Motley Moose – Archive

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”. For example …..

SEPARATED at BIRTH – the late Monkees singer Davy Jones and Star Trek’s Walter Koenig.

   

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

ART NOTES – French impressionist works, in an exhibit entitled Visions of Nation: from LeGray to Monet are at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri through February 9th.

AS THE LONDON THEATER debut of the musical Scottsboro Boys begins this week, University of South Carolina professor Dan Carter has been at the forefront of those seeking a full (posthumous) pardon for all nine of the black teenagers wrongly accused of rape. It’s believed that the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles may decide before the end of the year.

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is another one of those amazing kittehs who was brutalized, but recovering nicely and will be up for adoption in Washington state.

EDUCATION NOTES – dissatisfied with the education their children receive, the First Nations and Canada’s two other aboriginal groups (the Métis and the Inuit) have found an ally in the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (representing big business), who have urged officials to work with aboriginal groups to improve the school system (which is the responsibility of the federal government on reservations). Alas, conservative prime minister Stephen Harper’s people are …. “not famous for listening to outside advice”.

THE MSNBC CORRESPONDENT Irin Carmon notes a split amongst the various anti-abortion groups in Ohio over the ACA.

FRIDAY’s CHILD is Pablo the Cat – who is also/known/as Six Dinner Sid – an English kitteh who went missing for a year, before being found … 450 miles away in Scotland.

THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the group Free Keene – an extreme anti-government group that (mercifully) seems to be gaining little traction in my new place of residence.

HAIL and FAREWELL to some notable passings this week: Noel Harrison – the singer/actor son of Rex Harrison (at age 79), Bill Sharman – the NBA Hall of Fame player for the Boston Celtics (and coach of the L.A. Lakers) at age 87, and British guitarist John ‘Gypie’ Mayo – who played in both Dr. Feelgood and the reunited Yardbirds, (at age 62).

FOOD NOTES – time for some Cat Lovers Pasta, anyone?

HOPES that recent news reports of New York City’s landmark Roseland Ballroom may be closing in the future … are premature.

YUK for TODAY – on “Weekend Update” last night, Seth Myers reported that “Kanye West asked Kim Kardashian … for her brand in marriage”.

HISTORY NOTES – the house in the Netherlands in which exotic dancer (and WW-I spy) Mata Hari was born … has been destroyed in a fire.

SEPARATED at BIRTH – TV stars Kate Mara (“House of Cards”, “24”) and Joanna Garcia (“Reba”, “Better with You”).

   

……. and for a song of the week …………………………………………… this past spring, the songwriter Ervin Drake celebrated his 94th birthday. While never a household name, he has written or co-written a few classics that have stood the test of time, and is still active. And along the way, he’s written a song-or-two for the underdogs of this world that (especially) we in this forum can appreciate.

Born Ervin Druckman in New York City in 1919, he wrote his first song at age 12 before eventually graduating from CCNY. The first (but not the last) time he would do so: he added lyrics to an existing instrumental “Tico-Tico” which was his first success. More famously, two years after Duke Ellington’s trombonist Juan Tizol wrote a minor hit called Perdido – Ervin Drake wrote lyrics for it, which were made famous a decade later by Ella Fitzgerald singing them.

In 1945, he was saddened over the loss of his girlfriend Edith, after “those Wall Street types” began pursuing her (and she wound up marrying one of them). When Drake was presented a haunting melody by the composer Irene Higginbotham – the niece of the noted trombonist J.C. Higginbotham – he sensed it matched his feelings, and wrote the lyrics to Good Morning Heartache in 20 minutes. It was famously recorded by Billie Holiday in 1946, and many performers have recorded it since (with Diana Ross’s 1972 version in Lady Sings the Blues bringing the tune to a wider audience).

Between 1948 and 1962, he worked primarily in TV. One song that he wrote in 1953 was I Believe with frequent writing partner Jimmy Shirl. This came from a request from singer Jane Froman, eager to find a positive tune during the Korean War. This was a major hit for Frankie Laine and its quasi-religious lyrics made the tune appealing enough for Elvis Presley to Mahalia Jackson to LeeAnn Rimes. Ervin Drake wrote for other TV performers such as Merv Griffin, Mel Tormé, Ethel Merman, Johnny Mathis, Yves Montand and Gene Kelly.

In 1961 he was asked by a music publisher to compose a song for Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio. Drake sat at the piano and took out his notebook where he had scribbled ideas for future material. An old theme of a man’s life described in terms of vintage wine appealed to him, and the Kingston Trio did record It Was a Very Good Year – as did Chad and Jeremy, The Turtles and Lonnie Donegan and others.

But it was five years later when the Kingston Trio version was heard on the radio by Frank Sinatra while driving between Las Vegas and Palm Springs. In those pre-cell phone days, he had to wait until he saw a phone booth before he could call his producer and say “I want to record this now” – and it won a Grammy in 1966.

As mentioned, Ervin Drake always had a social conscience: he devised a plan for a song to protest racial segregation (in 1944!) that  – with non-preachy lyrics and a boogie-woogie tempo – he thought could help change attitudes. But upon presenting No Restricted Signs in Heaven to one publisher, he was deemed a communist and told never to come back. It took the African-American gospel group The Golden Gate Quartet to bring the song to life. And in recent years, his 2003 song Who Are These Strangers? – tackling homophobic discrimination – has been popularized by the Broadway singer Michael Feinstein.

From 1973 to 1982 he was president of the Songwriters Guild of America – helping to enact the US Copyright Law of 1976 affording composers/lyricists a larger share of royalties. And he was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983.

He has never retired; still writing songs and has an unlikely new songwriting partner who performs his newer material: Christine Lavin – the ever-delightful folksinger. And just last month, he was honored at a musical tribute at New York’s famed Iridium club.

But perhaps Ervin Drake’s special achievement came in 1975. Edith Bein – the girlfriend he lost in the 1940’s and who he wrote the lyrics to “Good Morning Heartache” over – had married someone else (as had he, in time). But when both of their spouses died over the years, they came together in 1975 and married seven years later. And very apropos – because isn’t “boy meets girl”, “boy loses girl” and “boy wins back girl” an integral part of songwriting?

I was torn between which of his famous tunes to focus on … but the choice was made easy by one he wrote at age 85 in 2004 – at a time when many of us were in despair about our nation’s future. Like the pianist Dave Frishberg, he took pen to express his thoughts, and Christine Lavin sings his tune (I’m a) Card-Carrying, Bleeding Heart Liberal regularly.

I can’t embed her version here, but at this link you can hear it (the song begins just after the 2:30 mark).