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To make up for my lack of posts during my winter break, here is every single record Spike Jones and His City Slickers released in their first 7 years, 106 songs in all (split up into three sections). More radical than most academic avant-gardists, but a damn sight funnier, bandleader/ drummer/ occasional vocalist / sound fx maker Jones and his numerous cronies weren't the first novelty orchestra (bands like the Korn Kobblers preceded them by a few years), but they did set the standard that musical anarchists have been striving for ever since.As familiar as Jones is, it's still enlightening to listen to all these songs in chronological order, as one can hear the development of the band from a compact unit specializing in a kind of crazed Dixieland jazz, to an increasingly open-ended project, incorporating more and more musical styles, guest vocalists, and tracks that are more like sketches than songs. And tho I knew about their biggest hit single "Der Fuehrer's Face" (and the infamous "You're A Sap, Mister Jap"), I didn't realize how many WWII songs they did record. In "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma", a song celebrating a sons' return home, the sense of relief that the war is finally ending is palpable.
As Spike used to deadpan after every song in concert: "Thank you, music lovers."
Spike Jones 1941-1948 pt1
| 1. Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow |
| 2. Behind Those Swinging Doors |
| 3. Red Wing |
| 4. The Covered Wagon Rolled Right Along |
| 5. don`t talk to me about women (1941) |
| 6. Yankee doodler (1942) |
| 7. Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag |
| 8. Three Little Words |
| 9. When Buddah Smiles |
| 10. You're A Sap Mister Jap |
| 11. Never Hit Your Grandma With A Shovel |
| 12. Horsey, Keep Your Tail Up |
| 13. Camptown Races |
| 14. John Scotter Trot |
| 15. Love For Sale |
| 16. Moanin' Low |
| 17. Cheatin' On The Sandman |
| 18. Come Josephine In My Flying Machine |
| 19. The Sailor With The Navy Blue Eyes |
| 20. Der Fuehrer's Face |
| 21. Hotcha Cornia (Hotcha Chornya-Russian Folk Songs) |
| 22. I Wanna Go Back To West Virginia |
23. Water Lou (Drip, Drip, Drip)
24. Clink, Clink, Another Drink
25. Little Bo-Peep Has Lost Her Jeep
026 - Dinah (1942)027 - 48 reasons why (1942) |
| 28. The Sheik Of Araby |
| 29. Oh! By Jingo |
| 30. I'm Going To Write Home |
| 31. Hi Ho My Lady |
| 32. I Know A Story |
| 33. St-St-St-Stella |
| 34. Hotcha Cornia (Hotcha Chornya-Russian Folk Songs) |
| 35. Down In Jungle Town |
Spike Jones 1941-1948 pt2
| 36. As Time Goes By |
| 37. People Will Say We're In Love |
38. G.I. Haircut
039 - hitch old dobbin to the shay again (1943) |
| 40. It Never Rains In Sunny California |
| 41. Wang Wang Blues |
| 42. My Little Girl |
| 43. The Sound Effects Man |
| 44. Ragtime Cowboy Joe |
| 45. The Vamp |
| 46. He Broke My Heart In Three Places |
| 47. Besame Mucho |
| 48. I'm Goin' Back To Where I Came From |
| 49. There's A Fly On My Music |
| 50. Row, Row, Row |
| 51. I Wanna A Gal Just Like The Gal That Married Dear Old Dad |
| 52. Jingle Bells |
53. Cocktails For Two
054 - they go wild, simply wild about me (1944) |
55. And The Great Big Saw Came Nearer And Nearer
056 - paddlin` madeline home (1944)057 - oh! how she lied (1944) |
| 58. Red Grow The Roses |
| 59. Jamboree Jones |
| 60. Whittle Out A Whistle |
| 61. Casey Jones |
| 62. At Last I'm In First With You |
| 63. Down By The O-Hi-O |
| 64. Holiday For Strings |
| 65. Cocktails For Two |
| 66. Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma |
| 67. Serenade To A Jerk |
| 68. Drip, Drip, Drip (Sloppy Lagoon) |
| 69. Chloe |
| 70. The Blue Danube |
| 71. Black Bottom |
| 72. Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye |
Spike Jones 1941-1948 pt3
| 73. MacNamara's Band | ||||
| 74. Siam | ||||
| 75. Liebestraume | ||||
| 76. You'll Always Hurt The One You Love | ||||
| 77. That Old Black Magic | ||||
| 78. Mother Goose Medley | ||||
79. Hawaiian War Chant
080 - i gotta girl i love (in north and south dakota) (1945)081 - hedda hopper`s hats (1945) 082 - george m. cohan medley (1945) | ||||
| 83. Old McDonald Had A Farm | ||||
| 84. I Dream Of Brownie In The Light Blue Jeans | ||||
| 85. The Glow Worm | ||||
| 86. Laura | ||||
| 87. Jones Polka | ||||
| 88. The Jones Laughing Record 89. My Pretty Girl
| ||||
| 94. William Tell Overture | ||||
| 95. Love In Bloom | ||||
| 96. The Man On The Flying Trapeze | ||||
| 97. Popcorn Sack | ||||
| 98. Our Hour (The Puppy Love Song) | ||||
| 99. My Old Flame | ||||
| 100. People Are Funnier Than Anybody | ||||
| 101. By The Beautiful Sea | ||||
| 102. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You | ||||
| 103. I Kiss Your Hand Madame | ||||
| 104. All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) | ||||
| 105. Ill Barkio (Il Bacio) | ||||
| 106. None But The Lonely Heart (A Soaperetta) |
I'm a life-long Spike Jones fan. I have a large collection of his recorded output, but I've never had the opportunity of acquiring his complete recordings from 1941 to 1948 in chronological order.
