Palesteena

[PeterT]

This would sound good on the concertina:

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8wh8CCbxjAY

 

Lena From Palesteena

 

In the Bronx of New York City

Lived a girl, she's not so pretty

Lena is her name.

Such a clever girl is Lena

How she played her concertina

Really, it's a shame.

She's such a good musician

She got a swell position

To go across the sea to entertain.

And so they shipped poor Lena

Way out to Palesteena

From what they tell me, she don't look the same.

They say that Lena is the Queen o' Palesteena

Just because she plays the concertina.

She only knows one song,

She plays it all day long

Sometimes she plays it wrong,

But still they love it

What more of it

I heard her play once or twice.

Oh! Murder! Still, it was nice.

All the girls, they dress like Lena

Some wear oatmeal, some Farina

Down old Palesteena way.

 

Lena's girlfriend Arabella

Let her meet an Arab fella

Who she thought was grand.

On a camel's back a-swaying

You could hear Miss Lena playing

Over the desert sand.

She didn't know the new ones

All she knew were blue ones

And Yusef sat and listened all day long

(or: Till Yusef sat and listened in his tent)

And as he tried to kiss her

You heard that Arab whisper,

"Oh Lena, how I love to hear your song!"

(or: "Oh Lena, how I love your instrument!")

 

They say that Lena is the Queen o' Palesteena

'Cause she shakes a wicked concertina.

She plays it day and night

She plays with all her might

She never gets it right,

You think it's funny,

Gets her money.

There's nothin' sounds like it should.

So rotten, it's really good.

While the Arabs danced so gaily

She would practice aily-aily

Down old Palesteena way.

 

Lena, she's the Queen o' Palesteena

Goodness, how they love her concertina.

Each movement of her wrist

Just makes them shake and twist

They simply can't resist

How they love it

Want more of it.

When she squeeks

That squeeze-box stuff

All those sheiks

Just can't get enough.

She got fat as he got Lena

Pushing on her concertina

Down old Palesteena way.

 

 

The ORIGINAL DIXIELAND JAZZ BAND billed themselves "The Creators of Jazz". Their record "Livery Stable Blues" became the first Jazz record ever released on February 26, 1917 for the Victor Talking Machine Company. It was wildly successful. Its release signaled the beginning of the Jazz age and helped define the wild, exuberent era we call the "Roaring Twenties". The Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1916 moved from New Orleans to Chicago and then to New York where, on the recommendation of Al Jolson, they landed a gig at Reisenweber's Café on Columbus Circle and 58th Street, a fashionable restaurant and night-spot. The band was an immediate success, with their top hats that spelled out "Dixie", playing the trombone's slide with the foot, and so on. Their leader Nick La Rocca and cornet player delighted in stirring up the press, describing themselves as musical anarchists and coining fun statements like "Jazz is the assassination of the melody, it's the slaying of syncopation". After the Reisenweber's Café engagement end the band played at the Alamo Cafe (148th Street) and the College Inn at Coney Island. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band went on to record and play in London, producing 20 tracks for Columbia. They returned to America in July of 1920, but the public began to tire of them and they never regained the sales or popularity of their initial success. The group broke up in 1925 after La Rocca suffered a nervous breakdown.

 

(info based upon:redhotjazz.com)

[Leo]

Hi Peter

 

Nice find. I've been looking for a version I could listen to since last Jan when I first heard it mentioned. Here is the sheet music for it:

http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php...ost&p=50158

 

Thanks

Leo

[Dan Worrall]

Hi Peter,

 

We had a go at this tune back in January: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php...281&hl=lena

 

The dots and a midi are there. I once found an early recording of this, sung...Eddie Cantor, I think. Cannot find it now.

 

Cheers,

Dan