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Poetry Man

Ooooo, ya, ya, ya, ya
Ooooo, ya
You make me laugh
'Cause your eyes they light the night
They look right through me, la, la, la
You bashful boy
You're hiding something sweet
Please give it to me, yeah, to me, ya
To me
Ooh, oh, talk to me some more
You don't have to go
You're the Poetry Man
You make things all right, ya, ya

Ooooo, ya, ya, ya, ya
Ooooo, ya
You are a genie
And all I ask for is your smile
Each time I rub the lamp, la, la, la
When I am with you
I have a giggling teen-age crush
Then I'm a sultry vamp, ya, ya
Talk to me some more
You don't have to go
You're the Poetry Man
You make things all right, ya, ya

Oooooh, ya, ya, ya
Oooooh, ya

[Musical Interlude]

Talk to me some more
You don't have to go
You're the Poetry Man
You make things all right
Ooooo, ya, ya, ya, ya
Ooooo, ya

So once again
It's time to say so long
And so recall the call of life, la, la, la
You're going home now
Home's that place somewhere you go each day
To see your wife, ya, ya, ya
To see your wife
Wooo, oooh

Talk to me some more
You don't have to go
You're the Poetry Man
You make things all right, ya
Wooo, oooh

Talk to me some more
You don't have to go
You're the Poetry Man
You make things all right

Phoebe Snow

Mr. Turtle, Cheech Marin was and is still, a funny man. Loved that, buddy.

Wow, Our Rex is on a roll. Hey, buddy. You reminded me of the land of Phoebe Snow. Now your songs will make me go back where I don't want to go. <smile>

Still trying to find The Sign of the Ram. grrrrrr.

Here's a little bit of history that I finally found, listeners:

The first ad featured the image of Phoebe and a short poem:

Says Phoebe Snow
about to go
upon a trip to Buffalo
"My gown stays white
from morn till night
Upon the Road of Anthracite"
The campaign became a popular one, and soon Phoebe began to enjoy all the benefits offered by DL&W: Gourmet food, courteous attendants, an observation deck, even on-board electric lights:

Now Phoebe may
by night or day
enjoy her book upon the way
Electric light
dispels the night
Upon the Road of Anthracite

Phoebe Snow turns out to be a mascot for anthracite coal. My word.

Whoop-I-Ti-Yi-Yo - Woody Harrelson

Spoken:
Well, what ya reckon we sing a song, Dusty
Well, let's do it, Lefty
One, two, you know what to do

Well, I'm just an old cowboy with twigs in my hair
Two-thirds alligator and three-quarters bear
And one half a lion but let it be known
I never told one lie that was not my own

Whoop-i-ti-yi-yo, git along little doggy

I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry
Don't boss me or cross me or I'll spit in your eye
I think what I please and I say what I mean
And I think all you women are the finest I've seen

Whoop-i-ti-yi-yo, git along little doggy

I love the prairie, say what you will
It's flat and it's dusty but I love it still
It's emtpy and lonely and tedious too
So maybe I'm crazy but what can I do

Whoop-i-ti-yi-yo, git along little doggy

Here comes the solo

Yeah, real good

I guess you can tell by the way we are dressed
We're are two cowboy of the wild west
Cowboy's who's boots have stepped into manour
Heroes of song and of literature
We ride in the snow and we ride in the rain
Just like Gene Autry, just like John Wayne
They were better cowboys then us and I mean it
And we are still living and that is convenient

Whoop-i-ti-yi-yo, git along little doggy
Whoop-i-ti-yi-yo, git along little doggies
Yoo-ah-lay-lee, yoo-ah-lay-lee, a-whooooo
Wha, hooooo

Funnnneeee, edgar. Love them spoofs.

Hey, how about another song that's straight. We don't need to bash America just because our leaders have hoof in mouth disease.<smile>

U.S.A.
by Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I'd worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

I'd thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
?'Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can't take that away.

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
?'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say.

That I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
?'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

And I'm proud to be and American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
?'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

anyone want to listen to leonard cohen's 'gambler's song' ?
leonard always seems to be a little sad and weary of life .
perhaps a 'whiskey sour' might cheer him up !
hbg
---------------------------------------------------------
It's true that all the men you knew were dealers
who said they were through with dealing
Every time you gave them shelter
I know that kind of man
It's hard to hold the hand of anyone
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender,
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender.

And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
you find he did not leave you very much
not even laughter
Like any dealer he was watching for the card
that is so high and wild
he'll never need to deal another
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger


And then leaning on your window sill
he'll say one day you caused his will
to weaken with your love and warmth and shelter
And then taking from his wallet
an old schedule of trains, he'll say
I told you when I came I was a stranger
I told you when I came I was a stranger.


But now another stranger seems
to want you to ignore his dreams
as though they were the burden of some other
O you've seen that man before
his golden arm dispatching cards
but now it's rusted from the elbows to the finger
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter
Yes he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter.


Ah you hate to see another tired man
lay down his hand
like he was giving up the holy game of poker
And while he talks his dreams to sleep
you notice there's a highway
that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder.
It is curling just like smoke above his shoulder.


You tell him to come in sit down
but something makes you turn around
The door is open you can't close your shelter
You try the handle of the road
It opens do not be afraid
It's you my love, you who are the stranger
It's you my love, you who are the stranger.


