Ain't Misbehavin'- Fats Waller (1929)

Rating-- 10/10 

This is another song I know I like and that I've liked for a long time. I absolutely adore 1920s-1930s jazz. It makes me feel so cozy and peaceful, but in a fun way, like I'm in a slinky silver dress with a cigarette holder in an underground bar that you can only get to by pulling a hidden book in a bookshelf. I have a Spotify playlist just for this kind of jazz-- the kind with really raw drums and an almost-steady beat and a mention of the Frigidaire. It comes from "Two Sleepy People", another Fats Waller song I heard pretty early on. "Ain't Misbehavin'" is one of the first songs from the 1920s that I heard and it has stuck with me. 

1920s-1930s jazz songs really like their Frigidaires. Maybe since it keeps the iceman away, like in "I'd Rather Be Blue Over You", so you can use "nothing but Frigidaire". This trope has been used since the beginning of blues, and there was a blog post about it on this blog. Many songs in the 1920s and 1930s frequently referenced each other, and there was a common "joke" in blues that the men didn't want their wives cheating with the iceman, so they'd get a Frigidaire. Then it would be in this song and that song because everyone wants to make that reference.

On the other hand, "Ain't Misbehavin'" seems to be about the man telling his wife/girlfriend that he isn't going to cheat on her. However, it was written by Fats Waller when he was in prison and not paying alimony, so he couldn't "misbehave", and he's "saving his love" for his separated wife, it seems. I like the simple lyrics, like "I'm home about eight, just me and my radio". It feels like something in my mind.

The picture for this post is from the musical, "Connie's Hot Chocolates", that Fats Waller wrote it for. That was the same show in which Louis Armstrong would play trumpet onstage instead of down in the pit like usual. It only played on Broadway for six months.

Well, I enjoyed "Ain't Misbehavin'". And I continue to very much enjoy this song.

Today's "Music Was So Much Better Back Then" comment--

Music like this makes me want to go back in time and "eliminate" the inventors of autotuning before they had a chance to destroy music.

Some people have so much misplaced distaste.