This covers some ground I blogged about a couple of years ago here.  When I was younger I felt a near-compulsion to list things – favorite movies, 10 best actresses etc.  So of course I would have come up with something for a favorite song.

          Now I don’t know how to go about it.  I mean, I’m not sure what my favorite Beatles’ song is though I’d usually give the safe answer of A Day in the Life.  Same with Dylan.  I’ll go with A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall, though it could just as easily be It’s Alright Ma, Tangled Up in Blue or Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.  There’s also the issue of the best performance of a song versus the song itself.

          My earlier post was in part prompted by an excellent one from Luminous Muse that I linked to.  He explained why he considered Somewhere Over the Rainbow to be the best song of the 20^th century.

          For comparison’s sake, let’s use A Day In The Life as an example.  It would be on my short list of 20th century faves.  But it’s hard to imagine another version being anywhere near as good unless it copied the Beatles’.  Picture Michael Bolton giving it the lounge treatment.  Yecchh.  So that should count against it, right?

          Compare ADITL to Summertime.  The latter has many great interpretations including those of Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Joplin and Billy Stewart.  All are quite distinctive yet highly enjoyable.  So it’s got versatility over ADITL.

          But is that enough?  What if I like ADITL better than any version of Summertime?  Even if I like the 20th best version of Summertime way better than the second best of ADITL, should quantity overwhelm quality?  And if a song that travels poorly like ADITL is capable of being expressed by The Beatles (with lots of help from George Martin) as it was on Sgt. Pepper’s, isn’t that still to the song’s credit?  Just as it’s tough to make a fine wine from the Pinot Noir grape, don’t we salute Burgundy when it turns out a vintage Volnay?  And if you push the “song itself” concept far enough, don’t you come up with something like a Platonic version of the piece?  What would that be?  Isn’t that meaningless unless it’s considered as a particular version or set of versions?

          In focusing on the song itself, its versatility is a marker of some musical quality.  One notices the versatility when it’s been recorded by different artists in different arrangements.  And presumably musicians wouldn’t continue returning to a particular work unless they reckoned it had something good to offer.  It’s also perhaps an indicator of a song’s longevity – one that generations yet to come will enjoy.

          Thus far it seems likely that over the next century, Summertime will be recorded and performed more than ADITL.  But so long as I prefer that one version of the latter to any of the myriad versions of the former, it’s hard to accept that Summertime is the “better” song.  Versatile - certainly.  Conducive to reinterpretation – demonstrably.  Preferred as recording or performance material by musicians – You betcha.  But better?

          Given that music is an art and not a science, deciding what is better inevitably involves subjectivity.  But it’s not as simple (e.g. you like Scrambled Eggs, I like Bread and Butter; we agree to disagree) as you might think.  Look again at LuminousMuse’s explanation of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Discussion can lead to re-evaluation.

          But even after plenty of discussion, reconsideration and re-evaluation, you can’t avoid subjectivity.  I’m not convinced that SOTR is the greatest of the 20th century.  Others of its age that I’d rate with it include Brother Can You Spare a Dime, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Smile, Night and Day, As Time Goes By and yes, Summertime.  Beats me how to rank them.

          Cross-genre comparisons further muddy the waters.  I love Brasilian music and would probably go with Aguas do Marco as my fave.  But I don’t know how to compare it to a rocker like Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.  Toss in Irish music (The Foggy Dew or the Star of the County Down) and artists as diverse as Piaf, Mercedes Sosa and Fats Waller and narrowing it to a single favorite is just too arbitrary.

          For this evening’s exercise I’ll go with (probably) my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan song.  They don’t have titles so people just refer to them by their first line.  This one is I Am So Proud from The Mikado.  It needs a short set-up though.

          The Mikado has prohibited leering, winking and flirting and made them capital offenses.  The town of Titipu ignores the law and after some time it comes to the Mikado’s attention.  He orders them to enforce it.  They respond by cleverly appointing Koko, who has been arresting for leering, winking and flirting, as the Titipu’s Lord High Executioner.  This way he won’t be able to execute anyone till he cuts his own head off first.  That ruse works for a while but the Mikado orders them to execute someone and soon.

          In this song, the three town grandees, Koko, Pooh-Bah and Pish-Tush are considering who should be executed, with Koko of course being the leading candidate.

Pooh-Bah:
I am so proud,
If I allowed
My family pride
To be my guide,
I'd volunteer
To quit this sphere
Instead of you
In a minute or two,
But family pride
Must be denied,
And set aside,
And mortified,
And mortified.

Ko-Ko:
My brain it teems
With endless schemes
Both good and new
For Titipu,
For Titipu;
But if I flit,
The benefit
That I'd diffuse
The town would lose!
Now every man
To aid his clan
Should plot and plan
As best he can.

Pish-Tush:
I heard one day
A gentleman say
That criminals who
Are cut in two
Can hardly feel
The fatal steel,
And so are slain
Are slain without much pain.
If this is true,
It's jolly for you;
Your courage screw
To bid us adieu.

Then all three repeat their verses in unison

Ko-Ko:
And so,
Although
I'm ready to go,
Yet recollect
'Twere disrespect
Did I neglect
To thus effect
This aim direct,
So I object —

Pooh-Bah:
And so,
Although
I wish to go,
And greatly pine
To brightly shine,
And take the line
Of a hero fine,
With grief condign
I must decline.

Pish-Tush:
And go
And show
Both friend and foe
How much you dare.
I'm quite aware
It's your affair.
Yet I declare
I'd take your share,
But I don't much care.


Ko-Ko:
So I object —

Pooh-Bah:
I must decline —
I must decline —

All Three:
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

A dull, dark dock, a life-long lock,
A short, sharp shock, a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison,
And awaiting the sensation
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

          Note how in the last section, Gilbert takes the closing noun phrase from each of the first eight lines, strings them together in two lines, and wraps up by taking the first section of the same eight lines, stringing them together in the final three, and it’s all coherent.  Brilliant!