By Tony Attwood
If you want an overall review of Bob’s book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song” there is one here. And of course, there is the option of reading Bob’s book, or one of the multitude of fulsome reviews of the book, yourself. What I am seeking to do here is to provide a copy of each song, so if you are not familiar with the piece, you can listen to it. And then also provide a few thoughts of my own as to why Bob picked this particular song, although of course you don’t have to read them.
A list of the songs in the book with links to our reviews is at the end.
Today we have “On the street where you live”
This song comes from the musical “My Fair Lady”. It was sung by Freddy Eynsford-Hill in the show and written by Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music). Its popularity comes from taking the notion of feeling an extra something special simply by walking past the home of a lover or a person whom one admires. As such, the song ignores contemporary reality in which hanging around, or walking up and down the street past. the home of a lover or person one admires could be considered creepy at best and an intrusion into privacy at worst.
But the 1956 Broadway hit and the 1964 film didn’t go to such realities, and the fantasy has always been maintained. The fact that the B side of the record was “We all need love” maintains the viewpoint – love is the supreme emotion.
However, we may note that this has not always been Bob’s view, even though he included this song in his “Philosophy”. Some of his classic works step completely aside from the world of love, and indeed can take us to the opposite end of the spectrum – as with “Desolation Row,” for example.
However, the song we have here was released at the time of the first Broadway production and was an immediate hit in the USA, not least through its dramatic opening, which precedes the first verse.
This is a real theatrical show stopper where indeed the action stops for the character in the musical to express nothing other than pure emotions. There is, in fact, no world beyond these emotions: they encompass everything.
Such is the power of the music that it covers the simplicity of this thought expressed in the lyrics and indeed the simplicity of the song’s construction. Forwhat we have are two verses of four lines, a middle 8 (“And oh the towering feeling…”) and a third verse which is repeated.
I have often walked down this street before But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before All at once am I several stories high Knowing I'm on the street where you live Are there lilac trees in the heart of town? Can you hear a lark in any other part of town? Does enchantment pour out of every door? No, it's just on the street where you live [Middle 8] And oh, the towering feeling Just to know somehow you are near Thе overpowering feeling That any second you may suddеnly appear People stop and stare, they don't bother me For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be Let the time go by, I won't care if I Can be here on the street where you live
But it is of course, the melody that most people remember, although it is noticeable that the chord sequence is very adventurous, and not something that Bob himself would venture into until around 1973 and 1974, by which time he’d already written many of his most famous songs.
In particular, we might note the middle 8 – the additional section added to many strophic songs in which the melody, chord sequence and indeed whole direction of the song changes.
But what most people remember is the verse and its quick chord changes. For all that Bob may have admired in the lyrics, I think it was the extraordinary dexterity of the chord progression that drew him in and made him wonder how much further he could take a chord sequence with his style of writing.
C6 G7 C I have often walked down this street before; CM7 Ebdim D9 G7 But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before. Dm9 Dm7/ C Am All at once am I Several stories high. D G9 C6 Knowing I'm on the street where you live.
Previously in this series
- Ball of confusion
- Cheaper to Keep Her
- CIA Man – the Fugs
- Detroit City
- Don’t let me be misunderstood
- Dirty Life and Times
- Detroit City
- Dirty Life and Times
- Don’t let me be misunderstood
- El Paso
- I got a woman
- If you don’t know me by now
- I’ve always been crazy
- Jesse James and Po Boy
- Keep my Skillet Good and Greasy
- Little White Cloud that Cried
- Mac the Knife
- Money Honey
- My Generation and Desolation Row
- Nellie was a Lady
- Old Violin by Johnny Paycheck
- On the road again (save a horse)
- On the street where you live
- Pancho and Lefty
- Please don’t let me be misunderstood
- Poor Little Fool
- Poison Love
- Pump it up
- Saturday night at the movies
- Strangers in the Night
- Take Me from This Garden of Evil
- The Pretender
- The Whiffenpoof Song
- There stands the glass
- Tutti Fruiti (A wap bop a … etc)
- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
- When
- Where or When
- Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me
- Without a song