NRR Project: 'This Land Is Your Land' (1944)

 

NRR Project: ‘This Land Is Your Land’

Written and performed by Woody Guthrie

Recorded 1944

2:47

First, I must point you to Bill Nowlin’s excellent essay on the song at the National Recording Registry. It covers all the territory!

Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was America’s troubadour. A confirmed leftist, he famously wrote on his guitar, “This Machine Kills Fascists.” He was a prolific writer, songwriter, and performer. His career was cut short by the onset of Huntington’s disease, which hospitalized him in 1956.

"This Land is Your Land” is his most famous song, and has become an unofficial national anthem. It spread by word of mouth in an age when popular songs only became such by being sung by the famous, or broadcast on media. This is a testament to the power of the composition. It is undeniably catchy and memorable.

It celebrates the natural beauty of the country, unity, and fellowship. “This land was made for you and me” is its refrain. (There are a couple of distinctly leftist political verses that are usually left out of covers of the song!) Guthrie advocated for the common people, those who culture and society routinely overlooked.

His work influenced countless musicians that followed him, including Pete Seeger, who played with him beginning in 1940, and Bob Dylan, who made pilgrimages to his bedside in the hospital. Even long after his death, many groups have set his unpublished lyrics to music, making new albums that celebrate his genius (Mermaid Avenue, Wonder Wheel).

He remains a central figure in American folk music, one who lit fires that are still burning.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘Uncle Sam Blues’.

NRR Project: The International Sweethearts of Rhythm (1944-1946)

  

NRR Project: ‘Hottest Women’s Band of the 1940s’

Performed by the International Sweethearts of Rhythm

Recorded 1944-1946; released 1984

49:07

Wow! This is a real find.

This is the story of the first integrated all-female jazz band in the United States. And they were GOOD. Before you do anything else, listen to this recording – it swings like all get-out!

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm were formed at the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi in 1941. This group of young (14 to 19-years-old) musicians came together for a specific purpose – to raise money for the school. This they did, until they broke away from the institution and went professional.

Composed of white, Black, Latina, Asian, Native American, and Puerto Rican members, the group toured and performed with a 17-member conplement. They faced the usual trouble working for Southern audiences; many times, the white players would have to “black up” to make their performing possible. They were refused service at hotels and restaurants. They were paid miserably.

The group only stuck together for a few years. Deaths, marriages, the rigors of traveling, and other factors contributed to the group’s demise. By 1949, the band had broken up.

Thanks to jazz historian and producer Rosetta Reitz, archival recordings of the band via such mechanisms as the Armed Forces Radio Service were uncovered and committed to vinyl in 1984. Eighteen tracks are all that survive of their output, but it is enough. They were outstanding.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land’.

NRR Project: Sister Rosetta Tharpe plays 'Down by the Riverside' (1944)

 

NRR Project: ‘Down by the Riverside’

American Spiritual

Performed by Sister Rosetta Tharpe with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra

Recorded 1944

3:04

“Sister” Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973) was nothing less than the wellspring of rock and roll. Her killer guitar work, coupled with her inventive, high-charged vocals, made musical history. She called rock and roll just sped-up rhythm and blues. She pioneered work on the electric guitar.

Rosetta Tharpe was a child prodigy from Cotton Plant, Arkansas who played guitar and sang gospel songs for years at the Church of God in Christ. In 1938, at age 23, she began to record for Decca. In this same year, her other gospel single, “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” was a hit; this, too, proved popular.

Tharpe brings an overwhelming intensity to her performances. She is emphatic, precise; she can scat, she can warble. Her guitar work is rough, loud, nimble-fingered. She plays like someone who has had to play to lots of large live crowds. Her attack on a song is no-holds-barred; the church disapproved of some of her more secular hits as “I Want a Tall Skinny Papa.”

By and large, though, what she performed was a sacred music transformed by her in accordance with the driving rhythms of urgency, a blues sensibility, and virtuoso sing-shouting that became the voice that rockers aspired to but could not imitate. She mixes together the best of everything; she is sui generis.

Here, she begins to skit-scat through the lyrics about halfway through, then takes a guitar break that is tough, that swings. That break would influence countless guitarists.

As she moves to the climax of the song, she burns even hotter. She moves to full-on vocalese, a kind of speechful speechlessness that is the stuff of gospel and jazz and rock. The phrase “ain’t gonna study war no more” is powerful because it is for meant for real. It has conviction, and it is repeated with a vibrant insistence unfound elsewhere.

Her 2003 compilation “The Gospel of the Blues” gives you all of her best work. She was decades ahead of her time. In 1998, she belatedly appeared on a 32-cent stamp.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

 

NRR Project: 'Ac-cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive’ (Oct. 4, 1944)

 

NRR Project: ‘Ac-cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive’

Music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Sung by Johnny Mercer

Recorded Oct. 4, 1944

2:48

Johnny Mercer (1909-1976). What a giant. He was a famed lyricist, honored songwriter, popular singer. He co-founded Capitol Records. He won four Oscars for Best Original Song. He was nominated 19 times.

What did he write, or have a hand in writing? Some are “I’m an Old Cowhand,” “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Hooray for Hollywood,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby,” “Blues in the Night,” “One for My Baby,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Laura,” “Autumn Leaves,” “On the Atcheson, Topeka, and the Santa Fe,” “I Remember You”. He worked on around 1,500 songs. (He also had an affair when he was 35, married, and a new child – with a 19-year-old Judy Garland.)

And he sang. Mercer was hip, he was from Savannah, Georgia. He had a comical drawl he would fall into when he sang that was folksy and charming. He could sell his songs, so they put him in front of a microphone at let him do his stuff.

The song is framed as a bluesy sermon:

“Gather 'round me, everybody

Gather 'round me while I'm preachin'

Feel a sermon comin' on me

The topic will be sin and that's what I'm ag'in'

If you wanna hear my story

The settle back and just sit tight

While I start reviewin’

The attitude of doin' right

 

You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

And latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

 

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum

Bring gloom down to the minimum

Have faith or pandemonium's

Liable to walk upon the scene

 

To illustrate my last remark

Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark

What did they do just when everything looked so dark?

