Songfacts®:

• This song was banned on at least two Los Angeles radio stations for its suspicious lyric references to drugs and crime. The suspicion was really toward Slim Gaillard himself, who did indeed attract more than his share of suspicion. It was later revealed that the lyrics Slim used were taken through reading an Armenian dinner menu.
• A now very overlooked artist of the '30s and '40s, Slim Gaillard was a cult hero of his time. At least 2 pages of Kerouac's On the Road make reference to Gaillard; "One night we went to see Slim Gaillard in a little Frisco nightclub. In Frisco great eager crowds of semi-intellectuals sat at his feet and listened to him on the piano, guitar and bongo drums... Now Dean approached him, he approached his God; he thought Slim Gaillard was God." He played several instruments and could tap dance while playing piano with the back of his hands. His most famous songs include "Flat Foot Floogie," "Cement Mixer" and the children's classic, "Down By The Station." His lyrics were all over the place, as he sang about food, cars, liquor, and whatever he was experiencing at the time. He made up songs as he went, and only looked back to play greater versions of them with greats such as Dizzy Gilespie and Charlie Parker. His music was a prelude to bebop Jazz, and he has even been coined as the true great granddaddy of modern rap. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  James - Windsor, CA, for above 2