The lyrical half of the legendary songwriting team Leiber and Stoller, Jerry Leiber passed away yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 78.
What a shame, but what a great life he had, doing work he loved with his friend (and sometimes adversary).
Leiber was the lyricist, but he and Stoller worked as a team, sometimes quite quickly. Here’s a great exchange from a 1990 Rolling Stone interview:
Leiber: “Hound Dog” took like twelve minutes. That’s not a complicated piece of work. But the rhyme scheme was difficult. Also the metric structure of the music was not easy. “Kansas City” was maybe eight minutes, if that. Writing the early blues was spontaneous. You can hear the energy in the work.
Stoller: In the early days we’d go back and forth note for note, syllable for syllable, word for word in the process of creating.
Like telepathy?
Leiber: We’re a unit. The instincts are very closely aligned. I could write, “Take out the papers and the trash” [“Yakety Yak,” by the Coasters], and he’ll come up with “Or you don’t get no spendin’ cash.”
Everybody has a favorite Leiber and Stoller song, maybe several. There will be a lot of attention placed on “Hound Dog” and the work they did with Elvis, but my favorite from the L & S oeuvre is this one.
Here’s what Jerry Leiber said when asked what makes “Stand By Me” so appealing.
“It’s the bass pattern. There are lots of great songs. But that is an insidious piece of work. It can put a hole through your head. It’s not a great song. It’s a nice song. But it’s a great record.”
Here’s another favorite – the first act ending sequence from the Leiber & Stoller musical, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe’.” Simplicity and humor make Leiber’s lyrics stand out.
Song lists and accolades are everywhere today. What’s your favorite Leiber and Stoller song?
Trail Baboon 
I found the following on the Lieber and Stoller site:
April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011
Jerry Leiber—lyricist supreme, rakish raconteur, a penetrating gleam in his perfectly mismatched eyes—was a man of rare brilliance and vitality. Via (sometimes punishingly) high expectations and correspondingly enthusiastic encouragement, he infused those around him with brilliance and vitality as well. His unlikely creative soulmate, Mike Stoller, didn’t want to be a songwriter: Jerry talked him into it. Sixty-one years later, I’m thinkin’: must’ve been one hell of a talk. Thus began a long list of things Jerry talked Mike into (and at least as long a list of things Mike talked Jerry out of). It was a remarkably effective working method.
Along the way, Jerry repaid his good fortune by helping to elevate other good songwriters—and their songs—into great ones. For the rest who followed, Jerry set a high bar at which to aim, if never to reach. Jerry’s balance of natural talent and hard-won craftsmanship, of lightning wit and serious purpose, of compact form and complex content, made him not just the quintessential rock & roll lyricist, but the quintessential lyricist, period. In the history of popular songwriting, he has few equals; no superiors. In the history of friends, likewise.
Jerry Leiber passed quickly and with minimum discomfort, surrounded by his family. He is survived by his three sons, Jed, Oliver, and Jake, and his two granddaughters, Chloe and Daphne. You can honor his memory by committing your life to excellence and joy. Of course, Jerry would never have said anything like that. He would have said:
“Let’s break out the booze, and have a ball…”
That works, too. L’chaim, Unca Jer.
—Peter Stoller
Hard to pick a favorite but I wouldn’t want to forget “Come a Little Closer”
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love come a little closer
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Thanks for putting that up, Beth Ann.
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My elementary choir (accompanied by the 5th grade orchestra) sang Stand By Me last spring. There were two especially wonderful bass players in that class.
I’m driving to Chicago this morning as soon as the rain moves through.
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got a gig or just visiting?