 

(Man, they said "We'd better accentuate the positive")

("Eliminate the negative")

("And latch on to the affirmative")

Don't mess with Mister In-Between (No!)

Don't mess with Mister In-Between!”

Mercer sells it with a sincere, super- cool delivery. In the throes of World War II, songs like this were a comfort to folks at home. Looking up and staying brave were character traits stressed at the time. The Allies were looking close to conquering Germany in the fall of 1944; the Battle of the Bulge would ignite in December. The nation wanted to believe that right made might, a continental myth of martial prowess combined with virtue that would come to paper over many a fault.

So Mercer gives us a feel-good toe-tapper that’s catchy and emblematic of the call to think positively in the face of international tragedy. It’s an aural pick-me-up.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Sister Rosetta Tharpe and ‘Down by the Riverside.’

NRR Project: Leonard Bernstein's debut conducting the New York Philharmonic (Nov. 14, 1943)

 

NRR Project: Leonard Bernstein’s debut with the New York Philharmonic

Nov. 14, 1943

Leonard Bernstein is the best-known and most honored conductor in American history. His commanding presence, supreme interpretive skills, and ease of communication made him a master of classical music in performance. He vaulted to overnight fame after this concert.

Bernstein was a newly hired, 25-year-old assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. On Nov. 14, 1943, a Sunday afternoon concert by the orchestra was scheduled at New York’s Carnegie Hall, set to be broadcast live on CBS radio. The guest conductor, Bruno Walter, became ill. The Philharmonic’s regular conductor, Arthur Rodzinski, was snowed in miles from the venue. It was up to Bernstein to lead the orchestra – without a single rehearsal.

Bernstein delivered. The program featured Schmann’s “Manfred” Overture, Rozsa’s Theme, Variations, and Finale, Strauss’ “Don Quixote,” and Wagner’s Prelude to “Die Meistersinger.” Hearing the selections today, it is remarkable how assured he seems with these not-so-easy pieces. The orchestra responds magnificently to his direction. The audience in the hall and those listening at home were amazed by Bernstein’s confidence and vitality. He received the plaudits of the crowd.

Bernstein would go on to become the music director of the orchestra, and would play world-wide. His numerous televised Concerts for Young People turned a whole generation of children onto classical music. Then, as a composer he created everything from symphonies to choral works to musicals such as On the Town and West Side Story. His remarkable career started with this pinch-hit triumph, which propelled him to the headlines of newspapers around the country.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Johnny Mercer sings ‘Ac-cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive’.

NRR Project: Horowitz/Toscanini, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (April 23, 1943)

 

NRR Project: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23, B-flat Minor

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Vladimir Horowitz, piano; Arturo Toscanini; conductor; NBC Symphony Orchestra

Recorded April 25, 1943

31:27

I simply can’t do better than Caesare Civetta’s essay at the National Recording Registry.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Leonard Bernstein’s debut.

NRR Project: Mary Margaret McBride interviews Zora Neale Huston (Jan. 25, 1943)

NRR Project: “Mary Margaret McBride” – McBride interviews Zora Neale Hurston (Jan. 25, 1943)

45 min.

This is another entry I can’t explore as a recording is not available. Read Cary O’Dell’s excellent essay at the National Recording Registry.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23, B-flat Minor. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Vladimir Horowitz, piano; Arturo Toscanini; conductor; NBC Symphony Orchestra. (April 25, 1943)

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NRR Project: 'Straighten Up and Fly Right' (Nov. 30, 1943)

 

NRR Project: “Straighten Up and Fly Right”

Written by Nat ‘King’ Cole and Irving Mills

Performed by the King Cole Trio

Recorded Nov. 30, 1943

2:26

It’s important to know that Nat ‘King’ Cole was originally renowned for his piano playing, not his smooth, warm, and effortless voice.

Beginning in the early ‘40s, Cole was renowned as a session pianist whose playing constituted part of the West Coast bebop movement. Cole’s clear, crisp attack is clear as a bell, melodic and measured.

At the same time, he became the “name” in the trio that also included the sensational Oscar Moore on guitar and Wesley Prince on bass. In 1940, they scored a hit with “Sweet Lorraine.” These three produced immensely pleasurable numbers, including “Route 66” and “Too Marvelous for Words.”

“Straighten Up and Fly Right” was Cole’s and Irving Mills composition, a little musical fable rendered in a catchy swing arrangement.

“A buzzard took a monkey for a ride in the air

The monkey thought that everything was on the square

The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back

But the monkey grabbed his neck and said, ‘Now listen, Jack’

 

Straighten up and fly right

Straighten up and stay right

Straighten up and fly right

Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top

 

Ain't no use in divin'

What's the use in jivin'?

Straighten up and fly right

Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top

 

The buzzard told the monkey

You are chokin' me

Release your hold and I'll set you free

The monkey looked the buzzard right

Dead in the eye and said

"Your story's so touching, but it sounds

Just like a lie"

Straighten up and stay right

Straighten up and fly right

Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top

Fly right!”

It was a big hit for the trio. Sadly, Cole had sold his rights to the song for $50 in the late 1930s. By 1950, Cole was on his own and working primarily as a singer, although he could get to a piano bench and accompany himself expertly.

His career was marred by racism. Throughout the 1950s, he consistently charted with his velvety ballads, but he suffered from racial prejudice as well. Ahead of his time, he hosted the first variety show featuring a Black man, albeit for one brief season. He was only 46 years old when he died in 1965 from lung cancer.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: “Mary Margaret McBride” – McBride interviews Zora Neale Hurston.

 

NRR Project: 'Suspense' - 'Sorry, Wrong Number' (May 25, 1943)

 

NRR Project: ‘Suspense’ – “Sorry, Wrong Number”

Written by Lucille Fletcher

Columbia Broadcasting System

Broadcast May 25, 1943

30 min.

There are already three excellent essays on this topic out there:

Christopher H. Sterling’s at the National Recording Registry; 

John Dunning’s thorough and masterly focus on this particular show, citing it as one of the best in old-time radio history (On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, pgs. 648-649)

And Martin Grams, Jr.’s “Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills,” which I only know from its reference by Sterling.

