The Lovers’ Chronicle 18 November – remember you – art by Wyndham Lewis – lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Dear Zazie,  Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse.  Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

time
for a long hello,
and if it could be
every day
when we sat on that bench
and our eyes met, a smile,
a moment and we knew
we cannot let this go
we can have this our way
so that when we are asked
to recall, the thrill of it all
we will not need to remember
for we will still be livin’ it

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

from that instant
i had not to take
another step
the bed moves away
from under us, our actions
cease to require any control,
or even attention, from our will
come to take us in our arms,
carried away and laid down
expectantly by the simple
impulse of inspiration

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

above all i recall
i saw you smile

you are the one
who made this come true
did you not know

i remember too,
though there were
no bells, nor stars that fell

when all is done
and i recall the thrill
of it all, i shall say,
i remember you

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

 

by George Charles Beresford, half-plate glass negative, 1913

by George Charles Beresford, half-plate glass negative, 1913

Today is the birthday of Percy Wyndham Lewis (Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada; 18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957 London); writer, painter and critic (he dropped the name “Percy”, which he disliked). He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art, and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST. His novels include his pre-World War I-era novel Tarr (set in Paris), and The Human Age, a trilogy comprising The Childermass (1928), Monstre Gai and Malign Fiesta (both 1955), set in the afterworld. A fourth volume of The Human AgeThe Trial of Man, was begun by Lewis but left in a fragmentary state at the time of his death. He also wrote two autobiographical volumes, Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) and Rude Assignment: A Narrative of my Career Up-to-Date(1950).

In 1930, Lewis married Gladys Anne Hoskins (1900–79), affectionately known as ‘Froanna’. 

In the 1930s Lewis kept Froanna in the background, and many of his friends were simply unaware of her existence. It seems that Lewis was extraordinarily jealous and protective of his wife, owing to her youth and beauty (she was eighteen years his junior). They lived together for ten years before marrying. Froanna was patient and caring toward her husband through financial troubles and his frequent illnesses. She was the model for some of Lewis’s most tender and intimate portraits, as well as a number of characters in his fiction. In contrast to his earlier, rather impersonal portraits, which are purely concerned with external appearance, the portraits of Froanna show a preoccupation with her inner life.

Gallery

20221118_195546

1912, The Dancers

c.1914–15, Workshop Tate, London

Lewis photographed by Alvin Langdon Coburn in London, 25 February 1916

Lewis, photograph by George Charles Beresford, 1917

 

Mr Wyndham Lewis as a Tyro, a self-portrait, 1921

Lewis in 1929, photographed by George Charles Beresford

 

Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948 (William P. Gottlieb 06121).jpg

Johnny Mercer, c. 1947

Today is the birthday of John HerndonJohnnyMercer (Savannah, Georgia; November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976 Hollywood); lyricist, songwriter and singer.  He was also the founder of Capitol Records.  Perhaps best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music.  He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others.  From the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s, many of the songs Mercer wrote and performed were among the most popular hits of the time.  He wrote the lyrics to more than fifteen hundred songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows.  He received nineteen Academy Award nominations, and won four Best Original Song Oscars.

In 1931, Mercer married chorus girl Ginger Meehan.  In 1941 Mercer began an intense affair with 19-year-old Judy Garland while she was engaged to composer David Rose.  Garland married Rose to stop the affair, but the effect on Mercer lingered, adding to the emotional depth of his lyrics.  Their affair revived later.  Mercer stated that his song “I Remember You” was the most direct expression of his feelings for Garland.

He died from a brain tumor.  Mercer was buried in Savannah’s historic Bonaventure Cemetery.  The simple line drawing caricature adorning his memorial bench is in fact a reproduction of a self-portrait.

Lyrics 

  • You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
    E-lim-i-nate the negative
    And latch on to the affirmative.
    Don’t mess with mister inbetween.

    • Song Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive
  • From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe, wherever the four winds blow
    I been in some big towns an’ heard me some big talk, but there is one thing I know
    A woman’s a two-face, a worrisome thing who’ll leave ya to sing the blues in the night.

    • Song Blues in the Night
  • The days of wine and roses laugh and run away like a child at play
    Through the meadow land toward a closing door
    A door marked “nevermore” that wasn’t there before

    • Song The Days of Wine and Roses
  • Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer.
    Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer.
    Lead us lest too far we wander.
    Love’s sweet voice is calling yonder.

    • Song The Glow-Worm
  • So you met someone who set you back on your heels – goody, goody
    You met someone and now you know how it feels – goody, goody

    • Song Goody, Goody
  • Skylark,
    Have you seen a valley green with Spring
    Where my heart can go a-journeying,
    Over the shadows in the rain
    To a blossom covered lane?
    And in your lonely flight,
    Haven’t you heard the music in the night,
    Wonderful music,
    Faint as a will-o-the-wisp,
    Crazy as a loon,
    Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon.

    • Song “Skylark” (1942)
  • I remember too, a distant bell…
    and stars that fell…
    like the rain
    out of the blue.

    • Song “I Remember You” (1941)
  • When my life is through
    And the angels ask me to recall
    The thrill of them all
    Then I shall tell them
    I remember you

    • Song I Remember You
  • Cigarette holder,
    which wigs me,
    over her shoulder
    she digs me:
    Out cattin’
    that Satin Doll.

    • Song “Satin Doll” (1953)
  • There’s a long goodbye,
    and it happens every day,
    when a passerby
    invites your eye
    to come away.
    Even as you smile a quick hello
    you let her go,
    you let the moment fly…
    Too late you turn your head,
    you know you’ve said
    the Long Goodbye.

    • Song “The Long Goodbye” (1973)
  • I know all the songs that the cowboys know
    ’bout the big corral where the doggies go,
    ‘Cause I learned them all on the radio.
    Yippie yi yo kayah

    • Song I’m an old Cowhand

The song of the day is Jo Stafford’s version of “I Remember You“. we do not own the rights to this song. no copyright infringement intended.

Mac Tag

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