"Shave 'em Dry" Song by Lucille Bogan (Bessie Jackson) 1935

[WeirdCrazyShortGuy]

I want to dig up the corpse of the woman who wrote this song and fuck the shit outta her!!

[idioticscheme666]

Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj just blushed...

[YoungJoeClark1]

Piano and comments by Walter Roland, a great piano player and good guitarist.

[sammaskid]

Lucille Bogan is dirtier than Rusty Warren. I didn't think that was possible!

[mickeymouse12678]

I had no idea any song like these ever existed back then!

[TheEchosparks]

I have an album with this song, and others like it, that are part of a compilation of Street Walker songs. Not sure what year the album was made, but looks to be 50's or 60's...?

[bigddagenius]

the fuck?

[omfgzhax]

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly does he want shaved dry?

[MsTWEEKIE]

@omfgzhax Shave=suck

[AmpluexCompressa]

There's one thing I don't get, and that's the title. Is "shave 'em dry" old-timey slang for something sexual?

[MsTWEEKIE]

@AmpluexCompressa Shave=suck

[sgoldcoast]

Unbelievable and would definitely be censored these days. I learned about after getting a reference to it by a jazz singer on the Gold Coast in Australia!

[Icejunkie91]

Nasty bitch.

[SquishedButterfly]

I think this is unusual in that it doesn't bother with metaphor. old people like to give the impression that they had very high moral standards in the 30s and 40s, but if you've ever spoken to old sailors, you find out that it's all front, and they were into drink, drugs, sex and violence just as much as today. every wave of teens think they're a new breed, and believe their parents were born old, but that's just their own naivity talking.

[carloslinnett]

10 people apparently can't have, or enjoy sex.

[Crunchycerealjunkie]

Ha ha that's fake :)



[carloslinnett]

@Crunchycerealjunkie No it's not, she had to change her name after this, due to the amount of trouble she got in back in 1935. Hence the two names in the title.

[sonicscreamingblue]

And the crabs walk in like people XD

[ShalomVaChon]

I am SPEECHLESSS!!!! I was looking for something totally different....

[mikehead]

9 people don't like chicks who are DTF

[Mrtriumphchopper]

Gotta love it! I believe there was little or no censorship then, just as in the motion picture industry. The idiotic Hayes Code put an end to that, but was easily cicumvented through innuendo and double-entendre which was, at times, even more sexy and/or funny.Thanx for posting this.Just curious, if there are only a very few copies still extant,how in the world did you come by it? Gotta love it!!!

[RaizerZ]

Wow it's looking like the present and past blurred.

[creolefreak22]

Lil Kim

[therealzilch]

That's wonderful. Sounds like Lucille had a great time.

[chitchant]

Wonderful and brilliant music, never see the likes of Bessie again.

[flowforce3]

THIS IS FILTHY! i like it.

[pkazee]

BTW, for an even cruder Bogan track, check out TILL THE COWS COME HOME. There's a recording at dailymotion.

[pkazee]

So I just got around to checking out the reverse side of my 78rpm copy of "Shave Me Dry" and was surprised to find a non-musical comedy routine there. Not sure if it's Bogan and Roland, or not, but it's an innuendo-laden conversation between a woman and a man, with the woman mistaking a plumber (I.P. Freely) for a doctor, giving crude double-meaning to just about everything, including a reference to a hole that needs pluggin'.

[LegendKnight93]

How did you find out about this singer?

[pkazee]

I just picked up a copy of the 78rpm at an antique mall. I had no idea what it was, but was intrigued by the label that's featureless, other than the rubber stamped title, "Shave Me Dry" (yes, it says ME, rather than EM). I figured it for a novelty song, hoping that maybe, just maybe, it was filled with double entendre and innuendo, but I wasn't at all prepared for what I heard when I let it spin for the 1st time... which was just 10 min. ago! I'm guessing the title was changed for the 45rpm.

[zhen1234]

hahahahahahahaaahahahahahaaaaa­haha

[francisdimenno]

I played it as a guest DJ on WDOM in 1980. I was never asked back.

[golddustwoman83]

What do you call a song like that? THE ARISTOCRATS!!!

[foggygoggle]

@golddustwoman83 too funny!

[Summer309]

DAAAMMMMMMNN, and they think nasty lyrics were just a thing of today. which makes it hard to believe this was written way back in the 1930's wow.

So the next time your parents complain about todays lyrics just bust this out and show them this kind of music has been going on forever.

She sure had some balls for her time,now that's a real Maverick!

[niceperson31295]

DAMN!

[dbowde1]

My girl been playin this song and i asked what was she sayin. She told me it was a old song i did not take her work for it but now I See.