The premise is simple. A nervous, ill woman is bedridden. She tries to call her husband at his office. Suddenly, she cuts in on the conversation of two men planning a murder – that very night She can’t make herself heard. She dials the operator, the police: they treat her with polite indifference.

This was one of Agnes Moorehead’s greatest roles. (She repeated this story seven more times). It involves a woman panicking, of her trying to make someone, anyone, listen to her and stop this foul crime! Then she hears footsteps. They’re coming for HER. (Screenwriter and playwright Lucille Fletcher’s script, much like the rest of her respectable radio output, is unmatched in its relentless ratcheting up of menace.)

The woman, Mrs. Elbert Stevenson (we never do get her name) is expertly played by Moorehead, who simply comes unglued when she discovers the murderer has her marked as his victim. Moorehead went into controlled hysterics in the role, and often ended the episode exhausted.

She could go full-out in a dynamic and convincing performance – she was a boss of the air. She had played Margo Lane, the companion of Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow (Sept. 26, 1937 – March 20, 1938). She was resigned, later, in film and TV, to play mean old ladies, exotic villainesses, stout-hearted plain folk, sarcastic best friends – she won four Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress (The Magnificent Ambersons, Mrs. Parkington, Johnny Belinda, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte). She was part of Orson Welles’ original Mercury Theater (she played, in one heartbreaking scene, Charles Foster Kane’s mother in Citizen Kane); she goes mad in Welles’ original Ambersons; she is redeemed with a hastily rigged one-shot happy ending alongside Joseph Cotten.

So she brought a lot of firepower to whatever she did. She could get to the truths underlying the hypocrisies of daily life. She was excellent being direct, being fully present, in roles in good films and bad, and radio whenever she wanted.

But they didn’t pick her for the film. The movie version, directed by the under-regarded and versatile director Anatole Litvak, came out in 1948. They got Barbara Stanwyck to play the lead. She earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for it. And yet you wonder what we might have seen if Moorehead had embodied her voice in this, just for one film. 

At any rate, Sorry, Wrong Number was the most popular episode of a show that had many, many excellent episodes. Producer William Spier made sure the show had strong scripts, adept sound effects, and compelling music, once a week, in the service of the realistic thriller (no ghosts or the supernatural). And Spier’s successors, such as Anton M. Leader, Elliott Lewis, and Norman Macdonnell continued the tradition with imaginative and surprising tales that intrigue the curious listener.

The show stayed at its 30-minute length for its run (1940-1962), save for four-and-a-half months in 1948 at an hour long each, hosted by Bob Montgomery.

Top-notch “serious” performers would appear on the show, and they all took their roles quite seriously, even those primarily known as comic actors. The tension was high, and was usually sustained until the often-sardonic, bitter twist ending.

For an amazing 20 years, the show maintained its pedigree as one of the most listened-to fictional shows on the air. (As compared to the similar, also excellent but short-lived Escape [1947-1954]). Suspense was the dramatic radio’s ne plus ultra.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The King Cole Trio performs “Straighten Up and Fly Right”.

 

 

NRR Project: Paul Robeson's 'Othello' (1943)

 

NRR Project: “Othello”

Written by William Shakespeare

Performed by Paul Robeson, Uta Hagen, Jose Ferrer et al

Released 1943

2 hrs., 7 min.

This recording commemorates the first time an African-American man played Shakespeare’s tragic protagonist Othello on Broadway. It was not an easy path to get there.

Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was an extraordinary individual. He transcended all the barriers that typically kept a Black man in American society at the time “in his place.” A Phi Beta Kappa scholar, he became a lawyer – but soon found he could find no work as one due to his color.

Undaunted, he turned to his prodigious acting and singing skills and soon became a fixture on Broadway, most notably in Eugene O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings and The Emperor Jones. In 1928, he originated the role of Joe in Jerome Kern’s groundbreaking musical Show Boat, and debuted the classic song “Ol’ Man River” in his distinctive and penetrating bass-baritone voice.

His interests were many, and he continued his research into various topics. A self-respecting man, he spoke out eloquently and frequently about the racism he encountered in America. He also advocated for social justice and for anti-fascist and anti-capitalist causes, which brought him to the attention of the FBI, who began to track his movements. He fought for desegregation long before the days of the Civil Rights Movement.

Robeson went to England to perform onstage and in film, as he found a marked lack of racial prejudice there. He traveled across Europe, singing and speaking out. He played Othello in London’s West End in 1930, and in 1943, he was encouraged to take up the role again by director Margaret Webster. Supported by Jose Ferrer as Iago and Uta Hagen as Desdemona, he opened as the Moor of Venice on Broadway.

Up to this point, Othello had been played by white actors in blackface. The idea of an actual Black man playing a noble Black man on stage was anathema to many. To the delight of the performers, the show was a smash success, running for 296 shows – a record for Shakespearean performance on Broadway that still stands.

Listening to the recording, it is obvious how compelling and fit his performance was. His grave and resonant voice gave him a profound sense of authority – and made his jealous rages later in the play terrifying. The performance is expertly played by all involved, and retains clarity and emotional connection.

After the Broadway run, the cast went on an eight-month tour of the United States. They pointedly refused to play to any segregated audiences. All in all, this production of Othello was a triumph.

As the years went on, Robeson continued to speak out forcefully for the causes he believed in. His life was threatened. He was condemned by those in power. He was blacklisted. His passport was voided. His recordings and films were banned. Eventually, as the years passed, these oppressions faded away and America caught up with his enlightenment. Robeson, toward the end of his life, was given the honors so frequently denied him.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘Sorry, Wrong Number’ (May 25, 1943).

Notes on writing

“But in order to exist in any form, art must be giving pleasure.” – W.H. Auden, Lectures on Shakespeare

"Being a professional means doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them." -- Julius Erving

I have been writing for money since 1981. How am I doing? You tell me.

