David Carson Berry, Review of Irving Berlin: American Troubadour, by Edward Jablonski, Notes [Journal of the Music Library Association] 57/4 (2001): 917–919. Book Reviews -as well as beautiful and talented-in order to Ineasure up to the expectations fron1 within the industry, let alone those generated by audiences. It beCOll1eS clear early in the book that the social conditions fo'r girl singers were very exacting. Bennett engagingly relates how a new, often naive voun?; female would have to learn to ｮ･ｧｯｴｩｾ ･ ｨｾｲ way through the sexual n1inefield generated by her Inere presence, as she traveled on a crowded tour bus for n10nths at a tin1e with a Inixed-race party of raw young n1ale instnllnentalists and an older, wiser, and 1l10re experienced bandleader. With her frequent allusions to the casting-couch Inentality, Bennett acknowledges how com1110n such behavior was in the jazz world of the till1e, though she is clear about the potential dangers it posed to professional integrity. The discussion of her engagen1ent with Benny Goodman's band in 1957 is revealing in this respect, and the anecdote about Goodn1an's nan1eless public introduction of Bennett as "the girl who sings with the band" ren1inds us of how insignificant the band's n10st public face could becon1e at the whin1 of its leader (p. 103). Bennett's storv is an enjovable, inforn1ative account of ｾ fascinating period, when issues of race, gender, and culture crossed paths with son1e of the n10st in1portant n1Usical personalities of the century. Indeed, the range of engagements and professional contacts that constituted her career between 1941 and the n1id-1960s creates a con1 pelling scrapbook of jazz styles and personalities, yet it is in this respect that Bennett's account is perhaps n10st lacking. The list of artists she sang with or saw perform is phenon1enal-Ton1n1Y Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Kenton, Charlie Ventura, Woodv Hern1an, Count Basie-but there is disappointingly little description of how these musicians sounded. In the introduction, Bennett clain1s that she has used simple, familiar tern1inology, but it would not have required complex n1usical jargon to have given n10re of a flavor, for exan1ple, of what Gillespie sounded like playing in a sn1all New York club in the early 1940s. Certainly she evokes the atn10sphere of these experiences, and the personalities con1e across powerfully in n1any cases, but all of this is generally underbalanced by n1usical detail. Bennett's suggestion in the 917 introduction that her "from-the-singer'sn10uth" perspective is unique to her genre of perforn1ance invites anticipation of details about how she actually sang the music. Ultin1ately, however, one is led to understand far n10re about the role of the girl singer as a social construction than as a n1Usicalone. KATE DAUBNEY Vienna Irving Berlin: American Troubadour. By Edward Jablonski. New York: Henry Holt, 1999. [viii, 406 p. ISBN 0-80504077-3. $35.] Capping an active decade in Irving Berlin research, Edward Jablonski's n10nograph is the third on the cOin poser to appear in as n1any years. Charles Han1n1 issued a ren1arkable study in 1997 (Irving Berlin: Songs from the jWelting Pot: The Fonnative Years, 1907-1914 [New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press]) that concentrated on the earlv vears of Berlin's songwriting and ･ｸｰｬｩ｣ｾｴ ､ the social contexts within which his songs were created. Next to appear was the 1998 book by Philip Furia (Irving Berlin: A Life in Song [New York: Schirn1er Books]), a narrative of the songwriter's life, distinguished by its n1any song analyses and its observations on Berlin's attainn1ents as a wordsmith. Jablonski's entry is not only the n10st conventional biographical treatn1ent of the three, but the second lengthiest Berlin monograph to date, trailing only Laurence Bergreen's 1990 volume As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin (New York: Viking). In fourteen chapters plus "prelude" and "coda," the author covers the range of Berlin's life, from his in1poverished family's en1igration from Russia when he was just 5 years old to his peaceful death in a fivestory Manhattan townhouse at age 101. Jablonski's attention to biographical detail, as well as to broader historical and cultural contexts, is laudable. Consider the striking section at the beginning of the book in which he recounts the songwriter's earliest years. After describing the pogroms that drove Berlin's fan1ily fron1 Russia, Jablonski offers