The gloating continues.
While helping to prepare our Thanksgiving Dinner I chose to play the American Songbook album of songs by lyricists Yip Harburg. Actually, I didn’t know all the songs were by Harburg, only that the cover art said “American Songbook”. It was a fairly random pick, except I was looking for something “American”, for after all, I was celebrating the greatest American holiday.
Of course I didn’t really concentrate on the music, but I did catch these lyrics from a song called The Begat, from a musical named Finian’s Rainbow:
When the begat got
to gettin’ under par
They begat the daughters
of the D.A.R.They begat the babbits
of the bourgeoisie,
They begat the misbegotten G.O.P.
Not surprising from the guy who wrote Brother, Can you Spare a Dime, but doesn’t it prove that some things never change? Anyway, it occurred to me that this piece, from the same musical, could be considered a sort of anthem of Romney’s 47%, which by the way, is apparently the percentage of the vote he will end up getting. The song is called When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich, and truly can it be said again that nothing ever changes, except the ethnicity of the perceived idle poor.
From the comments to the video I gather that the film version of the musical was disappointing, mainly due to poor direction and camera work.
By the way, Harburg, whose name shall live forever if only because he wrote Over the Rainbow, was blacklisted by Hollywood due to his political views.
One Comment