Golden Era songs with off-color subjects.

[Packin' Heat]

By "off-color," I mean sex, drugs, booze, prostitution, ect.

[YOUTUBE]d7j89XF5CjE[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]uyjW8FTGxbI[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]MWY4_GyLufI[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]33nTnawq6jk[/YOUTUBE]

Any other good examples?

 

[HepKitty]

I don't suppose the song "Idaho" would count?

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Reefer Man," a big hit in 1933 for Cab Calloway -- but the most hilarious performance I ever heard was by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra on a Joe Penner broadcast. No wonder Ozzie was always so mellow.

Don Redman's theme song, "Chant of the Weed," wasn't about tobacco. Or goldenrod.

Fats Waller made a dandy swing record in 1940 called "Come And Get It" in which he declares he ain't interested in no turtle-dovin', he gotta get hisself some booty.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Fats Waller made a dandy swing record in 1940 called "Come And Get It" in which he declares he ain't interested in no turtle-dovin', he gotta get hisself some booty.

I don't know if it's just me, but I've always perceived his "Honeysuckle Rose" as fairly, um, erotic.

And speaking of Fats, how about "Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama)"? Truly bizarre, when interpreted by the Andrews Sisters. Would you have the Rum and Coca Cola to get in the mood for the seafood?

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Flat Foot Floogie With The Floy Floy" is about a streetwalker with a social disease. Slim and Slam got a good long laugh on the radio censors over that one.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Lucille Bogan was pretty, er, OFF COLOUR.

"Let's All Be Fairies" has always been a favourite. Also "Hot Nuts" by Lil Johnson.

"Couldn't Find A Place To Do It"
"Up The Alley With Sally"
"Shot In Her Opera Box"
"I've Gone And Lost My Little Yo-Yo"

And the best ever: "My Girl's Pussy" by Harry Roy and his Bat Club Boys

Do a serach for "Party Record" on archive.org and all sorts of great stuff comes back.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Harry Roy made a long career out of doing that type of "ain't I naughty then" stuff that only the British really know how to do well. His version of "She Had To Go And Lose It At The Astor" is a masterpiece of innuendo.

 

[flat-top]

The Treniers "Poontang"!
[YOUTUBE]7OiQwV-b6a4[/YOUTUBE]

 

[dhermann1]

Ethel Waters sang the heck out of "Handy Man", and a personal favorite of mine was Dorothy Dell's classic rendition of "Was I Drunk (was he handsome, and did Momma give me hell!)"
"Bessie Couldn't Help It", Ukulele Ike, and many others sang that one.
But there are SOOO many others.

 

[vitanola]

"Rubbin' on the Darned Old Thing" by Oscar and His Chicago Swingers:

[YOUTUBE]JHmYXvO8hQI[/YOUTUBE]

or
[YOUTUBE]HGVShoAWp00[/YOUTUBE]

Then there was the absolutely FILTHY MINDED REPROBATE Frank Crumit, who recorded many of his own "adaptations" of "traditional" American songs, such as:
[YOUTUBE]o6vyZ_q-TjA[/YOUTUBE]

Seems pretty innocent, does it not? The song "Abdul the Bul Bul Amir", however, was adapted from a bawdy ballad about a yencing contest between the Sheik, Abdul, and a Russian procurer, Ivan Skavinsky Skavar. the tale has a tragic end.

Many of Crumit's other famous songs ("Down In De Cane Break", "The Gay Cabelliero", "The Prune Song") have similarly scatalogical roots, and may be traced back to his fraternity days at Ohio State University.

Yet they sound so INNOCENT.

 

[Miss Moonlight]

"Flat Foot Floogie With The Floy Floy" is about a streetwalker with a social disease. Slim and Slam got a good long laugh on the radio censors over that one.

THANK you! I've been wondering what that meant! lol

There are two great compilation CDs- Viper Mad Blues:25 Songs About Dope and Depravity and Reefer Songs, containing songs about drugs in general.

Stone Cold Dead in the Market is about a woman who finally bashes her husband's skull in after he abuses her while drunk.

