YOOOUR... o/`
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:54 AM on June 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


The ice cream truck that circles my neighbourhood on every sunny day for six months of the year plays a tinny, distorted, shittily-synthesized loop of just the verse of "Turkey in the Straw" over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Not that I don't have sympathy for all the people who've been completely devastated by flooding this year, but, like, if the rain keeps that torture truck off the streets, I'm all for it.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:58 AM on June 27, 2017 [2 favorites]


Oh. A while back I saw people freaking out because "the ice cream truck song is racist" and now I understand they meant "Turkey in the Straw" and not some other song explicitly for ice cream trucks that I wasn't familiar with.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:04 AM on June 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


To these provincial western ears, みんながみんな英雄 sounds throughout the whole song as if it's just about to hit the breakdown and start up the backbeat.

I'm surprised it has taken Japan so long to wrap its proverbial head around the basic backbeat, but as you said, that may just be our western ears. Old Japanese people still clap on the 1 and 3 for any and every song though.

I teach English to a retired little Japanese lady who also studies jazz on a few instruments, and she always complains how hard it is to "swing" the rhythm, but claims that younger generations have a better sense for it now that they grow up on a more western musical diet.

AI, the singer of みんながみんな英雄, says she listens to lots of r&b, soul, and gospel though (I heard she was born in Cali), so you can hear the American backbeat creeping into some of her other tunes, which I hope rubs off on more of her contemporaries. I'm not much of a J-Pop fan, but I like her better than most.
posted by p3t3 at 5:58 PM on June 27, 2017


Well, it's not so long ago that white North Americans were clapping on the 1 and 3. The British took even longer. "Bennie and the Jets" is a classic example of what the hell are you people doing?

But, just to inject a heavy bit of "not all Japanese people," my favourite Philly soul track, maybe the most Philly soul to ever Philly soul, is Tokyo through and through: Tatsu Yamashita - Love Celebration (it's the second track, but I'm not about to deep-link past that sweet intro)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:05 AM on June 28, 2017 [1 favorite]


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