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Skylark: The Life and Times of Johnny Mercer, by Philip Furia
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Skylark is the story of the tormented but glorious life and career of Johnny Mercer, and the first biography of this enormously popular and influential lyricist. Raised in Savannah, Mercer brought a quintessentially southern style to both his life in New York and to his lyrics, which often evoked the landscapes and mood of his youth ("Moon River", "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening"). Mercer also absorbed the music of southern blacks--the lullabies his nurse sang to him as a baby and the spirituals that poured out of Savannah's churches-and that cool smooth lyrical style informed some of his greatest songs, such as "That Old Black Magic".
Part of a golden guild whose members included Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, Mercer took Hollywood by storm in the midst of the Great Depression. Putting words to some of the most famous tunes of the time, he wrote one hit after another, from "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" to "Jeepers Creepers" and "Hooray for Hollywood." But it was also in Hollywood that Mercer's dark underside emerged. Sober, he was a kind, generous and at times even noble southern gentleman; when he drank, Mercer tore into friends and strangers alike with vicious abuse. Mercer's wife Ginger, whom he'd bested Bing Crosby to win, suffered the cruelest attacks; Mercer would even improvise cutting lyrics about her at parties.
During World War II, Mercer served as Americas's troubadour, turning out such uplifting songs as "My Shining Hour" and "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive." He also helped create Capitol Records, the first major West Coast recording company, where he discovered many talented singers, including Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole. During this period, he also began an intense affair with Judy Garland, which rekindled time and again for the rest of their lives. Although they never found happiness together, Garland became Mercer's muse and inspired some of his most sensuous and heartbreaking lyrics: "Blues in the Night," "One for My Baby," and "Come Rain or Come Shine."
Mercer amassed a catalog of over a thousand songs and during some years had a song in the Top Ten every week of the year--the songwriting equivalent of Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak--but was plagued by a sense of failure and bitterness over the big Broadway hit that seemed forever out of reach.
Based on scores of interviews with friends, family and colleagues, and drawing extensively on Johnny Mercer's letters, papers and his unpublished autobiography, Skylark is an important book about one of the great and dramatic characters in 20th century popular music.
- Sales Rank: #2209876 in Books
- Published on: 2004-12-09
- Released on: 2004-11-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.72" h x .91" w x 4.96" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In this sensitive and wonderfully in-depth work on the lyricist of classics like "One for the Road" and "Moon River," Furia (Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist) displays his talent for writing about the giants in American popular song. Georgia-born Mercer (1909-1976) spent most of his life among New York songwriters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter as well as such Hollywood stars as Bing Crosby and Judy Garland, but Furia expertly details how "his genteel southern background would always set him apart" in his lyrics ("Mercer, alone among the great songwriters of his generation, was, from the day he was born, influenced by the music of blacks") as well as his personal life, including his alcoholism. Furia also captures all of the successes and failures in Mercer's long career: his many Academy Award wins; his creation of Capitol Records; his collaboration with composer Harold Arlen, which helped both of them create songs and lyrics "that endure as timeless standards"; and his never having a true hit Broadway play because his "concentration on the emotional mood of a melody limited him" after the American musical's post-Oklahoma! emphasis on character and theatricality. Furia also details the influence of Mercer's love affair with Judy Garland on "the new depth of sorrow" that suddenly appears in Mercer's work with Arlen. Apart from including a few out-of-tune facts about Garland's sexual habits not related to Mercer, Furia makes it clear that Garland had become Mercer's "muse."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Philip Furia is the author of Irving Berlin: A Life in Song and Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist. He lives in Wilmington North Carolina.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Very informative
By kmh
My best friend's dad produced Frank Sinatra and Nat king Cole at capitol records in the 1950s. Johnny Mercer started capitol records. I also love the songs he wrote.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Creative Genius + Linguist
By Michele Ankduda
A refreshingly well written book on an American icon. This biography is a pleasure to read about someone who has given the world musical pleasure. The author, Philip Furia brings the complex, nuanced personality of Johnny Mercer to life, less the People magazine type of Journalism. He also anylyzes the linguistic structure of Mercer's lyrics and why they are so successful - whether he was composing in English or translating popular hits from French or German.
Johnny Mercer, whose Centennial of birth occurs this year, drew heavily on his Savannah, Georgia upbringing for his long, fruitful career as a singer, songwriter and especially lyricist. In all, he composed lyrics to over 1,000 songs with a Who's Who of musical collaborators.
The book is not only about Johnny Mercer's life and work, but also about the history + evolution of Popular Music in the 20th Century. There is so much to read, learn and enjoy about this complex man, who encouraged and inspired so many. A 5 star biography.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Overdue recognition for a genius of song
By John M. Thomas
A true example of why they don't write 'em like they used to, Johnny Mercer has written some of the catchiest, longest remembered and honored songs of the 20th century, many of which the average listener has little clue as to who put the words to the tunes that remain timeless in their appeal. As a collaborator with some of the finest tunesmiths ever (Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael to name two) Mercer could dance with words as effortlessly and as beautifully as a prima ballerina while maintaining a roots, folksy manner both charming and disarming in its playfulness.
Philip Furia's biography is well recearched and referenced, using the recollections of friends, family, and cohorts, and finds a treasure trove in Mercer's own unreleased autobiography. Mercer's bouts with feelings of unworthiness as a composer were unexplained periods of doubt in a career that spanned the thirties through the sixties. While not the financial or acclaimed success of friend and rival Bing Crosby, Mercer became a standard for composition that has yet to be matched even by modern contemporaries like McCartney (who, the book indicates, explored a partnership in Mercer's latter years).
This book explores as best it can the song writing magic of Mercer, although the explanations of his seemingly effortless method of composition appears (as the author indicates) a tad glib and self-effacing. Were they available, additional tales of his creative inspirations would have been appreciated; any man who comes up with a couplet like "If for the stork you pine, consider the porcupine" deserves to be studied if only for the glee apparent in coming up with such delicious bits of rhyme and rhythm, certainly at a level equal or surpassing today's best.
Mercer's life was also painted in broad strokes of unhappiness, and the contrast between the joyous singer of "Zip-a dee-doo-dah" with the alcoholic and unsatisfied husband provides a remarkable set of circumstances.
This book was an enjoyable read in exploring the life and career of Johnny Mercer. Like the subject of these pages, I think I could have easily been fascinated with the book had it been twice as long, as this southern gentleman's tales and stories, against the background of his life and times, would have been captivating reading for any fan of the genre of the popular song and of show business personalities (and Johnny certainly had personality to spare). I would recommend this book along with an accompanying copy of "Capitol Collector Series - Johnny Mercer" or any good compilation of his songs. Be they his renditions or the more popular cover versions, Johnny Mercer is timeless, priceless, and almost "Too Marvelous for Words". Thank you Philip Furia.
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