Blue Drag lyrics

Jack

Yeah, Myrow is right...I was mixing it up with Allen's Viper's Dream, another song about smoking weed.

best,
Jack.

djangadjo

Jack wrote:

Yeah, Myrow is right...I was mixing it up with Allen's Viper's Dream, another song about smoking weed.

best,
Jack.

That happens to me a lot, getting the viper songs mixed up ...

scot

Here are the lyrics to Blue Drag as I remember them:

Blue Drag, it sure is draggin' me down
I'm almost draggin' the ground
When I hear that blue drag

That slow drag, it's such a new crazy swing
It's such a new hazy thing
I must have my blue drag

B Oh that rhythm, that rhythm
Has brought me to onto this mysterious craze
Oh that rhythm, that rhythm
Has got me into this mysterious haze

Can't get enough of blue drag
Oh it's got my soul on fire, I know that
I'll never tire of that low down blue drag

Courtesy of Freddy Taylor's Swing Men I think.

Let's not forget that other great Viper tune - "If You's a Viper":

"I'm the king of everything, but I gotta be high 'fore I can sing
The sky is high, and so am I - if you's a viper".

Thanks to Stuff Smith and Louie Bluie.

djangadjo

Stuff Smith's "The Man With the Jive" is another classic :!:

bbeshoar

Freddy Taylor and the Swingmen from Harlem recorded 'Blue Drag' with vocals twice in 1935. The first session was in March with Oscar Aleman on guitar. The flip side was a vocal version of 'Viper's Dream'.

The second session was in April with Django on guitar. Here are the details:
April 1935 ~ Paris

Freddy Taylor and his Swing Men From Harlem
Freddy Taylor (tp & vo); Charlie Johnson (tp); Chester Lanier (cl,as & bs); Fletcher Allen (cl,ts & arr.); John Ferrier (p); Django Reinhardt (g); Eugène d'Hellemmes (b); William Diemer (dm)

Blue Drag
Swanee River
How Come You Love Me Like You Do
Viper's Dream

Source: http://www.thebestofwebsite.com/Bands/R ... nhardt.htm (Google cache)

I have mp3s of the March session, and the first three tunes in the April session. I have not been able to locate a recording in any format of the April 1935 'Viper's Dream'.

Does anyone have an idea where I might find it? I'll be happy to trade for it.

Barron Beshoar
Hot Club of Boulder
www.hotclubofboulder.com

scot

I don't know for sure that the four tunes recorded in April actually exist at all. That the recordings were even done - that comes only from Ultraphone's records. In fact, in "The Book of Django", Abrams suggests that these recordings were done for Ultraphone's projected Anthology of French Jazz but were rejected for unknown reasons. The same tunes were recorded at both sessions except that there was no Viper's Dream recorded in March (the session with Aleman), it was replaced with Mama Don't Allow (Fishing Blues). It's possible that what you think are three of those unissued takes from April are actually differently mastered reissues of the March sessions. I'd give them a serious listen. The other discographers - Haederli and Vernon - don't offer much more info. John Bajo and I discussed these recordings several times; he did not have them, Fred Sharp did not have them, and John believed them to be lost, if they ever existed at all. Haederli does not include the March 1935 session in his Django discography - that one is found in his Oscar Aleman discography and says that while Swanee River was actually issued, only test pressings exist for the other three. I have never met anyone who had the recordings from April of 1935. All this is confusing as different discographers give differing recording dates. And I still can't find an actual release of How Come You Do Me Like You Do - not on record or CD as far as I can find.

I might be able to track down a bit more info, and maybe Roger or Patrus have something...

djangadjo

I have this 45 rpm. Hard to find, but I like to think of Django and Steph deciding how they'll do "VIper's Dream"

http://www.parisjazzcorner.com/en/dis_f ... tNum=64035

djangadjo

http://www.unl.edu/tcweb/fowler/TaylorC ... sDream.mp3

One of the early versions of "Viper's Dream" from the 45 EP disk. The person who copied to mp3 for me missed a beat at the beginning and recorded with low gain. I boosted the level, but that added a little hiss. You get a sense of the recording.

Great relaxed swing feel.

Joli Gadjo

Our friends from the Bitter Dose Combo here in DC sing a great version of Blue Drag, their Bass player takes it by himself all alone and swings it. It's a fun tune.
www.facebook.com/pages/...Bitter-Dose-Combo/8661657754

bbeshoar

OK, I shot from the hip on my original post, posting from my office instead of at home where I have my collection and reference materials. The Freddy Taylor recordings with Django are listed in Charles Delaunay's discography in the back of his biography of Django, and Delaunay does list all four songs as being "Never Released". However...

The version of "Swanee River" on Integrale #3-1, trk 7, has horns. No 1935 recording of 'Swanee' with horns is listed in Delaunay's discography; could this be with Taylor?

I have an mp3 of Freddy Taylor doing "How Come You Do Me Like You Do", but I have no idea what the source of it was. It is tagged 2005 from "Ukjent album", which isn't much help. It is clearly Freddy Taylor from the same period; the recording quality and the performance are consistent with the Ultraphone AP-1489 recordings of Blue Drag and Viper's Dream. Impossible to tell if it's really Django; the guitarist does not solo and the comping is quite ordinary.

I would like to think that these versions of 'Swanee River' and 'How Come You Do' are from the April 1935 session with Freddy Taylor. If these exist, then there may be an acetate of Blue Drag and Viper's Dream out there somewhere.

Then there is Integrale 4-2, trk 11, a vocal version of Blue Drag, "Blue Drag No. 2", on which our heroes in QHCF sing badly and finish in intoxicated laughter. Now, I have the Integrale set only as downloads, so I do not have whatever liner notes might have come with it. I'm guessing this is an outtake from the April 1935 Hot Club session that gave us Ultraphone AP-1479, the version we all know and love. Any info on this?

keep on djammin'