Re: AW: RE: hot new jeans

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/16/02 2:10:12 PM Mountain Daylight Time, franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT writes:



> Lehrer in one song on his last 1965 album does make a facetious  reference
>
> to Mahler's dark symphonic
>
> tone poem "Das Liede von der Erde" [The song of the earth] being a "light
>
> classic" in the intro to his
>
> song "Wilma", about Wilma Mahler Gropius Werfel, a siren of the day who
>
> managed to marry some of the top

From "That Was the Year That Was"

The song is "Alma"



> The loveliest girl in Vienna
>
> Was Alma, the smartest as well.
>
> Once you picked her up on your antenna,
>
> You'd never be free of her spell.
>
>
> Her lovers were many and varied,
>
> From the day she began her -- beguine.
>
> There were three famous ones whom she married,
>
> And God knows how many between.
>
>
> Alma, tell us!
>
> All modern women are jealous.
>
> Which of your magical wands
>
> Got you Gustav and Walter and Franz?
>
>
> The first one she married was Mahler,
>
> Whose buddies all knew him as Gustav.
>
> And each time he saw her he'd holler:
>
> "Ach, that is the fraulein I moost have!"
>
>
> Their marriage, however, was murder.
>
> He'd scream to the heavens above,
>
> "I'm writing Das Lied von der Erde,
>
> And she only wants to make love!"
>
>
> Alma, tell us!
>
> All modern women are jealous.
>
> You should have a statue in bronze
>
> For bagging Gustav and Walter and Franz.
>
>
> While married to Gus, she met Gropius,
>
> And soon she was swinging with Walter.
>
> Gus died, and her tear drops were copious.
>
> She cried all the way to the altar.
>
>
> But he would work late at the Bauhaus,
>
> And only came home now and then.
>
> She said, "What am I running? A chow house?
>
> It's time to change partners again."
>
>
> Alma, tell us!
>
> All modern women are jealous.
>
> Though you didn't even use Ponds,
>
> You got Gustav and Walter and Franz.
>
>
> While married to Walt she'd met Werfel,
>
> And he too was caught in her net.
>
> He married her, but he was carefell,
>
> 'Cause Alma was no Bernadette.
>
>
> And that is the story of Alma,
>
> Who knew how to receive and to give.
>
> The body that reached her embalma'
>
> Was one that had known how to live.
>
>
> Alma, tell us!
>
> How can they help being jealous?
>
> Ducks always envy the swans
>
> Who get Gustav and Walter,
>
> you never did falter,
>
> With Gustav and Walter and Franz. 


[Notes for the younger generation(s):

1. Pond's was a popular moisturizing cream in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.  It's still available.

2.  One of the author Franz Werfel's most popular books was "The Song of Bernadette."  It was made into a movie (with Jennifer Jones as St. Bernadette.)

3.  The Bauhaus style of architecture and furniture was one of the first modern departures from ornate Victorian and fin-de-siecle style.

4,  (with apologies to Franz Schonhofer) In singing this song, "Erde" was pronounced to rhyme with "murder".]


Ruth



Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com