GREATNESS – AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  I often listen to music and research the composer, and, if a song, the lyricist, while listening.  I did that last night and realized that today is the 81st anniversary of the death of George Gershwin.  Gershwin died on this date in 1937, at the tragically young age of 38.

What a loss.  Had he lived even a normal life span, he would have left us in the 1970s.  We not only would have heard decades more of his music, we would have known him through television.

When we think of Gershwin we think of the pinnacle of American popular and theater music.  And we think of orchestral compositions like "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris."  We think of music that is civilized, with melodies we remember and pass on to our children.

In the the time Gershwin lived, teenagers danced to his music, and loved it.  Consider please, what kids are given today, not only in music, but in the lyrics that accompany it.  Melody?  What melody?  Lyrics?  Remember any?  I was in Staples a while back, and the store's sound system played a song with one line of lyric, repeated over and over.  Not exactly Rodgers and Hart. 

I think you can tell a great deal about a country by its popular music.  Ours has gone down the tubes, along with other elements of our popular culture. 

The superb songs, the ones that have lasted, are generally called The Great American Songbook, and some authorities say the songbook began about 1910 and ended in the early 1960s.  That doesn't mean fine songs weren't written after the 60s.  They were, but the number diminished rapidly.  The giant composers – Rodgers, Berlin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and their peers, were retiring or passing on.  Johnny Mercer, one of our greatest lyricists, called the songwriters of the late sixties "child philosophers."  I'm afraid it fits.

Will there be another golden age of American music?  No one knows.   But it does strike me that the golden ages of American song, movies, theater, recording, and broadcasting, all occurred during roughly the same period.  I wonder why.  If you have any theories on that, let us know. 

Meanwhile, try to subscribe to one of the better streaming music services, and listen to the classic songs.  You'll love it.  Tell the kids.

July 11,  2018