BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: AMERICAN MUSIC

‘

SOME SONGS BY ABE BURROWS
"I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost Like
   Having You Around"
 "You Put a Piece of Carbon Paper Under Your Heart
   And Gave Me Just a Copy of Your Love"
"How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the After They've
    Seen the Farm?"
"The Girl With the Three Blue Eyes"

***

ON AMERICAN MUSICAL COMEDIES

"Larry Gelbart once said the definitive line 
about the painful side of bringing in a musical
comedy. At this time he was out of town with the
tryout of his first show, A Funny Thing Happened
on the Way to the Forum, for which he had written
the libretto. Larry's tryout was taking place at
the same time that Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war
criminal was on trial in Israel. There was a great
deal of talk about how Eichmann should be punished.
Hanging. Firing Squad? Prison? Larry Gelbart said,
'I know what they should do with Eichmann. They
should send him on the road with the tryout of a
musical."
                  
          Abe Burrows. HONEST ABE (Boston: Little,
Brown & Company, 1980).

**

SONG TITLES NOT EASILY FORGOTTEN


(all authentic. 
See THE GREAT SONG THESAURUS
by Robert Lax and 
Frederich Smith (Oxford: Oxford
University Press,1989)

 

I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones (1936). 

2. Plant a Watermelon on My Grave and Let the
 Juice 
Soak Through (1910)


3. If You Talk in Your Sleep, Don’t Mention My Name
        (1911)

 
4.  A Lemon in the Garden of Love  (1906)


5.   Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet (1949)

 

6.  Last Night on the Porch I Loved Her Best of All
          (1923)
  

7. Too Fat Polka  (1947)

SONG WRITING

It’s not like you sees songs approaching and invite them in. It’s not that easy. You want to write songs that are bigger than life. You want to say something about strange things that have happened to you, strange things you have seen. You have to know and understand something and then go past the vernacular.

Bob Dylan. Chronicles.

******

ON SINCERE JAZZ MUSICIANS

Sincere Jazz musicians) aim at excellence and apparently 
nothing else. They are hard to buy and if bought they 
either backslide into honesty or lose the respect of 
their peers. And this is the loss that terrifies them. 
In any other field of American life, great reward can 
be used to cover the loss of honesty, but not with jazz 
players -- a slip is known and recognized instantly. And further, while there may be some jealousies, they do 
not compare with those in other professions. Let a 
filthy kid, unknown, unheard of and unbacked sit in -- 
and if he can do it – he is recognized and accepted 
instantly. Do you know of any other field where this is true?

John Steinbeck.
Epigraph to The Good Life --
the autobiography of Tony Bennett

**
SONNY ROLLINS

"When he’s on, which is seven or eight times out of ten, 
Rollins—known as ‘the saxophone colossus’—seems immense, summoning the entire history of jazz, capable of 
blowing a hole through a wall.”

STANLEY CROUCH on Sonny Rollins. The New Yorker 

WHEN FRANK SINATRA WAS CAST TO PLAY THE LEAD IN THE FILM
OF CAROUSEL

"He was cast to play the lead in Carousel, the big 
budget movie movie version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway classic, which already was weeks into production 
in Boothbay Harbor,Maine, when Sinatra arrived for his 
scenes. He learned forthe first time that the movie was 
being filmed in two formats -- in Cinemascope and a new 55 millimeter process. That meant he would have to deliver
fully developed performance --twice--for every scene. 
Defiantly, Sinatra refused to make (as he put it) 
'two pictures for the  price of one.' He stormed off 
the set and went home --to the astonishment of cast 
and crew, including co-star Shirley Jones-- leaving the moviemakers in despair..."

The above anecdote comes from one of my favorite
books Adventures in the Scribbler's Trade by
Neil Hickey (Bloomington,Indiana: iUniverse,2015)

**

"I think it was the Saturday Review that at one time
asked all the songwriters it could find for their
favorite song. the balloting, as they say, with
Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are," an excellent
choice."

Oscar Levant. The Unimportance of Being Oscar
(New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968).

**