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"Way Back Home" is a song in that plays on Galaxy News Radio and Diamond City Radio. It was performed by Bob Crosby and The Bob Cats.

Background[]

This section is transcluded from Dear Hearts and Gentle People. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.

The song was recorded for the Standard Program Library transcription label between Bob Crosby's April 27 Decca Records (Coral) session and May 22 Coral Records session in 1950.[1]

The New York session personnel included Yank Lawson (trumpet), Cutty Cutshall (trombone), Stan Webb (alto sax), Ernie Caceres (baritone sax), Joe Lipman (piano), Carl Kress (guitar), and Bunny Shawker (drums).[2]

Writing in the liner notes of the CD reissue, Will Friedwald demurs some of the conclusions drawn in the 1987 edition of the discography:

As a sidelight of Crosby's radio activities, he presided over two transcription sessions for the Standard Broadcast Corporation in 1950. Crosby had worked for Standard once before, when the last edition of the classic pre-war band cut about 60 titles in 1942. In Spring, 1950, Crosby was presumably in New York and recorded the tracks heard here with New Orleans-oriented Bob Crosby's Bobcats...The personnel was apparently not documented at the time, however, Charles Garrod and Bill Korst take a good stab at it in their Crosby discography Bob Crosby And His Orchestra, Joyce Publications, 1987. They list all New York players, supporting the assertion that these were east coast sessions. It's probably Yank Lawson on trumpet; his is one of the most distinctive attacks in all of jazz brass, with Cutty Cutshaw on trombone on the vocal date and a ringer in former bandleader Will Bradley on the second date.

Korst and Garrod also list Stan Webb on alto sax and Ernie Caceres on baritone on date one and Paul Ricci on alto on date two. There may well be altos and baritones on date one and Paul Ricci on alto on date two, but the tenor and clarinet take all the reed solos. The tenor, both by style and by association, sounds like former Crosbyite Eddie Miller, although that diminutive tenor giant was based in Hollywood during his post-Crosby career. They identify the drummer on the vocal date as New York studio man Bunny Shawker, but venture no guess as to who it might be on the instrumentals: if he isn't Ray Bauduc, he's certainly mastered Bauduc's New Orleans-style use of cowbells. Whoever they are, they get in a lot of good playing - and for Lawson alone, these sessions are worth hearing.[3]

As the original Bob-O-Links had broken up after founding vocalist Johnny Desmond's departure in 1941, Friedwald also remarks for the 1950 sessions, "Of the remaining ten vocals, five feature Crosby in solo, the rest spotlight him with a vocal group, apparently assembled on the spot from New York session singers, identified as the 'The Bob-O-Links.'"

Lyrics[]

[Verse 1]
The roads are the dustiest, the winds are the gustiest
The gates are the rustiest, the pies are the crustiest
The songs the lustiest, the friends the trustiest
Way back home (Back home)

[Verse 2]
The trees are the sappiest, the days are the nappiest
The dogs are the yappiest, the kids are the scrappiest
The jokes the snappiest, the folks the happiest
Way back home

[Chorus]
Don't know why I left the homestead
I really must confess
I'm a weary exile
Singing my song of loneliness

[Verse 3]
The grass is the springiest, the bees are the stingiest
The birds are the wingiest, the bells are the ringiest
(The hearts) the hearts the singiest
(The arms) the arms the clingiest
Way back home

[Verse 4]
(What about the sun) The sun's the blaziest
(And the fields) The fields the daisiest
(And the cows) The cows the graziest
(And the help) The help's the laziest
The boys (are the wittiest)
The girls (are the prettiest)
Way back home

[Verse 5]
(The pigs are the snootiest, the owls are the hootiest)
The plants the fruitiest, the stars the shootiest
(The grins the funniest), the smiles the sunniest
Way back home

[Chorus]
Don't know why I left the homestead
I really must confess
I'm a weary exile
Singing my song of loneliness

[Verse 6]
The food is the spreadiest, the wine is the headiest
The pals are the readiest, the gals are the steadiest
The love the liveliest, the life the loveliest
Way back, way back, way back home (No place like home)

[Outro]
Sweet home

Video[]

References[]

  1. Garrod, Charles. Bob Crosby and His Orchestra 1946-1985 (discography). 2nd ed., Vol. 2, Zephyrhills, Florida.: Joyce Record Club, 1996, p. 14.
  2. Garrod, Charles, and Bill Korst. Bob Crosby and His Orchestra (discography). 1st ed., Zephyrhills, Florida.: Joyce Record Club, 1987. p. 41
  3. Bob Crosby and the Bobcats: The Complete Standard Transcriptions liner notes
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