Monday, April 27, 2020

It's Swing Time! Visual Pun Time Dept.

Note how caption adds interest, visual appeal
Anita O'Day, Cole Porter, Billy May. Why, it's poetry already! Miss Day has been Foamfeatured© antecedently, and so has "I take a portly" May, but here they toss a nickel into the cup of struggling Tin Pan Alley tunesmith, jingle jockey and Brill Building bum Cole Porter.

Porter gave up his profitable Chopstick Straw© business, selling out of a suitcase on Manhattan's swank Third Avenue, to try his hand at tunesmithery after his sales-pitch song became a popular hit:

"Youse can drink n' eat wit' dese here sticks, on account which dey're hollow! Sup an' sip wit' dis neat trick, th' patented Porter drinkin' stick! Tell yo' pappy, tell yo' maw! Chopstick Straw! Chopstick Straw!"

The signature song that lifted hearts during the Great Depression (famously being whistled by many ruined businessmen as they plummeted from skyscraper windows) is sadly not included in this collection, which features lesser compositions from his lengthy artistic decline such as Night And Day, I Get A Kick Out Of You, and other by-the-yard material.
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14 comments:

  1. B.B.April 27, 2020 at 6:55 AM

    If you haven't seen Ms. O'Day in "Jazz on a Summer's Day," do it to it.

    Go find yourself a copy of this film of her '58 "Newport Jazz Fest" spot. In top form on stage and in a snappy chapeau to boot.

    You can thank me later.

    Also here's a nice NPR piece on her:

    https://www.npr.org/2019/10/18/770936400/fresh-air-marks-the-centenary-of-the-birth-of-jazz-singer-anita-o-day

    Voot to the Vooteroonie.

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    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIApril 27, 2020 at 7:22 AM

      My money is on th' Four Or Five Guys© having total recall on that gig and that chapeau, B.B.

      Delete
    2. B.B.April 27, 2020 at 8:06 AM

      A hip room, or haberdashery, money or none. (Mine all went "AWAY" few daze ago...... By my splurging on a set of the full-fledged finery in the fine line of swanky Isle O'Foam lounge-wear...)(Too bad I asked for it C.O.D. . . . . That dumb move blew up my compyooter...)

      Delete
  2. B.B.April 27, 2020 at 8:18 AM

    I'd have a few more haut-off-the-presses couture comments if it weren't for the fact that all the by-the-yard material on hand in the B.B. Bunker has lately been going to home-brewed P.P.E. Masks mostly, but also a few Covid.. erm, Coffee filters, as those are about as easy to find in these parts as a toilet paper tree.

    I'd also maybe do some beggin' for some linkage, in the form of Anita, Cole 'n' Billy, so as to have some more yardage, material, grist for the Elves down in the Mill aka B.B. Sweatshop. Or at least some tunes for them to listen to while salving away on their Singer sewing machines.

    And, no, we have NOT been chugging gallons of Clorox.

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    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIApril 27, 2020 at 8:54 AM

      I liked "salving away"!

      Salve yourself.

      Delete
    2. MrDaveApril 27, 2020 at 9:17 PM

      I agree! "salving away" is much more intriguing and we need all the intrigue we can get! I'm going to rustle up some salve and give it a try!

      Delete
    3. B.B.April 30, 2020 at 4:40 AM

      You Foamheads have salved the day with this sublime set of Anita & Billy doing Cole. Just the sonic tonic the 4-outed-5 Doctors ordered. A smooth elixir in this time of existential anxieties and ongoing idiocy from just about ALL points. Be they Lited, Lysoled, or not.

      Now excuse me while I go bag balm the beagle, Bishop.

      And, no, that is NOT a euphemism for Geeking the Swan.

      Delete
  3. Jack Kerouac's CatApril 27, 2020 at 7:53 PM

    Well, did you evah! What a swell record this is!

    To my ears, this is better than Ella's "Sings the Cole Porter Song Book".

    Anita had an amazing sense of rhythm, and could out-party Keef, Sid, Kurt, Janis, Jim with one hand tied behind her back, and look good doing it.

    Composer, arranger, trumpeter, and band leader Bill May is "on point" here doing that voodoo, that he did, so well. Bill played with more singers and musicians than Pamela Des Barres.

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    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIApril 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM

      "... played with more singers and musicians than Pamela Des Barres."

      My first Yok du Jour, for which I thank you!

      Delete
  4. MrDaveApril 27, 2020 at 9:28 PM

    I fine album by a holy trinity. Since I've already got this can I trade my link in for some of those swell sounding chopstick straws?! You must have grabbed a few handfuls when Cole was laid up after his horseback riding accident in '37?

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  5. pmacApril 27, 2020 at 11:08 PM

    While, I'll now have some musical accompaniement for this evening's smoking jacket adorned, cocktail hour! Thanks, Farq!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dave HeasmanApril 28, 2020 at 10:38 PM

    JOASD while being a good fillum sadly omitted to show the (fairly) famous Ray Charles set from 1958, the EP of which - I Got A Woman/Drown was my gateway to jazz. Would have loved to have seen it. Wouldn't have missed Chuck Berry with that clarinettist.

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    1. B.B.April 30, 2020 at 4:50 AM

      Am I sadly mistaken, or is there footage (even if just "partial"?) of Brother Ray doin it to it at his Atlanta gig circa '59...?

      (The Concerto de Geniuso which became the Long Player "Ray Charles in Person" on Atlantic, out around 1960...)

      Is that '58 model Newport Ray out in "any" form?

      (And by that, I mean "video" of it...)

      "Ray Charles at Newport" was the LP of that gig, no?

      - B.(atttery too low to do any "Searhin'" of my own write now...)

      Delete
  7. NicoMay 28, 2020 at 5:41 AM

    Lovely record. Anita did everything so well....

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