Highbrow collection of the best lyrics. Creme de la creme! My 3rd copy.

This is an excellent compilation, as every other reviewer has said (and with more eloquence than I can muster). Yet, I came to the book, apparently, with an entirely different set of expectations--reading this book, you'd think the 50s and 60s and even early 70s didn't happen. Bob Dylan, not included. The Doors, not included. Joni Mitchell, not included. Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon, Bob Marley ... The Beatles?? Not included. And I'm only scratching the surface. The list of omissions begins here and goes on and on--if, that is, you think these musicians are great lyricists/songwriters (and I do). Admittedly: this should come as little surprise. The introduction states that in the process of editing, "A more painful decision was to limit the field to the song as we know it from shows, movies, and pre-rock pop. Partly this was a matter of logistics: No single volume could stretch to include folk, country, blues, and rock. And though a collection of lyrics that excludes, say, Bob Dylan or Hank Williams is obviously one that is far from complete, their stories are not the stories we can tell here (or are equipped to tell)." Fair enough. But, given the room these editors give to some more obscure songs and songwriters, it's clear that a single volume could successfully stretch to include other genres. That single volume would be outsized, but it would be invaluable.

This book was recommended by my sister. Anyone who loves singing along whilst listening to music will love this book - I certainly do. I ordered a copy for a friend who is now enjoying it and have recommended it to a number of people. I particularly like the fact that verses as well as the refrain are included although I am afraid I don't always know the tune. It is also a book which will appeal to people who like poetry as some of the lyrics are absolutely beautiful in their own right. Add the music and you have a concert right there in your head.

I've conquered music reviews & the occasional movie one, but I had yet to try my hand at a book review. However, with this book, I just had to write about it & alert people to this great collection of some of the greatest words ever put to music in history. Some may wonder why certain songs from a certain lyricist are the only ones represented, but I imagine the lyrics that have best stood the test of time or are truly representative of the greatest of the person's repertoire are what's included. For a complete collection of lyrics, most likely a composer will have something of the sort published somewhere, but READING LYRICS is an excellent taster for those wanting to dive in.

Most music lovers of my generation like to listen to music where lyrics take second place to rhythm or melody, with the volume of both enough to render such good words useless. READING LYRICS looks at the first 3 quarters of the last century, perhaps the stretch of time when you could still hear what was being sung & eventually get the lyrics etched into your brain enough to repeat them at will. Naturally, those songs from the annals of musical theatre take up a fair share of the book, but that after all was its golden age until maybe the second half of the 1900s, when popular music truly became "popular" & theatre became more of a higher art. Both genres are represented on READING LYRICS (although this review is far from comprehensive what with the hundreds of lyricists discussed in here).

Even the most famous & worthy of household name status of songwriters get an inventory in READING LYRICS. True superstars of songwriting like Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin & Cole Porter are represented in READING LYRICS, although I imagine finding which songs to use was quite the struggle with all of their extensive outputs. However, all three helped expand the vocabulary of popular songwriting away from simple rhymes like "moon" with "June".

Gershwin couldn't be accused of following such methods, for time-honored classics like "But Not For Me", "Embraceable You", "Love Is Here To Stay" & "Someone To Watch Over Me" managed to be intelligent yet accessible at the same time. And that's just Ira's work with his brother George! Even after George's death, Ira kept on working with other collaborators, creating classics like "The Saga Of Jenny" (with Kurt Weill) & "I Can't Get Started" (with Vernon Duke).

Berlin was certainly more of a "people's songwriter" with lyrics that were easy to sing & remember, but by no means simplistic. Out of the thousands of songs he penned (both music & lyrics), "Supper Time" is perhaps the one to truly call Berlin's best, with its heartwrenching tale of prejudice against African-Americans written at a time when such racism was still a fact of life. In fact, Ethel Waters, who popularized the song, claimed it represented the Black experience better than any other song she sang. He may have also wrote the patriotic "God Bless America" (quite the statement from a Russian-born immigrant), but I think he never played into the hands of any specific politics & for that Berlin should be commended.

However, maybe THE classiest lyricist of all was (a Hoosier no less) Cole Porter, who, like Berlin, wrote both music & lyrics, which was no easy feat in that time. Of course, Porter was known for his extensive mastery of the English language in his music, with more internal rhymes than you can shake a stick at, thus making his songs both a challenge to sing & still contemporary even today. A great deal of Porter's songs rode on acerbic wit (like Stephen Sondheim's music of today), with a few notable examples like "It's De-Lovely" (to sing all of it, verses & refrains, would take all day), "Let's Do It" (which had "Let's Fall In Love" added to it so radio could play it), "Miss Otis Regrets" & "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" (its masochistic lyric is still a scorcher even now). But at the same time, Porter could be heartfelt when he wanted to, as proven by "True Love", "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To", "Just One Of Those Things" & even "Love For Sale" (its bouts with censorship are legendary). Cole Porter's run-ins with the censors would fill a book in itself, but let's just say that in this day & age of outright profanities being used, Porter's way with words still retains its power to shock & amuse.

That's not even the half of what READING LYRICS does to recount the greatest of American popular songwriting. But because of space restrictions, I just thought I'd point out some of my personal favorites. Nevertheless, READING LYRICS still contains a wide range of lyricists, from the absolutely famous (Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim & Noel Coward) to the semi-famous waiting to be rediscovered (Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer & Hoagy Carmichael) to ones whose songs may be more famous than their authors (too many to mention).

Each chapter in READING LYRICS features a short blurb on the songwriter's life & times, and their life's work with the occasional fun fact. For example, Jack Yellen's song "Happy Days Are Here Again" was adopted as FDR's campaign theme despite Yellen himself being a Republican. Maybe he was still grateful for the attention & the fact that the song became one of the most popular of the Depression era. But considering Yellen's politics, who knows if songs about wild women like "Hard-Hearted Hannah" & "Louisiana Lou [The Vampin' Lady]" really were what he thought about women & are all that popular with feminists today?

Anyhow, READING LYRICS is a good refresher course for anyone wanting to learn about popular music's golden age or, even better, for someone wanting to explore songwriting themselves. If a second volume is in the works, I'll be sure to put in my order for it soon enough!

The one issue I have with this otherwise wonderful book is the way the editor writes about popular hits in each author's intro but then doesn't always include the lyrics to those songs! The hell is up with that?? If you're going to mention a song that everyone knows but then skip the lyrics of that song, it makes for a very frustrating time. Is there a vol 2 on the way?