Poems, Songs

Word Guy

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Today is the birthday of the Swiss-born Tin Pan Alley lyricist Al Dubin.

Al Dubin got to make his living in New York City, matching words with music. After enjoying part of the fabulous Tony Awards last night, I’d have to say some people have all the luck. I’m always impressed with the talent on display at the Tony broadcast. Broadway people are unnaturally good at a number of things, and they have an electricity that the presenters and performers on the Oscars seem to lack.

But if you read his short biography at the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, it seems like Al Dubin was unqualified for almost everything he tried.

Writing lyrics was pretty much his only success. And at that I wouldn’t call him the kind of poet whose verse will echo through the ages. Dubin’s response to the lines of a classic, The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, turned out somewhat less memorable. A lot less.

Here’s the inspiration:

XII
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness–
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

And here’s what Dubin did with it:

A cup of coffee, a sandwich and you,
A cozy corner, a table for two,
A chance to whisper and cuddle and coo
With lots of huggin’ and kissin’ in view.
I don’t need music, lobster or wine,
Whenever your eyes look into mine.
The things I long for are simple and few;
A cup of coffee, a sandwich and you!

I guess life is too short to spend much extra time trying to add sophistication to that you/two/coo/view rhyming sequence.

Lullabyofbroadway-title

Dubin liked nights out on the town well enough. Alcohol and romance were also high priorities and dissipation was a favorite theme. He IS the guy who wrote the original “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” I’m not sure how you find the focus to write even mediocre song lyrics with your head pounding on the morning after, but I suppose Dubin was not an early riser.

Just like the characters in one of his most famous songs – The Lullaby of Broadway.

http://youtu.be/QNAM45hCBpw

What’s your favorite lullaby?

38 thoughts on “Word Guy”

  2. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    Dale, you are so right about the depth of talent of Broadway Actors — over the years I have noticed that those big name stars who start on Broadway appeal to me more than those who focus more on film. Think of the list–Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett (my hero), John Lithgow, Bernadette Peters, Kristin Chenowith, Meryl Streep…those folks are talent deep. They also seem to have a concept of privacy in their personal lives, too. When they move to Hollywood it must be a shock.

    That said, I did not tune into the Tony Awards.

    Favorite lullaby–I don’t know. I am not from a family of singers so a lullaby never became a habit or a relaxing comfort. But I did LOVE to fall asleep to my dad and grandpa, with their bass Stratton voices, talking and gossiping. Lulling me…lulling me….

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  4. I think sophistication is over valued. give me a rhyme every time and ill be happy
    many of the favorite lyrics in have in the musical arena are simply the right rhyme for the moment not a sophisticated word play although I do enjoy those when they come up but I think you have to be thankful for those when they come up and not push too hard to try to make them happen. forced rhyme is a painful thing to witness.

    I will not be just a nothing my head all full of stuffin my heart all full of pain

    I am not a man some would consider as handsome

    are two of my favorites that work although stretched to the max.
    my favorite lullaby is a left over from my days of singing my kids to sleep when they were little. they would be kicking nd squirming and I would get out my guitar and start strumming and picking in a slow ryhtmic pattern followed by the wonderful simplelyrics
    you aremy sunshine
    my only sunshine
    you make me happy
    when skys are gray
    youll never know dear
    how much I love you.
    please don’t take my sunshine away

    the other night dear
    while I was dreaming
    I dreamt I held you in my arms
    when I awoke dear
    I was mistaken
    and I hung my head and cried

    you are my sunshine
    my only sunshine
    you make me happy
    when skies are gray
    youll never know dear how much I love you
    please don’t take my sunshine away.

    peter ostrushko did it closet to my lullaby verion at the tlgms finale.
    brought tears to my eyes.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFK-mFlZ2uw

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    1. I was at work listening to TLGMS finale on my computer. Ostrushko had me practically sobbing with that blasted song. I have yet to forgive him for that!

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        1. I was sobbing too, but publicly, and with a bunch of outdoor sportsmen-type DNR guys who had never heard of The Morning Show.

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  6. By the way, Laura Osnes from Twin Cities preformed at the Tony’s and was nominated for a Tony. I know who she is because a classmate of my daughter is married to Laura’s brother.

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  7. There are so many wonderful lullabies. There is one that I’m SURE some baboon will post, so I’ll skip it. Here are two less-known lullabies that I treasure. The first one I’m posting is not necessarily the best version, but at least it doesn’t have a stupid ad tacked to the front of it:

    And here is one even lesser known, but it is gorgeous. This is Vienna Teng:

    Have a wonderful day, baboons.

