Porter and the fun of forced rhymes

Robert Bouton · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 67

Of all the types I've ever met within our democracy,
I hate most the athlete with his manner bold and brassy,
He may have hair upon his chest but, sister, so has Lassie.

I've been thinking about Cole Porter's reveling in forced rhymes in
Kiss Me Kate's show-within-the-show songs. They don't bother me
nearly so much as, say, this Stephen Schwartz bit of nonsense:

I got my right hand ready on the register
Use my left to scan the groceries
And when I "P.L.U." it
For the flowers or the fruit
I never have to look at the keys

First, is there anybody on earth who pronounces "fruit" in two
syllables?

After Oklahoma!, Porter believed himself to be a has-been, and was
unsure he'd ever have a hit again in this brave new era of the
"integrated" musical. Kiss Me Kate gave him the opportunity to
lampoon himself: What if Cole Porter musicalized Shakespeare? What
would it sound like?

The answer is that there'd be forced rhymes, like the one above, or
rhymes that make use of Elizabethan pronunciations like "the fun I
used to find/gone with the wind." He embraces silly anachronisms: not
just Lassie (that 20th century dog) but democracy, unknown in 16th
century Padua (correct me if I'm wrong).

Certain shows have fun with anachronisms: Spring Awakening, Joseph and
the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; while others abound with
anachronisms because they're too dumb to know better, such as Evita.

In the Stephen Schwartz song, nothing is made of "fruit" on two
syllables. It's not supposed to be funny; we're supposed to
understand that this is the way the character talks, and P.L.U. is a
verb she uses. Seems quite a stretch to me - I can't stand the song.

In Porter, there are countless examples of the lyricist forcing rhymes
for the sake of entertainment. And the listener is supposed to smile
at the struggle. Or - perish the thought - do we believe he really
couldn't come up with a better rhyme than brassy and democracy?

Archived from group: rec>arts>theatre>musicals

Eagle · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 49

On Feb 22, 8:41 am, Robert Bouton wrote:
>
> I got my right hand ready on the register
> Use my left to scan the groceries
> And when I "P.L.U." it
> For the flowers or the fruit
> I never have to look at the keys

Am I correct that this song replaced the little dance sequence in the
original WORKING where the cashiers were talking about using "the
hips, the hands and the register" and it grew into a dance movement?
I loved that in the original. One of my favorite things in it. Don't
know who wrote the music for it. It's not on the original cast album,
and my playbill is in storage.

chromolume · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 15

On Feb 22, 10:25 am, Eagle wrote:
> On Feb 22, 8:41 am, Robert Bouton wrote:
>
>
>
> > I got my right hand ready on the register
> > Use my left to scan the groceries
> > And when I "P.L.U." it
> > For the flowers or the fruit
> > I never have to look at the keys
>
> Am I correct that this song replaced the little dance sequence in the
> original WORKING where the cashiers were talking about using "the
> hips, the hands and the register" and it grew into a dance movement?
> I loved that in the original. One of my favorite things in it. Don't
> know who wrote the music for it. It's not on the original cast album,
> and my playbill is in storage.

A few thoughts -

Though it's true that Porter (and his contemporaries) would
occasionally use forced rhymes, especially for comic effect, I think
we might be able to see "Kiss Me, Kate" as a special case - remember
that we are seeing a play with a play - that we're watching (the
Porter/Spewack rendering of a) "Shrew musical" produced by Fred Graham
(and probably written partly by him, as well as a team of writers he
refers to in the opening scene, and I paraphase, "staying up nights
rewriting Shakespeare"). So Porter may be intentionally having fun
writing "someone else's" forced ryhmes and anachronisms here. Smile

In the case of Working - well, Schwartz has always had this annoying
habit of never being able to leave his scores/shows alone - and
frankly, I have to say that I don't like ANY of the rewriting he did
for Working (indeed, the "cash register" number was basically just a
dance sequence in the original, with none of those awful lyrics) - not
the new lyrics ("It's An Art," among other songs, gets some dubious
new lyrics), not the restructuring of the show and the reworking of
the monologues (even if the intent on some level was to update the
time period of the show - the new material just doesn't sound right to
me), not the elimination of the "Newsboy" song (I always loved that
number), and not the addition of that other James Taylor piece ("Damn
That Traffic Jam" - which really doesn't add anything to the show). It
has always been a problematic show, but I much prefer the original
script to the rewrites. And indeed, I've never head anyone say "fru-
it," nor do I think it merits a laugh in the show. Wink

John W. Kennedy · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 239

Robert Bouton wrote:
> Of all the types I've ever met within our democracy,
> I hate most the athlete with his manner bold and brassy,
> He may have hair upon his chest but, sister, so has Lassie.
>
> I've been thinking about Cole Porter's reveling in forced rhymes in
> Kiss Me Kate's show-within-the-show songs. They don't bother me
> nearly so much as, say, this Stephen Schwartz bit of nonsense:
>
> I got my right hand ready on the register
> Use my left to scan the groceries
> And when I "P.L.U." it
> For the flowers or the fruit
> I never have to look at the keys
>
> First, is there anybody on earth who pronounces "fruit" in two
> syllables?

"Groceries" doesn't rhyme with "look at the keys", either.