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smokey joes cafe was one of the most enjoyable shows i have ever been to.there is usualy a story line to string the songs together and an effort to make the audience feel like they are on a timeline that takes them from one event to the next with the songs as the featur that will make the statement abut the order of events. thesound of music, oklahoma, west side story my fair lady all stories that have the songs come one after another for two hours of wonder but smokey joes cafe is simply a tribute to leiber and stoller and the punch line is to listen to what these guys have written and say to yourself oh yeah . over and over and over and over again. wow what a body of work. no dialog, 39 songs one after another that give you an appreciation for what these guys have put together. on broadway is the one i will choose but its a little like choosing your favorite child, how can you not choose all the others. great great stuff came out of this guys brain and onto the page and into our ears. nice life. well done
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
I don’t know–A certain Late Great Morning Show so dominated my musical selections for so many years that I became very lazy and allowed the two DJ’s to research all my music for me. So I like whatever Dale and Jim Ed liked. So now it is their fault because musically I am completely at sea without their choices to guide me.
Help!
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me too, Jacque – it’s so quiet at the computer in the mornings – and i just can’t bring myself to arrange my own listening. isn’t the same.
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Then I lost here MPR Classical for my morning rides, so I am feeling really feeling it right now.
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Radio Heartland is still there. They have even gone back to live announcements of songs at certain times of the day.. Starting at 7 in the morning Mike Pengra is live and even does occaisional interviews, not many of these, and can take requests if they are sent in early enough
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mike is good butt i have a hard time seeing kling try to build his news network as he kissed off out boy. lets hope 10 years form now we can look back and see the benifit..
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I’ll put in a vote for Baby That Is Rock ‘n Roll.
KTCA did a special about twenty years ago of local artists performing Lieber & Stoller songs. I think I still have it on VHS somewhere, if the tape hasn’t disintegrated. I have to dig that out.
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I have to confess to gross ignorance here. I have heard of Leiber and Stoller, and i recognize many of the tunes Dale alludes to, but I couldn’t tell you much about what else they wrote off the top of my head. I also have to confess that I particularly dislike popular music from the era in which they wrote. I know, it is sad and speaks to what a narrow minded fusspot I can be.
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Fusspot? I suppose that is Dr. Fusspot to us?
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Fusspot is a term created by my husband, who is much more of a fusspot than I am. He also coined the term “troublespot” to refer to those of our relatives and acquaintences who have been difficult or naughty. It would be really unfortunate to be a fusspot and a troublespot all in the same day.
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Ah, two more for the Glossary!
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Reminds me of fuss-budget, which was what Lucy in Peanuts was.
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I grew up in that era and did not much care for it then or now, not that I have any musical taste, mind you. So, I guess I am a sort of tuneless old fart.
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Well, that’s okay, Clyde. I think it is good that everyone doesn’t like the same things. I have never been able to develop much interest in classical music.
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yeah but you are really good at being the best tuneless old fart you can be.
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might want to check it out renee. good stuff ot there from these guys.
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My husband loves music from that era, and sometimes plays it when it is his turn to do the dishes, so I get to hear it now and then.
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reminds me of dales mom putting on harry belefonte for saturday house cleaning
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thanks for the reminder, tim. I should really give that a try (wonder what effect it would have on the basement of despair?)
of course, I’d have to watch Beetlejuice first-only Winona Ryder movie I can say I really like.
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Good morning to all,
Searchin by the Coasters is one of my top favorite Leiber and Stoller songs from my days as a big fan of early rock n’ roll when I was a teenager. Here are some of the lyrics:
Gonna find her, gonna find her.
Well searching.
Yeah I’m gonna searching, searching every which a-way, yeh yeh.
Oh lord I’m searching, my good lord,
searching you know honey,
searching every which away yeh yeh yeh.
But I’m like that northwest Mountie.
You know I’ll bring her in some day.
Gonna find her, gonna find her.
Well Charlie Chan, Simon Smith, got nothing, child, on me.
Sergeant Friday, Peter Gunn and ooo Alan B.
No matter where she’s hiding, she’s gonna see me coming,
I’m gonna walk right down that street like Bulldog Drummon.
‘Cos I been searching, well searching, oh my goodness,
But I’m like that northwest Mountie.
You know I’ll bring her in some day
I very much liked any of the Leiber and Stroller songs done by the Coasters including Yakity Yak and Young Blood. In fact, I more or less liked everything by Leiber and Stroller. Rock n’ roll really helped me get through my teen age years and got me started on exploring all kinds of music including, blues, folk music, and jazz. Leiber and Stroller were among the top leaders in creating the great rock n’ roll music that I loved as a teen ager.
