I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitledThe Path to Paradise: Judith Schaechter's Stained-Glass Art — the first survey of her thirty-seven year career — is at the Des Moines, Iowa Art Center through May 23rd.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay in Foreign Affairs with the title “Gone but not forgotten: Donald Trump’s long shadow and the end of American credibility”.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Buddy the Cat— a New Mexico kitteh who was swiped from his own home (caught on CCTV, then posted on Facebook) then reunited after someone spotted Buddy being thrown from a vehicle on I-40.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this short essay in the American Prospect by Robert Kuttner: saying that one more Trump holdover who needs to be given his walking papers is Phil Swagel, the head of the CBO— which admitted to a horrible miscalculation in September about national debt … yet does not seem chastised.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Chester Bartlett the Cat— an Idaho kitteh who has now been placed on a diet … after he “tricked” the whole family and the neighbors next door into feeding him repeatedly each day.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (and there is one common question).
FROM A RIGHT-WINGER, no less:
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS?— the Great American Songbook composer Jimmy Van Heusen and TV/film star Telly Savalas.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… there is a whole genre of music dedicated to song parodies — re-writing original lyrics to create a new tune. Historically it has been done for serious reasons (John Brown’s Body leading to Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic, as well as Bob Dylan adapting part of an old slave song into Blowin’ in the Wind).
Yet we mostly think of the genre as humorous ... and when one considers its most frequent practitioners — Spike Jones, Victor Borge, Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, P. D. Q. Bach and in more recent times, Weird Al Yankovic — that can explain it well.
The theme song to the 1936 film Pennies from Heaven will be tonight’s example, with music by Arthur Johnston and lyrics by Johnny Burke. Burke went on to write lyrics frequently recorded by Bing Crosby (my father’s favorite male singer) and it was Bing who sang this for the film. It spent ten weeks as the #1 song in the nation, was nominated for Best Song at the Academy Awards (although losing out to the Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields classic The Way You Look Tonight) and in 2004 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
This song tried to capture the 1930’s, beginning by referencing the spirit of the 1920’s, then the oncoming Depression — yet with hope for the future.
A long time ago, a million years BC The best things in life were absolutely free But no one appreciated a sky that was always blue And no one congratulated a moon that was always newSo it was planned that they would vanish, now and then And you must pay before you get them back again That's what storms were made for And you shouldn't be afraid for
Every time it rains, it rains Pennies from heaven Don't you know each cloud contains Pennies from heaven
You'll find your fortune falling all over town Be sure that your umbrella is upside down Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers If you want the things you love You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder Don't run under a tree There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me
Rather than from Bing: from my mother’s favorite female singer.
Forty-one years later, the jazz singer Eddie Jefferson had a go at this song. He is considered one of the founders of vocalese— adding (and singing) lyrics to either (1) songs that were previously instrumental … or, (2) adding lyrics to a song already with lyrics, yet not changing them — instead, adapting them to a notable instrumental solo rendition of the original tune, often quite a challenging task.
Born in Detroit in 1918, he began as a tap dancer before being a full-time singer at age thirty. Although written by a different vocalese specialist (named King Pleasure) it was Jefferson who popularized the lyrics written as Moody's Mood For Love, based on a 1949 James Moody tenor saxophone solo to the classic "I'm In The Mood For Love". Alas, he was shot and killed while leaving a nightclub in his native Detroit (by a dancer he had worked with previously and had fired) in 1979.
For this song, Eddie Jefferson simply substituted new lyrics for the existing Pennies from Heaven to make a parody … and it’s has been recorded by folksinger Peter Ostroushko as well as this rendition by the Portland, Oregon singer Marti Mendenhall— rather interesting to hear this tune sung by a woman, as you’ll see.
A long time ago a second lieutenant named Spears Returned to the States after staying overseas three years His wife said, "Welcome home, dear but since you've been gone, you see: we've been blessed with a darling baby and a cute little one is he"
She took the baby in her arms and said, "Bennie is his name" He said, "I've been gone away for years Darling, won't you please explain so I won't be so down tell me, where did little Bennie come from?"
And every time he asked, she'd say "Bennie's from Heaven!" His face got red Still she repeatedly said "Bennie's from Heaven!"
He says, "I've asked the neighbors that come around No one seems to remember Bennie coming down" Now he said ... "About a little thing like this I ordinarily would not bother But what little I know about children I know they have fathers"
"And when I look at little Bennie I can plainly see: Bennie must be from Heaven cause he damned sure ain't from me!"