Here's the version I grew up listening to on 78, sung by Gracie Barrie in 1946.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl6vP1PF1V4[/YOUTUBE]

I have tons of morbid songs... just a few:

He's Dead But He Won't Lie Down - Gracie Fields 1941

It Must Be Swell To Be Laying Out Dead - Alex Bartha's Hotel Traymore Orchestra 1932

More Work for the Undertaker - Dan Quinn 1902 (ok that's pre-Golden Era)

And slightly post- Golden... a great song called Sixty Minute Man by Billy Ward and the Dominoes, 1951

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDIRr_pcpjM[/YOUTUBE]

"There'll be 15 minutes of kissing
Then you'll holler "please don't stop"
There'll be 15 minutes of teasing
And 15 minutes of squeezing
And 15 minutes of blowing my top

If your man ain't treating you right
Come up and see ol' Dan
I rock 'em, roll 'em all night long
I'm a sixty-minute man"

 

[Packin' Heat]

[YOUTUBE]Rws_7mLTqj8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Shangas]

I do remember one EXTREMELY EXTREMELY filthly and bad, naughty, risque song from the 1930s. It was so bad that the only way you could get a copy of it was through the underground music industry.

I forget the name of it, as well as the artist, though. It was a woman who sang it, though. I don't even dare to put the lyrics here!

EDIT.

Found it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ko2VXpW7_g

NOT for the easily offended.

And just think...this record is over 70 years old.

 

[Packin' Heat]

lol

Dear God.

 

[Shangas]

Yes, it's a lovely, linguistic time-capsule.

The song is "Shave 'Em Dry" from 1935. The vocalist is Lucille Bogan.

 

[Packin' Heat]

Gotta love the innocent music of the past....

It's actually a pretty catchy tune, not to its mention rhythm and rhyme are right up there with some of my favorite works of the 30's. Still, this might be something I'll leave off my vintage music selection for women who come over.

For some reason it hit me a lot more powerfully than modern obscene music ever does. Maybe because I never heard music from that period so blatant, or maybe just because I'm not used to hearing filth performed with such wonderful talent.

 

[Doc Average]

My off-colour favourites include:

Prove It On Me Blues, by Ma Rainey
Kicking the Gong Around, by Cab Calloway
Masculine Women, Feminine Men, by The Friar's Inn Orchestra (for the full unexpurgated version check out a 1926 recording by British performer Gwen Farrar)
Let's Misbehave, Let's Do It and Anything Goes by Cole Porter

Last night I discovered a blues artist called Lucille Bogan (AKA Bessie Jackson). She recorded several songs with off-colour topics, and she didn't see the need for a lot of coded language either - be warned, if you download these 2 tracks, they're very explicit. I was pretty shocked!

Shave 'Em Dry (version II)
'Til the Cows Come Home

These songs by her are more coded, but it's pretty durned obvious what she's on about nonetheless:

B.D. Woman's Blues
Barbecue Bess (a great big band version of this appears in the movie The Cotton Club)

*Whoops - I was slow off the mark there - sorry Shangas!*

 

[Shangas]

It's okay Doc.

You listed several of my favourite songs.

Anything Goes, Let's Misbehave, Masc. Women, etc...I love them all.

 

[flat-top]

I do remember one EXTREMELY EXTREMELY filthly and bad, naughty, risque song from the 1930s. It was so bad that the only way you could get a copy of it was through the underground music industry.

I forget the name of it, as well as the artist, though. It was a woman who sang it, though. I don't even dare to put the lyrics here!

EDIT.

Found it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ko2VXpW7_g

NOT for the easily offended.

And just think...this record is over 70 years old.

Always loved that song. The Asylum Street Spankers do a version that I've seen them do live.
http://www.amazon.com/Nasty-Novelti...r_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1286365080&sr=1-14

 

[davidraphael]

Jelly Roll Morton made some very off-colour recordings; he didn't even try to disguise anything with metaphors.

If you listen to his recordings for the Library of Congress you'll see what I mean. Take songs such as "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" or "The Dirty Dozen"

He flagrantly and repeatedly uses the 'C' word and 'F' word. He also throws in a few 'b*tch*s' for good measure and likes to talk about the size of his...ermmm...yes. And how his 'b*tch*'s' sister would 'F' a frog of all things.

Seriously, he makes some modern rappers' tracks sound like soundtracks for The Lion King.

Lyrics here: Be warned - he leaves nothing to the imagination and the language is about as strong as it can get!
http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/locspeech3.html

OTHER ARTISTS' off-colour recordings:

There are a few albums worth listening to that collate such tracks:

"Viper Mad Blues (1924-1943)"
"Reefer Songs (1927-1947)"
"Listen to the Banned: 20 Risque Songs From The 20s & 30s"
"Sugar in My Bowl"


I've mentioned it here before, but there are also recordings of a 'fake' jazz band,' Charlie and his Orchestra', which was created by Goering as a propaganda tool. The band recorded and broadcast classic standards but changed the lyrics to suit Nazi political ideals, ie, anti-semitic, anti-British and much more.


.