Just in Time

I recently went with my friend Steve to Palm Springs to help him and Michael put in landscaping. After hauling decomposed granite all over the yard all morning in the desert heat and humidity (thanks to Hurricane Dean), we showered, changed, and headed to a great deli Steve just discovered. While driving to lunch we were listening to Michael's favortie radio station, which plays, according to Steve, "old lady music". My ears pricked up when I heard a distinctive voice singing one of my favorite songs and I asked, "is that Judy Garland?" And they listened for a minute and agreed it was. And they asked me which movie the song was from. And I answered that it wasn't from a movie but from her television show. Michael observed, "Tim, were you alive during her television show?" I was, but just. So Michael said I had completely redeemed my gay card.

Needless to say, I was quite relieved. They're always threatening to take it away since I'm not obsessively neat, I'm not a great dresser, and I'm not much at interior decoration. But I am a friend of Dorothy.

When I was taking voice lessons many years ago, I picked up the sheet music to this song and was not impressed. By itself it's a fairly simple song without much to grab your attention. But Judy Garland wasn't just a little lady with a big voice who wore her heart on her sleeve. She also had an amazing ear that enabled her to stay with an orchestra through very complex arrangements. Many arrangers will change keys in the middle of a song to add some energy to it. For Judy, Mort Lindsay created this arrangement that changes key 4 times. And she's not following the orchestra into the new key, she's going there first. For 2 of the key changes she doesn't even take a breath. While holding a note she just kicks it up a notch. And after all that, to end as solidly as she does is not as easy or inevitable as she makes it look.