In reading The Star and The New York Times, I’m always on the lookout for examples of insightful writing and felicitous phrasing.
Here are three examples I have come across in the last few days.
Carr
The first comes from David Carr, The Times’ chief media reporter and columnist. He had an excellent online column about the impact of the TMZ video of Baltimore Ravens’ star Ray Rice punching and knocking out his then-girlfriend, now-wife Janay Palmer.
Carr opened the column this way:
“The N.F.L., arguably the three most powerful letters in branding, bumped into three other letters — TMZ — and was thrown for a huge loss.”
It’s hard for a reader to resist a concise, catchy beginning like that, and I’m sure that the vast majority of readers who started that column stayed with Carr until the end.
And here’s how he wrapped it up:
“The influence of a site that was initially named after the Thirty Mile Zone — a shorthand used by the industry to describe the area around Hollywood — has grown to the 3,000-mile zone, a countrywide reach. There’s a reason for that. All the world’s a stage, as Shakespeare pointed out, and all the men and women merely players — they have their exits and their entrances, and by now we can be pretty sure that those players will be known, their deeds will become legend and consequences will ensue.”
It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it — writing like that, as well as the proliferation of video that is putting the lie to many high-profile people’s attempts to explain away reprehensible speech and behavior?
**
Sometimes a pathetic, losing, sports team offers richer prose opportunities than teams that customarily win.
Take Kansas City Star sportswriter Rustin Dodd’s account of the Duke Blue Devils’ 41-3 trouncing of the KU football team on Saturday:
“From a bookkeeping standpoint, it was the Jayhawks’ 25th straight loss on the road…But at this point, those are just numbers, like a metronome that keeps count of the program’s disarray.”
“Like a metronome…” What a wonderful, descriptive simile.
And here’s Dodd again, later in the same story:
“The Jayhawks, of course, entered the day as a double-digit underdog, so the fact they left Wallace Wade Stadium with a loss was not stunning. But this was a dumpster fire, the latest sign that the Kansas football program is not moving forward. If (Coach Charlie) Weis wanted to offer promise after two underwhelming seasons, if Kansas wanted to prove it was ready to make progress, if Kansas fans were ready to stem the tide of jokes and snark that flood the internet every Saturday, this was certainly not it.”
“Dumpster fire.” To me, that’s so funny it makes the loss worthwhile.
**
William Yardley of The Times recently wrote one of the most incredible obituaries I have ever seen. It was on Bob Crewe, a song producer and writer for Franki Valli and the Four Seasons.
Even though I have long been a big Four Seasons fan, I had never heard of Bob Crewe. Yardley’s obituary made me wish I had been aware of Crewe long ago.
1967 photo by Getty Images that ran with The New York Times’ obit on Bob Crewe, right, with Franki Valli and the other members of the Four Seasons.
Here’s how Yardley led off the obituary:
“Bob Crewe, who helped create a parade of indelible pop music hits, most notably for Franki Valli and the Four Seasons, including “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Rag Doll” and Mr. Valli’s soaring anthem of adoration “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” died on Thursday in Scarborough, Me. He was 83.”
Personally, I couldn’t take my eyes off the phrase “soaring anthem of adoration.” They comprise a singular, dead-on description of that song, which even most millennials are probably familiar with.
Later in the obit, Yardley goes on to describe the song’s magic:
“Few of Mr. Crewe’s songs are more enduring than ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,’ which Mr. Valli recorded as a solo artist and which rose to No. 2 in 1967. Mr. Crewe, the producer, wrote the lyrics…The song begins with a whisper:
You’re just too good to be true
Can’t take my eyes off of you.
You’d be like heaven to touch
I want to hold you so much
At long last love has arrived
And I thank God I’m alive.
You’re just too good to be true
Can’t take eyes my off of you.
Then it bursts into the chorus:
I love you, baby
And if it’s quite all right
I need you, baby,
To warm the lonely night
I love you, baby
Trust in me when I say
Oh pretty baby…”
…I was almost in a trance after reading those words with the music running through in my head. And when I was finished reading, I jumped onto the Internet and YouTube to find that song, to hear that anthem of adoration again.
