[Dixielandjazz] Verses

[Harry Callaghan]

Verse-wise, let me state first that I was not aware that "Sheik of Araby"
and "Bill Bailey" had verses but once again, I must sing the praises of this
list.

Despite much of the needless nit-picking and bickering that goes on
sometimes, the upside of it is when I discover something new about some
musician or some piece of music, so this makes me eager to continue and hope
for some new surprise by opening another e-mail.

It is of course just coincidence that these two numbers are mentioned here
but an old friend of mine (usually when he got sufficiently tanked) would
customarily perform these at social functions.  His name was Joe Gumbus, a
fellow volunteer fireman in Port Jefferson, LI
and he was always the life of the party (shortly before he would inevitably
pass out)

His specialty number was "Bill Bailey", done Durante style and then we would
usually do a delightful rendition of "Sheik" in a manner I'm sure many of
you have heard, inserting "without no pants on" in between each line.

Not being the slightest bit shy, I would usually contribute a number of two,
capped off by Norman Pothier, who had been nicknamed "DeGaulle" because of
his French descent.and a slight resemble to the former French president.
Norman would lead the party-goers in "Alouette".

Ah, those were the good old days.

I believe the first time I had ever heard the verse of "Stardust" was on
what I guess you might want to describe as a slightly rock-syle rendition ot
it in the mid-fifties by Billy Ward and the Dominoes on the Liberty label..
They followed up their hit success with a similar rendition of "Deep Purple"
but its sales did not match that of the earlier record

Frank Sinatra did something I thought was rather unusual. While he had
recorded "Stardust" , chorus only with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, on his
third album for Reprise with Don Costa, approximately 20 years later, he
sang the verse to it and then when you thought the chorus was to appear, it
just went on to the next cut on the album as he had skipped the chorus
entirely.

And in closing, let me remind y'all that besides it being used as a key
ingredient in many Italian dishes, garlic, when strung together in a
necklace has been reported to ward off vampires.

Going on like this, I almost let my first cup of morning tea get cold.

Tides
HC
On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 8:02 PM, Eric Holroyd <eholroyd at optusnet.com.au>wrote:

> VERSE: The part of a tune that's disposable, except to its composer.
>
> I LIKE verses!
>
> Without the verse The Sheik Of Araby is a quite banal tune.
>
> The choruses of AIn’t Misbehavin’, Someday Sweetheart, Ain’t Gonna GIve
> Nobody None ‘O This Jellyroll are all ‘set up’ beautifully by first having
> the verse played – or preferably sung.
>
> There are hundreds of others too...
>
> Eric Holroyd
>
>
>
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-- 
Didja evah wonder why there are more horses' asses than there are
horses?
- Norvel Jackson (1921-1990)