My writing career took off in fits and starts, with plenty of detours, dead ends, and nonsensical tangents, personal and professional. At this point, I’ve written three books, published two of them (busy selling Number Three as we speak), and composed thousands of essays, articles, and stories. I’m a non-fiction writer, although I have recently been tempted to make something up, a challenge about which I am exceedingly nervous.

Over the course of 45 years, I have learned a few things. These are some of the things that get me through the day – and I take it day to day.

1.     Building a chair

You can’t think of it as “art”. That’s too intimidating. Usually your work is considered art only after you’re dead, and sometimes not even then. Instead, think of yourself as a craftsperson. When you write something, you are building the equivalent of a chair. (The metaphor’s not mine, I stole it from Gabriel Garcia Marquez.) The first thing you have to make sure of – is it functional? Does it do what it is meant to do? Does it hold up or does it fold up? Can it sustain your weight? Is it durable? Is it comfortable? That is the baseline of acceptability. Beyond that, you can speculate. You can make it anything. Are you building a throne? A milking stool? It’s up to you.

2.     Find your style by telling the truth

When I was just starting out, I was obsessed with the idea of my style. What was it? How could I find it? I began by imitating writers I admired. First, I copied Raymond Chandler, reveling in his terseness, his absurd, over-the-top similes, his hard-bitten outlook. The result was awful. I moved on to other influences – John Steinbeck, most prominently. Again, I found myself butting my head against a wall. I did not know what I was doing.

Then I starting working as a journalist. This was an invaluable experience for me because it taught me discipline. (I believe Hemingway said everyone should be a journalist, but only for five years!) For in journalism, there is always a deadline, usually one about four hours away. It forced me to talk to multiple people, gather information, think of how to present it, execute it, and send it out for the world to read in that abbreviated time frame. If it sucked, it sucked. I made many, many, many mistakes – fortunately, I wasn’t working for the New York Times, so my failures were small ones and nobody got hurt.

I got through the job by focusing on simple clarity. Tell the story as simply and honestly as you can. Make it understandable. This does not mean writing down to people. Respect the reader, but do so by being clear and straight with him or her. It helps to keep an “ideal reader” on your mind. Write for that person.

What do I really feel, think, taste, touch, smell, see, hear? How do I process that? This is difficult. This is what cannot be faked. That is where your truth is, and your true voice.

When I moved on to bigger projects, I found that there was a way I had of writing that sounded distinctly like me – informal, kinda jokey, friendly. That was my style. Through sheer repetition, I removed all the parts of my writing that got in the way between me and the reader. In simply communicating effectively, I have established a mode of expression that is uniquely mine.

Now, am I happy with my style? I read other writers, and am jealous of their eloquence and perception, their seemingly effortless ease. But this is the voice I was born with, the limitations I have to deal with, and now when I reread myself, I say, “That’s OK. That sounds like me.” I just do my best.

3.     Repetition

There is no such thing as inspiration. Malcom Gladwell’s “10,000 hour” rule, which states that that much practice is required to endow someone with mastery of a subject, is right on point. The only way to get better as a writer is to write. Not take classes, not look for magic formulae. When I was in college, I attended an interview with the playwright Edward Albee. “Who here wants to be a writer?” he asked. Hands shot up. “Why aren’t you writing, then? Get out of here,” he said.

I work at it every day, six days a week. On average, I can produce about 1,000 usable words a day. Everyone has a different production capacity; as you go along, you will find out what yours is. On good days, my output creeps up to 1,500 to 2,000 per shift. On lousy days, I still manage to crank out a few hundred words. Keeping at it is essential. The comedian George Carlin had a time clock at his desk at home, and he punched in and out every day, just like a factory worker. He sat there and ground it out. You have to, too. If you can’t do that, don’t try. You’ll just make yourself crazy.

Being a writer is much like being an old-time prospector. You head off into the wilderness, looking for a likely spot. You dig and dig, and sift and sift. You live on bacon and beans, and wear worn-out, patched-up clothes. Sometimes you strike gold. Most of the time, you get enough of a return to show a little profit that grubstakes you for your next attempt.

Someone smart whose name I can't remember said writing a book is like filling a swimming pool using a teacup. It requires patience. Do you like being alone with your thoughts for long periods of time, every day? Are you undaunted by the prospect of sitting there patiently, pulling words out of yourself like teeth? Congratulations, you may be a writer.

 4.     Rewrite

The first draft is always terrible. I hate first drafts. The blank page still makes me sweat. What gets me through, what allows me to write ANYTHING down, is the knowledge that I can fix it later. The first draft is just a mess of words that fight toward your goal of being understood. The first draft is filled with wrong directions, mistakes, and vile stupidities. Get over it. I LOVE rewriting. Once I have something down, I can shape it into something usable. When you are starting out, it seems impossible to wrestle something into an acceptable form. Once again, keep at it. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. The more you do it, the better you will get at it.

5.     Read

Throw away your video games. Life is too short. Read, read, read! Keep reading. I read fiction and non-fiction, poetry, plays, the back of the cereal box. I read deathless prose and complete shit. I love it all. There is no way you will get to read one-tenth of what you want to read in this life – but you can die trying. Don’t try to cheat by reading only what tops the best-seller lists. You will not discover the magic trick that will make you a great writer. In fact, most people who are good writers were stimulated by reading something so bad that they declared to themselves, “I can write something better than this crap!”

6.     Do what you can do

You have to live somehow. You have to take that day job. You have a life, people you love, obligations, hindrances. You have to write in the cracks of your working day, early in the morning, late at night. The conditions are never ideal (again, writing in the middle of a loud, busy, newsroom filled with constant interruptions on four things at a time is excellent practice). You have to forgive yourself for not getting as far in a day as you wanted. I have few readily marketable skills. I didn’t get a degree. I have raised three children, been married twice (the second one worked!), held every kind of menial job there is. I waited tables for seven years. And I kept writing.

I continue to scrape along. It’s in my blood now, I can’t help myself. When I don’t get to write, I moo like a distressed cow with overfilled udders. I do OK.

The writer typically swings between complete self-loathing and delusions of grandeur. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Don’t aspire to “be a writer”; aspire to write. It’s fun!

