The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin
by Robert Kimball, Linda Berlin Emmet
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Book Summary Information
Author: Linda Berlin Emmet, Robert KimballComposer: Irving Berlin
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-12-01
ISBN: 1557836817
Number of pages: 530
Publisher: Applause Books
Book Reviews of The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin
Book Review: Only one side of a great songwriter
Summary: 4 Stars
The problem with pop-tune anthologies is that song lyrics have to be heard, not read, and only with their music. Especially so with an Irving Berlin, who did nearly all his work for the theater and films, and for whom the presentation was as important as the song. (Picture "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" without Ziegfeld's beauties -- impossible.) And the fact is Berlin's lines could be flat-out flat-footedly corny. "A melody mellow/Played on a cello" can only provoke giggles in those unfamiliar with the songs, which I fear is the norm these days; at his worst he's downright clueless. (As in his proposed jingle for an unproduced NBC spectacular: "Everybody step,/Have a drink of Coca-Cola -- /It's the finest pepperola...." Pepsi-Cola?) But this is the problem with comprehensiveness. There are too many "rag" songs and "coon" songs and "step-step-step" songs, too many singing musical notes and dancing edibles, too much high-flown love treacle, too little of the poetry and wit that marked golden-age pop songwriting at its finest. Even the most interesting ones like "Sadie Salome (Go Home)", fresh with their impudent suggestiveness, can only hint at their marvels. And the chronological layout inevitably sets up the drab finish of the decades of verbal noodling, reclusion and despair. Yes he wrote catchy tunes in the early days, but Berlin didn't really come into his own until late, with his thirties revues, and the Fred-and-Ginger scores, and "Holiday Inn", and "This is the Army", and "Easter Parade", and his one true masterpiece, "Annie Get Your Gun." These are works to be savored, not anthologized. And it took a special talent to bring out Berlin's real measure: listen to Blue Eyes and TD and their larger-than-life rendition of "Be Careful, It's My Heart" to know it. Moreover Red Norvo's "Remember" and Les Brown's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and the sumptuous instrumental "New Amsterdam Roof" from "Easter Parade" (on the Rhino soundtrack album) make the strong case that Berlin is at his best without words.
That said, there can be no doubting the completeness, the care, the diligence that went into this collection (even if the phrase "No music is known to survive" gets a little tiresome), the obvious love and respect for this show-biz titan. Alas, perhaps the only way to appreciate his greatness is to go back in time to experience it, a further frustration of books like this.
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