Song lyrics just ain’t like they used to be! Billy Stayhorn wrote the lyrics to “Lush Life”, when he was a teenager. WOW! It’s a favorite “jazz standard” of mine. I think Queen Latifah (Dana Owens) nails it!
Lush Life
I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come what may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life…
From jazz and cocktails.
The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
With distant gay traces
That used to be there you could see where theyd been washed away
By too many through the day…
Twelve oclock tales.
Then you came along with your siren song
To tempt me to madness!
I thought for a while that your poignant smile was tinged with the sadness
Of a great love for me.
Ah yes! I was wrong…
Again,
I was wrong.
Life is lonely again,
And only last year everything seemed so sure.
Now life is awful again,
A trough full of hearts could only be a bore.
A week in Paris will ease the bite of it,
All I care is to smile in spite of it.
I’ll forget you, I will
While yet you are still burning inside my brain.
Romance is mush,
Stifling those who strive.
I’ll live a lush life in some small dive…
And there I’ll be, while I rot
With the rest of those whose lives are lonely, too..
Hmmm….
That’s EXACTLY the way I want to write, lyrically!! I LOVE that song. I first got to really know it when I got into Nat Cole back in the eighties. I was the only young dude I knew (white OR black) who listened to this kind of stuff. that’s why I listen to Buble’ and Kurt Elling and the like.
Those unconventional rhyme schemes get me! Few writers today are paying such close attention to words.
“You done took the ‘Rome BACK!”
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Hahahaha! I knew this was your song! You’re my twin, I tell ya! Seriously.
“Romance is mush…stifling those who strive…” WOW! That’s a killer line, right there!
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I do love the queen. I am a jazz fan, but I am not that familiar with jazz music. I like Nina Simone and Billy Holiday. I forgot Mizz Owens could sing (like this anyhow). I love this song. I will be downloading it.
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Nice…
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I’d love it if you used my version of Lush Life. It’s on youtube. My hair is natural and I am wearing no makeup in my version. And I’m told it sounds pretty good. All natural.
sistalinda
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