Lyrics Read online

  All: Sadie, won’t you be mine?

  (Brief musical break)

  SADIE: I can’t

  Cause there’s something in me

  Extant

  Like a bird that is free

  I want romance and loving

  But I can’t forego

  This endless urge for gaily roving

  I would

  If I could but I can’t

  So I won’t

  So you see if you rant

  Forever

  Forever and a day

  I would always be compelled to say “nay, nay”

  For I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.

  ALL MEN: (Get up and do simple movements while singing)

  Sadie

  I love you so, I love you so, I love you so-O-o-oh

  Sadie

  How well you know, how well you know, how well you know

  Why don’t you flee with me

  To faraway places

  Kick off the traces

  Bay-hay-hay-hay-hay-bee

  Sadie

  I’m in despair

  I never met another

  That I’d rather make a mother

  Than Sadie

  Be my lady Mi-ne

  (Now they go into a dance routine while Sadie watches. When their routine is almost over, Johnny (as the hero) comes on stage right reading a book. He does not notice her but she pretends to draw him in by pulling her fingers magically towards the bench so that he follows them and sits down at the other end of the bench. The men see this when they are finished and making various signs of heartbreak they break up into little groups.)

  SADIE: (Casts little side glances and then clears her throat. He looks at her but then back at his book. She frowns and then smiles. She drops her handkerchief on the ground. He does not notice and she picks it up with a frown with the end of her umbrella. Then she draws it through the air and he smells the perfume on it. He looks up at her.)

  Won’t you come a little closer

  Little closer, sir to me,

  If you do then you will know, sir,

  What the meaning is of ecstasy

  I promise not to bite your head off

  I’m as gentle as can be

  So won’t you move a little closer, closer

  Little closer, sir, to me.

  JOHNNY: (coolly)

  Whether it’s December or it’s June

  I’m immune

  From nature and her tricks

  From winsome smiles

  and girlish wiles

  From sparkling eyes

  And breathless sighs

  And all the things that mix

  A fellows mind until he doesn’t know

  If there is snow

  Or grass upon the ground

  So all your invitations

  To the rest may be occasions

  But this boy has been around.

  SADIE: (Moves closer and sings. He tries to read but by the end of the song he does what she asks.)

  You’ve never kissed me.

  You’ve never known me

  You’ve never held me

  Close in your arms.

  You’ve never kissed me

  Because I’ve never flown

  So I could always be

  Close to your charms.

  So if you kiss me

  And I will know if it’s true

  That I will never see

  More than friendship from you.

  So as it narrows down

  There’s only one guarantee

  That I meant nothing to you

  And that’s for you-to-kiss-me.

  (She is right by him and gives him a long lingering kiss.)

  JOHNNY: (Sits dumbly on the bench staring ahead. Then he starts to sing weakly.)

  I didn’t know what I was talking about

  I hadn’t the slightest idea that I’d find

  Romance so exciting

  So wonderfully rare

  That my heart would be fighting

  To jump out of the frigid-air.

  If I had once ever suspected that love

  Could sail any heart in the blue shy above,

  I’d have given up the struggle

  And let my locked heart out

  I didn’t know what I was talking about.

  Sadie. I love you. Marry me.

  SADIE: I can’t.

  JOHNNY: Why?

  SADIE: I don’t know. There’s just something holding me back.

  (She begins to sing “I Can’t” and Johnny joins in with her. Both songs are sung in unison per lead sheet. While they sing – towards the end of the song – a Spaniard comes walking out onto stage right with sombrero, guitar, bright sash, et al. Johnny does not notice him until the end of the song, the Spaniard offers her his hand and she smiles, rises and walks off at left upstage.)

  JOHNNY: (Looks dazed at this occurrence. He stares at where they have exited and then gets up. He wanders over to where all the men are watching. He looks at them, and shrugs his shoulders with his arms raised, palms up.) I don’t get it.

  ALL: (Ala “Good Evening Friends”) You never will…

  JOHNNY: (He sits down on another bench and stares at the stage.)

  ALL: (Group around him and start singing to the tune of “Come a Little Closer”… with changes for difference in meter of words.)

  Welcome to the club we call it

  Those who’ve sat too close incorporate

  If a fellow flops at love, then he

  Should do well in our fraternity

  We’re the flotsam and the jetsam

  On the sea of sweet romance

  We’re the guys who sat too close to Sadie

  And only got a kick in the pants.

