Western Swing
In the 1930s Bob Wills took the old tune and set it to a 2/4 dance beat to be played by his Western swing dance band, the Texas Playboys. His 1938 recording (Vocalion 05079) became a hit. The song, as originally recorded by Wills, borrowed lyrics from an 1878 popular song written by Frederick W. Root ("Sunday Night"). The Wills version opens with:
- Light's in the parlor, fire's in the grate,
- Clock on the mantle says it's a'gettin' late,
- Curtains on the window, snowy white,
- The parlor's pleasant on Sunday night.
"Sunday Night" opens with:
- The light is in the parlor, A fire is in the grate;
- The clock upon the mantle Ticks out "it's getting late"
- The curtains at the windows Are made of snowy white,
- The parlor is a pleasant place To sit on Sunday night, To sit on Sunday, Sunday night.
Wills and his Texas Playboys performed this arrangement of "Ida Red" in two of his movies; 'Go West, Young Lady (1941) and Blazing the Western Trail (1945). It has been revived by the award-winning Western Swing band The Hot Club of Cowtown and features on four of their albums: Swingin' Stampede (1998), Continental Stomp (2003; live version), Four Dead Batteries (film soundtrack, 2005), and Best Of The Hot Club of Cowtown (2008).
Read more about this topic: Ida Red
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or swing:
“An accent mark, perhaps, instead of a whole western accent—a point of punctuation rather than a uniform twang. That is how it should be worn: as a quiet point of character reference, an apt phrase of sartorial allusion—macho, sotto voce.”
—Phil Patton (b. 1953)
“And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)