Hoagy Carmichael - Hong Kong Blues download song

Was you ever stung by a dead bee?

Nice. I've got this one on an ARA 78 RM123B. "How Little We Know" on the A side. I wonder how many people know what "Kicking the gong" means.

Junior Brown did a great cover of this on the album Semi Crazy.

Bloody Hell!!!! This version of the song is killer. I've been obsessed with this song for a while. I gotta get this 78.... 1:40 on is killer.... THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

It's the story of a very unfortunate colored man Who got arrested down in old Hong Kong He got twenty years privilege taken away from him When he kicked old Buddha's gong And now he's poppin' the piano just to raise the price Of a ticket to the land of the free Well, he say his home's in Frisco where they send the rice But it's really in Tennessee That's why he said, "I need someone to love me Need somebody to carry me home to San Francisco And bury my body there Oh, I need someone to lend me a fifty dollar bill and then I'll leave Hong Kong behind me for happiness once again" Won't somebody believe I've a yen to see that Bay again? But when I try to leave Sweet opium won't let me fly away I need someone to love me Need somebody to carry me home to San Francisco And bury my body there That's the story of a very unfortunate colored man Who got arrested down in old Hong Kong He got twenty years privilege taken away from him When he kicked old Buddha's gong

I love this song! When he played it in To Have and To Have Not, I replayed that scene multiple times.

Thanks for posting this!

And was there ever a more gorgeous thing than Lauren Bacall? No wonder Bogie couldn't resist!

One of my favourites from my grandmother's collection that I played to death in the 1950's - from 1957 onwards - and somehow I knew it was about drug addiction even then, though don't know how or why. The black and white movies of the day were aired on TV, Sundays - when Grandad used to sleep in his arm chair, Nannie and my mum snoozed, and we girls watched all the old greats! Scary, some of them!

This song about opium addiction flew right under the censor's radar. "Kickin' ol' Buddha's gong" is a very old slang phrase for smoking opium, and how about the line "sweet opi-man won't let me fly away"?

Yet another classic song that gave so much flavor to the scenes at the Hotel in "To Have and Have Not"............unforgettable.

Glad that you let us know the real story.

Hoagy's "STARDUST"was the best.

this is great! I love the tin pan alley version as well