Don't be afraid, it's only opera

I love opera. There, I said it. I do not come from a musical family, nor were we wealthy – either or both of which would seem to be the qualifications for enjoying this unique art form.

I got hooked on it one Saturday morning when I happened to catch one of the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday matinee broadcasts (which they’ve been doing since 1931). I was unexpectedly blown away by the vocal and orchestral beauty coming out of the speaker. As I seem to do with anything that interests me, I immediately went to work finding out absolutely everything I could about it. I started at its beginnings, and worked my way down to the present day.

(Correction! I am reminded that there were two collections on multiple records in our house: a collection of Gilbert and Sullivan, and the Reader’s Digest Treasury of Great Operettas! So, from an early age, we kids would dance around singing Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml, and “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General.” Weird? You bet. There was also Mario Lanza Sings Songs from The Student Prince. So I guess those were the gateway drugs.)

You may think of it as a dying discipline, but in fact more new operas are being written now than there have been in decades. Living composers include such names as Anthony Davis, Lori Laitman, William Bolcom, Jake Heggie, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Thomas Ades, Missy Mazzoli, Philip Glass, Mason Bates, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov. and Terence Blanchard.

For me, it’s the ultimate art form. It combines music, drama (and comedy), the artistry of the staging, even dance. Somehow all these elements are combined to create something that sweeps you off your feet, if you would just give yourself a chance to get into it.

Is it stuffy? Boring? Pretentious? No more so than any other art form. It has a bad rep, primarily because people are generally singing it in languages you don’t know. (Most opera houses now have electronic “intertitles” that allow you to follow along in English.) It can be tough to follow. It helps if you bone up on it a little bit before you go.

The absolute best introductory text to school you on opera is Denis Forman’s 1994 book A Night at the Opera. It is detailed, comprehensive, extremely subjective, and hilarious. He doesn’t take the art form too seriously, and it’s full of delicious details about his favorite operas that you really can’t find anywhere else. Other good books to check out are John W. Freeman’s The Metropolitan Opera’s Stories of the Great Operas, Milton Cross’ classic Complete Stories of the Great Operas, and David Pogue’s Opera for Dummies.

Once you’ve plowed through some introductory material, you can sit down and listen, really listen, to the works. Opera started out by thinking of itself as a re-creation of ancient Greek drama, complete with soliloquies (soon to be known as arias) and choruses. It was originally something you could only experience as a member of a royal court – but soon it caught on with regular folks. In fact, it was arguably the most popular art form of the 19^th century.

We usually only hear of the “big” operas, yet thousands of them have been written by hundreds of composers – many of them forgotten. I have my own extremely subjective list of faves, which I will detail for you here by composer, in rough chronological order.

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) – The original operatic genius. His L’Orfeo is his most popular work, about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. My favorite, though, is his Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland). L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) is good too.

Opera developed, slowly. Soon there were opera houses, and paying crowds flocked to them. Of the Baroque-era composers, the most prolific was good old George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), who cranked out more than 40 of them. It was Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) who started moving opera forward stylistically, and you can still catch his Orfeo ed Eurydice.

It was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) who changed everything. He’s still #1 today! Try:

Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio)

Don Giovanni

Cosi fan tutte (Thus Do They All)

La Clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus)

Idomeneo, re di Creta (Idomeneo, King of Crete)

Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)(

Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute)

Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) – his Medee (Medea) is worth a listen!

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote only one opera, Fidelio, but it’s incredible.

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) – Der Freischutz (The Freeshooter), about a deal with the Devil.

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) is an acquired taste. I like him. He put the “grand” in “grand opera,” penning immensely long operas that used all the stage resources available at the time, including roller skating and a bunch of dancing dead nuns. Though they go on and on, they are studded with good arias and interesting musical ideas.

Robert le diable (Robert the Devil)

Les Hugenots (The Hugenots)

Le Prophete (The Prophet)

L’Africane (The African)

Now we get into the heavy hitters. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) was the king of bel canto (“beautiful singing"), an operatic style that flourished at the turn of the 19^th century. Between 1806 and 1829, only 23 years, he delivered an astonishing 39 operas, many of which hold up today. He then enjoyed a 40-year retirement. Among them are:

L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers)

Il turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy)

Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) –his biggest hit

Otello (Othello) – most people prefer Verdi’s version, but this is pretty good

La Cenerentola (Cinderella)

Mose in Egitto (Moses in Egypt)

La donna del lago (The Lady of the Lake)

Semiramide

Guillaume Tell (William Tell) – a real push forward into new territory!

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) – another bel canto genius

Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn)

La Favorita (The Favorite)

L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love)

Lucia di Lammermoor

Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart)

Roberto Devereux

Fromental Halevy (1799-1862) – another master of grand opera, his La Juive (The Jewish Girl) is excellent.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) – the third of the three bel canto giants.

Il pirata (The Pirate)

Norma

I puritani (The Puritans)

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) – A genius who had a hard time getting his work produced. For me, the ultimate grand opera composer.

Les Troyens (The Trojans)

La damnation de Faust (The Damnation of Faust)

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) – Not a fan. Still, to be a completist, you should at least listen to:

Tannhauser

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelungs) – four operas about Nordic myth. LONG.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) – THE MASTER. I love practically everything he ever wrote. He really mastered the art of the narrative musical drama. I could listen to him all day.

Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar)

I Lombardi alla prima crociata (The Lombards in the First Crusade)

Ernani

Luisa Miller

Rigoletto

Il Trovatore (The Troubador)

La traviata (The Fallen Woman)

Les vespres siciliennes (The Sicilian Vespers)

Simon Boccanegra

Un ballo en maschera (A Masked Ball)

Macbeth

Don Carlos

La forza del destino (The Force of Destiiny)

Aida

Otello

Falstaff

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) -- Known initially for his comic, satirical operettas, he crafted the great Les contes d’Hoffman (The Tales of Hoffman), his final work.

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1891) – Samson et Delilah

Georges Bizet (1838-1875) – Carmen, of course – probably the most famous opera, and deservedly so.

