I'm loving those songs, Elmore, the more and more I listen to them. And there is plenty of history of American music to be gleaned from them. No, they weren't Jerry Herman-style ear-grabbers from first hearing, but doesn't that make them greater in that you discover beauties every time you're drawn back to them?
I'm prejudiced but I think many of the songs are glorious. There are some dogs, but I think there are few of those. Some of the lieder are as good as songs by Brahms, Schumann, and others, and some of the songs, like "Heart O'Mine" andthe unpublished "O My Love's Like A Red Red Rose," are so moving they make me weep. Some of the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES numbers are weak, but I love "Romping Redheads," "Humpty Dumpty," and other sngs from THE CENTURY GIRL. Steve Suskin writes like a Broadway jerk who can only appreciate a song if it's in English and has a kick line and Traubner's as bad a critic (none of the Irish songs, he thinks, are as good as those from EILEEN). Well, listen again, ass.
He likes Ron Raines and Rebecca Luker, the only names he mentions. How can you not like Margaret Jane Wray or Marnie Breckenridge's beautiful "Im Mondeslicht"? I know thesinging varies and I'm happy that some singers in poor voice do less than others. I could deal with a review that was rational and critical of the good and the bad vocally, but this review is hogwash and dismissive because he's too musically uninformed to discuss it intelligently, just as he has oanned other composers in the past. I suspected he would be the reviewer and I blame the idiot who assigned it to him, because he's the Naughty Operetta expert. This set deserved a review from someone with more knowledge of song composition.
