In light of the forthcoming Salinger documentary (something I dislike very much and would like to go away immediately), this week's Hit of the Week is Freddie Rich's Radio Orchestra playing Call Me Darling and Comin' Thro' the Rye. This comes from Holden Caulfield's misreading of the Robert Burns' poem Comin' Thro' the Rye. He thinks the lines are: "If a body catch a body", but Robert Burns' wrote "If a body meet a body".
--
O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry:
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Comin thro' the rye, poor body,
Comin thro' the rye,
She draigl't a' her petticoatie,
Comin thro' the rye!
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warl' ken?
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the grain;
Gin a body kiss a body,
The thing's a body's ain.
--
This post in that blog started me thinking about music, in general. I know that a lot of people don't find this type of music interesting or entertaining in any sense, but I am not entirely sure why. What is it about older jazz or classical music that doesn't captivate my generation? I think that the melodies are incredibly pretty and the sentiment (though they are near nauseating sentimentality) aren't insincere.
So, imagine this: you're sitting there with your headphones on and you're listening to this old, dead man sing about the gut-wrenching aspect of love (I mean, is it inconceivable to deny this as truth, despite its cliché?) backed by an orchestral wall of sound. What isn't there to like?