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Boris Goudonov

Khovanshchina

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) – The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya

Leos Janacek (1854-1928) – a big fave, much underestimated in my opinion.

Jenufa

The Excursions of Mr. Broucek

Kata Kabanova

The Cunning Little Vixen

The Makropoulos Case

From the House of the Dead

Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) – I Pagliacci (Clowns)

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) – Vastly overrated, in my mind, but you have to love Tosca and La Boheme.

Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) – Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry)

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Der Rosenkavalier

Ariadne auf Naxos

Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow)

Now, please note that I have a special place in my heart for obscure 20^th century operas. Atonal? Bizarre? Experimental? Yes! Bring it on.

Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) – Der Zwerg (The Dwarf)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

The Rake’s Progress

Les Noces

Histoire du soldat

Those last two are technically not operas, but I find them indispensable.

Alban Berg (1885-1935)

Lulu

Wozzeck

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

The Gambler

The Fiery Angel

War and Peace

Douglas Moore (1893-1969) – The Ballad of Baby Doe

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) – Mathis der Mahler (Mathis the Painter)

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) – Die Tote Stadt (The City of the Dead)

Hans Krasa (1899-1944) -- Brundibar

Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

The Threepenny Opera

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Der Silbersee (The Silverlake)

Street Scene

The Eternal Road

Ernst Krenek (1900-1991) – Jonny spielt auf (Jonny Strikes Up)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1981)

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

The Nose

The Gamblers

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) – Saint Francois d’Assise

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Billy Budd

Death in Venice

Peter Grimes

Gloriana

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Bernd Alois Zimmerman (1918-1970) – Die Soldaten (The Soldiers)

Carlisle Floyd (1926-2021) – Susannah

John Adams (1947-present)

Nixon in China

The Death of Klinghoffer

Doctor Atomic

El Nino

A Flowering Tree

NRR Project: 'Oklahoma!' original cast album (1943)

 

NRR Project: “Oklahoma!”

Words by Oscar Hammerstein II, music by Richard Rodgers

Performed by Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts, Celeste Holm et al

Released Dec. 1, 1943

1 hr., 18 min.

This is popularly thought of as the first “original cast album.” That’s not quite true, but this 1943 recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! was the first musical to sell massive amounts of records, paving the way for the regular creation and marketing of original cast albums.

Oklahoma! was a phenomenon. For (almost) the first time (see the earlier “Princess” musicals [1915-1918], Show Boat [1927], Pal Joey [1940], and Lady in the Dark [1941]), an American musical was created the songs of which advanced the plot or illuminated the character singing it. Before this musicals were largely catch-alls, repositories of songs that could have easily fit in anywhere in a given production.

Composer Richard Rodgers was just coming to the end of his long and highly successful collaboration with lyricist Lorenz Hart, who was becoming more and more unreliable. Rodgers turned to Oscar Hammerstein II, who famously collaborated with Jerome Kern on Show Boat and many other works. Together, R & H crafted an immensely memorable score, a romantic triangle that played out in the Oklahoma Territory of 1906.

Cowboy Curly (Alfred Drake) loves farm girl Laurey (Joan Roberts), but has a rival in the morose and violent Jud (Howard da Silva). The play follows the ins and outs of the two getting together and overcoming the hateful Jud.

This simple plot is studded with memorable songs – “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “Surrey with a Fringe on Top,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” “Kansas City,” “I Cain’t Say No,” “Many a New Day,” and of course the title tune. The recording sold over a million copies.

Audiences were wildly enthusiastic. Even in the middle of World War II, the show sold out for months in advance. It ran for 2,212 performances, well into 1948. R & H were a winning team, and they went on to craft a long and fruitful sequence of musicals that captivated America for decades.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Paul Robeson’s Othello.

NRR Project: 'Artistry in Rhythm' (1943)

 

NRR Project: “Artistry in Rhythm”

Composed and arranged by Stan Kenton

Performed by Stan Kenton and his Orchestra

‘Recorded Nov. 19, 1943

3:18

I must refer you to Michael Sparke’s excellent essay on the topic here. I have never liked Stan Kenton; I thought his attempts to “legitimize” jazz by combining it with the structures of classical music (known as “third stream” music) was a dead end. But that’s just me.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Oklahoma! Original cast recording (1943).

NRR Project: "The Goldbergs" -- 'Sammy Goes into the Army' (July 23, 1942)

 

NRR Project: “The Goldbergs”

‘Sammy Goes into the Army’

Broadcast July 23, 1942

13:11

The Goldbergs was one of the most popular radio shows in history. Lasting from 1929 to 1945, with a brief reprise in 1949-1950, the show chronicled the lives of a typical Jewish family in Brooklyn (they lived on East Tremont. . . later in the show, they moved to Connecticut). Surprisingly, during a time when a notable portion of American citizens were antisemitic, this warm and funny show captured the imaginations of listeners and became a favorite everywhere.

The show was the brainchild of Gertrude Edelstein Berg, a housewife and mother who had ambition. She started writing audio sketches and short, humorous pieces in the early days of network radio. Finally, on Nov. 20, 1929, her The Goldbergs hit the airwaves and continued strong, in formats varying from 15 minutes a day, five days a week, to a half-hour. Berg was the writer, producer, and director of the series – a first for women on air.

Was the show a soap opera, or a comedy? It was both. Its gentle humor and sharply observed, eccentric characters were endearing, and Molly Goldberg (played by Berg herself) was the matriarch. She lived in a tenement with sometimes-grouchy husband Jake, who worked as a tailor. Their children, Sammy and Rosalie, grew up on the show. Relatives and friends crowded around the microphone as the Bergs went through the same everyday routines that all Americans did – save that they were religiously observant (but not obnoxiously so).

The Goldbergs have been compared to the long-running radio comedy show Amos & Andy, as well as Carlton E. Morse’s great, long-running radio soap One Man’s Family. In all three cases, characters developed and grew down the years, becoming as familiar as old friends. Berg’s cry, “Yoo hoo! Is anybody?” became a national catchphrase.

