Golden Era songs with off-color subjects.

[Doc Average]

I forgot one!

Diga Diga Doo, by Duke Ellington.

 

[Feraud]

There is a lot of off-color lyrics in blues from back in the day.
The musicians had the freedom to express in lyrics what was going on around them.
Here are two tunes. First is Luke Jordan doing Cocaine Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6tfNVbgwu4

then Charlie Patton A Spoonful of Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyIquE0izAg

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets" is a pretty rough song, despite the musical-comedy tone: a high-society woman is betrayed by her man, kills him, and is seized by a lynch mob. Her last wish is that her social secretary advise her friends that she regrets being unable to lunch today.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

I forgot one!

Diga Diga Doo, by Duke Ellington.

BTW, I loved the Artie Shaw version so much I chose it to do my last Quickstep medals test to it...So, what the heck does Diga Diga Doo mean (the A.S. version is instrumental)??? Was I dancing to something filthy and unmentionable? lol

 

[Doc Average]

I'm so very diga-diga-doo by nature!

BTW, I loved the Artie Shaw version so much I chose it to do my last Quickstep medals test to it...So, what the heck does Diga Diga Doo mean (the A.S. version is instrumental)??? Was I dancing to something filthy and unmentionable? lol

"When you love it's natural to:
diga-diga-doo diga-doo-doo
diga-diga-doo diga-doo!"

"How can there be a Virgin Isle with diga-diga-doo diga-doo-doo!" etc.

Fnar fnar!

 

[dhermann1]

Don't remember who did it, but "Shaving cream" (insert another Anglo Saxonism that beghins with SH and you'll have the idea). "Shaving cream, be nice and clean, shave every day and you'll always look keen."
And there was an old blues ballad about a guy whose girlfriend was named Kay. She left him. So he keeps saying "If you see (errr. . . her name), please send her home."
So naughty.

 

[flat-top]

And there was an old blues ballad about a guy whose girlfriend was named Kay. She left him. So he keeps saying "If you see (errr. . . her name), please send her home."
So naughty.

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

 

[vitanola]

"When you love it's natural to:
diga-diga-doo diga-doo-doo
diga-diga-doo diga-doo!"

"How can there be a Virgin Isle with diga-diga-doo diga-doo-doo!" etc.

Fnar fnar!

"Diga-Diga-Doo" is sort of a musical version of the naughty bits
from Margaret Mead's "Coming of Age in Samoa".

"There's a spot I know, a place they call Samoa
By the sea.

Loving there is just the most, don't palaver in the Post.

They command each other, understand each other perfectly.

Love and Mamas there are free. You don't give them repartee.

Wooing a tropical maid doesn't need topical talk.

You maneuver, and if you approve her you can win her love in a walk!


Zulu man is feeling blue
Hear his heart beat a little tatoo
Diga-diga-doo, Diga-doo-doo
Diga-diga-doo, Diga doo!

You love me, I love you
When you love its natural to
Diga-diga-doo, Diga-doo-doo
Diga-diga-doo, Diga-doo!

I'm so very Diga-diga-doo by nature
If you don't say Diga-diga to your mate 'cher
Gonna lose your Papa!

The way these pretty girlies smile
How can this be a virgin isle?

With a Diga-doo-diga-doo-doo
Diga-diga-doo Diga-doo

 

[Fletch]

Loving there is just the most, don't palaver in the Post.

Mystery lyric time again. I heard it off Jack Hylton's record and thought it was:
Talking there is not the mode
They palaver in a code

 

[Amy Jeanne]

And there was an old blues ballad about a guy whose girlfriend was named Kay. She left him. So he keeps saying "If you see (errr. . . her name), please send her home."
So naughty.

Haha. In 1992 an alternative band called The Poster Children had a song called "If You See Kay." And I thought it was all original and clever lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Dorsey Brothers' 1934 hit "Annie's Cousin Fanny" is nothing but three minutes of smirky innuendo about backsides. With a toilet joke thrown in for good measure. And yes, that's starchy old uptight Glenn Miller himself at the end, declaring "you'll never see a Fanny half as pretty as mine." I just bet.

