Hoagy Carmichael "Hong Kong Blues"

[saltyshoelace]

This song is so fucking great. Amazing lyrics, amazing instrumentals, amazing everything.

[Dachvidful]

I remember there being a line that mentioned "spit in old Buddha's eye", instead of,"Kick old Buddha's gong"?

[elderpanther46]

tommypickles, get a life and read the Carmichael profile. He was a family man, a Republican, and didn't care for FDR.

[MigueGarcia1]

thanx Hoagy. I Love U.

[cdshull]

I think the original line was, "sweet opium won't let me fly away", but I'll guess the studio made him change the like to "sweet local man won't let me fly away".

[Tomsouthrock]

My son this is when they use to make great movie and people use to

get together in style but that was long ago my boy

[sonofsilence]

I can image Tom Waits singing this. Obviously with a lot more gravel to the voice.

[tommypickles7]

he sounds like a gay! oh, dislike, dislike, dislike!

[jrconover1]

Bogey was never overrated (you should learn to spell) but then neither was Hoagie. If you've never watched To Have and Have Not by Hemingway you should and you might also like How Little We Know, another great song

[gat1240]

Bogey is overated Hoagy underated

[tooclassy4most]

thumbs up if you know the George Harrison cover

[purejam]

細野さんのオリジナルだと思ってた

[moshiach2]

131 people kicked Ol' Buddah's gong.

[SwingJugend]

There is another version of the song, also sung by Carmichael, where the part from 1:21 forward is different. From my memory: "Won't someone believe the pain I feel/ Won't someone give me/ Sweet opium to take me away" Guess it was too obvious to be in the movie, although they let the fairly popular slang phrase "kick the gong" be left in.

[momcat1953]

i think i remember hearing that he was also a lawyer!

[femaleonthecreek]

NBM3: It's a f*cking song from a movie, not to be taken literally. WTF?

[PlayIt4MeAgainSam]

Carmichael was a very talented piano player/singer.

He was able to do both, at the same time, very well.

[NBM3]

A very unfortunate colored man..... yeah sure. You're still boppin the piano in Rick's dive......

[tenirpaslager]

@NBM3 brilliant

[srvinfinity]

I wondered if I'd live long enough to see this blues tune up again. Livin' large now.

Thanks for the Hoag.

[heckmacbuff]

Totally wonderful!

[sonofonan]

From the Urban Dictionary: "To kick the gong: To smoke opium (from Chinese opium dens of the last century where customers struck a gong to make the attendant come and bring them a pipe)."

[nailswood]

"kicking buddha's gong" is that code for something illicit?

[vaughangarrick]

is this music any less relevant than Britney or Christina et al? I think not and I'm in my early thirties-they sing about sex, these people sing about life

[Bandaids4ever]

@vaughangarrick To be fair, sex is a very big part of life. ; )

[anhelo911]

When I look at videos like this all I can think is "Awww, people without cellphones and laptop. People who didnt feel stupid doing nothing and standing on the road, who didnt have to tap some keys on a blackberry to feel normal. People who would not be bothered and interrupted in their moment no matter how impending other matters are. People with some control over their lives, people who lived with people."

[newellgirl]

@anhelo911 yep I'm ignoring today's society by switching them off and listening to this video via my Ipad whilst I'm out in the modern world.. technology needn't be a bad thing..hehehe great posting of a brilliant film

[svrack]

@anhelo911 Really? How depressing. When I saw this all I could think of was "I have to learn the piano!"

[UkeAbuse]

I think this song is pure "cool" and Hoagie is as cool as cool gets in this picture. This scene and the other musical scenes in the movie do a great job of capturing Hoagie's gentle and masterful style of playing the piano.

I discovered Hoagy 10 years ago, because of research I did on George Harrison, who evidentally was a #1 Hoagy fan. That led me to research Hoagy, which led me to conclude that my all time favorite musician is this guy right here, Hoagy Carmichael.

[bransonbelle]

Awesome and remember it at age 6 on an old 78.

[Brodur2]

When I look at this movie (as I'm doing right now) I come up with the thought that the invention of moving pictures is the best done by man ever. That is how good this film is!

[sclogse1]

@Brodur2

Pick up Only Angels Have Wings with Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. It has a small band interlude by three black guys that's incredible. A sequence that should be on youtube. Absolute perfection.

I have the 45 of this song.

[cholocharile]

@sclogse1 Bitch please, I have the 78.

Also, I like how he had to change "sweet opium won't let me fly away" to "sweet local man won't let me fly away" for the movie.

[klezmando]

@cholocharile Why call some one a bitch in while discussing a song . You the 78, hey I have the 112. And I think he says loco man not local man, which is a little better but not as good as the original.

[cholocharile]

@klezmando I wasn't insulting him, it's part of the teenage vernacular.

[cholocharile]

@sclogse1 Also, I forgot to mention that Only Angels Have Wings is a awesome fest the whole way through.

[tuxguys]

Great moment from a great film.

Hoagy performs the tune in a style that anticipates Dave Mathews by about 70 years, and does it while he's reacting to the movement of the hips of the woman standing beside the piano, to the extent that the Hays Office would allow.

Bravo.

[rockston11]

Sweet loco/local men?

George Harrison really removed the mystery of the opium in his version, haha.

I find George's has more life to it. But the original will always be best. (Y)

[CaptainFunkPants]

Wow. I was just listening to a playlist and it switches to this song at the exact moment that this song comes on the TV playing this movie.

[hr412]

I love this movie and this song! 

[lorabilly]

Hoagy RULES!

[dogdanz]

this is from my all-time favorite movie.....