So you think you know your standards —
jazz standards, show tunes, the songs
in your head and on the radio,
the songs they are playing at the club
where Bogart and Bacall are having a drink
or Judy Garland is singing
with Mickey Rooney in high school,
the soundtrack of the movie of America as it was
if only as an idea in the minds
of some refugee kids on the lower East Side —
OK, here's your chance to test your mettle. Match lyricist with song:
Lyricist Song
Otto Harbach How About You?
Arthur Freed Paper Moon
Gus Kahn Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Yip Harburg Our Love Affair
Sammy Cahn It Had to Be You
Ralph Freed Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Bonus points if you also the name the composer in each case (they include Roger Edens, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Jule Styne, Burton Lane, and Isham Jones).
When William Stafford was writng a poem a day, he was asked what he did when he wrote one that didn'tmeet his standards. "Then I just lower my standards," he would say. That's a good strategy, though we who want and even sometimes demand a raise, want to see the lift in all things, including standards, and to that end, and in the spirit of Francois Villon and "les neiges d'antan," we leave you with this immortal question:
Where are the poems of Quemoy and Matsu? You do remember Quemoy and Matsu, don't you? — DL