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Golden Era songs with off-color subjects.

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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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

Practically Family
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788
Location
sunny London
Doc Average said:
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

One of the Regulars
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146
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Manchester, UK
I'm so very diga-diga-doo by nature!

bunnyb.gal said:
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

I'll Lock Up
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9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
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.
 

vitanola

I'll Lock Up
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4,254
Location
Gopher Prairie, MI
Doc Average said:
"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
 

Amy Jeanne

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,858
Location
Colorado
dhermann1 said:
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 :rolleyes:
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
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

One Too Many
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1,715
Location
Melbourne, Australia
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

Call Me a Cab
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2,858
Location
Colorado
"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

Practically Family
Messages
788
Location
sunny London
Doc Average said:
"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! :D
 

Blackjack

One Too Many
Messages
1,198
Location
Crystal Lake, Il
Blackjack said:
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

I'll Lock Up
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6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
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

Bartender
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33,766
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Shangas said:
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

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Gopher Prairie, MI
Fletch said:
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!
 

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