Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

• Leviticus 19:15

And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you.

• 1 Samuel 2:4

Then you will understand what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.

• Proverbs 2:9-11

I have been writing about “Another Old Song” in an unscheduled series, whenever I feel like adding another song.  Some of you may wonder where I get the information.  I rarely watch television, but I often use the Music Choice channels to have some soothing music to calm my nerves or escape the mental gymnastics of writing nearly 14 posts each week, some requiring a considerable amount of research.

My channel of choice is Singers and Swing.  This used to be two channels, and they have now combined them.  During the day, I know when the swing bands of the 1930s through 1950s are highlighted, and when the singers are highlighted.

I have done some research, some for pleasure and some to add factual notes to the Another Old Song series.  In the early 1940s, while World War II was raging, the musicians union was on strike.  Bands shuffled around.  With rationing due to the war efforts, travel was limited.  And the focus became the singers rather than the band.  One person could travel easier than an entire band and get local musicians, or a band based in the next city.  Oddly, you might have the same combination.  You had before Benny Goodman with “Liltin’” Martha Tilton.  But then you have Martha Tilton with Benny Goodman’s band in support.  And Music Choice identifies the same recording differently when the band is the focus and when the singer is the focus.

The way Music Choice displays the screen while the music is playing is what intrigues me and even bothers me a bit.  They usually show a photograph of the artist, band leader or singer or the band in some rare cases.  This photo is refreshed with a new one every so many seconds, but sometimes they never change the photo.  Every other photo change usually is accompanied by a “Did you know” window in a corner of the screen about the artist that is performing.  Sometimes, they flip the image horizontally, probably to get away from copyright legalities.  In other words, Billie Holiday wore a gardenia on the left side in her hair.  She was working on her hair with a hot iron and singed it.  She put the gardenia there to cover her mistake and the audience loved it, so the gardenia became her signature.  But if this photo was horizontally flipped, it would still look like Billie Holiday, but the gardenia would be on the right side.  Note: Because people know which side, they’ve never flipped a Billie Holiday photo.  But record covers are often flipped, with the writing on the cover removed.

But there are odd differences in the way various artists are portrayed in the images that are shown.

Age in the Photos

Mostly I have noticed the differences in women singers, but a striking male difference is that Frank Sinatra is shown as a young man.  The age varies over maybe twenty years at the start of his career.  No photos from the second half of his career.  On the other hand, Tony Bennett is only shown in the last twenty years of his career.  Jack Jones, however, has photos from the beginning to the end of his career, and Vic Damone, about the same.

As for band leaders, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Count Basie are portrayed as older, while Cab Calloway and Artie Shaw are mostly young fellows.  There are several band leaders that only have one photo, but Charlie Barnet has photos throughout his career.

But for the women, why are Broadway stars, Barbara Cook and Marilyn Maye only seen as elderly singers, while Judy Garland is shown only early in her adult years, at least nothing near the end.  Caterina Valente is shown in one photo, aging, salt and pepper hair with glasses.  But those who saw her perform saw something totally different in her prime.  Blossom Dearie is only shown in one photo near the end of her career.

Those ladies with long careers like Peggy Lee and Diahann Carroll are treated differently.  Peggy Lee has images from the first half of her career, but you get to see Diahann Carroll age before your eyes.  Kay Starr has mostly young images, but then one that is much older.  Rosemary Clooney is portrayed as being very young.

It is strange when you see a series of photos, thinking this woman to be in her twenties or thirties and you go online and see a photo of her in her eighties.  And she is still recording music.

And then there are those singers and band leaders who have ample photos available online, but they use images of musical instruments instead.

Entertainment over Education

Their “Did you know” windows never talk about when they died or how they died.  They never talk about drug addiction or arrests.  They keep everything positive.

There are many of the performers who died from suicide.  That news would detract from the entertainment.  Drug overdoses would be another detraction from the entertainment.

But band leaders with many wives, consecutively, not all at once… That is fair game.  Harry James had three, and one was Betty Grable.  Artie Shaw had eight, and two were Ava Gardner and Lana Turner.  Charlie Barnet had eleven wives.

Musical Lyrics Insensitivity

They play long playing (LP) albums, switching from one performer to the next and then maybe an hour later take the next tune in sequence.  At least it seems that way.

But they do not seem to screen their play list.  You can have the same song sung by two different people within the same hour.

But they do not consider the untold history, at least on their channels.

Susannah McCorkle died of suicide when she was 55 years old.  The night before writing this, she was on singing “For All We Know.”  There is a line in the song that talks about “Tomorrow may never come, for all we know.”  The meaning of the lyrics become haunting.  The song was talking about love that will not die, and the young participants should get married and start their lives together.  There is no use in asking about tomorrow.  Let’s love each other today.  But then, knowing what happened in her life makes that song a bit creepy at best.  It seems inappropriate.

Steve Lawrence was married to Edie Gorme for decades.  They were the power couple in my youth.  They showed the world that they could be celebrities who both had busy schedules, and they could make it work.  Edie Gorme died before her husband did.  Steve Lawrence died from complications associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.  The other day, I began to cry when I heard the channel play Steve Lawrence singing “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”  The song talks about all the silly things that the spouse would do, some were odd habits and others were done to spice up the relationship.  A lovely song, but… “They” cannot take that away, but the disease can and did.

Conclusions

Maybe I have few conclusions here.  There is one thing that does not change.  We keep getting older until that point when we do not, for we go to our heavenly reward or to our judgment.  Entertainment might show eternal youth, but why show some as eternally old?  Entertainment is just that, something that entertains.  But it is a business that chews performers up and spits them out.  There are few that have a long lasting career where they are always in the spotlight.  There are many singers who have sung about perfect love and then not finding it, they took their own lives.

The fame does not last.  The love from the fans does not sustain.  But God’s love lasts forever if you choose to take it.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.