Nagasaki by Harry Warren and Mort Dixon

[Haydn]

I was playing a few versions of Nagasaki to a (non-dancer) friend the other day. He wondered why a Japanese city would be the subject of an American song in the early 30s.

According to this writer,

"it represents a time (the 1930s) when jazz (especially big band or "swing" jazz) was still in its infancy, and popular American musical composers like Harry Warren wrote songs about exotic, far-away places to take people's minds off their troubles. ... It is, of course, not a song about Nagasaki at all, but of America and American perceptions of peoples and places from days gone by."


NAGASAKI

Lew Stone & His Band (vocal: Nat Gonella)

Hot ginger and dynamite
There's nothing but that at night
Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky-wacky
Woo.

The way they can entertain
Would hurry a hurricane
Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky wacky
Woo.

In Fujiama
You get a mama
Then your troubles increase.
In a pagoda
She orders soda
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Guarantees

They kissy and huggy nice
By Jingo! I'ts worth the price.
Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky-wacky
Woo.

(Orchestral Interlude)

They give you a carriage free
The horse is a Japanee
Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky-wacky
Woo.

They sit you on the floor
And splinter you galore
Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky-wacky
Woo.

With Sweet Kimono
I tried to phone ‘er
And found the number engaged
In a pagoda
She orders soda
Ba-da-da-da-da-da. Guaranteed.

You just have to act your age
Or wind up inside a cage
Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky-wacky
Woo.

(Gonella ad libs for one line)
In a pagoda
She orders soda
Ba-da-da-da-da-da. Guaranteed.

When the girls Ju Jitsu
Seems like a bus hit you
Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky-wacky
Woo.

Back in Nagasaki
Where the fellers chew tobaccy
And the women wicky-wacky
Woo.

(Transcribed by Bill Huntley - November 2004)

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs ... saki.shtml

Wikipedia reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasaki_%28song%29

[KattenPejst]

In the British tv-series Jeeves & Wooster there is an additional intro to the song, I don't know if it was there in the original.

Watch the clip:
http://swingjazzblues.blogspot.com/2007 ... oster.html

Extremely envigorating!

[Eyeball]

The writer's theory gets knocked into a cocked hat when you realize that the Depression did not begin until 1930 and that the song was written 2 years prior to that. Blogs.

"The song's value lies not in its accurate portrayal of Nagasaki in 1928, but in the insights it offers concerning the development of music in America during the years of the Great Depression."

[Haydn]

The writer's theory gets knocked into a cocked hat when you realize that the Depression did not begin until 1930 and that the song was written 2 years prior to that. Blogs.

"The song's value lies not in its accurate portrayal of Nagasaki in 1928, but in the insights it offers concerning the development of music in America during the years of the Great Depression."

Yes, I spotted that too John. But most of the writer's comments still ring true.

[Eyeball]

The genesis for the Japanese vogue that swept the USA in the teens and 20s was, IIRC, the result of a very influential World's Fair or exposition at which many things Japanese were introduced to this country and made a large impression, hence numerous Japan-referenced pop culture items began to emerge and spread - popular melodies like San and Japanese Sandman, the tile game of Mah Jong, tea drinking, Japanese design and other such.

Few remember now that the Japanese Sessue Hayakawa (who we only remember now from his villainous role as the prison camp commandant in 50s film,THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI) had been a very popular romantic leading man in American made films back in the teens and 1920s.

[Eyeball]

His entire commentary is built upon a specious premise.

Which parts can ring true?

[Haydn]

In the British tv-series Jeeves & Wooster there is an additional intro to the song, I don't know if it was there in the original.

Watch the clip:
http://swingjazzblues.blogspot.com/2007 ... oster.html

Extremely envigorating!

The extra lyrics were in the original, but seem to have been taken out of most versions -

"Fellows, if you're arn
I will spin a yarn
That was told to me by Able Seaman Jones.
Once he had the blues
So he took a cruise
Far away from night-clubs and from saxophones.
He said, "Yo Ho, I've made a certain port
And when you talk about real he-man sport":"

http://www.harrywarren.org/songs/0362.htm

[Haydn]

Two vintage performances on Youtube:

Red and Struggs with Don Redman and his orchestra -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qBo0x9PD5g

Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGDujtewn74&amp