Is That All There Is? - A Link Heaven Post
About 40 years ago Peggy Lee recorded a song that I discovered yesterday. It's called "Is That All There Is?" It's unusually philosophical for a pop song, especially considering that it was penned by the people who brought us "There Goes My Baby," "Hound Dog," "Smokey Joe's Cafe," "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown," and many more tunes that lacked the existential punch packed by this one. There is some great insight about this song at this website (better info, in this case, than Wikipedia - i.e. the answer to the mystery of how Leiber and Stoller came to write this song). It's based on Disillusionment, a very short story (the complete text is available for free online here), written by Thomas Mann (when he was 20). The song was made famous by Peggy Lee in 1968 (but her version is incomplete on Youtube). You can see, if that's acceptable to you, Bette Midler (when did her hair turn blonde?) singing the complete song here.
I believe that there is more than these wonderful, bittersweet, human experiences. And yet...
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 6:04 AM
6 Comments:
Wow. That's all I can say right now. Except that your post, and the page you linked to about the song, made me dumbstruck or awestruck at the connectivity of human minds, now enhanced via the Internet.
Yep. I rate this a wow too. And I really apreciate your wow comment.
I once heard R' Yaakov Weinberg ztl refer to death as the final disillusion. It was a clever play on the word, as in the illusion of temporal existence finally being torn away.
Cool Kishke. Thanks. He was sharp/profound.
Interesting. Thanks!
Thanks. Intersting how and why Uri?
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