Sunday Drive: Debussy, Beau Soir

From the 1976 album Classical Barbra, which your Head Trucker used to own:

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Sunday Drive: Happy Days Are Here Again

The original "President of Joy" with wife Eleanor and daughter Anna,
arriving in Warm Springs, Georgia, October 1932

 

The one song I didn't hear played at this week's convention was the one they absolutely should have played - the Democratic theme song since 1932.  Shame on them! The original version:

Barbra Streisand has made the song her own ever since the start of her career; here she sings her version for a fundraiser at her Malibu home in 1986, followed by "America the Beautiful":

 

Bonus: Newreel footage of FDR accepting the nomination at the Democratic Convemtion in Chicago in 1932 at the lowest point of the Great Depression. Delegates had reason to be cheerful about nominating Roosevelt: along with fostering economic reccovery, he was also committed to ending Prohibition (repealing the 18th Amendment). So that was a convention of "hope and joy" too, for more reasons than one.

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Sunday Drive: Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy

Judy and Barbra, broadcast October 6, 1963 - words fail me.

Sunday Drive: Memory

Sunday Drive: Autumn Leaves

From the album Je m'appelle Barbra, 1966:

Lovelight: Evergreen

Joe Jervis reminded his readers a few days ago that this song was number one thirty-five years ago right now.  Which hit your Head Trucker right between the eyes - where the hell did the time go? I do recall being entranced by this song when it was brand new, and dreaming dreams that young men have always dreamed, with one set of pronouns or another. At that age, it was easy to believe not merely in the possibility of happily-ever-after, but in its certainty as well.

Ah well.  We live and learn.  Meanwhile, just enjoy the might-have-been here with some studly pronouns - and dream of a dangling modifier or two.




Sleep tight, guys.

Beau Soir

Seeing a Barbra Streisand CD offered by Joe.My.God for his "Swag Tuesday" giveaway somehow reminded me of her Classical Barbra album that I bought and enjoyed many years ago. I thought I'd share my favorite from that with you, a lovely piece to close out the evening.

Side note: One time in college I briefly dated a tenor, the darling of the music department, who starred in their productions at the college theater. One night I had him over to the house and played this album, thinking he would enjoy the classical pieces; but oh how he hooted and hollered and turned up his nose at that awful sound Barbra was making - oh that's terrible, she's not doing it right, he said, smirking and grinning like an ape. He did this with every single song on the album.

Which rather spoiled the evening for me.

At the end of that year, his degree completed, he went on to New York to have his big career. He never wrote or called. But it does give me a certain satisfaction to be able to report to you that after all these many years, everybody still knows and loves Barbra Streisand.

But nobody has ever heard of Jim B. again.

And so, my friends - good night.