The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #100387   Message #4051286
Posted By: GUEST
08-May-20 - 03:21 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Younger Generation (Ira Gershwin)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Younger Generation (Ira Gershwin)
"The North Star" is being broadcast on the MUBI channel now (mid-May 2020) and is, to say the least, unusual. The beginning reminded me of the "The Wizard of Oz" Munchkin City scenes. When the kids skipping down the Yellow Brick Road to Kiev break into "If I eat too much jam, mother look how young I am" I was both embarrassed and delighted, as I'd heard the song from my younger sister (mid-1960s NYC public schools), and never again. I don't think I lasted to the battle scenes at the very end of the movie, but the Russian folk dances didn't sound any more Russian than this song, which was American enough to be sung in schools and camps (but socialist enough to have been embraced by Peter Seeger).