"Nagasaki"

Some of you know that in recent years I (Adam, that is) have become interested in early jazz music (pre-WWII, basically). The girlies, who are just as excellent students at home as they are at school, of course have become interested with me. In the house we often listen to jazz and pop songs from the 1920s and 1930s, and the patter-y and slightly off-color old standard "Nagasaki" grew to be one of their favorites. Not too long ago I learned there is a local band, the Mouldy Figs, that specializes in the type of music we like, and so we trekked out to Hopkins one Sunday afternoon to see a show. The Figs turned out to be quite fantastic, and fortunately they don't seem to mind a couple of little girls trying out their Charleston and Black Bottom moves on the dance floor while they play. (The audience doesn't seem to mind much either.) But I think the band was surprised when the girls went up to request "Nagasaki," and seeing as Cici and Ruby knew the lyrics better than they did, they invited the girls up to sing it with them. Here's how it turned out. (And special thanks to the Figs' clarinet player for helping them find the melody at the beginning - you can see him do it if you watch closely).




The lyrics are:

Hot ginger and dynamite
There's nothing but that at night
Back in Nagasaki where the fellas chew tobaccky and the women wicky-wacky-woo
The way they can entertain
Would hurry a hurricane
Back in Nagasaki where the fellas chew tobaccky and the women wicky-wacky-woo
Oh Fujiyama
You get a mama
And then your troubles increase
In some pagodas
She orders sodas
Earthquakes, milkshakes ten cents apiece
Make kissy and huggy nice
Oh by jingo it's worth the price
Back in Nagasaki where the fellas chew tobaccky and the women wicky-wacky-woo