This week’s Snapshot in Prose captures cornet and trumpet player Red Nichols at a relatively early point in his career, though he had already made hundreds of recordings under a variety of band names. But, to a certain degree, the more traditional jazz he favored, with its Dixieland flavor, was on the verge of being replaced by the new swing craze.
But Nichols survived and even thrived, continuing to record and perform until his death in 1965. In this 1935 profile, Nichols looks back at his salad days in the world of jazz.
Tag: Red Nichols
Be a go-gettin' son of a gun!
We’ll admit to being suckers for all those “Hey, cheer up, chum — things could be worse!” songs of the 1930s, and we thought we’d share one of our favorites with the Cladrite Clan here today. After all, while our collective troubles might not be at quite the level of the Great Depression, between the oil disaster in the Gulf, the struggling economy, and two ongoing military actions (just to name a few), we’ve got it bad enough.
So we like the sentiments of these Mack Gordon lyrics (Harry Revel wrote the music), and figure they apply every bit as much today as they did back in the ’30s:
Wake Up and Live
Wake up and live; don’t mind the rainy patter,
and you will find it’s mind over matter!
Dark clouds will break up
if you will wake up and live.Wake up and live; show the stock you’re made of,
Just follow through; what are you afraid of?
Why don’t you wake up and live?
Why don’t you wake up and live?Come out of your shell; hey, fella,
find your place in the sun.
Come out of your shell; say, fella,
just be a go-gettin’ son of a gun!Wake up and live; it may be love is yawning.
Up on your toes; a better day is dawning!
Don’t let up; get up and give,
give yourself a shakeup, just to wake up and live!Come out of your shell; hey, fella,
Find your place in the sun.
Come out of your shell; say, fella,
just be a go-gettin’ son of a gun!Wake up and live; it may be love is yawning.
Up on your toes; a better day is dawning!
Don’t let up; get up and give.
If Lady Love is yawning,
and a better day is dawning,
Won’t you get up, mister? Wake up and live!— Mack Gordon, 1937
We like this song enough, in fact, to provide two different recordings of it for your consideration, both of them from 1937.
“Wake Up and Live” — Red Nichols and His Orchestra, feat. the Three Songies
“Wake Up and Live” — The Hudson-DeLange Orchestra, feat. Ruth Gaylor