The Great American Songbook

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 27th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a blast from the past.

Tomorrow WORLD Radio is launching—or I should say relaunching —an occasional series featuring the music of “The Great American Songbook.” Some listeners who have been with us since the beginning of this program may remember long time friend and contributor Bob Case.

MAST: Bob was our founding director of the WORLD Journalism Institute. Not only that, but for more than a year starting in 2013 Bob was a regular here with a feature we called: “Singing in the Shower.” Audio here from August 30th, 2013:

JOSEPH SLIFE: In this first installment, Bob acquaints us with “Tin Pan Alley.”

BOB CASE: “Tin Pan Alley” – Ah, the name has a ring and a magic to me that moves my feet to tapping and my tongue to singing.

EICHER: Well, a while ago Bob offered to pick up where he left off a decade ago, and so starting tomorrow Bob Case will be back on occasion with dozens of new selections from the Great American Songbook.

MAST: But since we’ve had so many new listeners join the program in the decade since Bob was last with us, we thought you might appreciate a more official introduction.

Here’s WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: A couple months ago I flew out to Seattle, Washington, to deliver some equipment and record the first half dozen scripts with Bob Case in person.

PAUL BUTLER: [OFF MIC] Is this okay if I'm wearing my headphones? Do you feel like it gets in the way?

CASE: No, no. Are we ready to go?

PAUL BUTLER: We are ready to go…

The first thing you notice in Bob’s studio/office are the bookcases, lots of them. Some are filled with biographies of musical greats like Bing Crosby, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. But that’s only part of his library. He also has hundreds of theology books, Bibles, and commentaries. It’s an apt picture of his two loves: Christ and The Great American Songbook.

CASE: If you want to know and have a knowledge of America in the 20th century, you must know something about the most important cultural artifact in America, and that is the Great American Songbook.

As you’ll hear tomorrow, the Great American Songbook isn’t actually a book, it’s how musicologists describe the golden age of American popular music from the first 60 years of the 20th century. It’s not exactly the music Bob Case grew up listening to.

CASE: The music that I love is my parent’s music. And the music that my 16-year-old granddaughter loves is her great grandparents Music. Why is that music gonna last? Why does George Gershwin's music of the late 1920s or Cole Porter's or Irving Berlin's 1911, 1912 music still being sung, still being performed. Alright, why?

That’s one of the questions we’re going to answer in this series.

Another is: Why appreciate this popular music?

CASE: Almost every American Songbook song has the has in its lyrics, creation, fall, redemption and consummation. It was totally different because it was written in an age of the church, and as the church began to fall away from its interaction in American society, in rushed rock and roll.

And Case says as rock and roll came in, chaste love songs between a man and woman who wanted to get married, have children, and raise a family went out.

CASE: And if I'm an old fuddy duddy, that's because I like that traditional morality and ethic that goes along with the music of the 30s and the 40s and the 50s.

Believe me, Bob is no fuddy duddy, but at 81 years old he’s definitely motivated to share his love of this music with the next generation because much of today’s music industry has lost its way. Case believes an appreciation of the Great American Songbook can help with what he calls “cultural apologetics” as so much of the music is surprisingly theological…

CASE: We need to support the American Songbook, because the American Songbook supports us. It supports our view of marriage. It supports our view of Christian anthropology. A man is a man, and women are glad of it…We have a stake in preserving the music by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin…because nothing else is being preserved for us in our culture. But this music is worth preserving.

Bob Case’s knowledge of this music doesn’t just come from books and recordings…

SOUND: [ BOB PLAYING MUSIC]

…a baby grand piano fills his modest music room. Sheet music is piled on the edge of the piano and spills onto the floor. Photographs of musical groups he’s led over the years line the walls. He doesn’t perform much any more, but many days, if you drop by his home, you’ll find him sitting at the piano…

SOUND: [BOB PLAYING MUSIC]

CASE: They were very good composers…that's why their music has lasted into 2024. And…it was popular music made to be thrown away, but we didn't want to throw it away because it was so good.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

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