Comments on: Too Marvelous for Words

By: Weekend Roundup at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:47:05 +0000

[...] Midweek we took a break to celebrate the centenary of the great Johnny Mercer. [...]

By: Warren Wimmer

Warren Wimmer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:09:24 +0000

Terry Gross of NPR’s “Fresh Air” ran a wonderful show last night on the Johnny Mercer centenary with a talented couple singing medleys and individual classics. Here’s the link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=11-18-2009

By: JolietJake

JolietJake — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:44:53 +0000

What a marvelous post, Mr. Landsburg! Thanks for sharing!

By: Steve Landsburg

Steve Landsburg — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:43:39 +0000

Patrick R. Sullivan: Actually, my guess is that it was my dad who was confused by “I’m an Old Cowhand”; I did feel 100% certain about who wrote “Fence”. Thanks for the colorful history!

By: Patrick R. Sullivan

Patrick R. Sullivan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:33:03 +0000

My guess is that you missed the bet because you weren’t sure whether Mercer wrote ‘Fence’ or ‘I’m an Old Cowhand’.

There’s another similarity between Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer. Porter bought the poem that Don’t Fence Me In is based on for $250 from a Montana DOT engineer named Robert Fletcher. Then he reworked the lyrics and produced a song for a Roy Rogers movie, which became a surprise hit. Porter then cut Fletcher in on the royalties (he could afford to).

One day Mercer opened an envelope addressed to Johnny Mercer/Songwriter/New York City, to find a request from a woman who worked in a hardware store in Youngstown, Ohio. The request was that he write a song with the lyric, ‘I want to be around to pick up the pieces when somebody breaks your heart’. Which he later did, and thinking that suggestion was half the song, he cut her in for 50% of the royalties.

By: dullgeek

dullgeek — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:19:18 +0000

I don’t mean to channel Russ Roberts with this comment, but I marvel in the fact that I could easily pull out my phone, start up pandora, type in “Johnny Mercer” and listen immediately to determine if I liked him or not.

To me, that’s nothing short of a miracle. Something that couldn’t even have been imagined 10 years ago. And in that incredibly short time, not only was it imagined, it was built, given away for free. And all of this was commanded and directed by… NO ONE. Amazing!

By: Nigel Hawkins

Nigel Hawkins — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:30:18 +0000

This is just my sort of my music, thank you! I’ll be back!

By: Ben Alexander

Ben Alexander — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:39:01 +0000

I think there must be an economic lesson in your story… something about the evaluation of risk; or perhaps the moral and financial calculus of taking your father’s entire net worth, weighed against him surely becoming your dependent and getting access to it all again.

You didn’t mention what your relative net worths were, nor your (relative?) expected future income which should surely come into play in evaluating the cost of the risk.

Too bad, though. Now you have to work for a living. All of a sudden I’m reminded of the immortal words of Tom Lehrer: “I don’t like people to get the idea that I have to do *this* for a living. I mean it isn’t as if I had to do this you know. I could be making $3000 a year just teaching!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQHaGhC7C2E&feature=related

By: MattF

MattF — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:58:36 +0000

Johnny Mercer was the theme of last Sunday's NYT crossword-- constructed by the one-and-only Liz Gorski (who was also the constructor of the recent eye-popper celebrating the Guggenheim Museum's 50th anniversary).