Well, I've been waiting, I was sure
we'd meet between the trains we're waiting for
I think it's time to board another
Please understand, I never had a secret chart
to get me to the heart of this
or any other matter
When he talks like this
you don't know what he's after
When he speaks like this,
you don't know what he's after.


Let's meet tomorrow if you choose
upon the shore, beneath the bridge
that they are building on some endless river
Then he leaves the platform
for the sleeping car that's warm
You realize, he's only advertising one more shelter
And it comes to you, he never was a stranger
And you say ok the bridge or someplace later.


And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind ...


And leaning on your window sill ...


I told you when I came I was a stranger.

Mornin' all.

and Happy Independence Day to everyone in the USA.


Up for a hot drink, before going back to bed. I've also just read an email from my closest friend, which has cheered me up no end.

I'm therefoe in a mellow mood, and this is the first thing that sprang to mind. It remnds me of that night of the Munchen Beer Festival, 1924. Her name was Heidi, if I remember correctly, beautiful plaits, could carry six steins of lager without spilling a drop. Ideal woman, really....anyway, there was this particular night <Ellpus wanders off, still rambling> ...I rescued her from this snow drift........obviously needed a change of clothing.........until 6am, and then we had breakfast......



FEVER (Peggy Lee)

Never know how much I love you, never know how much I care
When you put your arms around me, I get a fever that's so hard to bear
You give me fever - when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight
Fever - in the the morning, fever all through the night


Sun lights up the daytime, moon lights up the night
I light up when you call my name, and you know I'm gonna treat you right
You give me fever - when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight
Fever - in the the morning, fever all through the night
Everybody's got the fever, that is something you all know
Fever isn't such a new thing, fever started long ago


Romeo loved Juliet, Juliet she felt the same
When he put his arms around her, he said "Julie baby you're my flame"
Thou givest fever, when we kisseth, fever with thy flaming youth
Fever - I'm afire, fever yea I burn forsooth


Captain Smith and Pocahontas had a very mad affair
When her Daddy tried to kill him, she said "Daddy-O don't you dare"
Give me fever - with his kisses, fever when he holds me tight
Fever - I'm his Missus, Oh daddy won't you treat him right


Now you've listened to my story, here's the point I have made:
Chicks were born to give you fever, be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade
They give you fever - when you kiss them, fever if you live and learn
Fever - till you sizzle, what a lovely way to burn
What a lovely way to burn
What a lovely way to burn

That was early, mylord!

Good morning good morning
good morning good morning
good morning, a

Nothing to do to save his life
call his wife in
Nothing say but what a day
how's your boy been
Nothing to do, it's up to you
I've got noting to say but it's O.K.

Good morning good morning
good morning a

Going to work don't want to go
feeling low down
Heading for home you start to roam
then you're in town

Everybody knows there's nothing doing
Everything is closed, it's like a ruin
Everyone you see is half asleep
And you're on your own, you're in the street

After a while you start to smile
now you feel cool
Then you decide to take a walk by the old school
Nothing has changed it's still the same
I've got nothing to say but it's O.K.
Good morning good morning
good morning a

People running 'round it's five o'clock
Everywhere in town it's getting dark
Everyone you see is full of life
It's time for tea and meet the wife

Somebody needs to know the time
glad that I'm here
Watching the skirts you start to flirt
no you're in gear
Go to a show you hope she goes
I've got nothing to say but it's O.K.
Good morning good morning
good morning good morning



.... and a happy 4th of July from here as well!

Morning Everyone!

7.21 and the sun is already cracking the flags in Manchester.

A happy song for a special person..

LOVE IS IN THE AIR (John Paul Young)

Love is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound

And I don't know if I'm being foolish
Don't know if I'm being wise
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I look in your eyes

Love is in the air
In the whisper of the trees
Love is in the air
In the thunder of the sea

And I don't know if I'm just dreaming
Don't know if I feel sane
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when you call out my name

(Chorus)
Love is in the air
Love is in the air
Oh oh oh
Oh oh oh

Love is in the air
In the rising of the sun
Love is in the air
When the day is nearly done

And I don't know if you're an illusion
Don't know if I see it true
But you're something that I must believe in
And you're there when I reach out for you

Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound
And I don't know if I'm being foolish
Don't know if I'm being wise

But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I look in your eyes

Good morning WA2K radio listeners and contributors.

Hey, hamburger. What a nice L.C. song, Canada, whiskey sour and all. <smile>. Just one beer last evening, buddy.

Well, my goodness, Lord Ellpus, that is indeed an early moring song and thank you so much for the well wishes for our holiday here. Say "hi" to Heidi for us.

Walter, What a nice good morning song and thank you for recognizing our Independence Day.

And there's Sarah back, feeling love in the air. I am glad to know that you have a special person somewhere, dear. Yes, I know that melody. It has been played here before by someone in Europe, I think. :wink:

Drink of the morning, listeners? Guess!

Happy holidays.


