As we (shockingly) failed to celebrate The Master Noel Coward's 120th birthday last week, I thought I'd make up for that fact by "rediscovering" some research I featured over at my other blog Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle back in 2013 about one of his most famous and enduring works, Mad About The Boy...
From BytesDaily blog:
Noël Coward wrote the song for a 1932 London revue, Words and Music. The song concerns the unrequited love of the singer for a film star and, as originally written, it was sung by four different women who are queued outside a cinema, all pining for the matinee idol. For the New York Broadway version, Coward wrote additional verses that referred to gay feelings, effeminacy and conversion therapy. The verses ran foul of censorship laws and were never performed, references to homosexuality being forbidden.We have, here at Dolores Delargo Towers, a cover of the "gay" version by the late Peter Greenwell on CD, but unfortunately no recording appears to be "out there" by The Master himself.
The original lyrics are:
Mad about the boy
I know it's stupid to be mad about the boy
I'm so ashamed of it but must admit the sleepless nights I've had
About the boy
On the silver screen
He melts my foolish heart in every single scene
Although I'm quite aware that here and there are traces of the cad
About the boy
Lord knows I'm not a fool girl
I really shouldn't care
Lord knows I'm not a school girl
In the fury of her first affair
Will it ever cloy
This odd diversity of misery and joy
I'm feeling quite insane and young again
And all because I'm mad about the boy
So if I could employ
A little magic that will finally destroy
This dream that pains me and enchains me
But I can't because I'm mad...
I'm mad about the boy
One of the verses in the "straight" version is
Mad about the boy,
It's pretty funny
But I'm mad about the boy.
He has a gay appeal that makes me feel
There's maybe something sad about the boy.
The word “gay” did not become synonymous with homosexual for another three decades but, according to the Encyclopaedia Of Homosexuality, the phrase "gay cat" meaning "a homosexual boy" first appeared in print in 1933. It is therefore likely that the use of the word gay for homosexual was already in use and that the straight lyrics include in-jokes by Noël Coward.
The lyrics to the banned version are:
Mad about the boy
I know it’s silly
But I’m mad about the boy
And even Dr Freud cannot explain
Those vexing dreams
I’ve had about the boy
When I told my wife
She said
“I never heard such nonsense in my life!”
Her lack of sympathy
Embarrassed me
And made me frankly glad about the boy.
My doctor can’t advise me
He’d help me if he could
Three time he’s tried to psychoanalyse me
But it’s just no good
People I employ
Have the impertinence
To call me Myrna Loy
I rise above it
Frankly love it
‘Cos I’m absolutely
Mad about the boy
I have featured Miss Washington's version before, and Miss Lyngstad's (at the link above to my 2013 blog), and, earlier this month, Mr Gallavin and his "ladies".
So we'll have to make do with these...
...and... Mr Brynner in DRAG?!
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16th December 1899 – 26th March 1973)
YUL BRYNNER IN DRAG??????? I never would have guessed.
ReplyDeleteShe was so pretty... Jx
DeleteNot the first Noel but definitely the best
ReplyDelete"Joyeux Noel", perhaps? Jx
Delete