Spring is here
A-suh-puh-ring is here
Life is skittles and life is beer.
I think the loveliest time
Of the year is the spring.
I do, don’t you? ‘Course you do.
But there’s one thing
That makes spring complete for me
And makes every Sunday a treat for me.
 
Thus begins a bright, cheerful little ditty by Tom Lehrer about spring. Turns out that not many people these days know who Tom Lehrer is. Tom was born in 1928. He started at Harvard at the age of 15, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelors in Mathematics in 1946, continuing on to get his Master’s degree the very next year. He has taught classes at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of California, teaching everything from mathematics to political science to musical theatre. At one point he was a researcher at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, here in New Mexico.

Tom also wrote biting satirical songs in the 1950s to the 1960s. He was dealing with a time period when polite people didn’t even say the word “pregnant” out in society. And yet, he wrote about racism, STDs, the bomb, sado-masochism and a host of other unsavory topics. And he made them funny.

So, you should be expecting something a little odd to come out in the rest of the song. And, you’d be right.
​
All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon
When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.
Every Sunday you’ll see
My sweetheart and me
As we poison the pigeons in the park.
 
When they see us coming
The birdies all try an’ hide
But they still go for peanuts
When coated with cyanide.
The sun’s shining bright
Everything seems all right
When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.
 
We’ve gained notoriety
And caused much anxiety
In the Audubon Society
With our games.
They call it impiety
And lack of propriety
And quite a variety
Of unpleasant names.
But it’s not against any religion
To want to dispose of a pigeon.
 
So, if Sunday you’re free
Why don’t you come with me,
And we’ll poison the pigeons in the park.
And maybe we’ll do
In a squirrel or two
While we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.
 
We’ll murder them all
Amid laughter and merriment.
Except for the few
We take home to experiment.
My pulse will be quickenin’
With each drop of strychnine
We feed to a pigeon
(It just takes a smidgin!)
To poison a pigeon in the park.
 
When the song was recorded, the orchestration had been handed out to the band, but was lacking the title. In Tom’s words: ‘there was no title on it, and there was no lyrics. And so, they ran through it, "What a pleasant little waltz".... And the engineer said, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, take one," and the piano player said, "What?" and literally fell off the stool.’
 
On the surface, this is just a weird song about a very sick individual doing some pretty heinous things. Turns out there is a lot below the surface of this.
 
Tom wrote this song because in the 1950s some of the people in government decided that there was a huge pigeon problem in Boston. And they decided that the way to deal with this problem was to feed the pigeons corn that was laced with strychnine. No joke. In researching this, I found out that we are still doing this! Only since the 1960s, we have used a drug called Avitrol. I found an article from August 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada talking about this issue.
 
There are those who site health concerns when excessive numbers of pigeons are about. However, this article from the Humane Society debunks all of those and suggests more humane ways of dealing with pigeon populations, including pigeon birth control.
 
And it turns out that pigeons can be useful! In New York City a study was done in 2016, showing that by monitoring the levels of lead in the pigeons, they can tell when lead levels are getting high in children in those neighborhoods. City pigeons seldom travel more than a few blocks and can be helpful in human health issues. There are even direct correlations between lead levels and violent crime, so an argument could be made that monitoring lead levels in pigeons could help prevent crime.
I’ve fallen down quite a few rabbit holes researching this blog. Most of them pretty horrific. Thank goodness we don’t do anything to rabbits out there in the world. . .
 
Do you have a favorite Tom Lehrer song? I’ll be playing a few of my favorites this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
 
Until next time!
 

I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style. How many times have I said something like that? Especially during my college years, when I would regularly go listen to artists on the college circuit. I remember Billy Joel coming to one of the colleges in the area before he was Billy f-ing Joel. Boy, did he have a style!

In 1971, a young woman named Lori Liebermann went to hear Don McLean. McLean had become very well known for one little ditty that he sang called American Pie, but he had a bunch of other songs. Some of them were about Vincent van Gogh: Vincent, and Empty Chairs. Although, Empty Chairs also had a lot to do with his recent divorce, too.

Lori was excited to hear McLean. She had heard enough of his music to know that she would probably like his concert. Nothing had prepared her for her visceral reaction to Empty Chairs. She had just gone through a bad breakup, and she felt that he was singing about her life. She felt that he’d been reading her diary and letters. He was singing about her life, and it was killing her. She scribbled some notes while he was singing and showed them to her friend who had gone to the concert with her.

