I think that the lyrics and the music make Summertime one of the most beautiful songs I know. I love the poetry in the line..."Summertime and the living is easy"...do you know how many descriptive pages of what summertime is like would have to be written to replace that simple phrase?

Dubose Heyward was not only a writer-poet, but was a social activist. He also wrote the lyrics to Elmer Rice's Street Scene,(Kurt Weil wrote the music)which was the musical predecessor to West Side Story I love Summertime when it is sung by a soprano. I think it is desecration to meddle with the these lyrics.

Paris