Word: songs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Piety is more and more diffusing itself among our people, particularly in ways that supplement the regular ministry of the churches. Religious books continue to lead best-seller lists. Popular song writers profitably emphasize religious themes. Radio stations pause not simply for the usual station breaks but for recommended moments of meditation. The moviemakers know that few productions can out-box-office religious extravaganzas. The new piety has successfully invaded the halls of government. Attendance at prayer breakfasts is quite the thing for politicians these days. There is doubtless sincerity of motive in much of the new piety. It hardly...
...lyrics, particularly the word for "cucumber" (spelled phonetically in the lyrics as "jadrool"), had a dirty meaning. Mitch Miller at Columbia Records promptly produced letters from an Italian-American priest and a professor of languages at New York University denying that the vernacular words used in the song "could possibly be construed as offensive to anyone." At week's end Block, still sticking by his ban, explained: "The lyrics are only wrong to people who know dirty, low-down slang. In high-class society, 'jadrool' might just mean knuckle-head...
After explaining the supers' positions during the Toreador Song, "that--uh--classic aria," he led them to the dressing room on the fourth floor. Long rows of light bulbs were reflected from the broken mirrors of a communal dressing table. It was all very romantic. The gypsy costumes were filthy and smelled bad, which everyone agreed was an authentic touch. One super reached for a pencil to paint on a moustache. "Touch that make-up kit and I'll break yer arm," said a muscular ballet dancer...
Westering home and a song in the air Light in the eye and it's goodbye to care, Laughter and love and a welcoming there I know my heart...
Died. J. Rosamond Johnson, 81, prolific Negro composer and cultural leader who (in partnership with brother James Weldon Johnson and Song-and-Dance Man Bob Cole) flooded the nation's music halls with more than 500 songs in the golden heyday of vaudeville (Under the Bamboo Tree), composer of the "Negro national anthem," Lift Every Voice and Sing, collector and arranger of spirituals; in Manhattan...