[78-L] Missing the Boat

[David Lennick]

Taylor Bowie wrote:
>> If I ever see a production of Show Boat, not the MGM version obviously, I 
>> might
>> find merit in it..as it is I've always considered the music bottom drawer 
>> Kern.
>> He did much better stuff in the 30s. Hard to top "Smoke Gets In Your 
>> Eyes".
>>
>> dl
> 
> 
> How about   "All The Things You Are" for a possible topper?  Agreed that 
> Kern  really clicked in the 30s.   "The Song Is You"  kind of skirts around 
> being over-dramatic..but that's OK with me...it works!
> 
> I think "Why Do I Love You" from Show Boat is about worst of the Kern 
> operetta-type tunes...so coy and cloying...I always think of it as being 
> sung by an unctuous tenor and soprano,  with an overdose of "sincerity."
> 
> Boy,   it's good to get this off my chest about  Kern and "Show Boat."  My 
> old bud Miles Kreuger even wrote a whole book about it and I could never 
> bring myself to tell him I don't like it or most of the tunes.
> 
> My favorite version of Old Man River is the very bouncy Whiteman with 
> Crosby...without everybody taking themselves so damn seriously.
> 
> Taylor
> 

Of course who are we to argue with a big fat hit? Like it or not, Show Boat did 
change the stage musical, which for the most part had consisted of unrelated 
songs and flimsy plots and excuses to bring on the girls. Oh, wait, that's what 
we'd rather have had.

Show Boat's songs remained popular for decades, and by the time I was first 
hearing them in the late 40s and the 50s, they were indeed in the semi operatic 
repertoire, as well as "kostelanetzed" to death. Kern did manage to do some 
interesting twists within the melodies and between them, and the Symphonic 
Scenario On Themes From Show Boat is an enjoyable concert work that casts Kern 
in a better light (even if it was really arranged by Robert Russell Bennett or 
Morton Gould or whoever ghosted it, and I've heard both names mentioned).

Nothing over-dramatic about "The Song Is You" when Frank Sinatra sang it. The 
less said about his white-suited "Ol' Man River"....

dl