Armadillo's Book Blog

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From the MGM Picture \”The Band Wagon\”

Music by Arthur Schwartz; Lyric by Howard Dietz

Performed by Nanette Fabray, Fred Astaire and Jack Buchanan

but we first heard it performed by John Lithgow (and like his performance better) on his CD:

Singin’ in the Bathtub

Three little unexpected children

Simultaneously the doctor brought us in

you can see we’ll be three forever and

A E I O You wouldn’t know how agonising being triple can be

Each one is individually the victim of that clinical day (?)

…We do everything alike

We look alike

We dress alike

We walk alike

We talk alike

and what is more we hate each other very much

We hate our folks

We’re sick of jokes on what an art it is to tell us apart!

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This is from the musical, Carousel, but we discovered it first on

Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein

“Oh his name is Mister Snow

And an up-standing man is he.

He comes home every night in his round-bottomed boat,

with a net ful of herring from the sea.

An almost perfect beau.

As refined as a girl could wish.

But he spends so much time in his round-bottomed boat

that he can’t seem to lose the smell of fish…”

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But being immortalized in a painting may not be a fate we all want to volunteer for

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And here’s Dot (what a great name for Seurat’s love) trying to decide between loving the Artist (George) and living her own life

Louis is really an artist:

Louis’ cakes are an art.

Louis isn’t the smartest-

Louis’ popular.

Everybody loves Louis,

Louis bakes from the heart…

The bread, George.

I mean the bread, George.

And then in bed, George…

I mean he kneads me-

I mean like dough, George…

Hello, George…

Louis is always so pleasant,

Louis’ always so fair.

Louis makes you feel present,

Louis’ generous.

That’s the thing about Louis

Louis always is “there.”

Louis’ thoughts are not hard to follow,

Louis’ art is not hard to swallow.

Not that Louis’ perfection-

That’s what makes him ideal.

Hardly anything worth objection:

Louis drinks a bit,

Louis blinks a bit.

Louis makes a connection,

That’s the thing that you feel…

We lose things.

And then we choose things.

And there are Louis’s

And there are Georges-

Well, Louis’s

And George.

But George has George,

And I need-

Someone-

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One of the fun things about this song is that it positively outrages
quick-to-judge grownups when they hear children (or anyone) singing so cheerfully about possibly throwing
their lives away on the Wall of Death. When you listen carefully, though,
you realize that the song is actually about riding a roller-coaster. Extremely catchy tune, also.
We are much taken by Nanci Griffith’s rendition on

Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back To Bountiful)

Let me ride on the Wall of Death one more time

Let me ride on the Wall of Death one more time

You can waste your time on the other rides

But this is the nearest to being alive

Let me take my chances on the Wall of Death

You can go with the crazy people in the crooked house

You can fly away on the rocket or spin in the mouse

The tunnel of love might amuse you

And Noah’s Ark might confuse you but

Let me take my chances on the Wall of Death

On the Wall of Death

All the World is far from me

On the Wall of Death

It’s the nearest to being free

Well you’re going nowhere when you ride on the carousel

And maybe you’re strong, but what’s the use of ringing a bell

The switchback will make you crazy

Beware of the bearded lady

Oh let me take my chances on the Wall of Death

…