Ira Gershwin

In the music industry, when the royalty split is determined for songwriters, the industry standard for royalties is that the composer gets 50% and the lyricist gets the other 50%.  Each contributor to the song shares equally.  But when it comes to publicity, notoriety, and public appreciation, that’s where the equality stops.  The composer always gets the lion’s share of the attention.

And so to right this inequality, to re-balance the appreciation for these underappreciated wordsmiths, I’ve decided to create just what this world needs most – another awards show – The Ira Awards, presented by Watchfire Music.  Also I’ve decided to name it after the most underappreciated lyricist of them all – Ira Gershwin.

Over the next couple of nights I’ll be giving out Iras to many of the world’s greatest lyricists and discussing why we’ve voted for them.  Our panel of judges (consisting of me, myself and I) have been collecting and reviewing examples of the world’s greatest lyrics for the past 30 years now and the ballots are now tabulated, the voting is in and it’s time to give out them golden statues.

To right our first wrong, let’s first establish the derivation of our title.  Ira Gershwin wrote lyrics for his much more famous brother, George for many years.  When people say, “Ah, that’s a Gershwin song” let’s face it, they’re not thinking “Gershwin Brothers”, they’re thinking “George”.  How did Ira get left out?  I have no idea.  It’s an injustice that I hope to resolve.

The man who only lives for making money

Lives a life that isn’t necessarily sunny;

Likewise the man who works for fame –

There’s no guarantee that time won’t erase his name

The fact is

The only work that really brings enjoyment

Is the kind that is for girl and boy meant.

Fall in love — you won’t regret it.

That’s the best work of all — if you can get it.

Holding hands at midnight

‘Neath a starry sky…

Oh that is nice work if you can get it.

And you can get it — if you try.

Strolling with the one girl

Sighing sigh after sigh…

Oh nice work if you can get it.

And you can get it — if you try.

Just imagine someone

Waiting at the cottage door.

Where two hearts become one…

Who could ask for anything more?

Loving one who loves you,

And then taking that vow…

Nice work if you can get it,

And if you get it –

Won’t you tell me how?

Lyrics: Ira Gershwin

In my classes on lyric writing I always lead off with this: “A poem doth not a lyric make.”  I always get the same reaction,  “Wha?”

What it means is this.  The major difference between poems and lyrics is that with a poem, the reader can stop in time and investigate a turn of phrase or a deeper thought.  With lyrics, there ain’t no stoppin’.  The music prohibits that.  So lyrics have to be simpler, more straightforward.  There can be poetry in a lyric, but it can’t be so dense that the listener cannot follow.

In the above lyric, Ira gets my award for best simple story telling done economically.  Here’s another of his gems.

Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you

Embrace me, you irreplaceable you

Just one look at you my heart grew tipsy in me

You and you alone bring out the gypsy in me

I love all the many charms about you

Above all I want my arms about

Don’t be a naughty baby…

Come to papa come to papa do

My sweet embraceable you…

Again, Lyrics: Ira Gershwin.  Google just about any George Gershwin song and often it gives George the lyric credit and leaves poor Ira out, but the fact is that Ira wrote the lyrics and George, the music.

Paul Simon, another great lyricist from another age tells a good story as well.  He certainly is poetic and his lyrics more obtuse, but in the following lyric Paul gets my vote for painting a picture that sets a mood and tells a story that has so many blanks that we, the listeners, get to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations.  Call it, the award for gorgeous impressionism.

Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together

I’ve got some real estate here in my bag

So we bought a pack of cigarettes, and Mrs. Wagner pies

And we walked off to look for America

Cathy, I said, as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburg

Michigan seems like a dream to me now

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw

And I’ve come to look for America

Laughin’ on the bus, playing games with the faces

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy

I said be careful, his bowtie is really a camera

Toss me a cigarette, I think there’s one in my raincoat

We smoked the last one an hour ago

So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine

And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I’m lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping

I’m empty and I’m aching and I don’t know why

Countin’ the cars on the New Jersey turnpike

They’ve all come to look for America, all come to look for America

Now here’s another guy who is among my top 5 favorite lyricists.  Alan Lerner was one of the few lyricists who were probably better known than his composer, Fritz Lowe.  Alan wrote Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Camelot and a few others of similar magnitude.  Here’s one of my favorite Lerner lyrics.  From Brigadoon.

This is hard to say, but as I wandered through the lea,

I felt for just a fleeting moment that I suddenly was free of being lonely.

Then I closed my eyes and saw the very reason why.

I saw a man with his head bowed low.

His heart had no place to go.

I looked and I thought to myself with a sigh:

There but for you go I.

I saw a man walking by the sea,

Alone with the tide was he.

I looked and I thought as I watched him go by:

There but for you go I.

Lonely men around me, trying not to cry,

Till the day you found me, there among them was I.

I saw a man who had never known a love that was all his own.

I thought as I thanked all the stars in the sky:

There, but for you, go I.

Beautifully crafted, intelligently written, simple, and yet deep.  Kudos goes to Fritz Lowe also for a gorgeous melody.

But for me the all-time love song lyric, the winner of this lifetime’s Ira award, has to go to Alan Lerner for our next winner.

If ever I would leave you

It wouldn’t be in summer.

Seeing you in summer I never would go.

Your hair streaked with sunlight,

Your lips red as flame,

Your face with a luster

That puts gold to shame!

But if I’d ever leave you,

It couldn’t be in autumn.

How I’d leave in autumn I never will know.

I’ve seen how you sparkle

When fall nips the air.