--
John W. Kennedy
"Compact is becoming contract,
Man only earns and pays."
-- Charles Williams. "Bors to Elayne: On the King's Coins"

Steve Newport · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 1415

jongoldberg@msn.com (chromolume)
I think we might be able to see "Kiss Me, Kate" as a special case -
remember that we are seeing a play with a play - that we're watching
(the Porter/Spewack rendering of a) "Shrew musical" produced by Fred
Graham (and probably written partly by him, as well as a team of writers
he refers to in the opening scene, and I paraphase, "staying up nights
rewriting Shakespeare"). So Porter may be intentionally having fun
writing "someone else's" forced ryhmes and anachronisms here. Smile

-----------------------------------------
Yes, and I always thought it interesting that MGM changed the line "not
stars like L. B. Mayer's are we..."

Harlett O'Dowd · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 115

On Feb 23, 8:16 am, NewportsRe...@webtv.net (Steve Newport) wrote:
> jongoldb...@msn.com (chromolume)
> I think we might be able to see "Kiss Me, Kate" as a special case -
> remember that we are seeing a play with a play - that we're watching
> (the Porter/Spewack rendering of a) "Shrew musical" produced by Fred
> Graham (and probably written partly by him, as well as a team of writers
> he refers to in the opening scene, and I paraphase, "staying up nights
> rewriting Shakespeare"). So Porter may be intentionally having fun
> writing "someone else's" forced ryhmes and anachronisms here. Smile

> -----------------------------------------
> Yes, and I always thought it interesting that MGM changed the line "not
> stars like L. B. Mayer's are we..."

and "MGM has got a leo but mama has got a trio" in "Triplets" for THE
BANDWAGON.

chromolume · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 15

On Feb 23, 8:16 am, NewportsRe...@webtv.net (Steve Newport) wrote:
> jongoldb...@msn.com (chromolume)
> I think we might be able to see "Kiss Me, Kate" as a special case -
> remember that we are seeing a play with a play - that we're watching
> (the Porter/Spewack rendering of a) "Shrew musical" produced by Fred
> Graham (and probably written partly by him, as well as a team of writers
> he refers to in the opening scene, and I paraphase, "staying up nights
> rewriting Shakespeare"). So Porter may be intentionally having fun
> writing "someone else's" forced ryhmes and anachronisms here. Smile

> -----------------------------------------
> Yes, and I always thought it interesting that MGM changed the line "not
> stars like L. B. Mayer's are we..."

They also changed "like a show that's typically Shubert-y" - but
probably because it rhymes with "puberty"... Wink

Harlett O'Dowd · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 115

On Feb 23, 12:12 pm, chromolume wrote:

> They also changed "like a show that's typically Shubert-y" - but
> probably because it rhymes with "puberty"... Wink

yes, that line was axed by the censors for the film, but they kept Ann
Miller's la petit tourettes repetition of "dick a dicka dick"

Matthew Winn · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 66

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:41:32 -0800 (PST), Robert Bouton
wrote:

> In Porter, there are countless examples of the lyricist forcing rhymes
> for the sake of entertainment. And the listener is supposed to smile
> at the struggle. Or - perish the thought - do we believe he really
> couldn't come up with a better rhyme than brassy and democracy?

It works if the lyricist goes into the forced rhyme with confidence
and in a way that makes the rhyme fall into place naturally. The
example that comes to my mind is Joseph's "Greatest man since Noah /
Only goes to show-a ...".

A few months ago I saw a show called Moon Landing in the now-closed
Derby Playhouse in which the lyricist had approached bad rhymes with
embarrassment, quietly mis-stressing words to make them fit the meter.
The result was things like NorWAY and vacUUM. It felt as though he was
trying to pull a fast one, attempting to slip them past the audience
without them being noticed, whereas the likes of Porter and Rice have
proudly put their dodgy rhymes on display to scare away their rivals.

I'm told that Moon Landing's rhymes were quite difficult to sing,
while the democracy/brassy/Lassie trio feels natural.

--
Matthew Winn
[If replying by mail remove the "r" from "urk"]

Steve Newport · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 1415

jongoldberg@msn.com (chromolume)
<< stars like L. B. Mayer's are we...">>>
------------------------------
They also changed "like a show that's typically Shubert-y" - but
probably because it rhymes with "puberty"...
------------------------------
Yep, and then there's "I have oft met a boar before."

atsarisborn · Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 24

Not to mention

"Where is Rebecca -- my Becky-wecchio --
Could still she be cruising
That amusing
Ponte Vecchio?"

and about half the rhymes in Brush Up Your Shakespeare. (But the
gangsters are supposed to be semi-literate, so it suits them.)

Gee, if they'd made a Hollywood film of "Out Of This World" what WOULD
they have done with "They Couldn't Compare To You" ?

(Just reading Kellow's life of the Merm, which notes that her spoken
line to her chief aide in "Call Me Madam" "Just remember -- I'm the
madam -- and you're just one of the -- girls" was altered to "boys"
when filmed. No wonder I didn't laugh.)

By the way -- is it true Sanka sued Porter after KMK's premiere?

Jean Coeur de Lapin

chromolume · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 15

On Feb 26, 8:50 pm, atsarisb...@hotmail.com wrote:

> By the way -- is it true Sanka sued Porter after KMK's premiere?

I don't know - but you would think that Sanka would have loved the
"product placement" as it were...(besides, Porter was famous for
putting topical references into songs - you'd think Sanka would have
been thrilled to be in a Porter song, lol.)

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