Photo, public domain
December 6, 1896 – Ira Gershwin:
A Song Without A Lyric Is Like H2 Without The 0
I have a lifelong passion for the lyrics of the popular song and of film and theatre music. I enjoy reading a lyric on the printed page, seeing it as poetry. I even had a peculiar argument on a comment thread on The Facebook with a stranger who insisted that song lyrics are not an equal to poetry (this was when Bob Dylan was announced to have won the Nobel Prize).
Among the very greatest lyricists, a personal favorite of mine is Ira Gershwin, a shy, witty and literate man who looked like Central Casting’s idea of a college professor. He had an unerring instinct for lyrics that were singable as well as memorable. Among his contemporaries, only Cole Porter and Irving Berlin were his equals.
Ira Gershwin worked with his younger brother, George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century: I Got Rhythm, Embraceable You, The Man I Love, Someone To Watch Over Me, and every moment of the score for their opera Porgy And Bess. They wrote 18 Broadway shows together.
George and Ira, 1925, public domain
The success the pair of brothers had with their collaborations has often overshadowed the creative role that Ira Gershwin played. His masterly lyric writing went on after the tragic death of George from a brain hemorrhage at just 38-years-old.
He wrote additional hit songs with other composers, including Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Sigmund Romberg, Harry Warren, Arthur Schwartz, and Burton Lane.
Girl Crazy, which he wrote with his brother in 1930, brought Ethel Merman to Broadway. Lady In the Dark, written with Weill in 1940, made a star of Danny Kaye. With Arlen, he wrote the songs for A Star Is Born (1954), the one with Judy Garland.
Gershwin gave us the words to: But Not For Me, I Can’t Get Started, They Can’t Take That Away. Other Gershwin favorites are Embraceable You, Strike Up the Band, Who Cares?, and ‘S Wonderful, ‘S Marvelous.
In 2016, The Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was awarded to Smokey Robinson, presented by our Socialist, Kenyan President. The Library of Congress named its prize for popular song after Ira Gershwin and his brother. Recognizing the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture, the prize is given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins: 2007 – Paul Simon; 2008 – Stevie Wonder; 2009 – Paul McCartney; 2012- Burt Bacharach – 2013; Carole King – 2014; Billy Joel – 2015; Willie Nelson – 2017, and just two weeks ago it was presented to Tony Bennett.
Gershwin’s won terrific book, Lyrics On Several Occasions (1959), a combo of autobiography and annotated anthology, sits in my bookcase along with books about other songwriters. It is one of my favorites.
For me, Someone To Watch Over Me is a perfect song. I offer up Linda Ronstadt’s and version with a Nelson Riddle arrangement as my argument.
There’s a saying old, says that love is blind
Still we’re often told, “seek and ye shall find”
So I’m going to seek a certain lad I’ve had in mind
Looking everywhere, haven’t found him yet
He’s the big affair I cannot forget
Only man I ever think of with regret
I’d like to add his initial to my monogram
Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?
There’s a somebody I’m longing to see
I hope that he, turns out to be
Someone who’ll watch over me
I’m a little lamb who’s lost in the wood
I know I could, always be good
To one who’ll watch over me
Although he may not be the man some
Girls think of as handsome
To my heart he carries the key
Won’t you tell him please to put on some speed
Follow my lead, oh, how I need
Someone to watch over me
Won’t you tell him please to put on some speed
Follow my lead, oh, how I need
Someone to watch over me
Someone to watch over me
At City College of New York, Gershwin contributed to student publications, and spent a year in premed at Columbia University. It became clear to him that he wanted to be a writer, and he sold a story to Smart Set magazine for a dollar. He also worked for a traveling circus and a drama critic.
By 1918, George Gershwin was beginning to make his name as a composer. Ira decided to try his hand as a lyricist. At first, he used the name Arthur Francis (taken from the names of his brothers and sister) so he could maintain an identity separate from that of his brother. He used the pseudonym for A Dangerous Maid, a musical he wrote with George that bombed on Broadway in 1921. Gershwin’s first success was Two Little Girls In Blue (1921) with music by gifted human, Vincent Youmans. The show ran for a year on Broadway.
In 1931, he shared a Pulitzer Prize with his brother and George S. Kaufman for Of Thee I Sing, the first musical to win that prize in Drama.
After his brother’s death, Gershwin spent most of his time in Hollywood. He left this world at his home in Beverly Hills in 1983. His brother was taken at 38 and he joined him at the celestial piano at 86-years-old.
I would like to see the story of the Gershwin brothers be made a film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as George and Zach Galifianakis as Ira, Emma Stone as Ethel Merman, Adrian Brody as George S. Kauffman, and Stephen Rutledge as W.C. Fields, with Wes Anderson writing and directing.
