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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Other types of music > Light orchestral, dance & big band music
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Singers and the Song (Paperback, New ed)
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Singers and the Song (Paperback, New ed)
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A collection of essays (most previously published in Lees'
influential Jazzletter) linked by an appreciation for the great
lyricists of American song and their mouthpieces - interpreters
such as Sinatra and Jo Stafford (with the French songbird, Edith
Piaf, thrown in). Rarely does a participant (Lees himself is a fine
lyricist: "Quiet Nights on Quiet Stars," "Yesterday I Heard the
Rain") manage to write with such perception about his craft. But
the same skill that inspires Lees' own lyrics renders his book a
minor masterpiece. The dominant theme of the essays is the split
between the popular music of the pre-1960's era from all that
followed. "American songs of the first half of the twentieth
century gave us a vision of sexless love, rock-and-roll a vision of
lovless sex." Among the curiosities, we learn that Johnny Mercer
wrote "Days of Wine and Roses" in a mere five minutes, while he
wrote the classic "Autumn Leaves" in a taxi on the way to Los
Angeles Airport. The author relates a touching anecdote telling of
a monsignor who confronted him after Peggy Lee sang his own
"Yesterday I Heard the Rain" (generally considered a conventional
torch song) with the thought that the song was really about the
loss of God. "I think my mouth fell open. I confirmed that this was
indeed its intent and meaning." Lees, a deeply religious man, ends
his collection with the story of how he made an extraordinary album
of the adapted poetry of Pope John Paul II, sung by Sarah Vaughn.
The undertaking was Lees' first venture in lyrics in many years
("There seemed to be no point in writing literate songs in the age
of rock 'n' roll"). One quibble: Lees continually extols the
imaginative lyrics of the French - the sort of "gritty realistic
ballads about the Paris streets and the outcasts who prowled them"
- and states that only country and western music compares in our
country, despite its destruction by mawkishness. He thus seems to
totally overlook the intelligent folk lyrics of such as Dylan or
Tom Paxton. A book to be cherished by anyone who yearns for the
"good old days of song." (Kirkus Reviews)
This book is a celebration of the generation of popular singers
which emerged during and after the war: singers such as Frank
Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Sarah Vaughan. Universally praised as
intuitive performers, Gene Lees's expert analysis also shows them
to be intelligent, skilful artists, didicated to their work.
Sinatra is singled out for special praise: Lees describes him as
'our Poet Laureate, and best singer we've ever heard', and points
out his technical virtuosity and his unique style of phrasing. The
book also looks at some of the composers and lyricists whose
material was finely tuned to suit the abilities of these new
popular stars. A lyricist himself, Lees gives us an illuminating
account of the language used by writers such as Johnny Mercer,
their choice of subject matter, and their extraordinary gifts for
rhyme and rhythm.
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