Reflection & The Time Slide

I am one very lucky son-of-a-bitch. I was born into the last decade of the Great American Songbook era, the 1930s. But when did it end really? Where it began is easy, in 1915 with Jerome Kern’s “They Didn’t Believe Me”. Anyway, I was singing this stuff by the time I was two––on the toilet seat––to my mom, like my 1911 song “Put Your Arms Around Me Baby, Hold Me Tight”. Then, I had the incredible good fortune to be in my early teens when rock ‘n’ roll was born, and my early ‘20s when I discovered the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music. Yet, my knowledge of the subject of American music is, compared to what’s all out there, pretty scant, especially after 1979. I asked my good friend, Eli Smith, who is deeply into traditional music what current music he listened to, and he said, “None”. There was so much old music he hadn’t heard he didn’t have any time for new stuff.

I’ve been, for most of my life, fascinated by the way songwriting styles change, and how difficult it is to make up a song from a past era that doesn’t have at least a touch of modernity to it. And how a kind of song can be in the air, then one day, suddenly, songs like that aren’t in the air anymore, and good luck trying to write one, and where the fuck did they come from, and where the fuck did they go?

Yesterday, June 10, 2020, found me still on lockdown in New York City. I’m 81, hence extra vulnerable. I’m rabbit-holing away online and I see friend’s Facebook post to YouTube. On the sidebar I see “Fuck Them All” by Pokey LaFarge. I haven’t heard that one, I like him, its compelling title, let’s hear it. It’s a nice song, I post on wall and read the thread. You’ve noticed that threads are a new literary form, right? A collaborative one, of course. When did threads start? The ‘90s? The ‘80s? With “The Well”? Hmm. Get thee behind me, rabbit hole.

So I see a threader write that whenever some jerk says all new music is crap (those jerks have been around for centuries), he responds with: Pokey LaFarge, Perfume Genius (heard one track, wasn’t knocked out, but with all the raves I’ve heard, I should listen more), and three names new to me––Sierra Ferrell (Love!), Orville Peck (Like, want to hear more), and the Lemon Twigs, who knocked me out. Way out, in fact. The band is fronted by two brothers––Brian and Michael D’Addario––who are from Long Island and in their early twenties. What all this is getting around to? Something I call “the time slide”.

Play along. Ask yourself when a song could have been written. Start with the first song of the 100, 1901’s “I Love You Truly”. I thought the song dated to the 1880s or 1890s. And it’s very unlikely it could have been written beyond, say, 1910. So it has a 30-year “slide”, unusual for it’s era. Maybe one day, we’ll have a slide for all 100 of the songs here, but here I start with the first 25. I’ll be asking opinions about this from several friends. I think the shortest slides will be around 5 years, and 10 to 15 years will be more common. But all this starts to change when we get to the ‘70s. In the following years some of the slides get longer and longer, which brings us back to the D’Addario brothers. Many of their songs could have been written in 1969 (but certainly not as early as 1966). That’s a half-century long slide. I think that’s the longest one I’ve found so far. As the rock ‘n’ roll/rock era approaches its 70thyear, the slides keep getting longer.

Still, no one has ever re-created an Irving Berlin song, or a Jerome Kern song. And yet I hope someone will someday. If I wish real hard upon a star and work my ass off and the muses smile, maybe it’ll even be me. Throughout my amazingly lucky life I’ve found extravagant goals really helpful. Without further ado, let’s slide:

1901/ I Love You Truly could have been written between 1880/1910
1902/ Under The Bamboo Tree 1895/1910
1903/ Ida 1900/1910
1904/ Toyland 1895/1910
1905/Whistler And His Dog 1900/1910
1906/ Nobody 1906/1930
1907/ School Days 1895/1910
1908/ Take Me Out To The Ball Game 1900/1910
1909/ Ace In The Hole 1909/ 1930
1910/ Ah, Sweet Mystery Of Life 1900/1915
1911/Put Your Arms Around Me Baby, Hold Me Tight 1910/1925
1912/ Ragtime Cowboy Joe 1912/1930
1913/ Row Row Row 1910/1920
1914/ By The Beautiful Sea 1910/1920
1915/ They Didn’t Believe Me 1915/1935
1916/ Poor Butterfly 1916/1935
1917/ Look For The Silver Lining 1917/1940
1918/ Till We Meet Again 1914/1918
1919/ Stumblin’ 1919/1930
1920/ Swinging Down The Lane 1920/1930
1921/ Charleston Melody 1915/1925/ Words 1921/1925
1922/ I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles 1915/1930
1923/ Let The Rest Of The World Go By 1912/1925
1924/ Somebody Loves Me 1920/1935
1925/ I Never Knew 1920/1940

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