INDEPENDENCE DAY
Bruce Springsteen Lyrics

Well Papa go to bed now it's getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
I'll be leaving in the morning from St. Mary's Gate
We wouldn't change this thing even if we could somehow
Cause the darkness of this house has got the best of us
There's a darkness in this town that's got us too
But they can't touch me now
And you can't touch me now
They ain't gonna do to me
What I watched them do to you

So say goodbye it's Independence Day
It's Independence Day
All down the line
Just say goodbye it's Independence Day
It's Independence Day this time

Now I don't know what it always was with us
We chose the words, and yeah, we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind

Well say goodbye it's Independence Day
It's Independence Day all boys must run away
So say goodbye it's Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day

Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
Leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

Well Papa go to bed now it's getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there's just different people coming down here now
and they see things in different ways
And soon everything we've known will just be swept away

So say goodbye it's Independence Day
Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But won't you just say goodbye it's Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away

Well, there's our Try. Hey, honey. Well, buddy, that's a down song, all right, but let's be up today, 'cause the fireworks demand it. <smile>

Fond memories, listeners, because I recall what an uplifting feeling all of us had when we RVed right on the beach. The Roman candles; the sparklers; the star bursts at evening, and there is no doubt about it, music is an inspiration for all kinds of emotions. I can hear us singing this as we speak.


America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
Melody by Samuel Ward


O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

For my daughter, my son, and my husband. Big smile. Oh, and incidentally, Katherine Lee Bates was a teacher.

BBB
On the chest of a barmaid at Yale
Were tattooed the prices of ale
and on her behind
for the sake of the blind
was the same information in Braille.

Hey, BBB. Is that relevant, gal? Doesn't matter. We like limericks.

Here, it's the 4th of July,
And we promise we really will try
To make it a safe one,
And just have some great fun,
Salute, here's mud in your eye.

Stephen Foster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 - January 13, 1864) was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of his era. Many of his songs, such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races" and "Beautiful Dreamer", are still popular over 150 years after their composition.

Foster was born in Lawrenceville, which later became part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up as the youngest of ten children in a relatively well-off family. His education included a month at college, but little formal music training. Despite this, he had published several songs before he was twenty years old (his first, "Open Thy Lattice Love," appeared when he was eighteen). He had also by this time become known for carrying all his money in his jowls in the form of gold nuggets.

Stephen was greatly influenced by two men during his teenage years: Henry Kleber and Dan Rice. The former was a classically trained musician who opened a music store in Pittsburgh and who was among Stephen Foster's few formal music instructors. The latter was an entertainer - a clown and blackface singer, making his living in traveling circuses. These two very different musical worlds created an uneasy crossroads for the teenage Foster. Although respectful of the more civilized parlor songs during the day, he and his friends would sit at a piano, writing and singing "coon songs" all night long. Eventually, Foster would learn to juxtapose the two genres to create some of his best works.

In 1846 he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and became a bookkeeper with his brother's steamship company. While living in Cincinnati, Foster had his first hit songs, including "Oh! Susanna", which was to serve as the anthem of the California gold rush in 1848/9. In 1849 he published "Foster's Ethiopian Melodies", which included the hit song "Nelly Was a Lady", made famous by the Christy Minstrels.

That year he returned to Pennsylvania and formed a contract with the Christy Minstrels, beginning the period in which most of his best-known songs were written: "Camptown Races" (1850), "Nelly Bly" (1850), "Old Folks at Home" (also known as "Swanee River," 1851), "My Old Kentucky Home" (1853), "Old Dog Tray" (1853), "Hard Times Come Again No More" (1854) and "Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair" (1854), which was written for his wife, Jane McDowall.

Many of Foster's songs were in the minstrel show tradition popular at the time. Although blackface performers were the only popular entertainment channel available to him, he sought to, in his own words, "build up taste...among refined people by making words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that order." He instructed white performers of his songs not to mock slaves but to get their audiences to feel compassion for them.

Although his songs largely dealt with life in the South, Foster himself had little firsthand experience there, only having visited New Orleans in 1852 on his honeymoon.

Foster tried to make a living as a professional songwriter, and may be considered a pioneer in this respect, since this field of endeavor did not yet exist in the modern sense. Consequently, due in part to the poor provisions for music copyright and composer royalties at the time, Foster saw very little of the profits which his works generated for sheet music printers. Multiple publishers often printed their own competing editions of Foster's tunes, paying Foster nothing. For "Oh, Susanna", he received only $100.

Foster moved to New York City in 1860. About a year later, his wife and daughter abandoned him to return to Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1862 his musical fortunes began to decline, and as they did, so did the quality of his new songs. He began working with George Cooper early in 1863 whose lyrics were often humorous and designed to appeal to musical theater audiences. The Civil War was also ruinous to the market for musical performances.

Stephen Foster died on January 13, 1864, at the early age of 37. He had been impoverished while living at the North American Hotel at 30 Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (possessing exactly 38 cents) when he died. In his pocket was a scrap of paper with only the enigmatic, "dear friends and gentle hearts", written on it. He is buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of his best loved works, "Beautiful Dreamer" was published shortly after his death.

His brother, Morrison Foster, is largely responsible for compiling his works and writing a short but pertinent biography of Stephen. His sister, Ann Eliza Foster Buchanan, married a brother of President James Buchanan.

Foster is honored with a building on the University of Pittsburgh campus called Stephen Foster Memorial, which houses a museum.

