{"id":1597,"date":"2018-11-22T14:31:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T21:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2019-03-25T09:40:36","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T16:40:36","slug":"newman-levy-barrister-bard-by-stewart-hendrickson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/2018\/11\/22\/newman-levy-barrister-bard-by-stewart-hendrickson\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWMAN LEVY \u2013 BARRISTER BARD, by Stewart Hendrickson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Newman Levy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was a student at Pomona College (Claremont, CA) in the late 1950s, folk music was just appearing on the scene. A classmate of mine was a little unusual since he was one of the few students who had a beard, sang folk songs and played guitar. One of the songs he sang was Thais<\/a><\/em>, a five-minute humorous synopsis of the opera with witty verses and clever rhymes. With thirteen verses, it is an epic poem set\u00a0 to music.<\/p>\n

THAIS<\/strong><\/p>\n

One time in Alexandria,<\/em>
\nin wicked Alexandria,<\/em>
\nWhere nights were wild with revelry,<\/em>
\nand life was but a game.<\/em>
\nThere lived, so the report is,<\/em>
\nan adventuress and courtesan,<\/em>
\nThe pride of Alexandria,<\/em>
\nand Thais was her name.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

more verses and tune here<\/a><\/p>\n

I learned this song from Song Fest<\/em><\/a>, \u201cthe old yellow songbook,\u201d which was a popular source of folk songs for group singing \u2013 sort of like Rise Up Singing<\/em> is today. My two surviving copies are well worn with the covers mostly gone. Lyrics and music were given for each song, but never the source or author.<\/p>\n

Some years ago while driving through Death Valley (an appropriate locale for this song), I thought of this song, which I hadn\u2019t sung in many years. Much to my astonishment, I knew all the words even though I had never attempted to memorize it \u2013 I always sang it from the book. All I had to do was to put the lines in the right order and I had the whole song, all thirteen verses!<\/p>\n

When I sang this song again in public, someone asked me who wrote it. I hadn\u2019t the faintest idea. With my curiosity piqued, I did a little research. The author turned out to be Newman Levy.<\/p>\n

Newman Levy (1888\u20131966) was\u00a0 an interesting man who lived a double life. He was an Assistant District Attorney of New York City, a trial lawyer, and a writer of light verse who loved opera and theater. His father, a highly successful lawyer, insisted that his son become a lawyer, but Newman really wanted to become a writer, lyricist, and a musician like his cousin Richard Rogers. In fact he studied music composition with Deems Taylor and composed musicals as a college undergraduate before going to law school.<\/p>\n

In the course of a successful law career, he also became a writer of light verse for the New Yorker<\/em>, the Saturday Evening Post<\/em> and other popular magazines of the early 20th century. He published several books of light verse including\u00a0 Opera Guyed<\/em>, Theatre Guyed<\/em>, Saturday to Monday<\/em>, Gay But Wistful<\/em>, and in 1958, an autobiography, My Double Life \u2013 Adventures in Law & Letters<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Quoting from My Double Life<\/em>: “I awoke one morning with four lines of verse jingling in my head:<\/p>\n

Jack Spink was fond of drink,<\/em>
\nHis wife, she liked to eat. <\/em>
\nFor eats is eats and wets is wets, <\/em>
\nAnd never the twain shall meet.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was not precisely KubIa Khan<\/em>, which I believe was composed under somewhat similar circumstances, but Bob Sherwood at Life paid me five dollars for it. This experience opened up new and alluring possibilities. If I could train my subconscious to work while I slept I could practice law in the daytime and turn out deathless literature at night -a most enchanting prospect.”<\/p>\n

Poets will be happy to know from his verse that it is possible to rhyme “quite merry at” with “proletariat,” and “career” with “brassiere.”<\/p>\n

Thais<\/em> was one of the epic poems in Opera Guyed<\/em>, his best-known book. This book is a delightful collection of humorous poems describing the stories of many operas in terms that the average guy could understand (“Guyed”<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Another song came from his poem about the opera Carmen<\/em> set to the tune of the song El Paso<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CARMEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0In Spain, where the courtly Castilian hidalgo
\nTwangs lightly each night his romantic guitar,
\nWhere the castanets clink on the gay piazetta
\nAnd strains of fandangoes are heard from afar;
\nThere lived, I am told, a bold hussy named Carmen
\nA pampered young vamp full of devil and guile.
\nCigarette and cigar men were smitten with Carmen;
\nFrom near and from far men were caught with her smile.<\/em><\/p>\n

more verses and tune\u00a0 here<\/a><\/p>\n

Theater Guyed<\/em> is a similar collection of poems about famous plays, including Oedipus Rex<\/em>,<\/p>\n

OEDIPUS REX<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0List to the story of Oedipus Rex,
\nPoor little, misunderstood little Oedipus,
\nVictim of sad maladjustment of sex,
\nPoor little Oedipus Rex.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Oedipus was but a babe,
\n(So runs the tale historical),
\nHis doting dad betook the lad
\n(A custom that those ancients had)
\nTo interview the oracle.<\/em><\/p>\n

more verses and tune here<\/a><\/p>\n

Rain<\/em>, the story by W. Somerset Maugham of Sadie Thompson and the missionary, Reverend Davidson,<\/p>\n

RAIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0On the isle of Pago Pago, <\/em>
\nland of palm trees, rice and sago, <\/em>
\nWhere the Chinaman and Dago <\/em>
\ndwell with natives dusky hued, <\/em>
\nLived a dissolute and shady, <\/em>
\nbold adventuress named Sadie, <\/em>
\nSadie Thompson was the lady, <\/em>
\nand the life she lived was lewd.<\/em><\/p>\n

more verses and tune here<\/a><\/p>\n

and The Three Sisters Karamazov<\/em>.<\/p>\n

THE THREE CHERRY SISTERS KARAMAZOV<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0His name was Boris Makaloff <\/em>
\nAlexis Gregor Mackaloff, <\/em>
\nHis neighbors called him Grisha <\/em>
\nIn their quaintly Russian style. <\/em>
\nHis life was sad but lecherous <\/em>
\nMid landscape bleak and treacherous <\/em>
\nWhere Nevsky Prospekt pleases <\/em>
\nAnd only man is vile.<\/em><\/p>\n

more verses and tune here<\/a><\/p>\n

If you want the full text of these and other songs from his poems, and the music that I have set them to, you can look here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Newman is said to have replied to George Gershwin’s question “I wonder if my music will be played a hundred\u00a0 years from now?” with the answer, “Yes, if you’re around to play it!” Quite a wit, he deserves to be better known to a later generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a student at Pomona College (Claremont, CA) in the late 1950s, folk music was just appearing on the scene. A classmate of mine was a little unusual since he was one of the few students who had a beard, sang folk songs and played guitar. One of the songs he sang was … Continue reading “NEWMAN LEVY \u2013 BARRISTER BARD, by Stewart Hendrickson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1894,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions\/1894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pnwfolklore.org\/wp-nwhoot\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}