‘Live In Japan,’ recorded on September 23 and 24, 1973, at the Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo, Japan, was initially released in December 1973 as a double-LP set on the Mainstream Records label. Over the years, the album has been re-released under slightly different titles on various record labels.
In 2006, 'Live in Japan' was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, recognizing its cultural, historic, and aesthetic significance as a landmark live jazz recording.
Sarah Vaughan, also known as "Sassy," "The Divine One" and "Sailor" (for her salty speech), possesses a remarkable four-octave contralto singing voice. Her perfect pitch, unmatched improvisational command, and truly amazing intonation make her a truly exceptional singer.
'Live In Japan' captures a spectacular return to Sarah's jazz roots. Backed by a tight acoustic trio featuring pianist Carl Schroeder, bassist John Gianelli, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, the release presents a looser, more open and improvisational setting than her heavily orchestrated 1970s studio jazz/pop albums for the Mainstream Records label.
To my ears, this is Sarah Vaughan's masterpiece that captures "The Divine One" at the absolute peak of her vocal and improvisational powers.
The freeload is the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab 2CD reissue from 1987, and has pretty spiffy sonics.
For the freeload, let's talk about misheard lyrics.
I'm not going the standard, "Scuse me while I kiss dis guy" route. My misheard lyric was much dumber. I must have been 10 years old when I thought Bobby Fuller's "I Fought The Law and the law won" was Hop off a log into round one. It made no sense to me then, but most things adults did made little sense to any of us. Remember, I was part of an unruly mob if 'tweens' who and hissed, threew candy and nearly rioted to get zJimi Hendrix off the stage so the Monkees could take the stage. It was here in NY. Perhaps you attended as well? My mother, dimutive as she was, was a huge fan of Sarah Vaughn as am I.
ReplyDeleteThank you for not playing the "Scuse me while I kiss dis guy” card.
DeleteMy aunt took younger cousin who was 10, to the Forest Hills Monkees/Hendrix show. They were shocked by Jimi, and complained endlessly about the show. My aunt claimed to have put her hands over my cousin’s ears. These days my cousin proudly talks about seeing Jimi and how cool it was....sigh.
I too, brag about how cool Jimi was. We saw the same show, your cousin and I. I've spent most of my life in the US on the west coast. It was a fluke I caught that show. Seattle was cancelled when zi got home.
DeleteAs a little girl, I misheard the Christmas carol, "Hark the Herald Angel Sing". I heard Herald as Harold (I had an uncle Harold), and thought Harold was the name of an angel.
ReplyDeleteThe lovely & talented HXC, to whom I am married, is an excellent singer (lotsa singing in old folx homes before we became the old folx, lone blond haired, blue-eyed, Colorado woman in an all-star gospel choir in Austin & even some 20 feet from stardom backup singing) with a propensity for Ella, which our girls got a heavy dose of. When the elderchild was about 7 we heard her singing
ReplyDelete"In time the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble" as "In time the Rockies may crumble, Jim Walter may tumble." Jim Walter, as it happened, was a local home builder of less then sterling reputation. We did not correct her.
I've heard that many people misheard CCR's "There's a bad moon on the rise" for There's a bathroom on the right.
ReplyDeleteI offer for your reading pleasure a column by Jon Carroll, all about "mondegreens." I coined a bevy of them listening to soundtrack albums for musicals I hadn't seen and didn't understand, and Stan Freberg comedy albums. I'll admit that I can't *remember* any of them...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/jon-carroll-i-m-not-blue-i-m-mondegreen-3320697.php
D in California
Nice article!
Deletefun!
DeleteWhen my son was about 4, the Lion King cartoon movie, and soundtrack, was released. He loved both, and we would play the soundtrack when we went on car trips. One of the songs, sung by Jeremy Irons, was titled "Be Prepared." My son loved that song, and would often sing along with the chorus, but he thought the actual name of the song was "Beepy Head." I have no idea what a beepy was, or is, or if they do have heads.