'Stephen Foster was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1970

Bruce Springsteen

4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK
(SANDY)


Sandy, the fireworks are hailin' over little Eden tonight
Sparkin' a light in all those empty faces staring up on this warm July
Down in town the streets are full of switchblade lovers, so fast, so shiny, so sharp
Them wizards play down on pinball way on the boardwalk way past dark
And them Casino boys dance with their shirts open down upon the shore
Ah, catching all them silly New York girls by the score

So Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us
The pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh love me tonight, I promise I'll love you forever

Well now the greasers, they tramp the streets or get busted for sleeping on the beach at night
And them boys in their high heels, oh Sandy, their skins are so white
And me I'm tired working in this dusty old arcade and fixin' these machines
Chasin' them factory girls under the boardwalk where they unsnap their jeans
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
That Joey kept me spinnin'
No, he wouldn't let me off

So, Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us
This pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh love me tonight, I promise I'll love you forever

Well now Sandy, them north side angels lost their desire for us
I talked with them last night and they said they won't set themselves on fire for us anymore
But the weather gets hot and every season, oh they still come and they go
Oh parkin' with their honeys way down south on the Kokomo
Did you hear the cops they busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
Guess it don't matter much any more girl, pretty soon summer will be through

Oh Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us
This beach life, oh it cannot go on forever
Oh love me tonight, I promise I'll love you forever
Sandy

George M. Cohan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Michael Cohan (July 3 or July 4, 1878 - November 5, 1942) was a United States entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, director, and producer of Irish descent. Known as "the man who owned Broadway" in the decade before World War I, he is considered the father of American musical comedy.

Cohan was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Irish Catholic parents. A baptismal certificate (which gave the wrong first name for his mother) indicated that he was born on July 3, but the Cohan family always insisted that George had been "born on the Fourth of July!" George's parents were traveling Vaudeville performers, and he joined them on stage while still an infant, at first as a prop, later learning to dance and sing soon after he could walk and talk.

He completed a family act called "The Four Cohans", which included his father Jeremiah "Jere" Cohan (1848-1917), mother Helen "Nellie" Costigan Cohan (1854-1928), and sister Josephine "Josie" Cohan Niblo (1874-1916).

Josie's husband, Fred Niblo Sr. (1874-1948) was an important director of silent films, including Ben Hur (1925), and was a founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their son, Fred Niblo Jr. (1903-1973) was an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter.

By his teens, Cohan became well-known as one of Vaudeville's best male dancers, and he also started writing original skits and songs for the family act. Soon he was writing professionally, selling his first songs to a national publisher in 1893. Cohan had his first big Broadway hit in 1904 with the show Little Johnny Jones, which introduced his tunes "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "The Yankee Doodle Boy".

Cohan became one of the leading Tin Pan Alley songwriters, publishing upwards of 1500 original songs, noted for their catchy melodies and clever lyrics. His other major hit songs included "You're a Grand Old Flag", "The Warmest Baby In The Bunch", "Life's A Funny Proposition After All", "I Want to Hear a Yankee Doodle Tune", "You Won't Do Any Business If You Haven't Got A Band", "Mary's a Grand Old Name", "The Small Town Gal", "I'm Mighty Glad I'm Living, That's All", "That Haunting Melody", and the very popular war song, "Over There".

His 1936 song "Johnny Q. Public of the U.S.A." popularized a new nickname for the average citizen. An avid baseball fan, he also composed the official march of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cohan was the pioneer of the musical theater libretto. He is mostly remembered for his songs, later interpolated into musicals such as Anything Goes, Guys and Dolls, The Producers, and Hello Dolly! However, he invented the "book musical," becoming the first showman to bridge the gaps between drama and music, operetta and extravaganza.

More than three decades before Agnes De Mille choreographed Oklahoma!, Cohan used dance not merely as razzle-dazzle but to advance the plot. The engaging books of his musicals supported the scores that yielded so many popular songs. As a storyteller, Cohan's main characters were "average Joes and Janes".

Characters like Johnny Jones and Nellie Kelly appealed to a whole new audience. He wrote for every American, instead of highbrow Americans. (see book by Thomas S. Hischak, Boy Loses Girl (ISBN 0-8108-4440-0).

In 1914, he became one of the founding members of ASCAP. In 1919, he unsuccessfully opposed a historic strike by Actors' Equity Association, for which many in the theatrical professions never forgave him. During the strike, he donated $100,000 to finance the Actors' Retirement Fund in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Cohan wrote numerous other Broadway musicals and straight plays, in addition to contributing material to shows written by others ?- more than 50 in all. Cohan shows included Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1905), George Washington, Jr. (1906), The Talk of New York and The Honeymooners (1907), Fifty Miles from Boston and The Yankee Prince (1908), Broadway Jones (1912), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913), The Cohan Revue of 1918 (co-written with Irving Berlin), The Tavern (1920), The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly (1923, featuring a 13-year-old Ruby Keeler among the chorus girls), The Song and Dance Man (1923), American Born (1925), The Baby Cyclone (1927, one of Spencer Tracy's early breaks), Elmer the Great (1928, co-written with Ring Lardner), and Pigeons and People (1933).

He earned acclaim as a serious actor in Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (1933), and in the role of a song-and dance President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Rodgers and Hart's musical, I'd Rather Be Right (1937).

His final play, The Return of the Vagabond (1940) featured Celeste Holm in the cast; she was either 21 or 23 years old at the time.

