You're the Top...

[fajrdrako]

It's been taking me between an hour and an hour and a half to go home by bus each evening, because of the snow. Walking would take at least that long, assuming I even could - maybe not without skis or shownshoes.

In any case, I've been listening to my favourite album on my iPod, John Barrowman Swings Cole Porter, and enjoying it thoroughly. And after hearing the Harlan Ellison quote (which I posted two days ago) where he quoted the lyrics, I was reflecting that "You're the Top" has the best lyrics of any song ever¹, and I started wondering what a Bendel bonnet was.

So this morning I tried to look it up, and discovered that people have followed this path before. For example, eemadge has a great website that gives links to visual reference for just about all the nouns in the song, though not the Bendel bonnet. And hte visuals for 'sonnet' are, in my opinion... iffy. There is a horse named Bendel bonnet. The real answer appears to be that Bendel was a New York store for women's apparel, presumably of good quality - or at least, Cole Porter thought so. Perhaps his wife shopped there.

"Mazy lout" now has me perplexed. My brain always interpreted that as "lazy lout". So what is it?

I think my favourite couplet (though it's hard to decide) is:

You're the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire
You're an O'Neill drama, you're Whistler's mama, you're Camembert.

If you're interested, here are the lyrics of "You're the Top", taken from Peaches lyrics website²:

You're The Top

Written by: Cole Porter (C. Albert P.)
From the Show: Anything Goes 1934 (S)

Lyrics:
At words poetic I'm so pathetic
That I always have found it best
Instead of getting 'em off my chest,
To let 'em rest - unexpressed.
I hate parading my serenading,
As I'll probably miss a bar,
But if this ditty is not so pretty,
At least it'll tell you how great you are.

You're the top! you're the Coliseum,
You're the top! you're the Louvre Museum,
You're the melody from a symphony by Strauss,
You're a Bendel bonnet,
A Shakespeare Sonnet,
You're Mickey Mouse!

You're the Nile! You're the Tow'r of Pisa,
You're the smile, of the Mona Lisa!
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop!
But if baby I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top, you're Mahatma Gandhi,
You're the top! you're Napoleon brandy,
You're the purple light, of a summer night in Spain,
You're the National Gallery, you're Garbo's salary,
You're cellophane!

You're sublime, you're a turkey dinner,
You're the time, of the Derby Winner,
I'm a toy balloon that's fated soon to pop;
But if baby I'm the bottom you're the top!

You're the top, you're a Waldorf salad
You're the top, you're a Berlin ballad
You're the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire
You're an O'Neill drama, you're Whistler's mama, you're camembert

You're a rose, you're inferno's Dante
You're the nose, on the great Durante
I'm a mazy lout who is just about to stop
But if baby I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

Transcribed by Todd Peach
(it has been pointed out to me that the last verse should be "You're repose" in lieu of "You're a rose", but Ella sings the latter)


~ ~ ~


¹ Unless I think of something better. But so far, I can't.
² I confess, I fixed a few typos in it.

Comments

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Ack! Your page has an Error: Irreparable invalid markup and all of the underpinnings are showing!

Why is it when I see "O'Neill drama", I think of Jack throwing a fit about something? I must be a compleat fangirl. But you know, O'Neill-with-two-elles does drama very well and with snark, so it still fits.

I wish more songs today had those little opening lyrics that don't quite fit with the rest of the song, but do the job of introducing it. Does that have a musical name or is it just "the intro"?

I used to shop at Henri Bendel when I lived in NYC... the thing about truly upscale clothing stores is that when the season is over, suddenly all this expensive stuff is sold at 75% to 90% off, just to get rid of it. A poverty-stricken girl like moi could find a fancy-schmancy $200 dress on clearance for $50 or less at that point!

I like the fact that he tipped his had to Irving Berlin in his lyrics. Also: I don't much like Barbra Streisand, but still think she does the best version of this song in What's Up, Doc.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Errors fixed now. I think. Typos will be the death of me.

"O'Neill drama" -heh. He does it so well. Cole Porter was prescient.

That's a good question, about the beginnings of songs with intros. I'm sure it must have a name - everything has a name. I'll try to find out.

That's cool about the Bendel dresses. I wish we had a store like that!

I don't remember Barbra Streisand singing this - I must check that movie again. (I remember liking it, but I don't recall much about it.) I find Barbra Streisand frustrating - she sings all my favourite songs and I almost never like them when she sings them. So I've learned to avoid her singing.

John Barrowman is more or less the opposite - he sings songs I don't usually like, and makes me love them because I love the way he sings them.

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

That's funny you had to look up Bendel's. Obviously you should come to visit NYC more
often to get familiar. [g]

I like the Ella Fitzgerald versions of Cole Porter best of all, though I haven't listened
to Barrowman's I confess.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's funny you had to look up Bendel's. Obviously you should come to visit NYC more often to get familiar. [g]

I wish I could! I love NYC.

I like the Ella Fitzgerald versions of Cole Porter best of all, though I haven't listened to Barrowman's I confess.

I'll have to listen to hers. His is the only recording I actually have.

