The 5 Worst Songs to Win An Oscar
* White Christmas: Sorry; as an Orthodox Jew, I can't help shouting at the speakers whenever this song comes on: Really, Irving? "Just like the ones you used to know" where, exactly? Back in the shtetl?
Back to work now...
And you don't think Irving was considering the background of the singer/character who would be singing that song?
Does Sondheim know from meat pies? Or giants in the sky?
Did Jerry Herman really need a little Christmas? Or have personal knowledge of the sort of Garbage of the very rich in his "Dear World" lyrics?
Garbage
Pâté de foie gras,
Thursday's gardenias, ribbons and orange rinds.
A volume of Chaucer bound in Morocco,
Lilies and coffee grinds.
The pit of a peach, the stem of a cherry floating in pink champagne.
There was a time when garbage was a pleasure,
When you found the sound of good and plenty gurgling in your drain.
The world was all ginger and lime.
The world was the rustle of silk, purple and puce, crystal and lace,
Fresh orange juice, ginger and lime.
The shell of a clam, the claw of a lobster.
Hairpins and choc'late mousse.
A page of Othello, gilt at the edges.
Daisies and Charlotte Russe.
A rose and a fan, a piece of pimento floating in turquoise ink.
There was a time when garbage was a pleasure,
When you found the joy of gracious living underneath your sink.
The world was all ginger and lime.
The world was the rustle of silk, purple and puce, crystal and lace,
Fresh orange juice, ginger and lime.What most songwriters of the past had in common was an ability to channel their creativity by tapping into the mainstream. It didn't matter what one's personal history -- or more to the point, one's ancestors' history -- might have been. It was the ability to communicate ideas with love, compasison, wistfulness, what have you.
I deem "White Christmas" as one of the great treasures of American songwriting. Sorry it's such a pill for you. But suggesting that it's somehow phony because Berlin never experienced such things back on the
shtetl is really a bit much. He was 5 years old when his family left Belarus and moved to New York.
Though Christmas was not part of his personal culture, he was exposed to it through all his formative years. And I'm quite satisfied that the sentiments of the song are quite genuine.
