Ling'ring Mem'ries

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 413, 23 May 1947, Page 10

Ling'ring Mem'ries

HE nostalgic gentlemen who revive songs redolent of old lavender and mothballs in programmes such as 3YL’s Do You Remember? have more to distinguish them from _ the present-day variety of hit-paraders than the boaters and bow ties which they probably wore. But when you boil it all down, it appears that it is not theme, technique, syncopation, psychology, or Spike Jones that makes the difference; it’s just a matter of vocabulary. The sentiment under the straw boater, in short, is no different from the sentiment in the zoot-suit-but it’s differently expressed. You Are the Honey Honey Suckle no longer; instead, with truly succinct apt-ness-so they tell me-You're an Old Smoothie. In the same way Tea for Two becomes by a natural process of thought and — presumably — progress, Drinking Rum and Coca-Cola. He no longer meets her Down By the Old Mill Stream as he used to do, but in the Five and Ten Cent Store, which has the double advantage of being.(a) more practical and (b) more likely. And when she lets him down he doesn’t tell us now Oh What a Pal Was Mary as he did in Monday night’s session and no doubt many other times; he remarks what a Hot Babe was Mabe and as likely as not goes off to Buy a Paper Doll that He Can Call

His Own-which is after all the only sensible thing to do under the circumstances.