Ah, Part 5.  Tomorrow night we do Top 3 Inspirational Polkas from Afghanistan and the next night possibly Top 3 Moon Zither Music.  No actually I think I’ll stop this blast into the past for a while and get on to something else.  It’s been fun, though, going back through a lifetime of music and remembering the changing of courses through the influences of great songs.

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.