Lori was an aspiring singer/songwriter. She had met the songwriting/producing duo of Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox. They were helping to establish her as an artist however, they also were keeping her dependent on them. Norman Gimbel was particularly focused on her, starting an affair with her in spite of the 24-year age gap, and the fact that he was already married.

Notes in hand, Lori called Norman and told him about the song and her reaction to it. She read off to him her notes and the burgeoning lyrics that she had written.  Norman and Charles went to work and the end result was the song Killing Me, Softly. Lori recorded it and the song promptly went – nowhere.

The following year, Roberta Flack heard the song.  She recorded Killing Me Softly, and the song went to number one on the Hot 100 Chart.

By 1976, Lori ended her relationship with Norman Gimbel. She felt that he was being controlling and abusive. She asked to be released from her contract as well. Most of the time, this would not have been an issue. Artists are released from contracts all the time when they are not making much money. But not this time. Fox and Gimbel bled her dry.

As for Don McLean, when he was told that his song had been the inspiration for Killing Me Softly, he was pleased and honored. Most artists would be happy that their work had made such an impact on another human being.

In public, Fox and Gimbel were still giving Lori partial credit for having come up with the idea and written most of the lyrics to Killing Me Softly. This all changed by 2008. Gimbel had his lawyers contact Don McLean and demanded that they remove all reference to Lori basing Killing Me Softly on his website. They were erasing Lori from this song completely. But this was not successful, for McLean’s lawyers sent back a copy of an article from 1973 where Gimbel had himself told the story of Lori’s involvement.

Why would they do that?

This is Women’s History Month. I learned the other day about Rosalind Franklin, who was instrumental to the discovery of DNA. But she was shut out from receiving credit for her work by James Watson and Maurice Wilkins and the very famous Francis Crick. Or there is Jocelyn Bell Burnell who in 1943 discovered pulsars. However, the Noble Prize went to Anthony Hewish who was her supervisor at Cambridge University. There is a long, long list of women who were not given credit for their groundbreaking work in science.

Is this as egregious? I doubt it.  But I do think that this is part of a recurring theme of men overlooking the value of women and the work that we do.
​
Let me know what you think. And while you do that, I will be playing Killing Me Softly this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
 
Until next time!

Happy Puppy Day! Do you have a favorite pup in your life? (It doesn’t matter how old your dog may be, they are all puppies.) We currently have two dogs. The smaller is Rocky. He weighs about 55 pounds, and is mostly reddish-tan, with black around his eyes. No idea what breeds came into the making of Rocky, he just is. The larger of the two weighs in at about 150. Kaiser is a massive dog with a lot of Rottweiler and St. Bernard in him. They are both about seven years old, and both are still puppies.

There is a lot of music out there related to man’s best friend. Here are some notable ones:
Let’s start with an old Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) song: I Love my Dog. (I do find humor in a song about a dog being sung by someone named Cat.)

I love my dog as much as I love you
But you may fade, my dog will always come through
All he asks from me is the food to give him strength
All he ever needs is love and that he knows he'll get
So, I love my dog as much as I love you
But you may fade, my dog will always come through
All the pay I need comes a-shinin' through his eyes
I don't need no cold water to make me realize that
I love my dog as much as I love you
But you may fade, my dog will always come through
Na, na, na, na, na, na, nana
I love my dog as much as I love you
But you may fade, my dog will always come through
Na, na, na, na, na, na, nana
I love my dog, baby, I love my dog
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
I said, I love my dog, baby, I love my dog
Baby, I love my dog
 
Hmm. . . seems like it’s more of an anti-love song to someone instead of a love song to his dog.
Researching this blog, I found out that The Beatles’ song, Martha, My Dear was written about Paul McCartney’s English sheepdog.

Martha, my dear
Though I spend my days in conversation
Please, remember me
Martha, my love
Don't forget me
Martha, my dear
Hold your head up, you silly girl
Look what you've done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl
Take a good look around you
Take a good look you're bound to see
That you and me were meant to be
With each other
Silly girl
Hold your hand out, you silly girl
See what you've done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl
Martha, my dear
You have always been my inspiration
Please, be good to me
Martha, my love
Don't forget me
Martha, my dear
 
Knowing that it’s about a dog, somehow makes a great deal of sense.
Harry Nilsson gave us The Puppy Song.

