Posted in Folk Music on Jul 24th, 2008 No Comments »
I’m posting this Bob Dylan song from the 1960s as a requiem for good sense, now that it seems that Barack Obama is likely to be elected President of the USA. For a fuller explanation see here.
Posted in Popular Song on Jul 24th, 2008 No Comments »
This is one of the Gershwins’ most unusual and beautiful songs. It is differently constructed from many of their other songs. The chorus is only 18 bars long, compared to the usual 32 bars of the standard popular song. In the standard popular song the 32 bar chorus is often the only thing we ever get to hear. In their original context, a show, revue or musical, they would have come with a verse, at least as an introduction to the song. Verses tend now to get left out. With ‘I’ve Got a Crush on You’ the chorus itself, beautiful as it is, is not long enough to sustain a performance alone. It needs the verse to make sense of it. Because of this, and more than in any other song I know, the verse is totally integrated with the chorus. The lyrics are below - chorus in italics. The performance is by Ella Fitzgerald with Ellis Larkins at the piano, from a recording made in 1950.
Hmmmmm I’ve got a crush on someone. Guess who
I’ve got a crush on you, sweetie pie
All day and night time hear me sigh
I never had the least notion that
I could fall with so much emotion
Could you coo, could you care
For a cunning cottage we could share
The world will pardon my mush
‘Cause I’ve a crush my baby on you
How glad the million laddies from millionaires to caddies
Would be to capture me
But you had such persistence, you wore down my resistance
I fell and it was swell
You’re my big and brave and handsome Romeo
How I won you I shall never never know
It’s not that you’re attractive
But, oh, my heart grew active
When you came into view
I’ve got a crush on you, sweetie pie
All the day and night-time hear me sigh
I never had the least notion that
I could fall with so much emotion
Could you coo, could you care
For a cunning cottage that we could share
The world will pardon my mush
‘Cause I have got a crush, my baby, on you
I’m not sure what a ‘cunning cottage’ is, though. Am I hearing it right?
Posted in Popular Song on Jul 24th, 2008 No Comments »
This is Sophie Tucker, with a voice ten times larger than life, that hits you in technicolour. The song is more belted than sung - the fruit of performing for years in all those large unamplified music halls. It’s not really blue - but as I listen to it images do flash in my mind of those Donald McGill postcards of big women dominating puny men. It’s about female sexual appetite, here at its most menacing.
I love the line “and if he’s never called for his mother, I guess he will tonight.”
Magnificent and terrifying.
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