Cover of Venice Venice
Words by Marshall Barer
Music by David Collin Ross
Published by BING CLAWSBY
Marshall sang this song in the
a song for HENRY JAGLOM‘s film “Venice/Venice” he also appeared in the film with Ross
In the liner notes of “The Time Has Come!: The Songs of Marshall Barer ” Marshall wrote about this song that “[DAVID ROSS] wishes I wouldn’t keep referring to the melody as one which might have been written by Jerome Kern. I can’t think why”
Lyrics
How do I love thee
Let my count the ways
One, two, three, four, five millions
This will take me days
and days
and days
Shall I, my love, compare thee to
Baba au rhum or summer’s day?
Handel chorale or Malibu?
Rubens, Ravel or Mel Torme?
Is there a better metaphor
For how I melt
Beholding you?
Or shall the glow I so adore
Only be felt
Enfolding you?
Racking my brain for fitting praise!
Seeking in vain the perfect phrase!
Poring through piles of poems and plays!
Haunting the aisles at Doubleday’s!
I might convey
The state I’m in
If I could play
The mandolin;
Since I cannot, I’ll just declare
You are beyond compare
And leave it right there.
Who could compose
Your valentine?
Not Billy Rose,
Nor Gertrude Stein.
Only a “Hart” like Larry might
Tell you what burns in mine tonight.
That which of which there’s only one
Simply defines comparison
So I repeat in sweet despair
You’re beyond Compare
Notes
How do I love thee… This is a quote from “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Shall I, my love, compare thee to.. another quote. This is, of course, from “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” by William Shakespeare
Haunting the aisles at Doubleday’s! The Doubleday Publishing Group is a publishing company. It was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday, who had formed a partnership with magazine publisher Samuel McClure.
Doubleday also owns several bookstores.
Not Billy Rose not Gertrude Stein a funny fact that I’m not sure Marshall was aware of: several musical historians believe that Lorenz Hart, at the beginning of his carrer, worked for Billy Rose as ghost writer and that most of the lyrics written by Rose were actually by Hart.
Sweet despair this is what in retoric you can call an oxymoron: figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.
Related Articles
- How do I love thee? (energybulletin.net)
Lorenz Hart & Marshall Barer 
This is great, Al! I’m a big fan of lyrical analysis of such great writers.
for further performances of barer songs try Cynthia Crane ‘the time has come’,cd lookout jazz 0109 and ‘im confused,therefore I am, cd.lookout jazz 0310.