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I have always loved this tune - it's extremely simple but also very compelling. It’s my tribute to the wonderful New Orleans brass bands. This includes not just tubas but and instrument called the cimbasso. Verdi apparently didn’t like the tuba as the lowest brass instrument and started using the cimbasso, which is sort of a super bass trombone. It was developed from a renaissance instrument called the serpent, which looked like a serpent (clever). The cimbasso has a great sound, sort of like an angry tuba. I can see why Verdi liked it.

Back to our song. No really knows what the lyrics are and you can go down that internet rabbit hole if you like. More interesting to me is the famous 1965 Dixie Cups version that started with them improvising in the studio (you can here them hitting a folding chair) on what they thought was an old New Orleans song. Except it wasn’t. It was written in 1953 by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford and his Cane Cutters. It became a New Orleans band staple but Sugar Boy had quit the business by then and didn’t realize he’d written a hit song until he heard the Dixie Cups version. Of course, legal hi-jinx ensued and Sugar Boy ended up owning 25% of a song he’d written. The Dixie Cups own the rest. Gotta love the music business.

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from Other People's Songs, released September 15, 2022

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Michael Bass Maryland

Like Waldo, PD Pop has been hiding in plain sight for the last 45 years. With the help of Michael Bass, he comes out of the basement and on to Bandcamp, skipping several generations of recording technology in the process.

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