Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we welcome you all to The Ira Awards – the music industry’s evening celebrating its most underappreciated creators – the lyricists.

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.