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On Musicals

One of my all time favorite story songs is: "I Had Myself a True Love," by Johnny Mercer. Mercer ranks among the great American songwriters. In "I Had Myself a True Love," the speaker, who has lost her man to a gal in "that damn old saloon," tells us a bit about coping with despair.

https://www.google.com/search?q=audra+mcdonald+i+had+myself&oq=audra+mcdonald+i+had+myself&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.2947j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The speaker informs us, casually, that this guy was a looker, "something to see." The speaker spends her days plotting ways in which she might get this guy back. Meanwhile, cruel tongues wag; everyone in town indulges in spiteful gossip about the speaker's sorrow; "the Lord knows I done heard those backyard whispers goin' round the neighborhood."

The song--which started with a reference to "the first thing in the morning"--builds to a climactic dinner scenario. "In the evening, by the doorway, while I stand there and wait for his coming....with the house swept....and the clothes hung....and the pot on the stove there a-humming....Where is he? While I watch the rising moon? With that gal? In that damn old saloon?"

I love this climax so much. I love the parallel structure: "house swept, clothes hung, pot on the stove a-humming." I love that the speaker seems to delay the big punchline; she seems not to want to envision the gal in the saloon, so she gives us prelude after prelude: "in the evening," "by the doorway," "while I stand there," "while I watch the rising moon."

A gift of loss is new self-knowledge. The speaker knows she wasn't adequately watching the gal who had designs on her man. "There may be a lot of things I miss," the speaker admits, with hard-won clarity. "A lot of things I don't know. But I do know this: Now I ain't got no love. And once upon a time I had a true love."

A story with a start and an end, with details, with understated emotion, and with a range of vocabulary appropriate to the character who is singing. Obsessed. I recommend Audra McDonald's version.

Lastly, the books on my mind right now:

"The Juniper Tree" (Comyns)
"Mitz" (Nunez)
"A Dedicated Man and Other Stories" (Taylor)
"A Fairly Good Time" (Gallant)
"The Sun King" (Mitford)
"Beverly, Right Here" (DiCamillo)

Happy Reading--and Listening!
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