In this episode, son Sammy has joined the Army and is off to boot camp via Grand Central Station. Molly secretly follows him down there, just to say goodbye one last time. It turns out that Jake and other relatives had the same idea – so they all congregate on the platform to bid the budding G.I. a fond farewell. The tender scene of parting is bolstered by Molly’s advice to another mother there, seeing her son off. She declares that the folks at home must be brave and without tears, lest the fascists get the upper hand.

Berg was in step with the popular imagination. Her show even successfully made the transition to early television. With sentiment and sarcasm blended effortlessly together, her slice-of-life program was a popular and critical hit.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Stan Kenton plays Artistry in Rhythm (1943).

NRR Project: 'Command Performance' (July 7, 1942)

 

NRR Project: “Command Performance”

Broadcast July 7, 1942

30 min.

Once again, I must point to the superlative explanatory essay on this show from Cary O’Dell, which you can read here. I have little to add!

It was a great idea. American soldiers stationed all over the planet during World War II were homesick. They longed to hear from the home front. Producer Louis G. Cowan came up with a swell concept. Let the military men send in requests for specific performers to entertain them over the radio; these “commands” were executed in broadcasts that ranged from 30 minutes to two hours in length. The broadcasts were then transmitted directly to servicemen via shortwave and transcription disk via the Armed Forces Radio Service; most civilians never heard them.

This program became a special treat for G.I. listeners. You never knew but that your request would be honored. Famous singers, comedians, actors, and musicians all donated their time to make the show happen. Networks lent their studios and time for free. Everybody pitched in to make the boys at war happy!

It wasn’t just entertainers the G.I.s asked for. One guy wanted to hear his dog bark. Another wanted to hear starlet Carole Landis sigh. Still another wanted to hear the sound of a slot machine paying off. All these requests and more were granted.

The broadcast chosen by the National Recording Registry is a typical one from early in the run of the show. Comedian Bob Hope was the emcee; performers included the great Black singer Lena Horne (radio was colorblind), bandleader Les Brown and his Orchestra played a swing version of Verdi’s Anvil Chorus, the vaudeville team of Shaw and Lee did a routine, a “hurdy-gurdy” (a crank-driven musical machine) from the streets of Manhattan was played, singer Ginny Simms performed, and finally actress Rosalind Russell and Hope did a comic skit together.

The show was an immense success, and continued even after the war, lasting until 1949. It was just one of the many projects undertaken to boost the morale of the troops. Radio reached out and gave servicemen the comforts of home.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘The Goldbergs’ Sammy Goes into the Army (July 9, 1942).

 

Hail, Euterpe!, or; my favorite poets

 

Poetry is good for you. How come?

It’s wordplay. It’s rhyming and meter schemes that enter your head and don’t leave. Poetry catches thoughts and feelings that can’t be expressed in other terms. It’s heightened language; it has the virtues of compression and intensity. When a good poem hits you where you live, it moves you, it changes your outlook on things. It’s an art form that persevered for thousands of years, predating even written language. There is something in the human soul that keeps producing it.

It’s a skill that’s fiendishly difficult to sustain. That being said, there is a lot of bad poetry out there, just like any other discipline. I oughta know, I wrote enough of it in my twenties. (I lost the ability to think in that way quickly and switched to prose.) I just took a look at those early efforts of mine . . . they are . . . OK. Everybody should try it sometime. Poetry can be anything -- silly, tragic, sarcastic, angry, political, philosophical, romantic, confused, bitter, hope-inducing. It doesn’t even have to make sense – try Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, or Shel Silverstein and you'll see what I mean.

Sometimes it doesn’t stand the test of time. Did you ever try to read Alexander Pope, or Lord Byron? Undoubtedly talented, their efforts don’t resonate (for me) today. Still, we study these venerable wordsmiths and others, and once in a while we find something that clicks in our heads when it’s read – and it feeds our souls in a way that could not be comprehended before.

Given the rising tide of illiteracy in our country, reading poetry is an act of defiance. It’s the least utilitarian of literary skills – it solves nothing, it doesn’t increase your bank balance. But it seems to be something we need.

I have a list of favorite poets, but there are plenty to choose from, across the stretch of time and from around the world. (Great poets require great translators.) Whatever your outlook on life is, there is a poet for you. Just off the top of my head, here are other names to conjure with – Homer, Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, John Milton, John Donne, Rabindranath Tagore, Rumi, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander Pushkin, Langston Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, Maya Angelou, Tu Fu, William Blake, W.B. Yeats, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Bukowski, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Hardy, Rainer Maria Rilke, Carl Sandberg, the Brownings (Robert and Elizabeth), Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, John Keats.

I guarantee that if you dive into the discipline, you will find something you like. One of the best ways to find “your” poets is to pick up an anthology. I grew up with F.T. Palgrave’s Golden Treasury; other fine collections include such entries as the Norton Anthology of Poetry and the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.

Here are my faves, pals I go to again and again through more than 60 years of reading. As you will see, I kind of got stuck on the Imagists, a group of poets in the early 20^th century who pioneered modernism. I just love that generation.

Virgil (70 B.C.E. – 19 B.C.E.) – The Aeneid. A story of the downfall of Troy and the founding of Rome.

Ovid (43 B.C.E. – 17 A.D.) –  The Metamorphoses. Myths and legends made real.

Li Po (701-762)

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) – The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. A trip through Hell, the redemption of Purgatory, and the splendors of Heaven.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 – 1400) – The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Cressida. You can try reading these in their original Middle English, but read a modern translation first. Once you get used to his mode of expression, you will find him hilarious.

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) – Sonnets.

Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678)

Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) – Leaves of Grass.

Charles Beaudelaire (1821 – 1867) – The Flowers of Evil. A pioneer in tackling poetic subjects that aren’t “pretty.”

Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955)

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880—1918)

William Carlos Williams (1883 – 1963)

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886 – 1961)

e.e. cummings (1894 – 1962)

Bertolt Brecht (1898 – 1956)

Hart Crane (1899 – 1932)

W.H. Auden (1903 – 1973)

Pablo Neruda (1904 – 1973)

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)

John Berryman (1914-1972) – The Dream Songs.

