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Jewish World Review
Dec. 13, 2011
/ 17 Kislev, 5772
American Culture Rides High
By
Paul Johnson
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
I laugh when people talk about "the decline of America." Culturally, America's grip on the world--comparable to those of ancient Greece and Rome--is tightening, as hundreds of millions of Chinese struggle to learn English and the number who speak it in India increases rapidly. It's fascinating to think that the words most used in all the world's spoken languages are "okay" and "Coke."
I was reminded of the power of American culture recently when recording the BBC program Desert Island Discs, in which the guest picks the eight recordings he'd like to have if marooned.
Of course, I picked one or two classics, such as Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus." Mozart composed this 46-bar miniature masterpiece in June 1791, just six months before he died. It was written to celebrate the great Catholic Feast of Transubstantiation of Corpus Christi. I used to sing it when in the choir at Stonyhurst, my Jesuit boarding school. Immediately after it was sung the school cadet force, which I commanded in my last year, performed a Sovereign's Escort. In full dress uniform, with fixed bayonets, the force presented arms and gave the royal salute at the moment of consecration.
I also included Tchaikovsky's agonizing song "None but the Lonely Heart," which my mother used to sing. Tchaikovsky wrote this not long before he allegedly was forced to commit suicide by a court of honor for his homosexuality. This was just after the first performance of his "Symphony No. 6," also known as the "Pathétique." What tragedies the history of music holds!
Most of my choices, however, were American in origin, such as Shirley Temple's rendition of "Animal Crackers in My Soup," which she sang in the 1935 movie Curly Top, when she and I were both 6 or 7 years old. I was allowed to watch her because my mother said she had "good manners to copy."
I also chose Patsy Cline's recording of "Crazy," which in my opinion is the best single ever made. It's a combination of a brilliant song, performed by an entertainer at the top of her form and recorded by a sound engineer in a miracle of technical expertise. Only American culture could have produced it, and I'm not surprised it was a favorite of Ronald Reagan's.
Another choice was Leslie Hutchinson, known as Hutch, singing "These Foolish Things." Now, this is an interesting case of the migration of culture. Hutch was a West Indian brought up in the British tradition of speech, and the lyrics of this superb song were written by Eric Maschwitz, who was born in Birmingham, England and was the husband of the magical English comedienne Hermione Gingold. Yet the spirit of Maschwitz's lyrics is permeated by American images and emotional references: "A tinkling piano in the next apartment" is one of the foolish things that "remind me of you." The British term for apartment is "flat." "The park at evening when the bell has sounded" means little to a Londoner, and in place of "long excited cables" we would say "telegrams."
My final choice was "Look for the Silver Lining," written by Jerome Kern and Buddy DeSylva, which Judy Garland sang so memorably in the movie Till the Clouds Roll By. It was one of Churchill's favorites, and the lyrics are so good they could have been written by Byron. I once did an item on the BBC breakfast program Today about an old habit politicians had--alas, now lapsed--of holding sing-alongs together and gave this ditty as an example, offering to sing it. The producers tried to dissuade me, but finally the host said, "Oh, well, if he really wants to sing it, let him!" So I did--the only time I've sung on the air.
I really like the songs whose lyrics gently reflect the thoughts and emotions of the age. Now, thanks to the ditherings of our leaders, we're in the worst economic depression since the 1930s. That terrible time produced some of the best songs ever written: Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney's "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather" and Irving Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance."
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Eminent British historian and author Paul Johnson's latest book is "American Presidents Eminent Lives Boxed Set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant". Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
10/20/11: Who Can Lead Us To Safety?
08/23/11: Wanted: Global Role Models
07/05/11: Debt: A Moral Issue
06/08/11: The Moral Logic of Intervention
03/10/11: China's Secret Weakness: Is history repeating itself?
02/10/11: Assessing America's Foes
11/29/10: Wanted: Someone to Trust
10/19/10: Are Universities Worth It?
06/01/10: The English Language and Freedom
04/20/10: Listening and Telling the Truth
02/28/10: There Is No Keynesian Miracle
10/20/09: A Job Waiting for a Woman?
07/21/09: Obama Has to Be World Sheriff
03/24/09: Short works of genius that cheer up the writing profession
02/11/09: What would Darwin do?
01/27/09: Are you sophisticated? Here's how to find out
01/06/09: What did they talk about in the Ice Age? The weather, of course
09/09/08: Time, and our appalling ignorance of it
08/19/08: Eye-stopping glimpses of an exotic and forbidden world
06/30/08: How to fill a lecture hall, and how to empty it
06/23/08: Americans should count their blessings
05/20/08: Pajamas for Presidents
05/13/08: Literary woodlice boring needless holes in biographical bedposts
04/01/08: When markets come crashing down, send for the man with the big red nose
04/01/08: Quality for dinner. Pass the Fairy Liquid, Old Boy
03/25/08: In search of an American President with brains and guts
03/18/08: Technological warfare against mice won't work. Try cats
03/11/08: What is a genius? We use the word frequently but surely, to guard its meaning, we should bestow it seldom
03/03/08: Fiction as a crutch to get one through life
02/26/08: Impatience + Greed = Trouble
02/13/08: Shakespeare, Neo-Platonism and Princess Diana
02/07/08: Where Industry Has Failed Us
12/19/07: People who put their trust in human power delude themselves
12/12/07: What is aggression?
12/04/07: Pursuing success is not enough
11/07/07: Are famous writers accident-prone?
10/31/07: Courage needed to disarm Iran
09/20/07: Who Will Say I Promise to Lay Off?
07/24/07: Greed is safer than power-seeking
04/02/07: Benefactors must be hardheaded
03/07/07: American idealism and realpolitik
11/28/06: Space: Our ticket to survival
10/24/06: Envy is bad economics
10/11/06: Better to Borrow or Lend? Rethinking conventional wisdom
08/22/06: Don't practice legal terrorism
08/08/06: A summer rhapsody for a pedal-bike
08/03/06: Why is there no workable philosophy of music?
07/11/06: Historically speaking, energy crisis is America's opportunity
07/06/06: The misleading dimensions of persons and lives
06/06/06: First editions are not gold
05/23/06: A downright ugly man need never despair of attracting women, even pretty
ones
04/25/06: Was Washington right about political parties?
04/12/06: Let's Have More Babies!
04/05/06: For the love of trains
03/29/06: Lincoln and the Compensation Culture
03/22/06: Bottle-beauties and the globalised blond beast
03/15/06: Europe's utopian hangover
03/08/06: Kindly write on only one side of the paper
02/28/06: Creators versus critics
02/21/06: The Rhino Principle
© 2009, Paul Johnson
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