In 1925, Cohan published his autobiography, Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There.

In 1932, Cohan starred in a dual role (as a cold, corrupt politician and his charming, idealistic campaign double) in the Hollywood musical The Phantom President, co-starring Jimmy Durante and Claudette Colbert, with songs by Rodgers and Hart.

In 1940, Judy Garland played the title role in a film version of his 1922 musical, Little Nellie Kelly. Cohan's mystery play, Seven Keys to Baldpate, was first filmed in 1916 and has been remade seven times, most recently as House of the Long Shadows (1983), starring Vincent Price.

His 1920 play The Meanest Man in the World was filmed with Jack Benny in 1943.

In 1942, a musical biopic of Cohan, Yankee Doodle Dandy, was released, and James Cagney's performance in the title role earned the Best Actor Academy Award. The film was privately screened for Cohan as he battled the last stages of abdominal cancer.

He died on November 5, 1942, at his New York City home, 993 5th Avenue, directly across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, aged 64, from the cancer that he had battled.

After a large funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, Cohan was interred at the Bronx's Woodlawn Cemetery, in a private family mausoleum he had erected a quarter-century earlier for his sister and parents.

Cohan is probably the most honored American entertainer. In 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented him with a Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his contibutions to World War I morale, in particular the songs "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There". This award is sometimes wrongly characterized as a Medal of Honor, but only combat veterans are given that medal.

In 1959, at the behest of composer Oscar Hammerstein II, a $100,000 bronze statue of Cohan was dedicated in Times Square, at Broadway and 46th Street in Manhattan.

The 8-foot bronze remains the only statue of an actor in New York City. He was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1970, and into the American Folklore Hall of Fame in 2003.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6734 Hollywood Boulevard. The United States Postal Service issued a 15-cent commemorative stamp honoring Cohan on the anniversary of his centenary in July 1978.

Many of these honors were accepted posthumously by Cohan's large family. In 1899, he had married Ethel Levey (1881-1955), a musical comedy actress who bore him a daughter, Georgette Cohan Souther Rowse (1900-1988). George and Ethel divorced in 1907 and she spent much of her subsequent career in England.

He married again in 1907 to Agnes Mary Nolan (1883-1972), who had been a dancer in his early shows; they remained married until his death. They had two daughters and a son. Mary Cohan Ronkin (1909-1983) had a brief career as a cabaret singer in the 1930s, and later composed a score for her father's non-musical play The Tavern, and in 1968 supervised musical and lyric revisions for the Broadway play George M!.

Helen Cohan Carola (1910-1996) made several movies, including Lightnin (1930) starring Will Rogers, and was one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1934.

George M. Cohan, Jr. (1914-2000) graduated from Georgetown University and served (along with Sammy Davis Jr.) in the entertainment corps during World War II.

In the 1950s, George Jr. reinterpreted his father's songs on recordings, in a nightclub act, and in television appearances on the Ed Sullivan and Milton Berle shows. George Jr.'s only child, Michaela Marie Cohan (1943-1999), was the last descendant named Cohan. She graduated with a theater degree from Marywood College, Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1965.

From 1966 to 1968, she served in a civilian Special Services unit in Vietnam and Korea. In 1996, she stood in for her ailing father at the ceremony marking her grandfather's induction into the Musical Theatre Hall of Fame, at New York University.

Pop culture

James Cagney revived his role as Cohan in the 1955 film The Seven Little Foys, starring Bob Hope as the vaudevillian Eddie Foy. Cagney performed this role free of charge as an expression of his gratitude to Eddie Foy Sr., who had done Cagney a favor during Cagney's early vaudeville days.
Mickey Rooney played Cohan in Mr. Broadway, a television special broadcast on NBC on May 11, 1957. The same month, Rooney released a 78 RPM record: the A-side featured Rooney singing Cohan's best-known songs; the B-side featured Rooney singing several of his own compositions, such as the maudlin "You Couldn't Count the Raindrops for the Tears".
Actor Mark Baker portrayed Cohan in the British film After the Ball (1957).
Joel Grey starred on Broadway in a biographical revue of Cohan's music, George M! (1968), which was adapted into a CBS television special in 1972.
Donny Osmond took the Cohan role in a 1982 Broadway adaptation of Little Johnny Jones, which was so poorly received and reviewed that it ran only one night.
Allan Sherman sang a parody-medley of 3 Cohan tunes on an early album: "Barry (That'll Be the Baby's Name)"; "H-o-r-o-w-i-t-z"; and "Get on the Garden Freeway" to the tune of "Mary's a Grand Old Name", "Harrigan" and "Give My Regards to Broadway", respectively.
Barry Bostwick usually works "Yankee Doodle Boy" into his opening medley of patriotic songs during the annual TV show, A Capitol Fourth.
Cohan's 1932 film, The Phantom President, was remade in 1993 as Dave, starring Kevin Kline in the dual role, and Sigourney Weaver as the First Lady.
Michael Flatley's dance extravaganza Celtic Tiger (2005) features Cohan's song The Yankee Doodle Boy as its grand finale.
The title of the book and the movie Born on the Fourth of July, about disabled Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise), was inspired by a line from The Yankee Doodle Boy.


