"SILENT SPRING"-ARLEN/HARBURG SOCIAL COMMENTARY

" Silent Spring"--Arlen/Harburg Social Commentary:  In 1963, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring  was a prescient warning about the dangerous spread of harmful pesticides and the devastating effects on the environment. Harburg adopted the title but not the content of Carson' book. Ever eager to demonstrate his strong political convictions, Harburg was concerned that the subject of his lyrics was a land where children hide and " doors are dark and shades are down." In the verse, there was also a demand for racial tolerance ( " No one's going to grab your sister")   The Vietnam war and the Cuban missile crisis moved Harburg to sadly write

               Is this the land where flags were flown,
              To bring this hopeful world a dream of spring unknown  ?
              Is this the dream ?
              Is this the spring?
It is ironic that this song was the forerunner of the social and political songs of singer /songwriters like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and others whose protest-laden creations had such a profound effect on political behaviour . The song somehow harkening back to  the earlier socially-oriented songs of Woody Guthrie and influential books like " The Grapes of Wrath".
The song also had a reference to Walter Cronkite and CBS news causing CBS to ban the
record and the song was never broadcast. Edward Jablonski, Arlen's biographer noted that The song was written " In a time when radio and television were nervous about (sensitive) political topics".
The song is performed by singer Beverly Cosham with the Reston Virginia Community Orchestra. She sings with a quiet conviction conveying the sobering implications of Harburg's lyrics and the honest simplicity of Arlen's melody.


LINK: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctRZZU9IPdM

SONGS FROM FILM " GAY PURR-EE." SUNG BY JUDY GARLAND

Songs from Film "  Gay Purr-ee." Sung by Judy Garland.  In 1962, Arlen and E.Y.Harburg were asked to write songs for a full-length animated film "Gay Purr-ee." Edward Jablonski, Arlen biographer describes the story of" The female cat , Mewsette, would speak and sing with the voice of Judy Garland telling the story of a restless country feline, who slips onto a Paris-bound train in search of bib-city adventure." Garland loved working with Arlen and Harburg again who wrote two major Garland songs," The sweetly simple " Little Drops of Rain" and the complex, moody,  "Paris is a Lonely Town." Both songs demonstrate Arlen and Harburg's versatility in writing both child-like songs and more sophisticated and uniquely constructed song forms as in " Paris is a Lonely Town."

LINK : "Rain" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVTOQjrZZ8A

LINK:  "Paris" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUoyjx3G17M

PEGGY LEE AND ARLEN WRITE " HAPPY WITH THE BLUES"

Peggy Lee & Arlen write " Happy With The Blues"   In 1961, Peggy Lee and Harold Arlen collaborated in a gentle and positive view of the blues. There is a general tendency to view the blues idiom as one drenched in sadness and despair. However, the noted semanticist S.I. Hyakawa's influential essay made a telling point about much of the Afro-American music tradition deals with the reality of life versus the Moon and June themes so prevalent in popular music. For example, the opening lyric line states " I've done some travellin' done some unravlin' And for this shoestring  paid lots of dues  But sometimes may be he calls me baby  And then I'm HAPPY WITH THE BLUES."  Settling for something , no matter how minimal, is a situation that is a common experience.
 The melody itself does reflect a less than sad mood.
The performance is not exceptional but the singer, in her introduction, reaffirms a positive view despite the sad connotation usually associated with the blues.

LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj4WzxF8BCg

SONGS FROM "JAMAICA"-LAST ARLEN HIT SHOW

Songs from " Jamaica"-Last Arlen Hit Show:  In 1957, Arlen and E.Y/Harburg collaborated on a West Indian themed show with a commanding role for lovely Lena Horne. The songs were attractive, as were the costumes and staging but the story was a confusing mixture of folk themes and social commentary on the atomic bomb and urbanism. Based on the box office appeal of Lena Horne, the show ran for over 500 performances. Arlen himself felt that the calypso rhythm was rather limited but several songs managed to escape the limitations of that musical style." Ain't it de Truth" sung by Lena Horne was actually written but not used in the film Cabin In The Sky. It was recorded in 1941 by Lena Horne.
LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOM13I_FkmA

Ossie Davis, a fine character actor, sings " Little Biscuit" a sweet love song with simple folk expressions with an attractive Caribbean lilt.

LINK DAVIS AND hORNE:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3WnJy35wIw

On the same link as " Little Biscuit: there is an extraordinary song sung by Lena Horne. "  "Cocoanut Sweet"  . As Jenness & Velsey positively praised " It's images of love are put in naturalistic terms, here mostly botanical "  poetically evoking images like " Honey dew new, Jasmine and cherry an 'juniper berry-that's you." The songs' unusual construction is based on 4 distinct sections, each comprised of 8 bars, quite distinctive in tone and mood. Jenness & Velsey  conclude their lengthy analysis by saying " Cocoanut Sweet" is a stunning song. It illustrates a gift Arlen had beyond the other great composer--development by variation. "  Arlen would usually start with just a few simple notes " And then spin them out into longer or slightly different or more extensive patterns or introducing brief local rhythmic changes. With Arlen,the materials are inventive in all their manifestations, so that one gets both the feeling of recursiveness ( familiarity) and that of growth."
The song immediately follows " Little Biscuit" on the link above.