Utt Da Zay (The Tailor’s Song) by Cab Calloway, Irving Mills and Buck Ram
Transcribed from vocals by Cab Calloway, recorded July 17, 1939,
From Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, 1939-1940, Chronological Classics 595.
http://www.heptune.com/lyrics/uttdazay.html – doesn’t work
Inserted are two verses of Ot Azoy Neyt a Shnayder That’s the Way a Tailor Sews (traditional)
My mother used to sing to me,
A haunting little melody;
Nobody knows where it came from,
Or where it was composed.
[Scatting]
“Utt da zoy,” sings the tailor,
As he fashions pretty clothes;
“Utt da zoy,” sings the tailor,
As he sews and sews and sews.
He’s as busy as a bee,
Making lovely finery,
Things my baby loves to wear
When I take her to the fair.
Refrain Ot azoy neyt a shnayder That’s the way the tailor sews
Ot azoy neyt er dokh
Ot azoy neyt a shnayder
Ot azoy neyt er dokh
Er neyt un neyt a gantse vokh He sews and sews the whole week
Fardint a gildn mit a lokh And earns a coin with a hole in it
Refrain Ot azoy neyt a shnayder
A shnayder neyt un neyt un neyt A tailor sews and sews and sews
Un hot kadokhes nit kayn broyt And gets a fever, not any bread
Refrain Ot azoy neyt a shnayder
“Utt da zoy,” sings the tailor;
All it means is “That’s the way.”
When I buy the things he made her,
Says the tailor, “Utt da zoy.”
[Scatting]
Oh, do you dig, dig, dig?
Do you chop, chop, chop?
Are you hep to this jive that I’m laying to you?
[Scatting]
http://www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp&page=gp_article&id=85 article “Scat, Jive and Yiddish” by Jonathan Z.S. Pollack – Under Construction now – delete?
http://www.jbooks.com/secularculture/Netsky.htm “Cab Calloway: On the Yiddish Side of the Street”
Two more verses for Ot Azoy Neyt a Shnayder:
Farayorn, nit haynt-gedakht A year ago — but not now! —
Hobn mir gehorevet fun akht biz akht We toiled from eight to eight.
Ober di struktsie hot ongemakht But the union made it
Mir arbetn shoyn mer nit fun akht biz akht So we no longer work from eight to eight