Dreams are nothing more than wishes
And a wish's just a dream
You wish to come true, woah-oh
If only I could have a puppy
I'd call myself so very lucky
Just to have some company
To share a cup of tea with me
I'd take my puppy everywhere
La, la, la, la, I wouldn't care
Then we'll stay away from crowds
With signs that said "no dogs allowed"
Oh we, I know he'd never bite me
Up, la, la, la, la, la, ooh
We, I know he'd never bite me
Up, la, oh
If only I could have a friend
Who'll stick with me until the end
And walk along beside the sea
To share a bit of moon with me
I'd take my friend most everywhere
La, la, la, la, I wouldn't care
And we'll stay away from crowds
With signs that said "no friends allowed"
Oh we, we'd be so happy to be
Up, la, la, la, la, la, ooh
We, we'd be so happy to be together
But dreams are nothing more than wishes
And a wish's just a dream you wish to come true
Whoa-whoa-ooh, ah, ah, ah
Dreams are nothing more than wishes (your wish will come true)
And a wish is just a dream (your wish will come true)
You wish to come true (your wish will come true)
(Your wish will come true, your wish will come true)
Woah-woah, ooh (your wish to come true, your wish will come true)
Dreams are nothing more than wishes (your wish will come true)
And a wish is just a dream (your wish will come true)
You wish to come true
(Your wish will come true, woah-woah, ooh)
 
The Monkees give us the next dog song. Written by the prolific Boyce and Hart is the ridiculous I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog. What makes this song so much fun are the ad-libs that Mickey and Davy threw in. Apparently, this song predates The Monkees, and there is a “straight” version that was sung by Davy Jones and the rest of the cast on the sitcom The Farmer’s Daughter.
 
You know my girl just called me up
And she woke me from my sleep
You should have heard the things she said
You know she hurt my feelings deep.
 
I'm gonna buy me a dog (A dog, a dog! Why?)
'Cause I need a friend now (Say, you need all the friends you can get)
I'm gonna buy me a dog,
My girl, my girl, don't love me no how.
 
She used to bring me my newspaper
'Cause she knew where it was at
She used to keep me so contented
But I can teach a dog to do that.
 
I'm gonna buy me a dog,
'Cause I need a friend now
I'm gonna buy me a dog,
My girl, my girl, don't love me no how.
 
The great Patti Page sang the next song: How Much Is that Doggie in the Window in 1952. I remember singing this as a little girl, and then teaching it to my kids. We didn’t do all of the verses, though, just the one about not wanting the other animals. (Even though we always had at least one cat, and occasionally a few fishes.)
​
(Chorus)
How much is that doggie in the window?
The one with the waggly tail
How much is that doggie in the window?
I do hope that doggie is for sale.
 
I must take a trip to California
And leave my poor sweetheart alone
If he has a dog, he won't be lonesome
And the doggie will have a good home. (To Chorus)
 
I read in the papers, there are robbers
With flashlights that shine in the dark
My love needs a doggie to protect him
And scare them away with one bark. (To Chorus)
 
I don't want a bunny or a kitty
I don't want a parrot that talks
I don't want a bowl of little fishies
You can't take a goldfish for walks (To Chorus)
 
Patti Page in later years felt that this song made people want to buy puppy mill puppies at pet stores. She wanted people to think about shelters when they wanted a pet, so in 2007 she recorded Do You See that Doggie in the Shelter. Patti gave all the proceeds from this new version to the Humane Society of the United States.
 
And finally, there’s this song from the musical Lucky Stiff – Times Like This.
 
A friendly face, the kind of face
That melts you with a grin
The kind of eyes that welcome you
The minute you walk in
A tender glance you simply can't refuse
At times like this a girl could use
A dog.
 
He listens when you tell him things,
There's nothing you can't say
And unlike certain people you can teach him how to stay
And if the world is giving you the blues
He cheers you up by chewing up the news.
It's things like that that make you choose
A dog
 
Other people need romance, dancing, playing around
Other people need constant fun, well I'm not one
I have my feet on the ground
 
Give me a quiet night, a stack of books
A tuna melt on rye
A simple walk together
Underneath the starry sky
And suddenly the night is something rare
And all because there's someone special there.
Who's gazing at the views.
His head upon your shoes.
At times like this, I sure could use
A Dog
 
Do you have a favorite song about a dog? Or maybe a story about your favorite dog? (I have so many dog stories that it was too hard to pick only one!) Let me know in the comments below. I’ll be playing these songs this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out. And Happy Puppy Day!
 