(You're a) Grand Ole Flag
George M. Cohan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

Thanks, Try. That is an interesting song by Bruce. This line especially:

"they busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
Guess it don't matter much any more girl, pretty soon summer will be through

Oh Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us
This beach life, oh it cannot go on forever
Oh love me tonight, I promise I'll love you forever
Sandy."

Surely Bob of Boston isn't just telling us about Stephen Foster today. I had no idea of the sad things in Stephen's life, nor that he died at 39. The world just doesn't understand creative people.

Before we play, Beautiful Dreamer, we'll wait to see if the hawkman has anything further to report.

Louis Armstrong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Origin New Orleans, Louisiana
Country United States
Years active 1919?-1971
Genre(s) Jazz

Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901[1] - July 6, 1971) (also known by the nicknames Satchmo for satchel-mouth and Pops) was an American jazz musician. Armstrong was a charismatic, innovative performer whose musical skills and bright personality transformed jazz from a rough regional dance music into a popular art form. Probably the most famous jazz musician of the 20th century, he first achieved fame as a trumpeter, but toward the end of his career he was best known as a vocalist and was one of the most influential jazz singers.

Early life

Armstrong was born August 4, 1901 to a poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana. His youth was spent in poverty in a rough neighborhood of uptown New Orleans, as his father, William Armstrong (1881-?), abandoned the family when Louis was an infant. His mother, Mary Albert Armstrong (1886-1942) then left him and his younger sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903-1987) under the upbringing of his grandmother Josephine Armstrong. He first learned to play the cornet (his first of which was bought with money loaned to him by the Karnofskys, a Russian-Jewish immigrant family) in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a long term after (as police records show) firing his father's pistol into the air at a New Year's Eve celebration. He followed the city's frequent brass band parades and listened to older musicians every chance he got, learning from Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, and above all Joe "King" Oliver, who acted as a mentor and almost a father figure to the young Armstrong. Armstrong later played in the brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and first started traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River; he described his time with Marable as "going to the University" since it gave him a much wider experience working with written arrangements. When Joe Oliver left town in 1919, Armstrong took Oliver's place in Kid Ory's band, regarded as the top hot jazz band in the city.

Early career

On March 19, 1918 Louis wed Daisy Parker, a prostitute from Gretna, Louisiana and then adopted his 3-years-old adopted son Clarence Armstrong (1914-1998) whose mother, Louis's cousin Fiona, died soon after birth. In 1922 Armstrong joined the exodus to Chicago, where he had been invited by Joe "King" Oliver to join his Creole Jazz Band. Oliver's band was the best and most influential hot jazz band in Chicago in the early 1920s, at a time when Chicago was the center of jazz. Armstrong made his first recordings, including taking some solos and breaks, while playing second cornet in Oliver's band in 1923.

Armstrong was happy working with Oliver, but his wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing. He and Oliver parted amicably in 1924 and Armstrong moved to New York City to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, the top African American band of the day. Armstrong switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section. His influence upon Henderson's tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins, can be judged by listening to the records that the band made during this period. During this time, he also made many recordings on the side arranged by an old friend from New Orleans, pianist Clarence Williams; these included small jazz band sides (some of the best pairing Armstrong with one of Armstrong's few rivals in fiery technique and ideas, Sidney Bechet) and a series of accompaniments for Blues singers.

He returned to Chicago in 1925 and began recording under his own name with his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven with such hits as "Potato Head Blues", "Muggles" (a reference to marijuana, for which Armstrong had a lifelong fondness), and "West End Blues", the music of which set the standard and the agenda for jazz for many years to come. Armstrong's trumpet introduction to "West End Blues" remains one of the most famous and influential improvisations in jazz history.

Armstrong returned to New York in 1929, then moved to Los Angeles in 1930, then toured Europe. After spending many years on the road, he settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, he continued to develop his playing.

During the subsequent thirty years, Armstrong played more than three hundred gigs a year. Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940's due to changes in public tastes: ballrooms closed, and there was competition from television and from other types of music becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible to support and finance a 16-piece touring band.

The All Stars

In 1947 (following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with Jack Teagarden), Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, dissolved the Armstrong big band and established a six-piece small group featuring Armstrong with Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and dixieland musicians. This group was called the All Stars, and included at various times Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole and Barrett Deems. During this period, Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. In 1964, he recorded his biggest-selling record, Hello, Dolly!. The song went to #1 on the pop chart, making Armstrong the oldest person to ever accomplish that feat at age 63.

Armstrong kept up his busy tour schedule until a few years before his death. While in his later years, he would sometimes play some of his numerous gigs by rote, but other times would enliven the most mundane gig with his vigorous playing, often to the astonishment of his band. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under sponsorship of the US State Department with great success and become known as "Ambassador Satch". While failing health restricted his schedule in his last years, within those limitations he continued playing until the day he died.

Armstrong died of a heart attack in 1971 at age 69, the night after playing a famous show at the Waldorf Astoria's Empire Room. He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City.