And now, lest you dismiss me as a perverse tease…here’s that song…
How thoughtful of you to provide that link, ’cause that’s exactly what I was going to do, too: go to YouTube and pull it up! Another favorite: “My Eyes Adored You.” Wonder if that was Crewe? Back to Google!
I’m glad it got your day off to a good start, Gayle…I don’t know what you found, but here’s what Wikipedia (my go-to source for just about everything) says about “My Eyes Adored You.”
‘My Eyes Adored You’ (original working title, ‘Blue Eyes in Georgia’) is a popular song written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan.[1] It was originally recorded by The Four Seasons in early 1974. After the MoWest label balked at the idea of releasing it, the recording was sold to lead singer Frankie Valli for $4000. After rejections by Capitol, Atlantic, and other labels, Valli succeeded in getting the recording released on Private Stock Records, but the owner/founder of the label wanted only Valli’s name on the label. The single was released in the U.S. in November 1974 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1975. ‘My Eyes Adored You’ also went to #2 on the Easy Listening chart.
The single was Valli’s first #1 hit as a solo artist, and remained there for one week, being knocked out of the top spot by another Crewe/Nolan-penned song, ‘Lady Marmalade.’ Although it was released as a Valli solo effort, the song is sometimes included on Four Seasons compilation albums. It is from the album Closeup.
…As great as that song is, I doubt if it would have made it to No. 1, or even the Top 10, if it had been released under the title “Blue Eyes in Georgia.”
Wow — much more info than I found. Interesting –thanks. I also doubt it would have made No. 1 with anyone other than Frankie; no rendition like his.
You’re a pretty good writer, yourself, Fitz!
Thanks to a fellow former pen pusher at The Star.
Gayle — I just Googled the song itself; I’ve done that in the past on very specific Wikipedia searches with good results.
…By the way, I’ve got a pretty good falsetto, which I honed by listening to Franki. I can really soar on “Sherry.” Maybe I’ll cut it in my garage and slap it on YouTube.
THAT would be pretty funny … or did you mean it to be??
How did this blog on Writing and Phrasing turn into a Frankie Valli Lovefest?!
You go where the post and the comments take you. Every time I write about Oldies, I get a lot of responses and send several people to YouTube in search of classic tunes.
Here’s one I wrote about Carole King collaborator Gerry Goffin in June.
https://jimmycsays.com/2014/06/19/in-memoriam-gerry-goffin-soul-soother-from-the-70s-along-with-the-great-carole-king/
I remember reading that. I wasn’t being critical about the subject “detour.” Just didn’t know if others would appreciate it.
What really stands out on “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” is that brass “da-da, da-da, dada-dada da da-da, da-da, dada dada” bridge from the verse to the chorus. I will never forget the song’s prominent place in “The Deer Hunter”
You are so right about “The Deer Hunter,” Mike. That’s the best movie opening I’ve ever seen, where the guys are driving around in the snow and cold, kind of aimlessly, and going to the bar and starting to shoot pool, with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” blasting in the background. It’s an incredible stage setter for the terrible stuff that follows in Viet Nam.
…I think that’s a fairly accurate description of the opening, isn’t it? Like you, I remember how powerful an element of the opening that song was…I’m going to find it on Netflix and order it up.
By the way, I want to hear your rendition of the bridge between the intro and the chorus!
The Deer Hunter actually starts with the guys (DeNiro, Walken, John Cazale and the other guy whose only words seem to be “fucking A”) getting off their night shift job at the steel mill (It’s set in Pennsylvania) and then driving over to the bar where they play pool and listen to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” on the jukebox. They sing it in unison, first time I ever saw that in a movie (it was released in 1978). Since then, characters singing together has been used over and over to the point that it is now a very boring cliche. In this movie, however, it worked.Christopher Walken won the Best Supporting Oscar for his absolutely devastating role as Nick.
Also, anyone who has the misfortune of hearing me sing will remind me that I need to keep my day job.