uTopianTurtleTop

INDIVIDUALISTS

Listening to a Broadway compilation from the library. Al Jolson, Ethel Merman, Streisand -- intense individualists. The only current Broadway singing star I can name right now is Michael Crawford from "Phantom of the Opera"; from the little bit I've heard of him, he doesn't strike me as particularly intense or individualistic.

Zero Mostel as Tevya on "If I Were a Rich Man" is slightly funnier than Topol, who played the role in the movie, but neither as sweet toward his wife nor as passionate on that tremendous line, which Topol sings with such ferocity: "I WOULDn't HAVE to WORK HARD." Topol's life force, affirming his life by joyously roaring his anger.



YEAH YEAH

Listening to Bob Wills the other day, that wonderfully sexy image in "San Antonio Rose":

"Lips so sweet and tender, like petals falling apart."

Ooo-wee. A sexual allusion worthy of Shakespeare or Robert Johnson.

Great song; one of that genre of songs-about-themselves:
San Antonio Rose
Stardust
Elmer's Tune


Stardust & San Antonio Rose haunting and melancholy; Elmer's Tune giddy and cosmic:

Why are the stars always winkin'
and blinkin'
above?
What makes a fella start thinkin'
of falling in love?
It's not the season,
the reason
is plain as the moon,
IT'S JUST ELMER'S TUNE! . . .

The hurdy-gurdy,
the birdie,
the cop on the beat,
the candy-maker,
the baker,
the man-on-the-street,
the city charmer,
the farmer,
the man on the moon
ALL SING ELMER'S TUNE!