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Hard to choose, but I have to go with ‘On Broadway’.
Chris
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Oh, the emotions! I still think of the first time I heard “Heartbreak Hotel” (not Lieber and Stoller) as one of the pivotal moments in my life. I wonder if the experience was different for me than for other baboons because I was hearing this music when it first came out.
Late one night I discovered there was a radio station in Little Rock that I could get on my little bakelite radio, a station that played a rougher sort of music than was common in whitebread central; Iowa. It was, I guess, an early R&B station. I heard “Gonna Find Her” months before it got popular. I heard “Got My Mojo Workin'” at a time I could only guess what that meant, and it was so exciting. The DJ was a cool dude who called himself “Gatemouth.” The Ol’ Gator. Listening to that stuff back then was a lot like stealing a chance to smoke grass (which didn’t exist in my world). Stolen pleasures. Scary stuff. Very potent.
At that time, when I was 16 or so, I had a category that I called “the big songs.” They were songs so emotionally potent that I was almost giddy in their grip. I would walk around listening to them in the radio in my head, unable to tell anyone else what was making me seem so strange. It wasn’t just Lieber and Stoller stuff that blew me away, but their songs were almost sure to transport me.
The song I’ll pick today is the Ben E King Classic, “There Goes My Baby.” That used to just crush my heart when I heard it. That was one of those “big songs” that sucked me into a parallel universe and dominated me.
We had what were called “sock hops.” After the Friday evening basketball game we would file out of the basketball court while they moved away the bleachers and swept the floor, and then we would go back inside in sock feet (so as to not destroy the precious floor). The gym would be dark. Girls on the east side all in a big line. Guys on the west side, nervously chattering and talking. A sound system. Little spotlights here and there. And then the music would start. If you were bold, you would cross that huge expanse of floor and ask a girl to dance, which was in those days a highly political act and not anything casual at all. You would whirl and spin in the darkness, dancing in and out of the dizzy array of little lights reflecting from the spinning mirror ball, all the while hearing that amazing music.
You would hold some girl in your arms and hear Ben E King sing about love in this song that created its own universe of sound. Maybe she was just someone you knew from homeroom, but it was hard to be stable as the two of you danced, the girl ravishing in her crinoline skirts, her hair dolled up, the astonishing pressure of her bosom as you twirled in the darkness and Ben E King created a magic space right there in central Iowa, a world of violent emotion that neither of you knew how to handle.
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I think it did take a lot of courage in those days to cross the floor and ask for a dance, Steve. I liked watching the teenage dance shows on TV, but never managed to make it to any of the dances. I did listen to rock music on the radio without fail and collected 45 rpm records of many of my favorite rock musicans.
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Wow, Steve, well done! It brings back a lot of memories.
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I think during the fifties this contry was very backward in some ways, especially with respect to human rights and progressive political thought. Rock n’ roll was a breath of fresh air during that repressive era. Some people still think the fifties was a great time and don’t remember how repressive things were in those days. Rock n’;roll was not liked by some people in the fifties who thought it was bad music, but I think it helped many young people see that there was more to life than the straight and narrow path some people wanted them to follow. Leiber and Stroller were able to become a big part of creating this music which spoke to young people and opened up their lives.
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Given the political and cultural climate at the time, I can see how music like this was a breath of fresh air.
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Lieber and Stoller are one of those teams that often cause me to say, “they wrote that? and that one too? and that one?…” It’s like watching “Casablanca” and realizing how many pop culture references trace back to that one movie (or, in this case, one song writing team). I’d be willing to bet you could write a PhD thesis or two tracing all the music that stems from Lieber and Stoller – and then do a comparison with the Gershwins…oy, that’d cover a lot of music in the last 100 years. What I have come to treasure about the Lieber and Stoller tunes are the vivid images – and for sheer visually imagery it’s hard to beat “Love Potion No. 9” – the gypsy with the gold capped tooth, kissing the cop…fabulous.
