"Grandpa's Spells" Lyrics (Jellyroll meets Swingle and Isaacs)

Once again, I bring you some vocalese. This time by a modern group who carried the torch that artists like King Pleasure and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross started

The Swingle Singers were the Parisian brainchild of Ward Swingle. There's quite a long history to explore with that group, so let's just say that they disbanded in 1973 and that the album Rags and All that Jazz (1975) is the product of the Swingle II group - that Ward reformed in London.

The song itself, is a 1924 instrumental by the foundational Jellyroll Morton; the first great composer of Jazz. The speed of this song is simply mind-boggling to me. It took quite some amount of time and ingenuity to come up with what I have here. I know that the elusive lyricist Tony Vincent Isaacs is still around, as I saw his comments on a memorial to Ward Swingle; and I'd love to have him correct these lyrics himself.

But until that definitive moment, we shall have to content ourselves with exchanging ideas. Anyone who hears something different - feel free to post an alternate interpretation.


"Grandpa's Spells"
music by  Jellyroll Morton (Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe)
lyrics by Tony Vincent Isaacs
sung by Swingle II

Down a track inside a shack in old Ken-tuc-ky
Grandpa brews a knockout kicker
Guaranteed to make you quicker
At the things requiring speed
It's amazing how it makes you quicker, yes indeed
And when you try this magic potion
You'll begin to feel the motion
And they call it Grandpa's spells, naturally
That's why the mixture really sells
Jim Canning unmarried won Mary and went on a holiday
With a case of Grandpa's joy, mind it paved his future honeymoon - his baby boy
Old grandma in slippers loves having daytrippers
Most of all she loves to feel the tingle of dear old Grandpa's Spells
Tom Carson in passing in secret imbibed in the fizzling pop
Many faces looking red when the daughter of the mayor's got some rather frank
In old pants and braces dear Grandad loved races
Once he gave horse a little swig of hooch, left him at the tape
still running somewhere
Grandpa brews a knockout kicker
Guaranteed to make you quicker
At the things requiring speed
It's amazing how it makes you quicker, yes indeed
But if you want a slower motion just inhale this magic potion
And you'll get old grandpa's spells, naturally
That's why the mixture really sells - everywhere
Cowboy - he loves to ride the ranger pony
Poet - it makes him learn to write a sonnet
Painters find it painted better
Loose or bunching in a sweater
Pulled his hair it's growing thicker
All because of Grandpa's liquor
Don Juan - it gives him such a lovely feeling
Ladies - they stock the bottles to the ceiling
Sixty greeting  politicians, clock man, baker, butcher too
all under the spell of Grandpa
Lawyer - it carries off the courtroom battle
Rancher - there's never been more tipsy cattle
Sailors creep to box the pumpers
Daddy hasn't seen the wrappers
Grandma's into super sonic
On account of Grandpa's tonic
Get set - A pack a day for pocket money
Beehive - the really comfrey kind of honey
Barrellton the carriage man
Renegade and sheriff's too
All feeling Gramp's wonder spells
(scatting)
They call it Grandpa's Spells
That's why the mixture really sells

~~~

If you're interested in the album this came from check here or here.