a hypothetical reconstruction of the harrowing journey to the New World, the examinations on Ellis Island, 918 and life in the tenelnents of New York's Lower East Side. When covering Berlin's later professional endeavors, Jablonski's conlnlentary is equally replete. Readers who appreciate bounteous descriptions of stage and screen shows will be especially rewarded. The two shows that receive the nlost discussion are This Is the Army and Annie Get Your Gun. The fornler, a World War II revue whose proceeds were donated to Allied war efforts, is reported in abundant detail, with explication of the original Broadway production, the filnl version, and the successful, if sometimes enervating, international stage tour (which, in Italy, came within range of Gernlan aircraft). Particularly welconle is Jablonski's debunking of vexing myths that have persisted in the Berlin literature. He puts in perspective the colorful exaggerations of the songwriter's friend and first biographer, Alexander Woollcott, as well as specimens of hyperbole from various other sources. He also counters song-related fables, considering, for exanlple, differing accounts of the origin of "Blue Skies," and he quotes Berlin hinlself as disnlissing the story that "There's No Business like Show Business" was cut fronl Annie Get Your Gun and almost literally lost before being reinstated. Another attractive feature is the spotlight Jablonski shines on the nlusicians behind the songwriter. Berlin allegedly never learned to notate nlusic, nor was he a skilled pianist; thus, he required the help of "musical secretaries" to develop the arrangements that were circulated as sheet music. These individuals are generally the neglected figures of the music business, but here they receive nlention. Jablonski prominently cites Berlin's principal assistants-Clifford Hess, Arthur Johnston, and longtime anlanuensis Helmy Kresaand credits William Schultz, arranger of the sheet-music version of "Alexander's Ragtinle Band." The reader also discovers the aid provided by those who became famous songwriters thenlselves, such as George Gershwin, who scored "That Revolutionary Rag," and Harry Ruby, nlusical secretary for the show YiP! YiP! Yaphank. Books on celebrated figures often engage in gratuitous nanle-dropping, but here the interjections are quite appropriate, helping to correct many past oversights. NOTES, June 2001 Despite the generally high quality of Jablonski's writing and research, problems do arise. The author's descriptions are occasionally imprecise, if not incorrect. He claims, for example, that the famous songranking radio show, Your Hit Parade, "prenliered that July [of 1935]" (p. 172), whereas its first broadcast was actually nlany weeks earlier, on 20 April. And although Ethel Merman was in several films after There's No Business like Show Business (1954), he refers to it as her "last film" (p. 283); even if he nleant Merman's last musical filnl, he still would be neglecting some of her notable televised nlusical productions, including Annie Get Your Gun (1967). These and other dubious assertions may not be of great consequence to Berlin's biographical chronicle, but they do reveal occasional inlprecision in the author's scholarship. Most detrinlental to the cause of exactitude is the book's lack of endnotes to indicate sources of information or anlplify comments in the nlain text; Jablonski includes source sunlnlaries only (pp. 371-75), providing for each chapter a brief paragraph that suggests the general provenance of selected infor111ation. Further1110re, Jablonski enters seemingly unfanliliar waters whenever he describes Berlin's songs as music. For example, he asserts that "Alexander's Ragtinle Band" was initially rejected because "it was longer than the standard thirty-two bars" (p. 43). Setting aside debate on the extent to which length was a comnlercial criterion of the day, he is simply wrong in his claim: the refrain consists of exactly thirty-two bars. (It is introduced by a sixteen-bar verse, but this too was conlmon.) More often, Jablonski's musical descriptions are not absolutely incorrect, but instead express features in ways that will seem odd to a stylistically competent musician who knows the songs. Chapter 9 provides a convenient repository of several such descriptions, should the reader wish to explore thenl further. Subsequent to the main text is an appendix in three sections, beginning with a song inventory, a feature that appeared also in the Hamnl and Furia books (in the