Customer Reviews

Noel Coward: The Complete Illustrated Lyrics

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BEVIS HILLIER - The Spectator: "In the LYRICS something close to genius flares out;it is his songs that make Coward immortal...This collection is illustrated with a pleasing choice of photographs of Coward and his friends,song-sheet covers and programmes. The effect is of a personal scrapbook...The second merit is the formidably good editing by BARRY DAY. His notes to often rather-light songs are so learned...it is useful to get sorted out,once and for all,the extent of Coward's collaboration with Kern and to hear from different artists about auditioning for Coward or the premieres of his songs."

A beautiful book at a great reduction in price. Fascinating anecdotes accompany the songs. (Ira Gershwin - who was he? - was actually asked to write an American chorus to "Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans" - which of course in his ludicrous egomania he did - it is embarrassingly bad as can be imagined and to add to the fun, he did it without having heard the tune which he said he knew he could do because he knew Coward wrote everything in 6/8.) On Bagley's Coward album (my comments on which are now raking in the "unhelpfuls" which these remarks will also do, if anyone responds at all), the 2nd 2 choruses of "Chase Me, Charlie" have completely different words from those given in this book. Did Barry Day (Coward's executor and biographer and thank god for him!) neglect to give alternate versions written by Coward (the ones in this book are wildly vulgar and profane - the song is about a lady cat summoning her hoped for paramour), or did Bagley just write his own (as he did on some songs on at least his Porter album)?

Also Coward was an accomplished painter, though the reproductions are in black and white.

Born in 1899, Coward was a miracle of the 20th Century.