http://bibliophibian.blogspot.com/2009/08/twenty-four-house-that-george-built.ht... ( )

A brisk, fun read through the American Songbook. Sheed structures his narrative around key composers, so it's a mix of biographical anecdote and commentary on the songs themselves. Other reviewers claim the writing is akin to a Gershwin lyric: I can't verify that for lack of familiarity with Gershwin, but it is wittily written, and there are amusing turns of phrase.

Overall I'm left with the impression I'm reading the transcript to a DVD commentary track. It's great stuff, I'm swept up in Sheed's affection for his topic. But it's as though I've missed the movie. I'm not familiar enough with the individual tunes or tunesmiths to recognise specifically that to which Sheed directs my attention. The book would benefit from both an annotated list of songs, and a web site with snippets or tracks -- similar to what Ross did for The Rest Is Noise.

But that's quibbling about what it doesn't do rather than what it does, and really, I find no fault with Sheed's account or his rendering of it. I'm motivated to seek out other titles, and of course, recordings of the tunes themselves. Who could ask for anything more?

NOTES

Sheed claims to focus on the tunes rather than the lyric, but the text itself addresses itself almost equally (and equally admiringly) to each. Perhaps the selection of songs and the songwriters was affected by this more than anything.

Music & Lyrics: Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer
Lyrics: Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Burke, Oscar Hammerstein, Jonny Hart, Frank Loesser, Yip Harburg
Music: Jimmy Van Heusen, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Burton Lane
?: Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael

Candidates for writers since 1970 who continued in the tradition (at least sporadically): Rufus Wainwright, Sting, Holly Cole, Tom Waits, Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Gavin Friday, Marc Almond, Ute Lemper, Bryan Ferry, Harry Connick, Jr., Paul Weller.

Sheed claims the "greatest song" of Kern's "or anyone" is 'All the Things You Are'

Sheed rests his analysis of the "jazz song" or "standard" on the argument that it was a blend of black musical idiom (jazz & blues) and Jewish musical idiom (more immigrant / itinerant melange than klezmer). How defensible is that? ( )

If you are a fan of the "Great American Songbook" or musical Broadway, you must read this book. ( )

The House That George Built is another book about the men and women who wrote The Great American Songbook. There have been plenty of these, but this is the first I've found that actually zips and bubbles and laughs like a Gershwin tune. Wilfred Sheed grew up with this music, knows it very well, and seems to have woven it right into his DNA.

George Gershwin naturally dominates the book, since his personality dominated the musical scene during his lifetime, and his influence has lasted far longer than that. Sheed does a good job of conveying how it felt to be alive while Gershwin was tossing off masterworks in both "high" and "low" genres without seeming to tire at all...virtually right up to the day a brain tumor killed him at the age of thirty-eight. This is the book's best section, and it will intoxicate anyone who cares about popular music.

Because the book proceeds from the heyday of Berlin/Porter/Gershwin up to the present day, Sheed must portray songwriters of less and less note as the pages pile up. It's not his fault that the golden age of American song (jazz division) ended as the 21st century approached, I suppose...but after spending a chapter with Cole Porter, one finds it difficult to get excited about Jimmy Van Heusen. Unless you're a songwriter dork like me, of course. Sheed keeps coming up with interesting info about even the minor songsmiths, keeps on writing lively prose. He's such an entertaining host that I can even forgive his frequent carping about the rock n' roll primitives who came and wrecked the music of his youth...hell, if I can bitch about the way Britney, he can complain about the British Invasion.

A lot of books about music are tuneless; this one reads like a good tune, and if you haven't immersed yourself in the Great American Songbook yet -- you idiot -- this book will show you how and where to start.