[lit-ideas] Re: "Slumming"
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 21:52:30 -0500
JL wonders
> I also wonder if there is an antonym for 'slumming'?
How about "putting on the Ritz"? as explained by Irving Berlin in _Putting
On The Ritz_:
Have you seen the well-to-do up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare with their noses in the air
High hats and Arrow collars, white spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime for a wonderful time
If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Diff'rent types who wear a day coat, pants with stripes
And cutaway coat, perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million dollar trouper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super duper
Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks
Or "um-ber-ellas" in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz
Strolling down the avenue so happy
All dressed up just like an English chappie
Very snappy
You'll declare it's simply "top-thing" to be there
And hear them swapping smart tidbits
Puttin' on the Ritz
********************
Luckily this gives me a seque into the prior Chelsea discussion which
devolved into Slumming. The prior post began when I alluded to a line in
Joni Mitchell's _Chelsea Morning_:
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words
It came a-reeling up like christmas bells, and rapping up like pipes and
drums
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll wear it 'till the night comes
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtains, and a rainbow on the wall
Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you, crimson crystal beads to beckon
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
There's a sun show every second
Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today
And the streets are paved with passersby
And pigeons fly
And papers lie
Waiting to blow away
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses
When the curtain closes and the rainbow runs away
I will bring you incense owls by night
By candlelight
By jewel-light
If only you will stay
Pretty baby, won't you
Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning
*****************
An upbeat song, I must say and one that I've always loved. But I've also
always loved Leonard Cohen's _Chelsea Hotel_ which returns us to slumming:
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
Ah but you got away, didn't you babe,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend.
You told me again you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception.
And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."
And then you got away, didn't you babe...
I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't even think of you that often.
***********
This is true l'amour du boue. Slumming sounds so much classier in French.
Mike Geary
Memphis
This triple whammy is dedicated to JL who knows a good song when he wants
to.
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