[Dixielandjazz] gangster songs/tunes

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Colin Toomer wrote:

> I would like ideas of songs/tunes to play at a local restaurant called 'Al
> Capone's' for a gangsters & moll night.
>
> Any unusual tunes/songs that would suit the night.
(snip)

Oddly enough, I worked for 16 1/2 years at a place called Capone's Chicago
Tea Room in Sacramento, California.  It was patterned after a 1920s 
speakeasy.

Any songs from the 20s will work.  Anything sounding like Ragtime or
Dixieland will work.

However, off hand I can think of one tune that I learned from Turk Murphy.
It is titled "Wise Guys."

Another could be "The Prisoner's Song."  It is an old (maybe) Jimmy Rogers 
song) or that type, but can be done very effectively in a Jazz style.  The 
words start off:

"If I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly.

I'd fly to the arms of my love one.  And there I'd be willin' to die."

Of course there is always "Chicago."

It has been so many years since the "Roaring 20s" that none of the songs
have to be authentic 1920.  They just have to sound like they are.

--Bob Ringwald