ReplyDeleteThe second line of Otis Rush's song "Double Trouble" is one that continues to perplex me. Sometimes it sounds to me as though he's singing, "Scorched love," or, sometimes "Scorched lover." Neither makes a whole lot of sense in the context of the first line. Consulting the web, I find I'm not alone in this confusion. Lyrics sites identify the words as, "It's false love" or "Sports lover", which really makes no sense. Or the slightly more logical "Sparks of love." All of which leads me to wonder: who or what is the final arbiter of song lyrics? Would it lie with the publisher or with the copyright office, or what?
ReplyDeleteWith headphones, I hear:
DeleteI lay awake at night
Fall so low, just so troubled
It's hard to keep a job
Laid off, I'm having double trouble
I can definitely hear your reading of the song too. It's just one of those lines that's a little hard to nail down— Otis is otherwise completely intelligible. What is doubtless is that the guitar and vocal are right up there in the pantheon of tortured urban blues.
DeleteWhile my earliest hearing of the Scottish folk song "Did You Ever See A Lassie" wasn't misheard, I always thought it was about a dog.
ReplyDeleteANON RF: Well, dogs do kinda go this way and that way and that way and this way...
DeleteIndeed they do!
DeleteMisheard Grateful Dead - Bertha: I had a hard on
ReplyDeleteRunning from your window
I was all night running, running
ANON RF: Mentioned two a couple of weeks ago here; would love to share again: 1) "Life would be ecstasy/You and me and Leslie/Groovin..." and 2) "Once in a meadow/Juanita once in a meadow..." To these I will sheepishly add The Beatles' "Bum bummy Low Oh/Buy you a diamond ring my friend..." (I was 10) and from All In The Family: "/Gee a roll of Sal and crate/Those were the dayyyys..."
ReplyDeleteMisheard, wrapped up like a douche. Every time.
ReplyDeleteThanks Babs
I still go with that one ...
DeleteThe Kingsmen" "Louie Louie" Even the FBI couldn't figure out the lyrics, so it MUST be dirty, right?
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I worked at an international kindergarden in Bangkok, there was a large group of Filipina assistants and sometimes their accents caused some confusion. Everyday I heard them singing the song "Sally the Camel". I had never heard this song before and what I heard them singing sounded like:
ReplyDeleteSally in the Cadillac has 5 humps
So ride Sally ride...Boom Boom Boom
Because Sally is a whore (horse)
I heard this every day for a couple of weeks until I finally asked another teacher about it and got the correct pronunciation explained to me.
she still lives in sodomy, we've never been apart. If you see her say hello Bob Dylan
ReplyDeletePutting aside that as a kid I was chastised for profanity by my parents for singing 'Ob-la-di Ob-la-da' before they realised it was actually a song lyric (they weren't up with the charts even back then) one that comes to mind is the Hot Chocolate song 'You Sexy Thing' where Errol Brown sings. 'I believe in miracles' always sounded to me like 'I believe in milk gums'.
ReplyDeleteThe other one that had me for years was the first line of 'Paint It Black' where Jagger sings ' I see a red door and I want to paint it black ' which I always thought was ' I see a radio and I want to paint it black'.
Couldn't think of anything, but it got me thinking...looked up this kind of obscure track and found that the song (reversed) actually had real lyrics:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-TMFql5z8
Tzima N'arki
You gave me precious information
On that imaginary morning
I wrote it down in desperation
And gave out the notice to be served
If God had listened to my story
None of this would ever have happened
If God had listened to my story
None of this would ever had occurred
King's lead hat put the innocence inside her
It will come, it will come, it will surely come
King's lead hat was a hammer to desire
It will come, it will come, it will surеly come
~ Jon
ps
Thanks Babs!
Since English is not my first language (by a mile) it's easy to mishear stuff. In a Dutch tv program there was this item, which came on every week, and they called it Mama Applesap. (Mama Applejuice). It was a mishearing of the famous chant in Manu Dibango Soul Makossa, and more precise Wanna be starting by Michael Jackson. It lead to a whole series of people who enhanced the mishearing by putting up fake subtitles to lure the brain in.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGza8r3tuDw&pp=ygUNbWFtYSBhcHBlbHNhcA%3D%3D
Link
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/KUX3fytw9Fp
The rosy red cheeks of the Lincolnshire Men.
ReplyDeleteMy wife's sister always thought Kenny Rogers was singing "Four hundred children and a crop in the fields." No wonder Lucille left!
ReplyDelete