Octavio Paz (1914 – 1998)

NRR Project: 'Wings Over Jordan' (May 10, 1942)

 

NRR Project: “Wings Over Jordan”

Broadcast May 10, 1942

30 min.

Another entry for which I have no data. I cannot even find a representative broadcast online, much less the one for the date mentioned. Read Bryan Pierce’s explanatory essay for details on this selection.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Command Performance (July 7, 1942).

NRR Project: 'White Christmas' (1942)

 

NRR Project: “White Christmas”

Words and music by Irving Berlin

Performed by Bing Crosby, with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers

Recorded May 29, 1942

2:57

“White Christmas” is the result of America’s dean of songwriters Irving Berlin wanting to tie together a bumper crop of his holiday songs in one film. Berlin was already established as a stellar hitmaker, even before he killed it with “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” in 1911. His avalanche of great songs, performed on stage and captured on film, dominated early 20^th century popular culture. Everybody knew “God Bless America,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Blue Skies,” “Always.”

Then he wrote the most popular song ever recorded. You can hear the 1942 recording here.

He wrote this song, and eleven others, for the 1942 musical film “Holiday Inn.” It stars Bing Crosby, a New Yorker who sings and who decides to open, on an old farm in Connecticut, an entertainment venue that’s only open on the holidays. He is a rival in love, jostling for the hand of Linda (Marjorie Reynolds, singing dubbed by Martha Mears) against his old pal Ted (Fred Astaire), who gets to display his terpsichorean talents, of course.

It’s pleasant, fun-loving comic romp. And it was Berlin’s idea – he was nominated for Best Original Story at the Oscars that year, and won Best Original Song for this entry – which he wound up presenting to himself.

In various combinations, the three go around the calendar in their club with featured musical numbers for the patrons, allowing Berlin to supply us with songs for Valentine’s Day (“Be Careful, It’s My Heart”) and “Easter Parade” and even Washington’s Birthday (“I Can’t Tell a Lie”).

The film is marred by the fact that there is a blackface sequence. As late as 1942, casual racism still plagued Hollywood, abysmally behind the times – or rather, perhaps, in sinister sync with them. This was not just a number (“Abraham,” a Lincoln’s Birthday bit) but a plot point.

It’s why you don’t see it much any more. Too bad – otherwise, it’s a very entertaining film. It’s marred by a racism that would, eventually, be thought and taught out of existence . . . hopefully.

And the sleeper hit in it is “White Christmas.” Its evocation of home, its perfect expression of feeling, its unspoken desire for something lost, its sheer tenderness and emotional honesty – combined with memorable lyric. And it’s easy to sing. Infectious! How could you not remember “White Christmas”?

So it’s released in May, and by October it’s Number One. It stays that way through the next year. It is said that soldiers away from home made this a hit. Again and again, it crops up, by Crosby in a 1947 update, and then by others, oh so many others. It’s competed with by other “secular” Christmas hits such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman,” but it sits atop the memory tree. It’s still heard everywhere at Christmas time.  

This is the epitome of the American song, heard by hundreds of millions by now, a kind of love song to a time and a place where everything was all right.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Wings Over Jordan (May 10, 1942).

NRR Project: 'Native Brazilian Music' (1942)

 

NRR Project: “Native Brazilian Music”

Various artists

Recorded 1940; released 1942

Approx. 40 min.

Conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) was a fan of Brazilian music. In 1940, he went on a tour of South America with his All-American Youth Orchestra. With the help of fellow composer Hector Villa-Lobos, he gathered together many of Brazil’s greatest musical talents for a special project. On the S.S. Uruguay, he and some Columbia Records engineers sat down to record dozens of native tunes which had never been put to lacquer before.

The musicians in the sessions included Pixinguinha, Donga, Joao de Bahiana, Ze Espinguela, Cartola, Ze da Zilda, Luiz Americano, and Jararaca and Ratinho. Altogether, 40 songs were recorded. From this, a selection of 17 were made into a 78 r.p.m. album and released in 1942.

There are sambas, batucadas, macumba, and emboladas. The album can be accessed via the Internet Archive here. It’s a remarkable recording – here is music of the people, not made for commercial reasons but rising out of the cultures of the South American continent.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: White Christmas.

NRR Project: Roosevelt and Churchill give Christmas speeches (Dec. 24, 1941)

 

NRR Project: Christmas Eve broadcast (Dec. 24, 1941)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill

13:46

First, go to H.W. Brands’ excellent essay on this topic via the National Recording Registry here. It does a great job of setting the table for these two speeches, and delineating the fortunately close relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill.

America was in turmoil, having declared war against Japan on Dec. 8. Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, immediately proposed a meeting; American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was happy to host him at the White House. After a dangerous sea voyage, Churchill reached the U.S. The two saw the value of quickly devising an overall strategy among the opponents of the Axis. Churchill intended to stay a week, but stayed for three.

The two were dynamic, charismatic leaders, and both had the gift of eloquence. I cannot transcribe Roosevelt’s inspiring words, but you will find them here. You can literally watch them give their speeches here.

The nation needed reassurance. What would a country at war become? Roosevelt here asks if it is appropriate to celebrate Christmas in such dark times. He answers in the affirmative, and urges people to “arm our hearts”.

I include Churchill’s words below, because I can. It is worth reading not only for its brave sentiments, but as a fine example of Churchill’s style. His English is impeccable; he gets right to the point, states it clearly, and finishes magnificently. The guy could write.

“Fellow workers, in the course of freedom, I have the honour to add a pendant to the necklace of that Christmas goodwill and kindliness which my illustrious friend the President has encircled the homes and families of the United States by his message of Christmas eve which he just delivered.

I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, and yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home. Whether it be by the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, whichever it may be, or all of them together, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States. I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.

Fellow workers, fellow soldiers in the cause, this is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle. Armed with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the lands or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field. Ill would it be for us if that were so. Here in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes. Here amid all these tumults, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart.

Therefore we may cast aside, for this night at least, the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace. Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable year that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

And so, in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.

May you all have a very happy Holiday Season and here’s to a bright New Year.”

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Native Brazilian Music.