Saturday Night Soup for the Soul (41)

“The Case of the of Mixed Semaphores”. Well, the piece I wrote for this week will no longer be used. Something personally upsetting (offset by something very nice from an old high school friend) occurred this afternoon. Once again, mixed semaphores, and poorly executed lies take a toll on me. Begin off topic rambling I am an “open” person, but have been told that I am notoriously difficult to get to really know. A lot of layers and paradoxes (but isn’t this true of all human beings?). Someone emailed me this week and wants to interview me for some arts journalism project. I agreed to do this, as long as I can publish an edited bit of her interview as an “All about me” page on the blog. This should be a interesting experience, having tons of questions posed to me for the sole purpose of revealing who I am – or who the inner me is – or ??? I am a bit worried abgout the question marks, although she and I share mutual acquaintances. So, stay tuned for this one. End off topic rambling So, since I refuse to discuss what upset me today, let us therefore spin the tunes that I hear coming from the Soup kitchen. As usual, the music says it all, for those who know how to listen. 1. Red, Red Robin and 2. My Buddy and 3. Who's Sorry Now? - All three of these songs both come from the Grammy and Emmy award winning chanteuse Eydie Gormé ‘s 1958 LP Eydie Gormé Vamps the Roaring 20's. I have a passion for a VAST spectrum of music from styles, cultures and times across the centuries and across the peoples of the earth. The great mystery of music is that it is comprised of vibrations – sound waves traveling through the air, that when received by the human ear and processed by one’s brain can trigger every emotion, and memory and thought know to human kind. Being purely abstract (one cannot hold in one’s hand) it is the highest of all art forms. I did not have a good father (do not be sad for me: I had a golden soul of a mother). But the best thing my father did influence in me, is a great love for music. As a child, our house was filled with Ellington, Basie, Fitzgerald, Mildred Bailey, Goodman, Dorsey, Sinatra, Armstrong, Clooney, Cole, Peggy Lee, so forth and so on. And having a sister 10 years my senior, there was a dual track of Doo Wop, and all the 50’s rock and roll greats being projected into my childhood memory. At the heart of music is melody, which when condensed becomes “the perfect song”. And my childhood was a kaleidoscope of songs from the turn of the century “The Sidewalks of New York” to Armstrong's “Hello Dolly”. Every American decade has had its great American songs (though the art seems to have mostly died out). A great song, can be reinterpreted an endless number of times by musicians and singers alike, and made fresh once again. I have a distinct memory of my father ‘forcing’ me to listing to Eydie’s wonderful rendition of Red, Red Robin , for the “trick” of the first verse being recorded in a wonderful 1920’s style and simulated technology, before switching into the late 1950's contemporary style. That recording is sealed as a permanent memory. Why it was suddenly triggered this week I do not know. I have been very off and on melancholic the past several weeks (see last week’s Soup here). So, I searched for, found, and bought a CD copy of Eydie’s original 1958 LP “Vamping the Roaring Twenties” CD. Ohmygod. After listening, I realized that so many of the songs on this LP are buried in my memory – the memory of the song is HER rendition. My Buddy (hearing a short bit of Eydie singing this brought out the tears). Button Up you Overcoat. Chicago. I Want to be Loved By You. These all seeped into my memory. So here we go. Fifty two years later, her recording of songs written long before I, or even she was born, are still moving hearts and souls. What more can an artist ask for? And THAT my dear friends, is immortality. I was stunned to discover that our Eydie is of Sephardi (Spanish) Jewish descendant via Turkey. Talk about adding a million miles of depth, color, and deep interest to her biography. She also has a whole series of Grammy award winning Spanish LP’s that are beautiful and enchanting. This will make it as a topic for a future Soup. So, enjot these lovely renditions of these GREAT 1920's masterpieces of song. Go HERE to their web site to buy. You can get your 16.4 Mb bowl of Saturday Night Soup for the Soul by clicking the jukebox.