Personality

The nickname Satchmo or Satch is short for Satchelmouth (describing his embouchure). In 1932, then Melody Maker magazine editor Percy Brooks greeted Armstrong in London with "Hello, Satchmo!" shortening Satchelmouth (some say unintentionally), and it stuck. Early on he was also known as Dippermouth. These are all references to the way he held his trumpet when he played. His trumpet was situated on his lips in such a way that after so many long hours of playing, it made a dip in his upper lip thus the term, "Dippermouth." This dip is actually visible in many pictures of Louis from the time period. It also led to his emphasizing his singing career because at one point, he was unable to play. This did not stop Louis though, because after setting his trumpet aside for a while, he amended his playing style and continued his trumpet career. Friends and fellow musicians usually called him Pops, which is also how Armstrong usually addressed his friends and fellow musicians (except for Pops Foster, whom Armstrong always called "George").


Satchmo's autograph from the 1960sThe "Satchmo" nickname and Armstrong's warm Southern personality, combined with his natural love of entertaining and evoking a response from the audience, resulted in a public persona ?- the grin, the sweat, the handkerchief ?- that came to seem affected and even something of a racist caricature late in his career.

He was also criticized for accepting the title of "King of The Zulus" (in the New Orleans African American community an honored role as head of leading black Carnival Krewe, but bewildering or offensive to outsiders with their traditional costume of grass-skirts and blackface makeup satirizing southern white attitudes) for Mardi Gras 1949.

The seeming racial insensitivity of Armstrong's King of the Zulus performance has sometimes been seen as part of a larger failing on Armstrong's part. Where some saw a gregarious and outgoing personality, others saw someone trying too hard to appeal to white audiences and essentially becoming a minstrel caricature. Some musicians criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences, and for not taking a strong enough stand in the civil rights movement suggesting that he was an Uncle Tom. Billie Holiday countered, however, "Of course Pops toms, but he toms from the heart."

Armstrong in fact was a major financial supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists, but mostly preferred to work quietly behind the scenes, not mixing his politics with his work as an entertainer. The few exceptions made it more effective when he did speak out; Armstrong's criticism of President Eisenhower, calling him "two-faced" and "gutless" due to his inaction during the conflict over school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 made national news. As a protest, Armstrong cancelled a planned tour of the Soviet Union on behalf of the State Department saying "The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell" and that he could not represent his government abroad when it was in conflict with its own people.

He was an extremely generous man who was said to have given away almost as much money as he kept for himself. Armstrong was also greatly concerned with his health and bodily functions. He made frequent use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight, a practice he advocated both to personal acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way. Armstrong's laxative of preference in his younger days was Pluto Water, but then became an enthusiastic convert when he discovered the herbal remedy Swiss Kriss; he would extol its virtues to anyone who would listen.

Music

In his early years, Armstrong was best known for his virtuosity with the cornet and trumpet. The greatest trumpet playing of his early years can be heard on his Hot Five and Hot Seven records. The improvisations which he made on these records of New Orleans jazz standards and popular songs of the day, to the present time stack up brilliantly alongside those of any other later jazz performer. The older generation of New Orleans jazz musicians often referred to their improvisations as "variating the melody"; Armstrong's improvisations were daring and sophisticated for the time while often subtle and melodic. He often essentially re-composed pop-tunes he played, making them more interesting. Armstrong's playing is filled with joyous, inspired original melodies, creative leaps, and subtle relaxed or driving rhythms. The genius of these creative passages is matched by Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, which extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. In these records, Armstrong almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what was essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art form with tremendous possibilities for individual expression.

Armstrong's work in the 1920s shows him playing at the outer limits of his abilities. The Hot 5 records, especially, often have minor flubs and missed notes, which do little to detract from listening enjoyment since the energy of the spontaneous performance comes through. By the mid 1930s Armstrong achieved a smooth assurance, knowing exactly what he could do and carrying out his ideas with perfectionism.

As his music progressed and popularity grew, his singing also became important. Armstrong was not the first to record scat singing, but he was masterful at it and helped popularize it. He had a hit with his playing and scat singing on "Heebie Jeebies", and sang out "I done forgot the words" in the middle of recording "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas". Such records were hits and scat singing became a major part of his performances. Long before this, however, Armstrong was playing around with his vocals, shortening and lengthening phrases, interjecting improvisations, using his voice as creatively as his trumpet.

During his long career he played and sang with the most important instrumentalists and vocalists; among the many, singing brakeman Jimmie Rodgers, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Bessie Smith, and notably with Ella Fitzgerald. His influence upon Bing Crosby is particularly important with regard to the subsequent development of popular music: Crosby admired and copied Armstrong, as is evident on many of his early recordings, notably "Just One More Chance" (1931). The 'New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz' describes Crosby's debt to Armstrong in perfect detail, although it does not acknowledge Armstrong by name: "Crosby...was important in introducing into the mainstream of popular singing an Afro-American concept of song as a lyrical extension of speech...His techniques - easing the weight of the breath on the vocal chords, passing into a head voice at a low register, using forward production to aid distinct enunciation, singing on consonants (a practice of black singers), and making discreet use of appoggiaturas, mordents, and slurs to emphasise the text - were emulated by nearly all later popular singers". Armstrong recorded three albums with Ella Fitzgerald: Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again, and Porgy and Bess for Verve Records. His recordings Satch Plays Fats, all Fats Waller tunes, and Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy in the 1950s were perhaps the last of his great creative recordings, but even oddities like Disney Songs the Satchmo Way have their musical moments. For the most part, however, his later output was criticized as being overly simplistic or repetitive.

