Johnny Rivers' "Memphis"

I'm currently listening to a two-disc compilation album of Ricky Nelson.  The guitar part (doubled on harmonica) that's at the very beginning (and repeated in a few other sections) of his version of the Gershwins' "Summertime" sounded familiar to me.  I eventually placed it; I also know it from Johnny Rivers' version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis" (sometimes called "Memphis, Tennessee").

For the record, the part I'm talking about is E D B A G E.  I'm unsure, but Rivers might slide into that initial E from a D note (that's the way I've always played it, at least).

Nelson's version of "Summertime" is from 1962; Rivers' version of "Memphis" was released in May 1964, so it's possible that Rivers took the guitar part from Nelson's "Summertime."  That riff isn't in Chuck Berry's original, and I'd been wondering where it came from.  However, while the chronology works out, I'm not sure if this was the case; I don't know much about Johnny Rivers.

I feel it worth pointing out that the bass part from Nelson's "Summertime" was copied by Blues Magoos for their "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet," so there's a precedent of copying from it.

Fred Astaire's "Let's Call the Whole Thing off"

I'm currently listening to the second disc of a two-disc Fred Astaire set.  In the Gershwin's "Let's Call the Whole Thing off," after the lines "It looks as if we two will never be one / Something must be done," there's an instrumental section (starting at about 2:17).  I'm not sure of the specific instruments, but lines are traded between an instrument with a higher register and one with a lower register.  It continues the back-and-forth that's present in the lyrics:  "You say either, and I say either / You say neither, and I saw neither."

Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" and "Summertime"

For each of the past three days, I listened to a disc of a three-CD compilation of Sam Cooke titled You Send Me.  I found some interesting things in two of the songs.

"You Send Me" has some interesting articulation.  The "in-" in "infatuation" is stressed instead of the "fa," but I think that's just to make the meter of the line work.  In the same part, the "so" in the line "But, ooh, it’s lasted so long" is drawn out to three syllables, to sort of show how long it's lasted.  And when Cooke sings "marry you," the rest of the instrumentation drops out so that he sings the line almost a cappella, which could represent the seriousness or finality of marriage.

I also found some interesting stuff in his version of Gershwin's "Summertime."  Apparently Cooke recorded more than one version; "Summertime" is included on an-other Sam Cooke compilation album I have, but it's a different recording (the You Send Me set also contains a different take of "Win Your Love for Me," which is distinct in that there are no backing vocals and the bass is more prominent in the mix).  In any case, in the version of "Summertime" in the You Send Me set, Cooke takes some of the phrases from the first two verses and combines them in some phrases that he sticks between the second and third verses.  He takes "don't cry" from the end of the first verse and combines it with "they're standin' by" from the end of the second to get:

They’re standin’ by so don’t cry
They’re standin’ by; don’t cry

Not only does it tie the song together by strengthening the connection between those two verses, but it also points out the rhyme scheme used in the song.

George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess

Yester-day, I listened to George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess performed by the Bethlehem Orchestra.  I noticed a few things.

In "Clara, Clara, Don't You Be Down-Hearted," I noticed some structural parallelism in the lyrics:  "Clara, Clara, don't you be down-hearted" parallels with "Clara, Clara, don't you be sad and lonesome."  A lot of the Psalms are written this way (with two lines saying almost the same thing but with synonyms), and since there are quite a few religious references in the opera (especially "Oh, doctor Jesus," which not only has religious references but is chanted more than sung, recalling a liturgy and therefore strengthening those connections), I would guess that that parallelism is a conscious echo of that style of writing.

I also noticed some interesting trumpet parts in "Narration (Scene: crap game and murder)."  After the narrator says, "She [Bess] doesn't want to be left alone with the body of Robins when the police arrive," one of the trumpets has a passage that sounds like a police siren.

A few seconds after the trumpet/police siren, there are the first four notes of "Dies Irae."  I think I'm becoming something of a boy-who-cried-wolf with the "Dies Irae," but it does fit the scene.  Furthermore, the narrator's line after those four notes is, "She's desperate," which seems to reflect the mood in the "Dies Irae" too.  Additionally, there's the religious connection with "Dies Irae" and some of the other elements of the opera.

George Gershwin's "Liza"

I'm still making my way through the Gershwin albums.  This morning I listened to the seventh disc of the ten-disc set.  This one is subtitled The Later Broadway Musicals.

In "Liza" (performed here by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra), I noticed the line "we should make a date with Parson Brown."  It reminded me of the lines in "Winter Wonderland":

In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say, "Are you married?"  We'll say, "No man.
But you can do the job while you're in town."

I had to look up the dates though because I wasn't sure of the chronology.  "Liza" is from 1929, and "Winter Wonderland" is from 1934.  So either the writers of "Winter Wonderland" (Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith) took an idea from "Liza," or the writers of both songs choose "Brown" for the surname of their parson.

George Gershwin's "You've Got What Gets Me"

I recently started reading a book about George Gershwin, so I went back to listen to what Gershwin music I have.  I'd skipped over it about a month ago with the aim of returning to it while reading this book, like I did with Bach earlier this year.

Yester-day, I listened to the third disc of a ten-CD set of Gershwin music.  The disc is subtitled Gershwin on Screen I: "Girl Crazy" & "Rhapsody in Blue."  The first track is "You've Got What Gets Me," performed by Eddie Quillan, Dixie Lee, Mitzi Green and the RKO Studio Orchestra.  I didn't notice this at first, but the lyrics are really clever, specifically the lines "You've got what gets me / What gets me you've got."  What's great about them is that they could be taken in two different ways.  It could indicate physical attractiveness ("You have looks that attract me"), or it could be an expression of a deeper connection ("You have the mental capacity/empathy to understand how I feel, what I think, &c").  Of course, it could also be both.

I've always liked Ira Gershwin's lyrics because of the rhymes and phrases he uses, but finding this has got me thinking about them in different ways.