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

You haven't listened to hers yet? OMG, are you in for a treat.

Get thee hence to Limewire and download!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes ma'am, I'll do that!

She has a wonderful voice.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Henri Bendel (http://www.henribendel.com/) :D

My great aunt was quite the fashion plate, and would go up to New York at least twice a year to do her shopping for millinary and such. (She made her own clothing after taking notes and sketches in the shops - she and her sisters were extremely accomplished seamstresses).

When she died, we found a entire closet filled with hats in wonderful boxes from Bendel's, Bonwit Teller, Saks, and more! Wonderful hats! Fabulous! :D

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

The Peaches page is missing a few stanzas. = (

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm open to suggestions as to how to track down missing bits!

(Or I suppose I could just transcribe them myself, if I can find the time.)

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

You're the Top isn't actually in JB Swings Cole Porter - is it? The version I have is from last year's Musical Christmas thingy, sung with Helen Dallimore, who also gives a great performance of Popular - "I'll teach you the proper ploys, when you talk to boys, little ways to flirt and flounce" addressed, presumably, to JB gets quite a laugh out of the audience. *g*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're the Top isn't actually in JB Swings Cole Porter - is it?

No, it's not, and I think it should be. But he's solo on SJSCP. Though he does sing the song and it is by Cole Porter... I wish I could have seen him sing it on stage.

Helen Dallimore, who also gives a great performance of Popular - "I'll teach you the proper ploys, when you talk to boys, little ways to flirt and flounce" addressed, presumably, to JB gets quite a laugh out of the audience.

Oooh, I can imagine! I love it!

[thucyken.livejournal.com]

I've always understood the word 'mazy' to mean slow, dull, dozy, seeming not to understand. I can't point you to a dictionary definition, though. I read a lot of early twentieth-century/late nineteenth-century fiction, and I get the feeling that's where I'm familiar with it from. FWIW.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Your definition makes more sense in this context than the Free Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mazy), which says "mazelike", as does the Word of the Day Archive (http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2003/12/18.html). Your Dictionary (http://www.yourdictionary.com/mazy) adds "bewildering", which edges closer to your definition. There's a marble, a horse, various people...

I suspect your meaning is something that is current in the early 20th century but has been largely forgotten.

I continue to look for written confirmation!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How wonderful - I'm envious. Both because of the old clothing (I love old clothing and costuming of all kinds) and because of the link to Cole Porter - you actually have Bendel bonnets! Most impressive!

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

It was my grandmother and her sisters who first gave me my love of fashion and design and sewing and costuming :D

I would sew for my dolls, and they would 'judge' it - and make me take apart things if they weren't done properly.

In the 80s, my great-aunt had a stroke, and I would go to visit her. One time I took a blouse I was sewing. She couldn't talk very well, but she took this blouse, and looked at all the seams, and construction, and frowned. She pointed the collar, and started shaking her head.

"Did I do it wrong?" I asked? She nodded. "But it doesn't show, so it's ok, right?" She shook her head VEHEMENTLY, meaning "no, no!"

"Aunt Mary, should I rip it out and redo it?"

She got a BIG smile ;)

Perfectionist! :D

They're all long gone now - they'd all be over 100 years old by now, but they live on!

[thucyken.livejournal.com]

I played a hunch and tried looking it up in combination with various dialects. Both Lancashire and Yorkshire, google-searched with 'mazy', offer examples. Of these, half seem to be used in a specialized sporting sense 'a mazy run'. I did, however, find the following:
http://books.google.com/books?id=LSzNMXRwi2EC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=mazy+yorkshire&source=web&ots=Vj6F4bjwX-&sig=Uzgf75UqLVxwb_7vVyf_4A1uvIY

in google book-search, which gives a definition of 'dizzy/giddy'. Examples can also be found in Lancashire dialect poetry and dialogue:

"An' neaw, hoo's come'd a gate wi'
us hitherto, an' hoo would have us to have a glass o' warm ale a-
piece at yon heawse lower deawn a bit; an' aw dar say it'll do mo
good, aw getten sich a cowd; but, eh dear, it's made mo as mazy as a
tup; an' neaw, hoo wants us to have another afore we starten off
whoam. "

from http://www.fullbooks.com/Home-Life-of-the-Lancashire-Factory-Folk3.html

Since the speaker is talking about alcohol, I think drunk/giddy/dizzy is a good interpretation for mazy here. However, I have no idea what a tup is.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah - now, 'dizzy' and 'giddy' make more sense in context. "Mazy as a tup" is quite fun as a phrase and as a simile!

A tup is a ram. Why it should be giddy, I'm not sure!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My mother didn't sew; my grandmother did - but I never knew my grandmother. I can only put it down to genetics. I started designing and sewing clothes for my Barbie dolls when I was about eight or nine, and shortly afterwards started making my own clothes. (Miniskirts are easy to design and sew!) I insisted on taking sewing in high school instead of Latin, and never regretted it. And though I haven't been sewing much in recent years, I still love costumes and costuming. I particularly love costume designs for the theatre.

Love your story about your great-aunt!