[Raymantico]

@Anntichrist, I bought one LP in the 60s...then in the 80s my ex-wife fell in love with it and we found two more at Downhome records in El Cerrito, CA .They are the best, google the name and ask them if they have Lucille Bogan LPs (or Bessie Jackson her other name) my two favs are "Boogie Alley" & her most famous song "Tricks ain't Walkin No More'" but I dig every track.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@Raymantico : Very cool. She prolly changed it from Bessie so as not to have to compete directly with the inimitable Bessie Smith, but that's just my theory. And Ruth Brown... "The Iceman" cometh... and cometh... heh heh heh...

[cubanlinx95]

Im not even gonna front like this song didnt make my johnson tingle a little.

[NJKIDDRICO973]

I thought this vulgar profanity-laced song shit was new. Parents can no longer talk about "music today." My mind has deteriorated. I can't eveen sentences correctly form them. This shit is just straight disgusting. I might just clear my mind with 2 live crew and Too short.haha! Damn, I thought Blowfly was outrageous for his time.XD

[cocogrrl]

@NJKIDDRICO973 - Damn, you have to clear your mind with 2 Live Crew and Too Short, lol!!!

[NJKIDDRICO973]

@cocogrrl I know, I know. But it's the truth, unfortunately. "Tootsie Roll" ain't nothing compared to this. haha!

[damezydemo]

LMAO!!

[honeyblonde06]

shocking!

[afterlife525]

First record with swears on it.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@afterlife525 : I had to sell my Robert Johnson boxed set a long time ago, unfortunately, but if I am not mistaken, the first man (allegedly) to sell his soul @ the Crossroads was known to throw some none-too-subtle double-entendres into HIS lyrics, as well... what I would not GIVE (if I had anything TO give...) to have hat boxed set again... they only pressed 250 of them, back when CDs first came out, and mine was MINT. And I was too stoopid to rip it to my HD *before* I sold it! STOOPID!!!

[Tatertawt24]

XDDDDDDD

[olexia07]

Whoa this song is diiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrtttty 1935! wow lol my great grandma was five haha.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@olexia07 : You need to find Ruth Brown's song, "Iceman." Talk about a HUSTLER!  She had men coming and going like hot runnin' water!

[mattratt512]

she was hardcore for the 30's.

[skiibachs]

the mainstream radio DJs were forbidden to play it on the radio.

she was def. a music rebel!!

[TheOnkruidt]

is there anything better than obscene songs? no there ain't..

[Neeka693]

and parents have the nerve to say we listen to explicit lyrics..lmao GET THE FACK OUTTA HERE!

[Spiritree41]

"And the crabs walk in like people", Lol! This is halarious :)

[Figroliun]

This song makes me feel filthy.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@Figroliun : Maybe you should discuss that with your shrink and/or dominatrix... it puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again...

[glendathegoode]

Bessie Smith worked her ass off cutting singles and touring giving all her money to a bad nan/nanager who in turn was financing the career of Lucille Bogan who he even called Bessie Jjackson. Bessie's ass was broke and she had no man. SHe hooked up with Ma Rainey and the Girls and that's when the the bad blues bust out. A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, NOBODY LOVES YOU WHEN YOU DOWN AND OUT ET ALL. Bessie Smith's first blues was the good blues I nedd a little sugar: etc.Bessie Jackson was younger

[glendathegoode]

Ok, as I have always heard it Bessie Smith partied, but she worked her ass off cutting her records and rising to fame all the while giving her money to her man/manager who in turn was siponing it all off into a young star Lucille Bogan who he even called Bessie, but Bessie Jackson. He was younger, hotter, and easier to "manage." Bessie smith woke up one day tired and found her man and her money were long gone and even though she was a star her ass was broke. After came her best songs "

[y0utubemetube]

She can make a dead man cum!Wow!That's hardcore rapping lyrics-something like Peaches would sing about.I wonder if people used the word cum in today's terms in 1935? Imagine Mae West saying that!I probably could............

[howlingsandy]

@y0utubemetube that's the source of the line in the Stone's "start me up"

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@y0utubemetube : They didn't come up with the Hays Code for nothin', after all... Mae West was so "risky," they didn't even want to shoot anything of her below the chin! Square shallow idiots now can stand on their soap boxes, but it was brassy women like this who REALLY built the business AND this country, not the stay-at-home-holier-than-thou-­HAUSFRAUS.

[music895luver]

hahahahhahah this is hilarioussss!

[mypiratehat]

This isn't even that good. It's more blatantly sexual than anything.

[Spiritree41]

@mypiratehat Yes but this was all about GUTS....

