That 1940s song whose lyrics I posted here Friday -- I heard of it reading Woody Allen's memoir:
------------------- [excerpt] ---------------- Just imagine a scorching summer day in Flatbush. The mercury hits ninety-five and the humidity is suffocating. There was no air-conditioning, that is, unless you went inside a movie house. You eat your morning soft-boiled eggs in a coffee cup in a tiny kitchen on a linoleum-covered floor and a table draped with oilcloth.
The radio is playing "Milkman Keep Those Bottles Quiet".... ---------------------- [end / excerpt]
That seemed like such an unusual and unique title for a song, I had to go on You Tube as soon as possible and hear the song. It's good. The lyrics -- so wild! - with slang expressions of the time:
milk is "bottled moo" -- haha
"That jive" -- must mean unwelcome noise, in Hep-cat
"been jumpin' on the swing shift, all night" -- jumping must be the word for working, or working hard...
"I'm beat right down to the sod" means tired
"catch myself some righteous nod" = get a real good night's sleep
"Grade-A riot" = makin' noise with the milk bottles, waking the hard-working person up, when they need sleep
"lullaby it" = be quiet (I think -- just guessing on these, actually)
I was stumped by "the man with the whiskers" -- then it occurred to me the songwriter might have been referring to "Uncle Sam" in the World War II posters.
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----------------- [excerpt, Woody Allen memoir] ---------------- Finally, there was the true rainbow of my childhood, my cousin Rita. Five years older than me,...her companionship had perhaps the most significant influence on my life.
Rita Wishnick, her father yet another fleeing Russian Jew named Vishnetski, anglicized to Wishnick.
She...took a liking to me and took me everywhere -- to the movies, the beach, Chinese restaurants, miniature golf, pizza joints....I knew all of popular music because Rita and I sat and listened to the radio together endlessly.
The Make Believe Ballroom, Your Hit Parade. In those days, the radio was on from the minute you woke up till you went to sleep. Music, news, and what music.
The pop music of the day was Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey. So here I am inundated with such beautiful music and movies.
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{excerpts from Apropos of Nothing, by Woody Allen. Copyright 2020, Arcade Publishing.}
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