  (They take him in their midst and all exit stage right as Sadie and the Spaniard come on stage left, arm in arm. She sits down on the bench and he kneels before it.)

  SPANIARD: Senorita where I come from

  This can only mean one thing.

  You and I are going to marry

  I’ll go now to get the ring.

  We will live in hacienda

  We will eat tortilla beans.

  We will raise a great big family.

  That’s what this means

  (He gets up and they start dancing to “Sadie” in a tango beat. At the end of the dance she kisses him lightly, and he falls back in a faint to be caught by two chorus men, who have rushed on stage just at the right moment. They drag him off stage right. Sadie wanders over to bench and sits down, arranging her hair and primping. At this point a very well dressed Englishman with a monocle and all the graces comes on from left upstage. He walks over to her in a manner that indicates he expects to be knighted or at least to ascent very shortly. He takes a handkerchief from his pocket, puts it down carefully and kneels down gingerly.)

  ENGLISHMAN:

  I’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean

  To extend my propositions

  I think that we’d be happy

  Under marital conditions

  Sadie, please marry me

  Sadie please say you’ll be

  The Lady Sadie Tudor Fitzhugh the Seventh

  or is it the eleventh

  I really cannot recall

  But Sadie I promise you.

  That half of our children’s blood will be absolutely blue.

  For I’m extremely wealthy

  And my family quite healthy

  So dear Sadie

  Be my lady mine.

  (He rises carefully and they dance a waltz to the melody of “Sadie.” At the end she kisses him. He gives a loud English laugh, passes out and is carried off right downstage by two chorus members, who again have appeared just in time.)

  SADIE: (Repeats her performance that happened after she kissed the Spaniard.)

  (Enter a Russian dressed boldly and extravagantly. He comes on stage left with long strides and throws himself before her.)

  RUSSIAN: Sadie, won’t you be mine />
  Sadie, you’re looking fine

  I think that you will be an adequate modder

  I’ll be the fodder

  Let’s be off for the Kremlin.

  Sadie, your life will be

  Full of sweet ecstasy

  Cause you’ve never been kissed

  Til you’ve been kissed by a Communist

  Sadie be my laddie mine.

  (He starts to dance violently and at the end of the dance he is so tired that he collapses and is dragged off the stage.)

  SADIE: (Sighs and leans back on the bench. The lights grow dimmer as if it were later in the day. She starts to sing slowly and unhappily. As she sings, the chorus men, Johnny and the other

  three slowly come out and hum in the background, as they stand there looking at her.)

  There doesn’t seem to be

  anyone for me

  I guess it’s all because

  of my perversity.

  But I keep searching

  Hoping that I’ll find

  The man who fills my dreams

  Fills my searching mind.

  So I’ll go on and on

  Reaching for a star (she starts off stage)

  And breaking hearts because

  That’s what hearts are for.

  I know I’m callous inside

  I haven’t denied

  It’s true

  But I will search for my dre-am

  Until I can see him

  Until I can really know.

  (She stands for a moment at the edge of the stage left downstage. Then after they all sing slowly “Sadie we love you sooooo,” she twirls her parasol a little and exits.)

  (Curtain)

  * * * *

  Also indicated in the schedule for Act II are the three songs I put under Act I. Four if you add the following. (I played a dance number to this melody in Act I.)

  MY HEART TELLS ME DIFFERENT

  I can try to say

  that your going away

  didn’t do a thing to me

  But my heart tells me different.

  Tells me differently

  I can make believe

  that I never will grieve

  for a love that cannot be

  but me heart tells me different

  tells me differently (You thought I couldn’t spell. Ha-ha to you.)

  You can’t ever argue

  with a beat that can drag you down

  and walk all over your dreams

  You ain’t got a chance

  If you play with romance

  to extremes.

  And when sometimes I find

  that I really don’t mind

  for a moment I’m almost free

  Then my heart tells me different

  Different – Differently.

  Not too bad a lyric. And the music is rather interesting. Too bad I can’t remember where they went.

  * * * *

  One more song before I left M.U. in June ’49 with a bachelor of journalism degree.

  To Mary.

  MARY

  You meet her.

  You smile and hold her hand

  and you greet her.

  You start to understand

  that you’ve never

  met anyone like her before.

  Her style is

  the soul of style that wins you

  Her smile is

  the kind that makes your heart

  begin to beat

  as it never would beat before

  and she has eyes

  that sparkle and shine for you

  with her embrace around you

  The corner she holds

  is always brighter

  because she brings sunshine

  in beside her

  Who loves her

  is hardly to blame

  And Mary is her name.