Until next time!

I hope this post finds you all well! This Coronavirus thing has really impacted us all. Everything that I do outside the home has now been cancelled. Most of my students cannot make their lessons. I am going to try and continue writing and publishing every week, but depression is an issue for me. Stay safe, stay strong, and let's all try to look out for each other - from a distance. We now continue with this week's scheduled blog.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, a day early! I thought I’d write about that most Irish of all Irish songs, O Danny Boy. But there is a small problem with this: O Danny Boy is not Irish. Well, OK the melody is. So, let’s start there.

The tune to O Danny Boy is often called the Londonderry Air, because when it was published in an 1855 book of Irish music, the person who had submitted the melody was from Londonderry. (Londonderry is a county in Ireland, also called County Derry.) (An “air” is just another way of saying song, or melody.)

Do we know who wrote it? Nope, no idea. The melody could go all the way back to the early 1600s, when Celtic harpists traveled the countryside.

But let me tell you, words there are a-plenty for this simple little ditty. According to Wikipedia; the first lyrics that we are aware of that were set to this melody are called The Confession of Devorgilla.

Oh! Shrive me, father – haste, haste, and shrive me,
‘Ere sets yon dread and flaring sun;
Its beams of peace – nay, of sense, deprive me,
Since yet the holy work’s undone.
The sage, the wand’rer’s anguish balming,
Soothed her heart to rest once more;
And pardon’s promise torture calming,
The Pilgrim told her sorrow o’er.
 
Then 1894 gave us Katherine Tynan Hinkson’s words, entitled Irish Love Song.

Would God I were the tender apple blossom
That floats and falls from off the twisted bough
To lie and faint within your silken bosom,
Within your silken bosom as that does now.
Or would I were a little burnished apple
For you to pluck me, gliding by so cold,
While sun and shade your robe of lawn will dapple,
Your robe of lawn and your hair of spun gold.
(I have some really old music, and this is the first version I learned of the song.)

In 1910, an English lawyer named Fred Weatherly wrote a new poem that he called O Danny Boy. He liked to put his poems to already existing music and was on the look-out for a song to use. A few years later, his Irish sister-in-law sent him the music to Londonderry Air. He made a few changes to his poem to better fit the meter and sent it off to his publisher.

O Danny, boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling,
It’s you, it’s you must go and I must bide.
 
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow,
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow,
It’s I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow,
O Danny boy, O Danny oy, I love you so!
 
But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying,
If I am dead, as dead I well may be,
You’ll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
 
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be,
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!
 
Who is this mysterious Danny? No one knows. It could be a son, brother, or sweetheart. Why is he leaving? Well, the pipes are calling, so it could be war, but it also could have been to leave to come to America. One thing I can explain: And kneel and say an Ave there for me. An Ave (ah-vay) refers to an Ave Maria, or a hail Mary, one of the prayers that is said when praying the rosary.

Do you have a favorite version of the Londonderry Air? Let me know in the comments below. I’ll be playing some of my favorites this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
 
Until next time!
 

Let’s talk about I Write the Songs, as sung by the past-super-star, Barry Manilow. In Barry’s hands this song by –
Never Gonna give you up,
Never gonna let you down,
Never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry.
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell and lie and hurt you.
 
You, my friend, have been Rick Rolled. Rick Rolling is the on-line act of sending someone a link to Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song, Never Gonna Give You Up, disguised as another site, so they are surprised with the joke. It began in May 2007, when the first trailer for the video game Grand Theft Auto 4 came out. The website crashed due to the heavy traffic. A fake link sent fans to the video for Astley’s hit. Rick Rolling quickly became an internet meme.

However, that is not what caused me to write about today’s song. Today is National Panic Day. A lot of the songs that I found dealing with panic were about how it feels to panic. That wasn’t quite where I wanted to go. And then I found someone talking about this song, and how it helped to ground them when they were panicking. At first, I was surprised. How could this song help, and then I thought about that chorus again. Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down.

