A SHORT MUSICAL BLAST FROM THE PAST

What is this thing called 'memory'? How is it that something which you haven't thought of in decades, suddenly comes to the fore from the deepest recesses of your mind and won't go away! 

This happens to me often particularly in case of music. For some time now, I have been thinking of writing about my favourite musicals. And today, a song I had almost forgotten has been haunting me since I woke up. So without waiting for the planned piece, let me put my mind at rest by writing about it.

The song is from the musical movie 'The Student Prince' which I saw in 1954. The story is of a brash German prince studying in Heidelberg University who falls in love with a barmaid and has to make the difficult choice between his love and his royal duties. The song is sung in a bar by the prince (played by Edmund Purdom with the dubbed voice of Mario Lanza) and his friends waving huge steins frothing with beer. It is appropriately called 'The Drinking Song' and its lyrics include-

'Drink! Drink! Let the toast start,

May young hearts never part,

Drink! Drink! Drink! Let every true lover salute his sweetheart,

Let's drink!'

It was not the beer but the rollicking way in which the song was sung that made it memorable for me- 67 years and the scene is vividly implanted in my brain. As for beer, it would still be many years after the movie that I would first drink it! And Heidelberg is a place I have been wanting to visit ever since but remains a 'Song Unfulfilled'!

Now that memory has been raked, I might as well add a few more from the archives lurking at the back of my mind. In one of his early visits to the UK, Vinnie Mama saw the musical 'Carousel' and brought back its long playing disc. He told me the story in brief and made me listen to the record. I was immediately touched by the song 'If I Loved You' which is sung by the characters Billy and Jenny talking about what life would be like if they were in love while shying away from the fact that they are actually falling for each other. The song is repeated later by the dead Billy on his visit from heaven to earth to see his daughter. Some lyrics,

'If I loved you, time and again I would try to say, all I'd want you to know,

If I loved you, words wouldn't come in an easy way, round in circles I'd go,

Longing to tell you but afraid and shy,

I'd let my golden chances pass me by,

Soon you'd leave me, off you would go in the midst of day, 

Never never to know, how I loved you,

If I loved you!'

'Carousel' was the second musical play of Rodgers and Hammerstein which made its debut on Broadway in 1945. Time magazine called it the best musical of the 20th century and Richard Rodgers himself said it was his top favourite. My dream to see it was realised in 2018 when I saw its revival on Broadway..

Vinnie Mama was also responsible for my introduction to 'Some Enchanted Evening' through another record he brought from the UK in early '50s. It was the original version by Ezio Pinza from the Broadway play of 1949, 'South Pacific'. I was familiar with the song long before I saw the movie of 1958. The lyrics are, to borrow from the song's title, enchanting. Sound advice to a lovestruck fellow though in the musical, the song is sung by the character for himself on seeing a pretty stranger across the room-

'Some enchanted evening, when you find your true love,

When you hear her call you across a crowded room, 

Then fly to her side and make her your own, 

Or all through your life, you may dream all alone.

Once you have found her, never let her go.

Once you have found her, NE-VER LET HER GO....'

Again, I was lucky to see its revival on Broadway in 2010. 

The floodgates of memorable songs are opening and so many are whirring in my mind: 'Edelweiss', 'Gigi', 'Younger Than Springtime', 'I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face'.... and ‘Memory’, a classic itself. Before I get swamped, I must close after acknowledging that I consider myself to be blessed to have grown up hearing such beautiful songs. I can't do better than end with words from a song in 'The Sound Of Music':

'.... somewhere in my youth or childhood,

I must have done something good'.