Post 599: DISCARDED VERSES OF THE POPULAR SONGS

In most of the popular songs from the early days, composers wrote a Verse as well as a Chorus. But today, in the case of hundreds of these tunes, our jazz bands normally leave out the Verse and play only the Chorus. In fact, if anyone suggests playing the Verse, it usually turns out that only one or two members of the band actually know it.

Of course there are exceptions. For example, the Verse of Alexander's Ragtime Band is so much an integral part of the song that it is practically always played through, at least once. Chloe has a highly unusual spooky Verse in a minor key - well worth playing. The Verse of Everybody Loves My Baby is a good one, too, and leads perfectly into the Chorus. Exactly the same is true of I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now, where the Verse is an important part of the narrative.

And the Verse of Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet is so good and substantial that it's a fine song, quite independent of the neat and merry Chorus. And - in case you don't know - I can tell you the Verse of Ice Cream, though rarely played, is very attractive. Peg o' My Heart has a pleasant 16-bar (8+8) Chorus based on the Four-Leaf Chord Progression; but to give your performance a bit of body you should also play the attractive Verse (which is also an 8 + 8)

I used to think we ought to make an effort to revive discarded Verses. So I started to seek them out, though it's often difficult these days even to get hold of the original music. Here is what I discovered: the Verses were often really dull compared with the popular and familiar Choruses! So perhaps it's no bad thing after all that so many Verses have been abandoned. Yes, it is astonishing but true that some great songs with good melodies that everybody loves actually had, in their original form, dull and forgettable Verses.

The reason why I am thinking about this matter of long-forgotten Verses is that my attention was drawn to When You're Smiling. That wonderful researcher and vintage music collector Audrey VanDyke shared the original sheet music of this song.

When You're Smiling (composed in 1928 by Mark Fisher, Joe Goodwin and Larry Shaye) is such a good song. Bands love it. Audiences love it (and often sing along); and the tune is easy to improvise upon.

Yet - be honest - do you have the faintest idea of its VERSE?

Well, thanks to Audrey, I can now tell you the Verse consists of 16 bars and the words are:

I saw a blind man.

He was a kind man

Helping a fellow along.

One could not see.

One could not walk.

But they both were humming this song:...

CHORUS

When you're smiling, etc.

The Verse is a kind of 'recitation' - the melody uses only five different notes. And whoever would have thought that When You're Smiling - as originally composed - is about two severely disabled people?
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John Dixon of The Shotgun Jazz Band sent me these further comments:
Your post on missing verses, dead on. the Verses were often really dull compared with the popular and familiar Choruses! - too true. It’s the general reason we don’t play EVERY verse to every tune. Many times we’ll learn the verse and just realize it’s not very good. Same with lyrics. 'Poor Butterfly' is an outtake from the latest record and at first I wanted to do it with the lyrics but they are SO cheesy and hamfisted. Same with many verses. It’s an ongoing joke, actually… We’ll call a tune and someone will say “Know the verse?” and Tyler and I will break out in a super schmaltzy verse that’s always the same.

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I received the following comments from James Buck - a friend and regular reader who lives in the South of England:
I was told by an old dance band musician, some dozen years ago, that in the 'dance hall days', when he was playing regularly. "The bands missed out the verses because they were often in different keys and tempos, from the choruses.  This was too much for most dancers to cope with, so they stopped dancing.  So the bands just dropped the verses!"    

I can not check with him, as he has long since died.  He being in his late 80's when he told me this.

This, as well as your comments, is another reason for the verses no longer being played.   In my mind the verse often gives another meaning to a chorus, as in "Pennies from Heaven".

Post 538: FLATTENED SIXTHS AND 'SAN' - FROM LOOSE MARBLES TO TUBA SKINNY

Imagine you are playing a standard tune in the key of F. The chords you are most likely to use are F major, B flat major and C 7th. In fact some tunes can be played using only these three chords. But there's a fair chance you will also need G minor 7th, A 7th and a few more.

But an unlikely chord is D flat 7th.  Based on the flattened 6th note in the scale of F, it has a clashing, 'depressing' effect on the melody at any point where it is played. However, it crops up briefly, for special purposes, in quite a few of our tunes.

In the Chorus of the popular tune San, composed in 1920 by Lindsay McPhail and Walter Michels, this chord occurs an exceptional number of times. In total, it occupies 18.75% of the Chorus. This gives the tune its distinctive character. I can think of no other tune in which this chord is used so much.

I recently came across an interesting video that had been put up on YouTube at the end of 2013. The generous video-maker was a person codenamed twobarbreak and the video was of Loose Marbles playing San.

By the way, my friend Bob Andersen in San Diego has emailed me to say that twobarbreak is in fact Peter Loggins, the well-known jazz trombone player, dance teacher and jazz researcher.

You can watch his video BY CLICKING HERE.

They are playing the tune in the key of F. Listen for that D flat 7th chord: you hear it forty-two times, first at 03 seconds, and then at 05 seconds. See what I mean?

This video also appeals to me because it provides a glimpse at what was going on behind the scenes in those days when Loose Marbles was still evolving and Tuba Skinny was in its early stage of development.

There is no audience. The band seems to be rehearsing in an otherwise deserted New Orleans bar. Chord books lie around on the floor; and Shaye is directing proceedings: for example, she sets up a washboard Chorus by the hugely energetic Robin. This is accompanied by stop chords - a device that was to occur very often in later Tuba Skinny performances. 

San has a 24-bar Verse in a minor key but Loose Marbles choose not to play this at all. Instead, they simply romp through the Chorus seven times in a pretty exciting manner. The distinctive clarinet sound of Michael Magro is much in evidence. There is the usual Loose Marbles emphasis on ensemble playing, and they ensure that the tune is not always led by the cornet. Note how Barnabus on trombone leads in the second and fifth Choruses. 

Already in 2013, Shaye's wonderful gift for intuitive improvisation and harmonisation during ensembles was much in evidence. The actual notes she plays in the fourth Chorus (that runs from 1 minute 45 seconds to 2 minutes 20 seconds) repay close attention. They are so much more inspired and original than what we hear from so many players. It is amazing to think she had taken up cornet-playing only three or four years earlier.

The musicians are all familiar faces, though a couple of them seem to have since departed from the New Orleans scene.

In more recent times, Tuba Skinny have been playing San frequently. You can easily find videos of them doing so on YouTube. Watch an example filmed by my friend James Sterling BY CLICKING HERE.

But Tuba Skinny are now including the Verse - usually playing it at the start and again later. They are also pitching the tune three semi-tones higher, having switched to the key of Ab, in which it works very well. However, I don't think these later performances are necessarily more exciting than that original Loose Marbles rehearsal!