Uncabilly, ironic, my first name is also Billy and a unca !?
Anyhoo, listened to this way back when it first came out, more than likely in a altered state of mind. So glad you put this up in a digital form as all I had up to this time was the original vinyl.
I do appreciate the comments by anonymous, but a bit wordy. Considering the song / ballad was for entertainment purposes geared for those of the altered state of mind variety. Sort of like the original Cheech and Chong albums of years ago.
My first visit to the audio side of IA, usually on the video side.
Thank you and be well

[quote]
An interwoven historical lesson, with somewhat questionable counter-culture additions.
[/quote]

To say the least.

[quote]
Featuring the boxer Jack Johnson being denied passage (legit)
[/quote]

Not exactly.

The Titanic sailed exactly *once* from Southhampton, England, stopping to pick up passengers in France and Ireland before setting out to cross the Atlantic; Jack Johnson was nowhere near Europe at the time.

Please do not take my word for it: everything Johnson did was news and and an examination of newspapers of the time will reveal no mention of his ever purchasing or attempting to purchase a ticket for the Titanic.

Speaking of which...

1) There was no such ship as the USS Titanic at the time. Rather, the Titanic bore the designation "RMS Titanic" because it carried Royal Mail from England to the US (*R*oyal *M*ail *S*hip).

It was, in essence, a British registered and American financed ship that was under *indirect* American ownership (Americans could not own British ships). As a result, it would never have borne the "USS" designation because it was not an American ship.

2) The song begins by telling us:

[quote]
It was back around the turn of the century, back around nineteen hundred & thirteen there was a negro pugilist: his name was Jack Johnson.
[/quote]

Anyone attempting to purchase a ticket for the Titanic in 1913 would have found it a bit tricky: the ship sank the year before, in 1912.

3) The song goes on to tell us:

[quote]
Ol' Jack says "That's groovy baby. That's really groovy you give me a ticket on the next flight out"

He said "ticket on the next flight out?!? This is nineteen hundred n' thirteen. Why the Wright brothers haven't even started foolin' around with Kitty Hawk yet"
[/quote]

The Wright brothers' first powered flight was in 1903. By the time the Titanic sank in 1912, the Wrights had been flying for nearly a decade and had spent the last few years attempting to sell their aircraft to governments around the world.

All of this is not to say that The Legend Of The USS Titanic is a bad song. Rather, it is a song that, like most songs, should be viewed as entertainment rather than some sort of oral history of what really happened.

PS: There *was* a black passenger on the Titanic. Look up Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche sometime and you will discover that the White Star Line was willing to sell a ticket to anyone who had the money to pay for one.