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Subject:
From:
Donald Clarke <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Moderated Classical Music List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:33:50 -0700
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Bert Bailey wrote:

> Speaking of Irving Berlin, I gather that Winston Churchill once had his
> secretary invite him to Downing Street for dinner, but that every attempt
> at conversation, which the PM steadily steered toward war issues, led
> to perplexed or just trite responses.  ...  In the end it
> turned out that the songster had been invited by mistake, as Churchill
> had confused him with Isaiah Berlin, the philosopher.

That's evidently a true story about Churchill; I've heard it before.

Berlin also said that 'popular music is popular because a lot of people
like it.' He lived a very long time, but I don't know what he thought
of an era when there is little live music on the radio, and no more disc
jockeys, who made a living by playing records that they liked and then
finding an audience, whereas everything we hear on the radio today comes
from a playlist.  What kind of popularity is it that is generated by
people who never hear anything except what some tone-deaf executive wants
to sell?  Berlin didn't like jazz bands playing his music ("Blue Skies",
"Marie", many more) but he took the money.

I admire Jerome Kern's attitude, which carried some modesty. He didn't
want "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" heard until the show containing it opened
because he was afraid it was too complicated and the public wouldn't
like it.  He must have been pleasantly surprised when there were several
hit recordings of it in 1934.

Donald Clarke

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