I know you in autumn

And I must be there.

And could I leave you

Running merrily through the snow?

Or on a wintry evening

When you catch the fire’s glow?

If ever I would leave you,

How could it be in springtime?

Knowing how in spring I’m bewitched by you so?

Oh, no! Not in spring-time!

Summer, winter or fall!

No, never could I leave you at all!

Stay tuned for the next couple of nights as we romp through the great lyrics of the American songbook.  If you’re a bit of a lyricist, you won’t want to miss this.  If you’re just a person who loves a great song, you’re in for a treat.

Even More Inspiration

• Even Now
• Grieving In Silence
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Gettin’ It Done
• The Road To Inspiration — Peter Link and Julia Wade
• The Ira Awards Part 5

Alan Jay Lerner

STANDARDS
1. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes — “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 operetta Roberta.

They asked me how I knew
My true love was true
Oh, I of course replied
Something here inside cannot be denied

They said someday you’ll find
All who love are blind
Oh, when your heart’s on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes was my parents’ “song” – Lyman and Virginia.  It always fascinated me that they could be so in love.  Out of that love I was born.  This song summed up their affections for each other.  Go Lyman.  Go Virginia.

2. If Ever I Would Leave You – from Camelot / Lerner and Lowe

I never think of this song as being from Camelot.  For me it’s so much bigger than just a show song.  Alan Lerner, who I had the opportunity to work with when I was in my 30s was my hero as a lyricist.  Always in search of the perfect lyric, he was the ultimate craftsman and a man of great depth.  He would spend months working on a 4 line stanza and never think a thing about it, but when he deemed it finished, it would be the perfect stanza with perfect rhymes, making perfect sense and always with a startling poetry.  Whenever I’m about to ‘settle’ on the working and re-working of a lyric, I think of Alan and go back to work to make it better.

This song, If Ever I Would Leave You, is my favorite love song of my life.  Coupled with the magical music of his long-time partner, Fritz Lowe, it is a masterpiece.

If ever I would leave you
It wouldn’t be in summer.
Seeing you in summer I never would go.
Your hair streaked with sun-light,
Your lips red as flame,
Your face with a lustre
That puts gold to shame!

But if I’d ever leave you,
It couldn’t be in autumn.
How I’d leave in autumn I never will know.
I’ve seen how you sparkle
When fall nips the air.
I know you in autumn
And I must be there.

And could I leave you
Running merrily through the snow?
Or on a wintry evening
When you catch the fire’s glow?

If ever I would leave you,
How could it be in spring-time?
Knowing how in spring I’m bewitched by you so?
Oh, no! not in spring-time!
Summer, winter or fall!
No, never could I leave you at all!

3. Walkin’ My Baby Back Home — is a popular song written in 1930 by Roy Turk (lyrics) and Fred E. Ahlert (music).

I don’t know why this song has attracted me so.  Perhaps for its simplicity, perhaps because it’s a 30s song that sounds great on an acoustic guitar.  Perhaps for its ability to capture the innocence of an age in its first 3 lines.

Gee but it’s great
After being out late
Walkin’ my baby back home…

There are literally hundreds of recordings of the song over the past 7 decades.  My favorite: James Taylor’s.

RUNNER UPS
I’ve Got You Under My Skin – Cole Porter
They Can’t Take That Away From Me and I’ve Got A Crush On You – George and Ira Gershwin
Moon River – Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini
I’m Old Fashioned – Johnny Mercer and Jerome Kern
On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe – Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren

GOSPEL
1. Hallelujah! – Handel’s Messiah, A Soulful Celebration / George Frederick Handel // Arrangement by Mervyn Warren

For me, this recording captures it all – a great piece of music from a great composer (The finale Hallelujah Chorus) an amazing choir of voices and a tremendously inspired arranging and Gospel reworking of the old themes by Mervyn Warren.  If ya’ love Gospel music, this record is guaranteed to take ya’ there.

2. Total Praise — Richard Smallwood

I have always loved the work of Richard Smallwood.  He is a consummate choir director and a musician/composer whom I deeply respect.  For me, this song is the best of his work combining a complete spiritual understanding of the text with a totally dynamic spiritual energy.  I have always had total praise for Total Praise.

3. Uphold Me — The Winans / Fred Manns, Marvin Winans, and Ronald Winans

The whole Winan Family is just a gift from God.  When it comes to Gospel music, they have been the leaders in the genre for the past 4 decades.  In the mid 80s when I first heard their CD, Tomorrow, I was in the middle of a musical style transformation from pop music to Gospel.  This group, more than any other influence, made this transition possible.  Great group singing, great vocal arranging, great spiritual energy!

This completes my walk down musical memory lane.  Gospel Music is certainly a fitting stopping point for Top 3 Inspirational.  I got my Gospel roots sitting Sunday after Sunday in Jenny Burton’s mom’s church, The Universal Church of Truth in the South Bronx.  There I gained the root spirit and foundation of the music from the dedicated members of that church.  There I watched wide-eyed and respectful, a white visitor in a black family, as they celebrated their love of God and each other through the great energies of this inspired music.

I will always be grateful for that experience.  It was the beginning of my transformation into Inspirational Music. All the rest of these genres had their place in my musical past, but it was Gospel more than all the others that fired my imagination and touched my heart with the Holy Spirit.

Even More Inspiration

• The Road To Inspiration — Peter Link and Julia Wade
• The Ira Awards Part 1
• Grateful
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Live Music Lives!
• WFM Listening Room – Series II Finale