Saturday, June 17, 2006
5:17 a.m.
It's 5:17 in the morning and it's way to late to be posting blog entries.
I entered the title of a 78 r.p.m. record I've had for many years into the database at the Barnes and Noble of my employ and found that the particular song I wanted, as recorded by the performer I was interested in, exists on CD. The song was "Ukelele Lady" (which Bette covers these days), a recording from 1926 by a fellow named Frank Crumit. I ordered the CD and the song sounds marvelous in its full-bodied CD restoration. This performer was a cross between Rudy Vallee and Cole Porter. Most of the tracks on the CD were recorded in the twenties, with him on banjo and somebody awfully good on fiddle. Frank Crumit had a huge hit with a bit of light comedy called "Abul Abulbul Amir," the sort of song you'd hear in a POPEYE cartoon from the Great Depression. The history of this song is interesting. A Trinity College (Dublin, for you Joyceans) student named Percy French (not to be confused with Percy Faith) was quite a wag, and, like Frank Crumit after him, he played a banjo and wrote funny songs. He was a watercolorist of certain renown and took a civil service job as a "drain inspector," apparently for an outrageous salary. (This makes me think of Bob Dylan's cryptic line from DESOLATION ROW: "He went on sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet." Of course, in the London of the early 60's, a "drainpipe" was a type of pant-leg, so this character is probably closer to "the sword-swallower" who dogs Mr. Jones, the straight-to-closeted hero of Bob's "Ballad of a Thin Man.")
Anyway, Frank Crumit had a Number 12 hit, on which chart I don't know, with "Abdul Abulbul Amir." The song involves a fight to the death between two soldiers, one Russian, one middle-eastern. Maybe Anderson Cooper should sing it at the top of his broadcast instead of the headlines. For the curious, a couple of the lyrics are:
"Vile infidel, know
you have trodden the toe
of Abdul Abulbul Amir"
and
"The bravest by far
in the ranks of the Czar
was Ivan Skavinsky Skavar."
What's Number Twelve on the U.S. charts today? I have no idea, but I bet the song doesn't have a line to match the poetry of this:
"A Muscovite maiden, a vigil she keeps,
alone 'neath the pale polar star,
And the name that she whispers so oft as she weeps,
Is Ivan Skavinsky Skavar!"
I entered the title of a 78 r.p.m. record I've had for many years into the database at the Barnes and Noble of my employ and found that the particular song I wanted, as recorded by the performer I was interested in, exists on CD. The song was "Ukelele Lady" (which Bette covers these days), a recording from 1926 by a fellow named Frank Crumit. I ordered the CD and the song sounds marvelous in its full-bodied CD restoration. This performer was a cross between Rudy Vallee and Cole Porter. Most of the tracks on the CD were recorded in the twenties, with him on banjo and somebody awfully good on fiddle. Frank Crumit had a huge hit with a bit of light comedy called "Abul Abulbul Amir," the sort of song you'd hear in a POPEYE cartoon from the Great Depression. The history of this song is interesting. A Trinity College (Dublin, for you Joyceans) student named Percy French (not to be confused with Percy Faith) was quite a wag, and, like Frank Crumit after him, he played a banjo and wrote funny songs. He was a watercolorist of certain renown and took a civil service job as a "drain inspector," apparently for an outrageous salary. (This makes me think of Bob Dylan's cryptic line from DESOLATION ROW: "He went on sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet." Of course, in the London of the early 60's, a "drainpipe" was a type of pant-leg, so this character is probably closer to "the sword-swallower" who dogs Mr. Jones, the straight-to-closeted hero of Bob's "Ballad of a Thin Man.")
Anyway, Frank Crumit had a Number 12 hit, on which chart I don't know, with "Abdul Abulbul Amir." The song involves a fight to the death between two soldiers, one Russian, one middle-eastern. Maybe Anderson Cooper should sing it at the top of his broadcast instead of the headlines. For the curious, a couple of the lyrics are:
"Vile infidel, know
you have trodden the toe
of Abdul Abulbul Amir"
and
"The bravest by far
in the ranks of the Czar
was Ivan Skavinsky Skavar."
What's Number Twelve on the U.S. charts today? I have no idea, but I bet the song doesn't have a line to match the poetry of this:
"A Muscovite maiden, a vigil she keeps,
alone 'neath the pale polar star,
And the name that she whispers so oft as she weeps,
Is Ivan Skavinsky Skavar!"
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 5:17 AM 
