"Manhattan" was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for the 1925 revue "Garrick Gaieties," Wikipedia explains:
We'll go to Yonkers/Where true love conquers/In the wild/And starve together, dear/In Child's/We'll go to Coney/And eat baloney/On a roll/In Central Park we'll stroll/Where our first kiss we stole/Soul to soul...The song describes, in several choruses, the simple delights of Manhattan for a young couple in love. The joke is that these "delights" are really some of the worst, or cheapest, sights that New York has to offer; for example, the stifling, humid stench of the subway in summertime is described as "balmy breezes", while the noisy, grating pushcarts on Mott Street are "gently gliding by"... [T]he couple is obviously too poor to afford a honeymoon to the popular summertime destinations of "Niag'ra" or "other places", so they claim to be happy to "save our fares"....
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30 comments:
Everything from the 20th Century should be out of copyright by now. Make the entertainment companies scratch for new ideas, instead of curating back catalogues, and they'll be less contemptuous of their audience and less able to bankroll phony news operations.
That made my morning. Thank you! Nice rendition.
Some tunes are classic. They always sound good. My one comment about Rap is that no one is ever going to go around whistling a Rap tune 5 years down the road. There's no tune. There's nothing pleasant at all about it.
Music.
I always preferred Rodgers and Hart to Rodgers and Hammerstein. The film Words and Music (1948) gives a wildly fictionalized version of the Rodgers and Hart partnership, but has some great musical numbers. Lorenz Hart was a closeted homosexual alcoholic, here played by Mickey Rooney, who left that part out.
"I'll take "Manhattan" — copyright-free at long last!
"Doesn't a copyright still adhere to their performance of the song?
""Doesn't a copyright still adhere to their performance of the song?"
They put it up on YouTube for sharing. That's why I picked that and not, say, the Ella Fitzgerald version.
I'm suggesting that anyone that wants to perform something to put up on YouTube can pick that song and not worry about copyright.
Nice version. Who are they?
Sung in the show by June Cochran and Sterling "Winnie the Pooh" Holloway, who was only 20 at the time.
Wikipedia has to give their article a modern woke spin:
In the fourth stanza, it is revealed that the only rural retreat they can afford to go to is "Yonkers", and the only restaurant they can afford is to "starve together in Childs'" – a popular discount cafeteria. These were all working-class places that attracted the poor, the unemployed, and gays and lesbians, along with other denizens of the Prohibition-era demimonde.
Were Yonkers and the automat really gay hangouts?
But given Larry's problems and the lines
We'll go to Greenwich [Village?]
Where modern men itch
To be free
Maybe Wikipedia had a point.
The pursuit of true, enduring love is especially challenging for gay, alcoholic midgets, but Lorenz Hart gave it a go. America's greatest love songs were written by a man who never found love. Ironic,huh. Like dysentery on your wedding day. Maybe he had a good weekend or two in some small hotel. I hope so.
Great vocals and harmonies but "never" let the bass solo go that long again!
Lorenz Hart wrote this:
"The furtive sigh
The blackened eye
The words "I'll love you till the day I die"
The self-deception that believes the lie
I wish I were in love again
When love congeals
It soon reveals
The faint aroma of performing seals
The double-crossing of a pair of heels
I wish I were in love again"
I wonder how much value, in dollars was taken out of the hands of the public and given to private interests by the DMCA's extension of copyright to 95 years? It must be in the trillions of dollars.
Back in the good old days, the constitution provided for a copyright term of 14 years, extendible for another 14 years by the copyright holder only, not someone he had sold it to or left it to as a legacy. This implies that the founders did not intend for copyright to be inheritable.
I don't know why Hemingway's distant descendants should be making a living off of his work.
I'm glad to see you guys are so concerned about stolen elections that this music must be promoted right now,.
I'm not concerned about stolen elections at all.
If you look at the history of copyright, you will find that its justification has gone from "we need to foster invention and the arts to make the US a better place" to "copying a copywritten work w/o permission is theft!"
One justification is the improvement of the nation. The other is to ensure the wealth of individuals.
Writers and artists wouldn't have gotten copyright extensions without Big Mouse.
Mickey does have a pet. And it's Congress.
Not a bad performance but the bassist needs less Paul McCartney and more Arvil Shaw.
"One justification is the improvement of the nation. The other is to ensure the wealth of individuals."
Ensuring the wealth of individuals is how we get them to improve the nation. Or at least it was, back before they stole that election you're not the least bit concerned about.
Nicely done. Love to hear what Les Claypool would’ve done with the bass solo.
My G-d what a grating voice.
I'm with Crack on this one. It is no doubt a wonderful thing that some pissant song can now be copied without handing fifty cents or a buck to whomever closeted gay alcoholics leave their copyrights to. But the actual borough of Manhattan is being destroyed by the same assholes who are trying to steal the election. They'll take Manhattan. They'll take the town you live in, too. They are playing for all the marbles, with backing from George Soros and the CCP, and you are worried about some dipshit piece of music.
OK, I listened to a minute or so of the song. I have, in fact, heard a rap song that's better, although I think it was about Brooklyn. Close To The Edge. Did they trash Brooklyn, too, or is that where they live?
I would have liked it better if the singer with the drum had been naked.
George Soros is not backing Hawley and Cruz. Pretty sure about that.
Among other things, Soros is a palindrome.
My favorite rendition of the song. DINAH WASHINGTON ~ Manhattan ~
I'm partial to Jan & Dean's cheeky and not particularly serious version.
If Iran wants to test their nuclear bomb, may I suggest anywhere in the New York 14th Congressional District? TIA
"George Soros is not backing Hawley and Cruz. Pretty sure about that."
Here's hoping you're right. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
Thank you for posting this. It brings smiles and pleasant memories of The City. The Ella Fitzgerald voices are wonderful. Excellent YOUNG talent applied to a true classic.
Bonne Annee.
Is that guy in back strumming a cello? A great old song, and a favorite. I associate it with Lee Wiley.
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