'42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933

Subject: '42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 03:11 PM

All these interesting Mudcat discussions about the true nature of folk music have sent me inexorably back to Hollywood, Busby Berkeley, deco, kitsch - and some great tunes of the 1930s.

So, this is the 1933 definition of music: great melody, great chords, nice bass runs in Harry Warren's classic "42nd Street".

Will Fly - "42nd street"

Folk music it wasn't... but it was certainly the music of the people.

Subject: RE: '42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 05:19 PM

Music from the film "42nd Street" (1933) – info from IMDb.com:

Songs with words by Al Dubin, music by Harry Warren:
FORTY-SECOND STREET, sung and danced by Ruby Keeler; also sung (in a different scene, I presume) by Dick Powell and chorus girls.
YOU'RE GETTING TO BE A HABIT WITH ME, sung by Bebe Daniels with Harry Akst at the piano
IT MUST BE JUNE, sung by Bebe Daniels, Dick Powell, and chorus girls
SHUFFLE OFF TO BUFFALO, sung and Danced by Ruby Keeler and Clarence Nordstrom; also sung by Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel and chorus
YOUNG AND HEALTHY, sung by Dick Powell and chorus girls

Instrumentals (no lyrics) with music by Harry Warren:
LOVE THEME, instrumental heard in apartment scene with Pat Denning and Peggy Sawyer; also heard after Peggy's practice for the lead in the show, when Billy Lawler joins her
PRETTY LADY, fast dance number danced by chorus girls throughout picture

Subject: RE: '42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933
From: BTNG
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 05:47 PM

Actually I was watching Passport To Pimlico (1949) one of the great Ealing Comedies

Subject: Lyr Add: FORTY-SECOND STREET (Dubin/Warren)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 06:10 PM

These lyrics are mostly taken from Reading Lyrics by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball (New York: Pantheon Books, 2000), page 129—but I also listened to an album called "Hollywood Musicals," which, I believe, has the actual soundtrack from the film, and added some words:


FORTY-SECOND STREET
Words by Al Dubin, music by Harry Warren

In the heart of little old New York,
You'll find a thoroughfare.
It's the part of little old New York
That runs into Times Square,
A crazy quilt
That "Wall Street Jack" built.
If you've got a little time to spare,
I'd like to take you there.

Come and meet
Those dancing feet
On the avenue
I'm takin' you to:
Forty-Second Street.
Hear the beat
Of dancing feet.
It's the song I love
The melody of:
Forty-Second Street.

Little nifties from the Fifties,
Innocent and sweet;
Sexy ladies from the Eighties
Who are indiscreet.

Oh, they're side by side,
They're glorified,
Where the underworld can meet the elite:
Forty-Second Street.

[Instrumental break with tap-dancing]

The big parade goes on for years
It's the rhapsody of laughter and tears:
Naughty, bawdy,
Gawdy, sporty,
Forty-Second Street.

Subject: RE: '42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 06:22 PM

Was it Will? The people who could afford to go to the theatre, and buy phonographs and phonograms and aspire - and?

Subject: RE: '42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933
From: BTNG
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 06:48 PM

films like 42nd Street allowed the folk to escape for a short period of time,, from the daily and in many cases dull routine, they could imagine they were up there on the screen dancing and singing, they could become the stars of the screen, who knew then that 42nd Street would become a classic of its kind listed #13 by the AFI in their list of all time great screen musical

Subject: RE: '42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 11:17 AM

Thanks, Will. I enjoyed it.

Steve Goodman also recorded a song about 42nd Street. He may have written it himself.. The words, however, are not politically correct.

Subject: RE: '42nd Street'. 1954? - nah... 1933
From: BTNG
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 11:39 AM

The Song (and yes it's written by Steve Goodman) is called Men Who Love Women Who Love Men
and the lyrics.....?

Went out on 42nd street
That's where the elite all retreat to greet
You can see them coming from everywhere
Every kind of man and woman you will find there

There are men who love women who love men
There are women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can't pretend
They are men who love women who love men

Now there are those who make love for pay
And there are those who make love anyway
Over in the bar with a bottle of scotch
There are those who would rather just watch

All the men who love women who love men
And the women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can't pretend
They are men who love women who love men

There are those who make love to machines
That don't talk back and are easy to clean
And there are those who will tell you out loud
That they can only make love in a crowd

A crowd of men who love women who love men
And women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can't pretend
They are men who love women who love men

In the pursuit of truth and joy
Boys will be girls and girls will be boys
But sometimes it's hard to know what to do
When you don't know who you're talking to

'cause there are men who love women who love men
There are women who love women every now and then
There are men who love men because they can't pretend
They are men who love women who love men.