  To repeat myself, I should have been nicer to her. She was a warm, affectionate human being. I have not forgotten her.

  * * * *

  After I returned to Brooklyn, I continued writing songs. Why, I don’t know. I had no market for them. I did have a market for my story writing which I now concentrated on. I sold a couple of short-shorts before moving to Los Angeles in 1951. I remember my friend Spencer commenting in awe as we ambled down a Manhattan street, “Fifty dollars for a short story! Wow!”

  That kind of awe diminished for us as time progressed.

  But the song writing went on. The lyrics – as usual – fluctuated between positive and negative. (Which, in brief, probably reflected my mind.)

  WITHOUT ROMANCE

  (In D-flat minor no less. Five flats!)

  Without romance

  The world would be empty

  Without romance

  the world would be cold. (Partially positive)

  For only love can make

  a dream for you.

  And only love can make

  That dream come true.

  And though you find

  That love isn’t easy

  who love are blind

  Your heart will be told

  But with no one to care

  you haven’t a chance

  of finding happiness

  without romance.

  Well, the music is pretty cool. D-flat minor? Good God. And still, I kept going.

  PITY MY HEART

  Verse:

  Love is just

  an up and down affair

  Fluctuating night and day

  Love is always

  unpredictable

  alternating sad and gay. (It meant something different in those days.)

  Chorus:

  Pity my heart

  for the time it’s had

  Please, darling

  Pity my heart

  All of the rounds

  from glad to sad (Negative)

  My heart has known form the start.

  Please treat it gently.

  It’s not very strong

  after the treatment

  it’s had all along

  And the worst time of all

  is when we’re apart.

  So be kind and

  pity my heart.

  How lugubrious can you get? I get close.

  * * * *

  The next one was better. More Cole Porterish.

  BLUE TEMPTATION

  Verse:

  Night! Stars!

  Shining in a dark blue sky!

  Love! Ours!

  Breathless moments

  Passing by!

  Chorus:

  The night

  is blue temptation

  When you are in my arms.

  I yield

  to blue temptation

  that finds its meaning

  in your charms.

  And here we are together

  as we were meant to be

  And all those magic

  moments of bliss

  Will always remain with me

  Blue temptation!

  A bit more positive. As was:

  ANYTIME

  Anytime

  any one

  wants to smile at me

  I’ll be more than glad

  to smile right back again

  Any clime

  In the sun

  or in the rain

  I’ll be more than glad

  to smile right back at them

  For a smile

  doesn’t cost you a thing

  It’s free

  and the market is good

  supply and demand

  don’t agree

  for smiles

  are as scarce as can be

  So my friend

  it’s the easiest

  thing you can do

  but that little smile

  makes life worthwhile

  for you

  That little smile

  can make life

  worthwhile for you!

  At the end of that song I wrote finis. I love it
. Delightfully gauche.

  * * * *

  My next two songs went downhill again.

  I TRIED TO SMILE

  Verse:

  I can smile at a movie

  Laugh at a pun

  Always enjoy

  some casual fun.

  There’s only one thing

  I can’t do

  Summon a smile

  when they talk about you.

  Chorus:

  I tried to smile.

  Act unconcerned.

  I tried to hide

  How much I yearned.

  To have you back again

  To hold you near.

  And never let you go

  But only know

  That you were always there.

  I tried to smile

  The sham is poor

  My mind and I

  Just can’t ignore

  the lovely constancies

  of memories

  that linger all the while

  My heart showed through

  When I tried to smile.

  And:

  THE BEAT IS BLUE

  Verse:

  There’s the beat

  of the jungle tom-tom

  When the tropical day

  is through

  There’s the beat of rain

  On the window pane

  And the beat of my heart

  for you

  Chorus:

  But the beat is blue

  yes, the beat is blue

  The beat should be gay

  and forever should stay

  that way

  but the beat is blue

  Oh, the beat is blue.

  It should constantly be

  Something vibrant and free

  But for me

  The beat, yeas the beat is blue.

  In the night

  When the light

  has died.

  It will steal

  and reveal

  what’s inside

  It is hopeless to try

  and evade it.

  For after all

  it’s your own heart

  that made it.

  Oh, that beat of blue

  Endless beat of blue

  The intricate plays

  of romance and its ways

  will last

  with the beat of blue

  When the beat is blue.

  When the beat is blue

  And the beat is blue!

  * * * *

  One more. I couldn’t seem to stop.