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@mypiratehat : What? Sex isn't part of real life? Just because YOU don't enjoy it doesn't mean that the rest of the species should do without! Have you NO sense of humor whatsoever? You would've never have survived vaudeville, for damned sure... Where DO all of these namby-pampy pantywaists come from, anyhow? If you're so easily "OFFENDED," then DON'T FUCKING LISTEN TO IT!!!!!! It's called FREEDOM OF CHOICE, so if you don't like it, CHOOSE TO FUCK OFF AND SHUT UP!

[PartyRecords]

The lyrics are posted below the video. Just expand the comments to see the full lyrics.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

Mannnn, I thought that Big Mama Thornton & Bessie Smith were badasses!!! This woman puts Too-Short to SHAME!!!

It's always nice to remember when people CELEBRATED sex, rather than using it as a weapon to degrade, defile, and diminish women. Those "bitch" and "ho" motherfuckers wouldna stood a CHANCE upside of Lucille, she'da kicked 'em a whole new ass!!!

[jreese66]

@AnntichristSCoulter Celebrated? To me this is just a vile as the a lot the newer stuff today..its sounds like she is talking about sex just plain sex not celebrating it.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@jreese66 : If you don't get it, man, just say that you don't get it. Move on down the aisle to "Boring Old Fart/John Tesh 'music'," and leave the good stuff for those of us who love the blues.

[jreese66]

@AnntichristSCoulter Who ever said I did not love the blues?..I do. and are you really trying to make a lame joke about my username when yours is anntichrist?lol..dont be a idiot

[AnntichristSCoulter]

P.S. to Junior Eese66 or JReese66 (sounds like a promo for peanut-butter cups...): This music wasn't written for you, honey, that much is obvious. The art of it goes over your head, the substance is too intense for your understanding, and you ain't got NO rhythm to save yer goldang SOUL!

Though, I must say, Big Mama Thornton, in all of her 6'5", 300-lb. glory, out-and-out bulldyke that she was, is STILL the Queen Of The Ass-Whuppin' Blues!!! Many have copied, none have equaled.

[nicodagger]

@AnntichristSCoulter I thought of Too Short too! But even today you don't hear women as up front about their sexuality, even in rap....but to hear this in 1935??????? Holy shit...

[KevinCarbonara]

@AnntichristSCoulter there was no "when people celebrated sex", this was just one woman. She doesn't represent the whole of society.

[kingboi4756]

got something between my legs that would make a dead man come. No where does she say she fucked a dead man. What am I missing? Maybe its a black thing. I think she is saying her pussy is just goooood! Enlighten me.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@kingboi4756 : You got it right the first time --- just an expression, not necrophilia. All of the Disneyfied shit that goes through eight computers and fifteen test audiences before it hits an amplifier --- all of that autotune shit to put untalented white kids everywhere you look, has absolutely KILLED the humor, chutzpah and tongue-through-cheek arrogance that IS SUPPOSED TO *BE* REAL MUSIC. And yes, she was braggin' on herself, though I doubt that scientific tests were done...

[cannedpoo]

Classic and historic 'dirty blues'

You go girl!

[Warl0k]

S'pretty Disturbing . . .

[xUbastardx]

hahah ooooh damn.. i googled the lyrics while i listened to this...nasty.

[thepappytube]

But the lyrics are over there in the dooblydoo...

[xUbastardx]

aaah. I see. XD

[Glopnotishboober]

This is...creepy. She'll make a dead man come? Necrophilia!

[MsTWEEKIE]

I would fuck you baby i would make you cry. GOOD SHIT..............DAMN. TIGHT.

[bloomindoomin]

it is so raunchy .5 stars. great humour.she is all laughing.grat fun she was having !

[y0utubemetube]

Man,she's like the Snoop Dog of her time.Decades ahead of her time.I bet people who were listening to the radio in those days fainted in shock when they heard this song.Think about it, if you said the word bottom or underpants in those people were shocked!

[PartyRecords]

This was not broadcast on the radio. It was issued on an underground 78 record. Several copies of the 78 are known by collectors. There is simply no evidence that this was ever broadcast anywhere.

[rocketjsII]

@PartyRecords WICB , the Syracuse University radio station, played this in the early 70's, along with a lot of other old raunchy blues songs.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@PartyRecords : Damn shame, though, ain't it? Imagine if someone HAD snuck it onto the air, a'la FCC V. Pacifica Public Broadcasting in re: George Carlin's "7 Words You Can't Say On Television" --- she coulda busted-up the hypocritical/misogynistic HAYS CODE *AND* set SUPREME COURT PRECEDENT entire DECADES before "Class Clown" or "Toledo Window Box"!! Not that we need a world without Carlin or Lenny Bruce, but MAN, it woulda been cooler if a woman had gotten there first!

