The wittiest songwriter of them all is inducted into the Library of America. David Barber, poetry editor of The Atlantic approves, more or less:
What's striking... is how many numbers in the Porter songbook still have a way of getting under the skin, imparting an emotional depth and psychological complexity seldom heard before or since on the bandstand or the jukebox. Even at this late date when God knows, anything goes, Porter's needling commentary on social proprieties and irreverent treatment of sexual politics has lost practically none of its post-Freudian edge and antipuritanical bite.
No lyricist with so light a touch ever packed so powerful a punch. For all that, it scarcely needs saying that to savor the full glory of Porter's literate ingenuity, you'd better have your earbuds handy. Truth be told, there's something about his words all by their lonesome that smacks of taxidermy...
No one, but no one, beat Porter for wordplay. You're The Top has "Dante" rhyming with "Durante", and then this bit of delicious, tongue-twisting nonsense:
You're romance,
You're the steppes of Russia,
You're the pants, on a Roxy usher.
I never get tired of hearing that.
Porter seems to have been a little sniffy about Ella Fitzgerald's famous songbook album, yet it's still a stylish introduction to his world. (You can see her sing Let's Do It on YouTube.) As for other classic interpreters, sadly, the debonair Bobby Short is no longer with us, but last time I heard him, Steve Ross was as dapper as ever.
I like how Barber wove in several phrases from Cole Porter lyrics.
Cole Porter also wrote parody lyrics to You're the top, availabe on page 171 of this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0306804832/ref=sr_11_1/102-2829492-3486511?ie=UTF8
Posted by: Fausta | Tuesday, July 11, 2006 at 07:19 PM