"DO I GET IT?" Missouri Jazz Band Banner 7052 E 1928 Gender Bending Lyrics
$
20
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
Here's yet another example of 1920s Craft Excellence and Unintended Gender Bending on Cheap Records:
We begin with the "B" side, THE CONTINENTAL DANCE ORCHESTRA playing "DO I GET IT?" It's a tune you've never heard of, written by an anonymous "house" composer, played by obscure musicians, all working for peanuts. Yet, the record is delightful, copacetic, and professionally ultra-competent, even HOT in places. Says something about the music business then.
AND also they enforced the rule, imposed by music publishers, that NOT ONE SYLLABLE of the lyrics could be altered, even if the song was obviously intended to be sung by a woman, yet must be rendered by a hapless man, in this case, RALPH HAINES. Just changing "he" to "she" had serious consequences. I thought only hit songs were subjected to this degree of scrutiny, but it's applied to this modest, non-hit "B" side as well.
Of course the no-change rule applied even more emphatically to the "A" side, "CAN'T HELP LOVIN DAT MAN," from "Show Boat." Originally sung in the Broadway show by Helen Morgan, instead we have singer BOBBY DIXON, in drag, forced to aver:
He can come home as late as can be
Home without him ain't no home to me
Can't help lovin' dat man o' mine!
This original 1928 Banner 7052 is in nice E condition.
SEE ALSO the listing by BUD FREEMAN'S ORCHESTRA, in this week's auctions. Same "Can't Help," same unwittingly hilarious male treatment of the song.
(n.b. If the male singer happened to be GAY, then everything worked out after all. At least for HIM! There was a Columbia CD about 25 years ago, with a couple dozen such switcheroo selections, called - naturally! - "Can't Help Lovin' That Man.")
*******
These records come from my private collection, which I have been accumulating since 1967, and now am downsizing! My highest priority in these eBay auctions is to give you the best possible idea of a record’s true condition and aesthetic value. I always post at least four clear images, showing the record fore and aft, a close-up of the label, and the whole disc, warts and all. If my purple prose won’t cut it, the pictures will! Shipping is done with expert care. Your record will brave Media Mail in a stout corregated box, between four sheets of cardboard and a couple of “packers.” I hope you are amused by these descriptions, and by the quality of service being offered.
price rating
