Customer Reviews

Listening to Classic American Popular Songs

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This truly remarkable book is unique in several important ways. In the first instance it deals with the music and lyrics of these extraordinary songs in ways that reflect the author's extensive experience as a musician and as a writer on musical subjects, drawing upon his eclectic background to present fresh ideas that illuminate and inform. In the words of Henry Martin, jazz authority and expert on popular music of the golden era: "In this highly accessible book, Allen Forte delights us with unique, thought-provoking insights into some of the great songs from the '20s, '30s, and '40s."

The book comes fully equipped to provide the reader with everything needed to acquire a very close familiarity with the major attributes of this beautiful repertoire of popular song, including simple musical notation or "lead sheets" of all the songs (a basic knowledge of music notation is needed, and Chapter 1 fills that gap, if required), perceptive discussions of lyrics as they relate to the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms of the songs, and, as a special and unique innovation, a compact disc that provides the reader with easy access to the music. Moreover, background material places each song in its historical-social context. Implicitly, for each song, the author answers the question: "Why has this song withstood the test of time to become a classic?"

The writing style is informal, bright, and often humorous, without in any way "writing down" to the audience. It is a pleasure to read. The text and the accompanying compact disc, which includes recordings especially made for this volume, are beautifully matched. And the performances by baritone Richard Lalli and pianist Gary Chapman are superb. On two of the tracks we also hear the author as arranger and pianist, testifying to his close connection to this music as a performer.

Accessible, intelligent, and highly enjoyable, this book and recording will make delightful additions to the libraries of a broad range of readers/listeners -- from those who are already familiar with this repertoire and who seek an enriched understanding of the songs and their contexts, to those who may be hearing and learning of these alluring works for the very first time.

Mr. Forte succeeds in the difficult task of marrying in this book the two adjectives of the title of this review. You feel the love for the subject and the thought given to it. Maybe one can disagree on the choice of the songs analyzed but, of course, that can only be a matter of taste, though I have the impression the choice was dictated sometime by the innovations brought from the song to the idiom rather than by its intrinsic aestetic value (I'm referring to songs like How Little We Know or Something to Live For: very interesting ones, but hardly classic like other ones which didn't make it in the book). But this is a minor and subjective complaint to a great work which must be read both from music lovers and would-be songwriters.