Lyr Add: On a Slow Boat to China (and parody)

28 Jul 08 - 12:18 AM (#2399161)
Subject: Lyr Add: ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA (Frank Loesser)
From: Jim Dixon

First, the original:

ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA
Frank Loesser
New York: Melrose Music Corp., 1948.

I'd love to get you on a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone,
Get you and keep you in my arms evermore,
Leave all your lovers weeping on the faraway shore,
Out on the briny with the moon big and shiny,
Melting your heart of stone.
I'd love to get you on a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone.

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28 Jul 08 - 12:20 AM (#2399162)
Subject: Lyr Add: ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA (Homer & Jethro)
From: Jim Dixon

Now here's the parody, from the "video" at YouTube:

ON A SLOW BOAT TO CHINA
As sung by Homer & Jethro

I'd like to get you on a slow boat to China,
All by myself alone.
Your face that only your mother adored.
If you come near me, there's gonna be a girl overboard.
Out on the ocean, if you take a notion
You'd like to be my own,
You take a slow boat and I'll take a rowboat
Back to my home sweet home.

I'd like to put you on a slow boat to China,
All by yourself alone.
You may get seasick, but go anyway,
'Cause you'll make me sick if you miss the boat and you stay.
Out on the briny between here and Chiny,
You may get lost at sea.
Maybe a tanker will throw you an anchor.
If so, will you thank her for me?

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26 Dec 21 - 03:31 PM (#4130049)
Subject: Lyr Add: SLOW BOAT TO CHINA (John Prine, Whitlock)
From: Jim Dixon

This would be a good place to put this similarly-titled song:


SLOW BOAT TO CHINA
Written by John Prine, Bobby Whitlock, & Linda Whitlock
As recorded by John Prine on “Aimless Love” (1984)

[A] Let's take a slow boat to China,
Leave from South Carolina.
Let's take our time and go the long way.
On a junk boat to Thailand
With your hand in my hand,
We’ll sure hope we got something to say.

[B] Well, this old boat's got no sail,
So won't you please hold our mail
For a while?
Thanks anyway, pal,
But the Suez Canal
Ain't our style.

[A] Let's take a slow boat to China
And maybe we'll find a
New way to play those same old games.
The stars just might show us,
And the captain will know us,
Shake our hands and call us by our first names.

[B] Send a postcard to Grandpa
Of a vase or rickshaw;
He don't care.
We'll buy Mom a kimono
Or maybe we'll just phone her
When we're there.

[A] INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

[B] We'll drink sake at night
Beneath the soft harbor lights
On the bay.
We'll build a house on the hill
Next to Shangri-La Bill
And we'll stay.

[DUET] Let's take that slow boat to China, (Let's go)
Slow boat to China, (Real slow.)
Slow boat to China, (Let's go)
Slow boat to China. (Real slow.)
Let's go
Real slow.
Let's go
Real slow.
Let's go
Real slow.

[REPEAT DUET AND FADE.]

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27 Dec 21 - 10:18 AM (#4130112)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: On a Slow Boat to China (and parody)
From: leeneia

This is how I remember it from the radio, Jim.

'd love to get you on a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone,
Get you and keep you in my arms evermore,
Leave all your lovers weeping on the faraway shore,
Out on the briny with the moon big and shiny,
I'd melt your heart of stone.
I'd love to get you on a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone.

Wish you, wish you, wish you were here.
[go up a half-step]
Wish you, wish you, wish you were here.

Out on the briny with the moon big and shiny,
I'd melt your heart of stone.
I'd love to get you on a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone.
==========
This song is fun to sing, and I wish it had another verse, but I guess Frank Loesser had said all he wanted to say.

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27 Dec 21 - 07:58 PM (#4130162)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: On a Slow Boat to China (and parody)
From: GUEST

(Bad taste warning)

"I'd love to put you in a row boat to China
All by yourself alone
Rotted to the core and only got one oar
Loaded with a few tons of stone or more
When it goes down, then you'll surely drown
Too far to swim for the shore
I'd like to put you on a row boat to China
Farewell to my Mother-in-Law"

Got this many years ago from a Korean War veteran who heard it while on active service, back when paying out on Mothers-in-Law was acceptable humour, unless of course you happened to be one! Probably written for a camp entertainment show.

There was another verse about a "... plane to China...", but I can't read it as it is faded badly. Lucky the above verse survived...or maybe not!

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