Armstrong had many hit records including "Stardust", "What a Wonderful World", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Ain't Misbehavin'", and "Stompin' at the Savoy". "We Have All the Time in the World" featured on the soundtrack of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and enjoyed renewed popularity in the UK in 1994 when it featured on a Guinness advert. It reached number 3 in the charts on being re-released.

In 1964, Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart with "Hello, Dolly", which gave the 63-year-old performer a U.S. record as the oldest artist to have a #1 song. In 1968, Armstrong scored one last popular hit in the United Kingdom with the highly sentimental pop song "What a Wonderful World", which topped the British charts for a month; however, the single did not chart at all in America. The song gained greater currency in the popular consciousness when it was used in the 1987 movie Good Morning Vietnam, its subsequent rerelease topping many charts around the world.

Armstrong enjoyed many types of music, from the most earthy blues to the syrupy sweet arrangements of Guy Lombardo, to Latin American folksongs, to classical symphonies and opera. Armstrong incorporated influences from all these sources into his performances, sometimes to the bewilderment of fans who wanted Armstrong to stay in convenient narrow categories. Armstrong was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence. Some of his solos from the 1950s, such as the hard rocking version of "Saint Louis Blues" from the WC Handy album, show that the influence went in both directions.

Death and Legacy

Philippe Halsman portrait of Armstrong on cover of Life Magazine, 1966Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, at age 69. He was residing in Corona, Queens, New York City, at the time of his passing.

The influence of Armstrong on the development of jazz is virtually immeasurable. Yet, his irrepressible personality both as a performer, and as a public figure later in his career, was so strong that to some it sometimes overshadowed his contributions as a musician and singer.

As a virtuoso trumpet player, Armstrong had a unique tone and an extraordinary talent for melodic improvisation. Through his playing, the trumpet emerged as a solo instrument in jazz. He was a masterful accompanist and ensemble player in addition to his extraordinary skills as a soloist. With his innovations, he raised the bar musically for all who came after him.

Armstrong is considered to have essentially invented jazz singing. He had an extremely distinctive gravelly voice, which he deployed with great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or wordless vocalizing, and according to some legends he invented it, during his recording "Heebie Jeebies" where the sheet music fell on the floor and he simply started singing nonsense syllables. Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra are just two singers who were indebted to him.

Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films (though few of particular note), usually playing a band leader or musician. He was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show in the 1930s. He also made assorted television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Louis Armstrong has a record star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7601 Hollywood Boulevard.

Many of Armstrong's recordings remain popular. More than three decades since his passing, a larger number of his recordings from all periods of his career are more widely available than at any time during his lifetime. His songs are broadcast and listened to every day throughout the world, and are honored in various movies, TV series, commercials, and even anime and computer games. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was included in the computer game Fallout 2, accompanying the intro cinematic. His 1923 recordings with Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band continue to be listened to as documents of ensemble style New Orleans jazz. All too often, however, Armstrong recorded with stiff, standard orchestras leaving only his sublime trumpet playing as of interest. "Melancholy Blues," performed by Armstrong and his Hot Seven was included on the Voyager Golden Record sent into outer space to represent one of the greatest achievements of humanity.

Armstrong set up a non-profit foundation for educating disadvantaged children in music, and bequeathed his house and substantial archives of writings, books, recordings, and memorabilia to the City University of New York's Queens College, to take effect after his and his wife Lucille's death. The Louis Armstrong archives have been available to music researchers, and his home at 34-56 107th Street (between 34th and 35th Avenues), was opened to the public as a museum on October 15, 2003.

Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, a self-described Armstrong admirer, asserted that a 1952 Louis Armstrong concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris played a significant role in inspiring him to create the fictional creatures called Cronopios that are the subject of a number of Cortázar's short stories. Cortázar onced called Louis Armstrong himself "Grandísimo Cronopio" (Most Enormous Cronopio).

The main airport in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is named for Armstrong.

WHEN THE SAINTS
COME MARCHING IN



We are trav'ling in the footsteps
Of those who've gone before
And we'll all be reunited,
On a new and sunlit shore,


Oh, when the saints go marching in,
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in


And when the sun begins to shine
And when the sun begins to shine
Lord, how I want to be in that number
When the sun begins to shine


Oh, when the saints go marching in,
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in


Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
Lord, how I want to be in that number
When the trumpet sounds its call


Oh, when the saints go marching in,
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

Eva Marie Saint
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. She played blonde, graceful leading ladies in many films, starting in the 1950s.


Biography

Early life

Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey. She studied acting at Bowling Green State University, while a member of Delta Gamma Sorority, and did some work in radio and television before winning the Drama Critics Award for her stage role in A Trip to Bountiful (1953).

Career

Saint's first film role was in On the Waterfront (1954) with Marlon Brando, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her best known films were in the early years of her career: A Hatful of Rain (1957) with Don Murray, Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) with Cary Grant, and Exodus (1960) with Paul Newman.

Because of the second-rate film roles that came her way in the 1970s, Saint returned to television and the stage in the 1980s. She has appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies, and won an Emmy in 1990 for the mini-series People Like Us.

Saint played Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, in Superman Returns (2006).

Saint has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624 Hollywood Blvd., and one for television at 6730 Hollywood Blvd.