When we talk about panic these days, it may not be what you are used to thinking of as panic. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has this to say about a panic attack:

A panic attack is the abrupt onset of intense fear or discomfort that reaches a peak within minutes and includes at least four of the following symptoms:

• Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate
• Sweating
• Trembling or shaking
• Sensations of shortness of breath or smothering
• Feelings of choking
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Nausea or abdominal distress
• Feeling dizzy, unsteady, light-headed, or faint
• Chills or heat sensations
• Paresthesia (numbness or tingling sensations)
• Derealization (feelings of unreality) or depersonalization (being detached from oneself
• Fear of losing control or “going crazy”
• Fear of dying

 
Some people experience what is referred to as limited-symptom panic attacks, which are similar to full-blown panic attacks but consist of fewer than four symptoms.
 
When I was a teenager, I hated school. I was shy, lonely, bored, miserable. I didn’t have very many friends. I remember having panic attacks at the sheer thought of having to go into that school building. One day, Dad had driven me there, and as the jr. high school came into sight at the top of a long hill, I just knew that if I had to walk through the doors, I would die. That simple, and that horrifying. I knew that I would die. Was it rational? No. I was shaking, dizzy, cold and clammy, suddenly terribly nauseous. Dad took one look at me, and without a word turned the car around and drove me home. I’d already spent years in therapy. This just meant more time at the therapist’s office. That was a panic attack.

Do I still get them? Not so much anymore. I still suffer from depression, that’s a brain chemistry thing. I don’t like large crowds of people. That could be an age thing. Part of it is definitely a disability thing. I walk with a cane sometimes. People can be cruel. I have had kids kick my cane out from under me. When I am in a wheelchair, I am often ignored, and literally overlooked. People tend to walk right in front of you, cutting you off when you are in a wheelchair. So, I can see large crowds as dangerous. I think this is a matter of self-protection, you are allowed to see it differently.

But, back to our song. When in the throws of a panic attack, I can see how the message of having someone never give up on you could be a rock to cling onto. Even if all the lyrics don’t quite fit the message.

(Verse 1)
We’re no stranger to love
You know the rules and so do I.
A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of.
You wouldn’t get this from any other guy
 
I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling
Gotta make you understand.
 
(Chorus)
Never gonna give you up.
Never gonna let you down.
Never gonna run around and desert you.
Never gonna make you cry.
Never gonna say goodye.
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.
 
(Verse 2)
We’ve known each other for so long.
Your heart’s been aching, but
You’re too shy to say it.
Inside, we both know what’s been going on,
We know that game and we’re gonna play it.
 
And if you ask me how I’m feeling,
Don’t tell me you’re too blind to see.  (to Chorus) (Rinse and repeat)
 
Oh, and by the way, Rick Astley thinks that Rick Rolling is kind of funny and odd, mostly concerned that it doesn’t embarrass his daughter. He’s never gonna let her down.
​
Do you have a story about a panic attack that you’d be willing to share? What about a Rick Rolling tale? I’ll be playing some versions of this song, and a few others this week on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
 
Until next time!

Today is National Old Stuff Day, and tomorrow is I Want You to Be Happy Day, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to pull an old song from the last roaring Twenties: I Want to Be Happy from the musical No, No, Nanette.

I’m a very ordinary man
Trying to work out life’s happy plan
Doing unto others as I’d like to have them doing unto me.
 
When I find a very lonely soul
Soon be-kind becomes my only goal
I feel so much better when I tell them my philosophy.
 
I want to be happy,
But I won’t be happy,
Till I make you happy, too.
 
Life’s really worth living,
When we are mirth giving.
Why can’t I give some to you?
 
When skies are grey, and you say you are blue
I’ll send the sun shining through.
 
I want to be happy,
But I won’t be happy,
Till I make you happy, too.
 
The show is called frothy, and sounds pretty ridiculous, no surprise given how Broadway musicals were in 1924; lots of songs threaded together with little to no plot. Two of the songs were considered hits: I Want to Be Happy, and Tea for Two.

The music was written by Vincent Youmans, who had a very short career, dying at the age of 47 from tuberculosis in 1946. He only published 100 songs. But of those 100, 18 are considered standards, putting him at a very high percentage of hits.

His lyricist for this show, Irving Caesar, became one of the founding members of the Songwriters Guild of America. He lived to the ripe old age of 101! One of his hits from 1929, an adaptation of the Austrian tango, Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo, became a hit again in 1985 for David Lee Roth as I’m Just a Gigolo.
​
Are you feeling nostalgic today? How’s your happiness-factor? Let me know in the comments below. I’ll be posting various versions of I Want to Be Happy and maybe a few other Vincent Youmans’s songs on my Minnich Music FaceBook page this week, so be sure to check them out.
 
Until next time!