 

[Chas]

Cleo Brown recorded a number of sides with her trio titled "The Hollywood Hot Shots" - they were sold in bars where you bought them from the bartender who sold you the record when you ordered a "Hollywood Hot Shot". They are terrific little songs, plenty of double entendre i.e. "Who'll Chop Your Suey" and my favorite is "The Tramp".

What's The Matter With The Mill, et. al.

I like You've Gotta Give Me Some by Bessie Smith.

Louis Armstrong was an enthusiastic pot smoker; he recorded Muggles which refers to being "Muggled Up", or high. Mezz Mezzrow had the reputation of being the most reliable dealer of herb; he lived in Harlem with a black wife and sold it by the pillowcase.

Other Marijuana-themed songs:

"Viper Mad" by Sidney Bechet
"If You're A Viper" by Bob Howard
A Viper's Moan by the wonderful Willie Bryant Orchestra. A terrific record, too; swings like mad.

The quintessential pot song:The Killing Jive: Cats & The Fiddle

 

[Amy Jeanne]

"He Treats Me Like A Dog" by Bessie Smith has S&M tones to it

Dick Justice: "I'm simply wild about Cocaine!"

"With My Little Ukelele In My Hand" - George Formby (and many of his others)

 

[bunnyb.gal]

"When you love it's natural to:
diga-diga-doo diga-doo-doo
diga-diga-doo diga-doo!"

"How can there be a Virgin Isle with diga-diga-doo diga-doo-doo!" etc.

Fnar fnar!

Cheers!

By the way, I love this thread! Smut, but with STYLE and CLASS!

 

[Feraud]

Agreed.

Dope Head Blues by Victory Spivey

Just give me one more sniff of, another sniff of that dope
Just give me one more sniff of, another sniff of that dope
I'll catch a cow like a cowboy, and throw a bull without a rope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm-Pbq1QgbQ

 

[Blackjack]

What a subject...haha, ok well ya'll will probably like these collections then...

Ride daddy Ride-Vintage songs about sex
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

and the companion piece
Junkers Jivers & Coke Fiends- Vintage songs about drugs...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

 

[Blackjack]

What a subject...haha, ok well ya'll will probably like these collections then...

Ride daddy Ride-Vintage songs about sex
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

and the companion piece
Junkers Jivers & Coke Fiends- Vintage songs about drugs...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

My personal favorite isn't in there- Who Put the Benzadrine in Mrs. Murphys Ovaltine by Benny Goodman

 

[Shangas]

One song just occurred to me. I dunno how "off-colour" this would be, but, the original version of "I Get a Kick out of You" (most famously recorded by Frank Sinatra), had a verse that went:

"Some get a kick from cocaine,
I'm sure that if I took even one whiff,
It would bore me terrif-
-fically too!

I get a kick out of you!"

In later years, the cocaine reference was cut from the song to the version we know it as today. Nevertheless. Early recordings of the song from the 20s and 30s still have the cocaine reference in it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In later years, the cocaine reference was cut from the song to the version we know it as today. Nevertheless. Early recordings of the song from the 20s and 30s still have the cocaine reference in it.

Rudy Vallee performed the "cocaine" reference in a live broadcast in late 1934 -- and that got the attention of the NBC censor, who mandated that only a decocainized version would be allowed to be broadcast from then on. They couldn't ban the song outright since it quickly became one of the most popular of the moment.

 

[vitanola]

Mystery lyric time again. I heard it off Jack Hylton's record and thought it was:
Talking there is not the mode
They palaver in a code

That is just what the vocalist on the Hylton record says.

I learned the lyrics from the Irving Mills waxing, and of course he was known to occasionally "improve" a lyric.

Now that you mention it, I believe that the Hylton lyric is that published in the sheet music, though I cannot check, as my scores are now toast!