latter, compiled by Ken Bloonl). Hamnl's listing was limited to Berlin's early songs, but Jablonski's and Furia-Bloom's are purportedly complete; thus, it is regrettable to note that neither nlatches the extent of Steven 919 Book Reviews Suskin's inventory of 930 copyrighted songs (Berlin, Kern, Rodgen, HaTt, and Hammerstein: A Complete Song Catalogue [Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1990]). Jablonski's list contains only ca. 730 nlain entries, ca. 30 "addenda" (fronl "never-produced scores" [po 361]), and ca. 35 songs that were deleted prior to the final versions of stage and film productions. Several features, however, make it more useful than the slightly longer list of Furia-Bloonl. In addition to naming deleted show songs, Jablonski indicates songs that were interpolated into other productions; for each show, he gives dates, venues, and principal creative personnel, and under each show title, he lists songs in order of appearance. Part 2 of the appendix is a discography listing "representative recordings" available on conlpact disc; it is divided into "Collections," "Soundtracks," and "Stage Musicals," and each entry is annotated. Finally, part 3 lists sixteen Berlin shows that are available on videocassette, ranging chronologically from The Cocoanuts (1929) to lVhite Christmas (1954). Jablonski's book, along with those of Hamnl and Furia, conlpletes an engaging triumvirate of recent Berlin nlonographs in which the songwriter has finally begun to receive the authoritative study he deserves. Each casts a slightly different light on its subject. Jablonski offers the most straightforward biographical treatnlent, clarifying many details. Accordingly, his book will be an indispensable addition to the shelves of any Berlin scholar. DAVID CARSON BERRY Yale University Expression In Pop-Rock Music: A Collection of Critical and Analytical Essays. Edited by Walter Everett. (Studies in Contemporary Music and Culture, 2.) New York: Garland Publishing, 2000. (xii, 372 p. ISBN 08153-3160-6. $75.) This book is a welconle addition to the growing literature of popular-music analysis, both in its diversity and in its focus on the musical text. Fronl the title alone, its purpose is decidedly ambitious. For the most part, the focus is on method and analytical technique, with the intention to concentrate on the listener's inlagination and "sense of craft." Yet one is often left wondering who exactly the listener is: the fan or the traditional nlusic scholar? I suspect the latter. The collection cOIn prises ten essays by North American scholars, each dealing with issues concerning the analysis of poprock music drawn fronl the second half of the twentieth century. The authors, presenting their interpretations of specific examples, are grouped into subject-related pairs. Nadine Hubbs and Walter Everett flank the book with the first and last chapters respectively. Kicking off the general debate surrounding the problematics of popular-nlusic research, Hubbs sets out to reexanline existing analytical methods by calling for a general "retooling" that nlight permit one "to examine perfornlative and sociocultural elenlents beside and conlnlingling with the nlusic" (p. 5). In her analysis of "Exit Music" from Radiohead's OK Computer, she insists that her discussion assumes "no prior or specialized knowledge of Schenker's techniques of voice-leading analysis" (p. 19). The analytical objective is to position the critical imagination of the nlusicologist within a psychological discourse that opens up a holistic approach to the field. For Hubbs, holisnl in interpretation circunlvents the nlusicology/ sociology binarism by addressing the priorities of nlusic through critical though t. A number of the ideas raised by Hubbs are picked up by Susan Fast in chapter 2, "Music, Contexts, and Meaning in U2." Fast sets out to exanline the nlusic of U2 by treating style as a seman tically rich discourse, framing her decoding of musical features alongside the problematic questions of context. Her foregrounding of technology in U2's "Zoo Station," from Achtung Baby, is particularly useful in positioning a detailed account of the musiccontext congruity in U2. In chapter 3, Ellie M. Hisama's analysis of "Killing an Arab" by the Cure posits a reflective reading that enlbraces the song's source in Albert Camus's L 'etranger. While there might have been more explication of analytical nlethod, the strength of Hisama's contribution undoubtedly lies in its political interpretation.