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Kansas City and There Goes My Baby (like Steve iSP) – but i love all the stuff the Coasters did also.
thanks, Dale – wow – would love to see Smokey Joe’s Cafe. think it will ever come to Blackhoof??
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I am very surly this morning, sorry.
My fm does not like seasonal change so I have about two bad months in the fall and three in the spring. The fall flair-up started yesterday. It takes my attitude a few days to adjust. I’m going to go hide in the dark.
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Hang in there, Clyde. I hope there is a break in the weather that is causing you problems.
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I’ve gotta go with Love Potion No. 9. I’ve always loved that song – it made my imagination run wild!
OT: Sorry I’ve been away from the Trail for so long. I’ve been awfully busy. Last week tim gave us a soliloquy in which he asked us what we accomplished this summer and what we still hope to get finished. Thanks, tim. I needed that. Thanks also to all the Baboon women for the can-do attitude with regard to chain saws. Because of you, I cut down nine trees and hauled ’em up to the curb for the City’s curbside tree chipping/mulching. There’s more, much more to do and the walnuts are laying low in the grass all over the hillside making it very dangerous to walk down the hill. You never know when you’re going to step on a couple of them and go flying.
So, after cutting, pruning and sawing and being eaten by mosquitoes, I decided to mow the (hill) lawn before going to yet another Rock Bend meeting. It’s still kind of hard for me to walk today. I’ll be okay very soon!
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Wow!
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Impressive-but as a baboon woman I’d like to say that the combo of chainsaw, hill, and walnuts sounds waaay to dangerous for any member of our congress.
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BSO Rafferty would be aghast, Krista. I envy you some of the walnuts, though, I love that scent on the husks.
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septemner is tie up the loose ends month for most of us . you have that little ditty to deal with. when is it again?
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I think my favorite is “Charlie Brown” (yes, another Coasters) – my dad used to sing along to it, I think it reminded me of his misspent youth!
Fe-fe, fi-fi, fo-fo, fum,
I smell smoke in the auditorium
Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown
He’s a clown, that Charlie Brown
He’s gonna get caught, Just you wait and see
(Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me)
That’s him on his knees, I know that’s him
Yeah, from 7 come 11, Down in the boys’ gym
Chorus
Who’s always writing on the wall?
Who’s always goofing in the hall?
Who’s always throwing spit balls?
Guess who (who, me?) yeah, you
Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow?
Who calls the English teacher, Daddy-O?
…
This is kind of interesting, from the article Lieber & Stoller Write It All Down..
“They found they had a gift for collaboration, which is different from a gift for getting along. Sitting together beside a piano, with a cloud of cigarette smoke curling overhead, they quarreled and disagreed.”
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p.s. … and I have to confess, I wouldn’t have known without looking it up which songs were by Lieber and Stoller – I didn’t start paying attention to that sort of thing until much later.
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Barbara, I also did some research on Leiber and Stoller songs. I knew they wrote a lot of songs that I like, but I didn’t know which ones they wrote.
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for leiber
thanks for the tunes
that hum in my head some days
the gifts you gave to us
in so many different ways
stand by me on broadway
love potion #9
is that all the is?
tunes that always do remind
a thought put to music
rolled out of your head
man you wrote a bunch
so now that your dead…
take solace in knowing
the words you passed on
will keep on inspiring
long after you’ve gone
the heavens will welcome
the bop shoo wop soul
sittn in with he greats
r&b, rock and roll
leiber and stoller
will go down in the book
as the best there has been
and to leiber we’ll look
for a lesson in following
whar a true calling is heard
and thanks for those tunes
that you paired with your words
what a life what a model
what a life nicely done
a guy who found his calling
thanks for being the one.
follow your dreams
and follow your heart
find your place in the universe
find the role thats your part
do it so well
that your soul deep down knows
you smile when you think
and fell it down to your toes
that life was a calling
you answered the bell
touched us all in the process
thank you fare thee well
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Lovely tim, just lovely. Thanks.
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thank you
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