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Catalog: Song Information: Page 67 of 83Please keep this site alive by contributing song listings and other information to the catalog. See the bottom of every catalog page for how. "The New Suit ("Zipperfly")"Song not from a cycle or set
This entry contributed by G&K around 5/9/99 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: After a magical introduction to the song, the music settles into a steady jazzy rhythm. Two verses; second ending has a brief piano solo before closing with a prayer for the suit with the zipperfly. Like most Blitzstein, requires complete commitment to the words and thus a lot of vocal colors within the fairly small pitch range of the song. Text Comments: Begins with a silly magical incantation, after which the speaker sings, "I want a suit with a form-fittin' coat, and a six button vest, -- and a zipperfly. Narrator goes on to explain that, "If you had two brothers, with their hand me-downs left to you Then you'd know what I'm wishing for. You dream of your wine and your women and song, and cigars a foot long but as for I, I dream of pants with those modified peg cuffs, and a high waist effect and a zipperfly." Second verse repeats incantation, then very cute second verse. Second ending closes the song with "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if before I wake, I should die Please lay me out in my wonderful suit, my unspeakable suit with the zipperfly." A wonderful, charming, funny song. See Marc Blitzstein: Songs (Sharp, Holvik, Blier) (Recordings) This entry contributed by G&K around 5/9/99. The contributor(s) performed the song. "The New Wife"
This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/22/98
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Duration 1:30 Tentative, staccato This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/22/98. The contributor(s) composed the song. "The Nickel Under the Foot"Song not from a cycle or set
This entry contributed by G&K around 5/8/99 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Song from The Cradle Will Rock. Andante spoken then mostly allegretto sung; musical theatre style. Voice hangs very low. Music notes that "A number of singers have performed this a minor third higher, but this is the original key." This transposition is not available in the Blitzstein Songbook: only the original key. Sung by a prostitute in the show. Text Comments: [spoken]It was Tuesday, last week. Yeh, Tuesday. I had breakfast at Andy's. Coffee-and. For lunch I had coffee-and again. For dinner I could only afford coffee. Then I looked on the floor, and I see a nickel shinin' there: Gee, Coffee-and, Andy! Then I looked closer...That wasn't no nickel. Not coffee-and, Andy, just coffee, Andy. Cute, Huh? Mister, you don't know what it felt like, thinkin' that was a nickel under my foot. [sung:] Maybe you wonder what it is makes people good or bad, Why some guy, an ace without a doubt, Turns out to be a bastard and the other way about; I'll tell you what I feel, it's just the nickel under the heel. O, you can live like hearts and flowers And ev'ry day is a wonderland tour. O, you can dream and scheme and happily put and take, take and put, But first be sure the nickel's under your foot. Go stand on someone's neck while you're takin', Cut into somebody's throat as you put, For ev'ry dream and scheme's depending on whether all through the storm You've kept it warm The nickel under your foot. And if you're sweet then you'll grow rotten, Your pretty heart covered over with soot, And if for once you're gay, And devil may careless, And o so hot, I know you've got that nickel under your foot. See Marc Blitzstein: Songs (Sharp, Holvik, Blier) (Recordings) This entry contributed by G&K around 5/8/99. The contributor(s) heard the song. "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes"Song 3 (extractable) from set Days and Nights
This entry contributed by Lori Laitman around 10/17/99 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: quarter=84. A beautiful song with beautiful arching melodies in piano and voice. Moves from Eb M to C m. Text Comments: The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies when its love is done This entry contributed by G&K around 10/17/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "The Night Sky"Song 4 (extractable) from set Cityscapes
This entry contributed by David Wolfson around 11/14/99 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: "Dreamily," quarter=124, never louder than mezzopiano. Hangs high, actually requires a C5, but in falsetto (specified). Text Comments: The night sky is a sullen yellow, Opaque, like dreams of glory. The fire engines howl, Wond'ring where the moon went. I have no answer. I will stay up here, alone, Watching the yellow heavens Where the stars used to be. This entry contributed by G&K around 11/14/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "The Old Gray Goose"
This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/21/98
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Duration 2:00 Squawking and crunchy accompaniment, lots of minor seconds and barnyard flurrying. This entry contributed by Andy Vores around 11/21/98. The contributor(s) composed the song. "The Old House"
This entry contributed by Lori Laitman around 9/29/99
Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments:
From the composer's foreward: Text Comments: Deserted here, the old house stands in silence, asleep. The old house used to be so nice, before, standing there, it was so nice. Now it is deserted, rotting in silence--What a waste of houses, a waste of hours. See I Never Saw Another Butterfly... (Poetry) This entry contributed by G&K around 9/29/99. The contributor(s) looked over the song. "The Owl and the Pussycat"
This entry contributed by G&K around 11/18/98 Know this song? Add your review! Music Comments: Rhythmically complex with changing meters and tempi, descriptive and colorful; good middle voice important for conveying the text (3:56) Text Comments: The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat...you know it! This entry contributed by Richard Pearson Thomas around 11/18/98. The contributor(s) composed the song. Please contribute to the catalog
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