Jan 17: Comden & Green

Betty Comden and Adolph Green are my heroes. Betty in particular. Performers AND writers, they wrote lyrics that are so wonderful to sing, that are completely natural to the thought process. One of my favorites is "A Little Bit In Love" from Wonderful Town, which I didn't put in this show because I've played it recently on the Audra McDonald show. (And Audra is THE interpreter of this song!) Complex rhymes (for the tongue, at least) flipping into a little simple thought:

When he looks at me, everything's hazy and all out of focus,
When he touches me, I'm in the spell of a strange hocus-pocus,
It's so ... I don't know, I'm so... I don't know!
I don't know, but I know if it's love then it's lovely!

It's not easy to pull those "I Don't Know"s off with the right innocense, nuance of shading (so each is different in each repetition), and complete wonderful bewilderment. It's a wonderful lyric.
The other favorite song of mine from Comden & Green is a gem called "The Story Of My Life." Many of their songs were fun and free, but this meloncholy mood really speaks true. It was cut from Wonderful Town, probably (like Bernstein's own Ain't Got No Tears Left in On the Town) because the producers thought it was too depressing. I love to hear it particularly because it's depressing -- any time I'm depressed, it reminds me that other people do feel this way.

You dream you hear a lovely song,
All night you're haunted by its theme.
When you wake up, the notes are wrong
The song has vanished with the dream;
Well, that's the story of my life.

Betty died last November, Adolph died in 2002. Their partnership lasted 60 years (longer than their marriages -- to other people). They only earned a half-dozen or so Tony Awards, far fewer than they deserved I think. Comedy is an art, and they mastered it.

Albums played:
Comden & Green Perform Their Own Songs
Bells Are Ringing
That's Entertainment! The Best Of The MGM Musicals
Leonard Bernstein's New York
Bells Are Ringing revival
On the Town
The interview clips come from Do Re Mi revival
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