"A Ship without a Sail"

Rodgers and Hart

Much as I love the great musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein, who genuinely elevated American musical theater of the 1920’s and 1930’s to the level of high art in the 1940’s, I must admit to being extremely fond of the works of Richard Rodgers and his first longtime composing partner, Lorenz Hart. Larry Hart was in many ways a very sad and lonely soul, and perhaps for that very reason in addition to the charming and witty and light-hearted lyrics he gave us (“Manhattan,” which I have discussed here, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, which I have discussed here) he composed some of the most moving unrequited love lyrics in American popular music. Today’s Sometimes a Song is one of those, for me a favorite among my MANY favorite songs, “A Ship without a Sail,” from a little-remembered musical called “Heads Up.”

I haven’t got a clever story today to accompany my song choice, partly because “Heads Up” never made its way to Hollywood (and frankly, of the Rodgers and Hart’s twenty-eight Broadway musicals and reviews, those which did “go west” usually did not make it to the silver screen with their musical scores intact). But I will say something about Larry Hart, whom many (myself included) consider a lyricist of the very highest rank in American music of the 20th century, in a league with the likes of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. But where Porter’s work was witty and filled with rather high-brow lyrical sophistication, Hart’s work was witty in ways which had appeal to the day-to-day experience of other-than-Broadway audiences. Both Porter and Hart were tortured souls, and yet of the two, Hart’s lyrics may be generally funnier — when he was lighthearted — and much much sadder — when he was touching upon the depths of human loss and sorrow and loneliness, and writing about that side of his own life.

Lorenz Hart was a genius in verse, a master of literature and poetry in both English and his parents’ native German, in which language he was fluent and also composed his own poetry and lyrics. So, as is often the case, Hart’s talent did not spring up of a sudden and out of the blue, brilliant though he was. He was a voracious reader of the classics as a child and teen. One story is told of his being sent off to summer camp, with a trunk which was to have been filled with “everything a boy will need for three months.” So Larry packed his trunk, which arrived at the camp so heavy that it could only be moved with some difficulty by a team of young men. What was inside? Not CLOTHES (at camp Hart just commandeered practical items as the necessity arose), but books, books, a whole library of books — including The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.”

And here I pause to add our patented Esolen
!!DIFFERENT UNIVERSE ALERT!!

Imagine a boy bringing a whole trunk full of great literature along with him to summer camp! And while he was at camp, he (of course) spent the greater part of his time working on a musical review to be performed by the boys over summer. It would seem that Larry Hart, consciously and unconsciously, spent a lifetime preparing for his career with such a musical genius as Richard Rodgers. And our song today, one of 1000 that the team wrote together, is just one example of what a long and excellent collaboration they had.

For today I am attaching a lovely not-so-antique version of the “A Ship Without a Sail” recorded in the 1990’s by delightful soprano, Dawn Upshaw.

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymns, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast for paid subscribers, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Paid subscribers also receive audio-enhanced posts and on-demand access to our full archive, and may add their comments to our posts and discussions. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber. We value all of our subscribers, and we thank you for reading Word and Song!