[wabe04]

@y0utubemetube

hahahahahaahah i agree

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@y0utubemetube : Snoop Dogg MY FAT ASS, Bessie was ORIGINAL, she wasn't shooting anybody or sellin' reefer to get by, she didn't copy the lowlife scum who ARE actual PIMPS, she didn't make misogyny "HIP" again (like it ever went outta style) --- Snoop should BE so privileged as to be mentioned in the same sentence as this woman. He should also try to be AS IMAGINATIVE and as LYRICAL as Lucy/Bessie. She *was* raunchy as hell, but she was REAL and she was CLASS. Snoop's got a LONG way to go.

[kriz127]

@y0utubemetube Sort of my personal opinion that the whole controversy decency thing fluctuates every decade.

[MobileMickey]

I think its amazing that alot of generations have thought they have made up certin profanity words,...over the years... but this just goes to show that it has been around for a LONG time. lol

[MVillani1985]

@MobileMickey Surprisingly long time is right. I once saw a rhyming pun with "cunt" from a story from the late 1300s.

[theconfusion105]

@MVillani1985 Nothing new under the sun.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@MVillani1985 : ALSO: there's always the Scot woodsman/gamekeeper in "Lady Chatterley's Lover," who sings a paean to the WORD "cunt" and all that it means to him and all that he holds dear... Ya just don't get hot dirty ROMANCE like that anymore. Nobody can see shades of grey, it's either porno/full-frontal NC-17, or a cutesy-wootsie "romantic comedy" chick flick that takes 2 hours to get laid. BOR-ING. Yes, women HAVE produced porn here, but it tanked. Women were too chicken to BUY IT!!!

[ALVO315]

i got nipples on my titties big as my thumbs...but i have small thumbs therefore average sized nipples

[rexcat]

No artist name on the label, which brings me to the conclussion that this was an illegal record in the time period it was released.

[hkindt]

definitely pretty revolting.... very obviously a "novelty" tune, with primary emphasis on shock value - hence It's hard to take at all seriously. In fact I wouldn't really have bothered recording it and would have left in my live performance portfolio. Still, interesting solely as an artifact.

[Bumblebee38]

This is the " Dirty Version " which only appeared on Party records under several titles

[redbosox]

Thanks for posting the words to this legendary tune! I FINALLY now know exactly what she's singing. I've had this song for 16 years and have never been able to figure out every word to the song.

[montr6]

can you send me the lyrics to this song SHEVE' EM DRY

[koyaanisqatsiuk]

The version by Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts is pretty damn good too

[teenonator]

I'd heard this by the Aslyum Street Spankers, bought a CD which was the Disney version, but this is kill

[Raymantico]

I hunted down four LPs by this baby....

"Tricks Ain't Walkin'" "Boogie Alley" --

she's the tits

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@Raymantico : You didn't save the name of the place where you found 'em, didja by any chance? I know, I know how horribly vinyl prices have skyrocketed since the advent of MP3s, I haven't been to a record convention since '90, hadda sell-off my best shit to survive my first year @ the University Of New Orleans (and yes, they screwed me on EVERY single album price, bastids), but I would fucking LOVE to find a single or an LP of her stuff.

[redbosox]

I have this on a cassette from 16 years ago. It didn't sound as good as this one. Fantastic to hear it sound MUCH better. What an amazing and now legendary recording. This version of Shave 'Em Dry basically ended her recording career. She never recorded again after her March 1935 session.

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@redbosox : Funny, that's not the way that *I* heard it, but they were undoubtedly different sources. One honestly dirty song ain't enough to kill ANY career, unless they were a felon on the side. Not like she's ROMAN POLANSKI, fer fuck's sake.

[redbosox]

@AnntichristSCoulter I agree with you that a dirty song definitely will NOT kill a career today. In fact, it will probably enhance it. However, in 1935, times were a lot different. Of course in the blues world many people only recorded sparingly as it is. All I know is that Lucille Bogan unfortunately never recorded again after her March 1935 recording session and died in 1948 of coronary sclerosis at the age of 51.

[brenda1b2c3]

hehe she laughs when she talks bout the crabs..

[AnntichristSCoulter]

@brenda1b2c3 : Have you ever heard the old Richard Pryor "Mudbone" routine about when Mudbone got the crabs? Yes, it was before his trip to Africa and his eschewing the "n-word," but it's still fall-down fucking FUNNY. Damn, I miss that man. Almost as much as I miss Carlin and Bill Hicks. Damned grateful that Lily Tomlin's still alive & kicking, but no idea about LaWanda Page... and yup, I miss Gilda Radner, too. Roseanne is still out there kicking ass SOMEwhere, I know...