ReplyDeleteThis is a splendid post.
Thank you very much, Mr. Fab, for sharing it with us.
- der bajazzo
great, thanx!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back - I was starting to wonder if you'd given up, but clearly you haven't. And what a splendid post! I've got a couple of "best of" compilations, but apart from the really well-known tracks, the compilers have taken "best" to mean "wackiest", irrespective of whether the number is genuinely all that funny and/or has any real musical merit. This is a gold-mine of all the hard-to-get stuff. Thanks a million!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I was once told by a dealer in 78s who presumably knew what he was talking about that he had a rare multi-disc set of these guys performing, of all things, Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring" in their own inimitable fashion! Of course, I was interested in buying it, but he couldn't find it, and assumed that the other man who co-owned the shop must have already sold it.
Since this compilation purports to be everything they ever recorded, am I talking about a recording so obscure that it's not even included here, possibly because they made it under another name? Or did the guy just misremember some other novelty version of the same composition, or dream it or something?
Fab indeed! This is a nice little collection of the stuff of Spike legends. Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteQuestion inre "Wang Wang Blues": The lyric goes "Oh Lord what she did to me/ I'm just as sad as can be/ I got those wang wang blues". Did "wang" mean "penis" in 1943 like it does now?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they ever did Rites Of Spring.
ReplyDeleteThey did do The Nutcracker Suite though...
Thanks for collecting and sharing. All we have to do enjoy it. Your efforts are appreciated!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Plague! I obviously hadn't quite remembered the exact details of something which took place about 25 years ago. Nutcracker would make more sense stylistically anyway, so it must have been that. So this isn't the complete recordings then - any chance of a second helping?
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the comments folks, you all are very welcome. And I'm taking this on faith that this is the complete discography thru '48 - so sez the collector who uploaded this for me. Perhaps I should have said that these were all his singles, as Nnutcracker was indeed a (short) album. Its def not the complete Spike, as he made many records all the way up to his death in the '60s.
ReplyDeleteBut I do love the idea of Spike-goes-modern. Imagine a City Slickers take on John cage, Minimalism, psychedelia, punk...imagine them doing the entirety of "Dark Side of the Moon". He died way too soon!
Wonderful, Happy New Year!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much for this!!!
ReplyDeletemonstro kewl!
ReplyDeletethanks, man!
i swear upon my own grave that i will MAKE the Rites of Spring out of all this Spike Jones material... you have my solemn word. that is too good an idea to pass up!
ReplyDeleteHey, B'O'K - if you can really do that, I for one will hail you as a genius, because that's the most Dada idea I've heard in a long time! And therefore ideally suited for this website. I can't wait...
ReplyDeleteIf anyone can do it, Buttress O'Kneel can. And if this really happens, I will seriously consider organizing a whole Spike-goes-modern compilation.
ReplyDeleteIf this "Spike-goes-modern" thing is indeed going to be a thing, while I have neither the skill nor the patience to attempt something on the scale of "The Rite Of Spring", I will pledge a more modest contribution.
ReplyDeleteOnce the idea had been mooted by our esteemed host, it occurred to me that I could very clearly hear in my mind's ear a certain rather famous sixties track played in this fashion. So put me down for 3 minutes of Spike Jones on acid.
PS - How many people actually read these comments? Might it be worth announcing the "Spike Lives!" challenge in the main thread to make sure everybody knows about it?
The idea of Spike doing Darkside of the Moon is just incredible. Making it out of his takes would be daunting!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this collection Mr Fab. :)
Wonderful madness. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for taking the time to share these with us!
ReplyDelete"Rite of Spring" -- Spike Jones never made a version, but the Roto Rooter Goodtime Christmas Band did. See it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B94-9clMGRE
ReplyDeleteThank you for this music.
ReplyDelete