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  8. There doesn’t seem to be a video of this, but Connie Kaldor has a lovely song called “Prairie Lullaby” .

    One line goes-

    The wind in the shelter belt whispers to you,
    Lullaby, lullaby coulees and sloughs.

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  9. I remember my parents singing to me, but no particular song comes immediately to mind as their go-to lullaby. Once I was a little older, though, the music I remember at bedtime is a bit of ragtime coming up from the living room. When my brother and I were both taking piano lessons, that left precious little time for my dad to get his turn at the keys – so often he would sit down to play after I had gone upstairs to bed. My room was right above the living room, so a tune like this is what I think of when I think of my childhood and bedtime:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpVni-WO0Zs

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    1. And this is what I often sang to Miss S (in part because I could never remember all of the lyrics to “John O Dreams”… but also because it soothed her and the repetitions lend themselves to sleep…)

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  10. Don’t know how this will go, posting from Youtube at work, but this should be the Pogue’s “Lullaby of London”:

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  11. This is more prayer than lullaby but if Leandra were to sing this to me at about 8:30 p.m., I’d sleep like a little baby.

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  14. Completely OT. I’ve been off-trail for a few days (last-minute trip for Teenager and I to Florida) – did we ever find out where Blevins and Rhonda have gotten themselves off to?

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    2. Verily Sherrilee,
      Thanks for noticing the absence of Blevins and Rhonda from the Trail Baboon header. It turns out the photos I have of them do not translate very well to this new design. The images become grainy and do not look good. When I have time I’ll try to come up with a solution, but it might involve going out and taking my own photo of an actual baboon. But first I need to find one!

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  15. For me, “Under the Quarter Moon” by Carla Sciaky is a kind of theme song/lullaby.
    Sung rhythmically, as I heard it once on Prairie Home, the hymn, Children of the Heavenly Father is a good one to walk a baby to sleep.

    One of the first gifts the s&h got from his father was a disk of lullabies from around the world called “The Planet Sleeps”. Had to blow the dust off it, but it’s still in his room.

    Here is the first track;
    http://youtu.be/oZlQW4O4NpI

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  16. So of course, I had to play the disk, now that I have dusted it off, and was reminded of my ultimate rock the baby to sleep track:

    yes indeedy, I had a baby who never laid down willingly to sleep, there was a goodish bit of waltzing about to be done.

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  18. Ah, such great music, Baboons. I would have watched the Tonys last night had we been home – I find them fascinating and exciting.

    Favorites from falling asleep while my mom played the piano: Chopin’s Prelude #20, and
    To a Wild Rose by Edward MacDowell
    http://www.last.fm/music/Edward+MacDowell/_/To+a+Wild+Rose

    Once I was out in the world with my guitar, I found Winkin’, Blinkin’, and Nod et al. (may think of them later…). Teaching in kdgn. room I found a great one by the Simon Sisters (Carly and LUcy) version of a traditional Sleep Baby, Sleep – may be my all time favorite:

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  20. I also heard Rosalie do the Hostile Baby Rocking song at a coffee house. It is one of my favorite songs and I very much like Rosalie as well. I have a great appreciation for the song having spent long hours in the middle of the night trying to get a baby to stop fussing and go back to sleep. I thought it was very funny when she said that unfortunately she couldn’t ease the pain by drinking some paregoric because she had already used all of it.

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  22. This is one of my favorites, although after hearing Gordon Bok sing it, it doesn’t seem right unless sung in a very deep voice.

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  24. I didn’t know if I could embed this haunting Taylor Swift tribute to childhood cancer AND write about it in the same transaction, so I’m doing it separately. A friend of mine had a nephew who recently died just before turning four – a very moving memorial video was produced to capture the little guy’s spirit and this song was in the background. It’s as though it was written just for “Ethan”. He died of a rare neurodegenerative disease called “Batten’s”.

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  25. Way more lullabies here than came to my mind! My mother sang Down in the Valley and I Gave My Love a Cherry (with a weird last verse that had a thimble that “had no end” instead of a circle (?). Wasband and I sang crude custom made lines to our sons.

    My son recorded the Tonys for me to watch but too many people commented on the great opening sequence so I jumped the gun and watched it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BraXq07kkM

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