As some of you may know, I recently returned from a sweet trip to visit friends in Shanghai.
Heading out on the tricycle…
They live in a row house on an alley — many of which are being torn down in order to build apartment/condo skyscrapers.
There was lots of eating, biking, exploring the city and making music.
Although there are MANY motorbikes, cars and trucks in Shanghai — as well as a beautiful and enormous new subway system — lots of people still ride bikes.
My friends had several black single-speed bikes and also built a big trike with a yellow rear bed for transporting things and people around town.
There were items for sale everywhere — including fresh fruits and vegetables; live turtles, frogs and fish; and much, much, much, much more.
One of my friends is a wonderful composer, jazz pianist, and teacher.
My friend’s mother checks out a street vendor’s wares…
He and his family have been living in Shanghai for seven years, and a couple of years ago he started teaching music in the school his younger child attends.
I was able to visit some of his classes and was happy to see — and hear — how much his students love to sing.
We even taught them a song that my friend and I had written together — back when he lived with his Yamaha grand piano in a studio apartment above an ice cream store in Allston, MA — called “Let’s Go To The River.”
They learned it quickly and sang it with great gusto.
I was delighted.
A few days after I returned home to Boston, when it looked like my friend’s primary vocal ensemble might be participating in a VIP concert for the mayor of Shanghai, two of China’s top conductors came to hear my friend’s choir sing.
Me walking near the Bund, I think…
They listened to three pop/rock/show tunes, responded warmly, and asked, “What else do you have?”
My friend projected the lyrics for “Let’s Go to The River” up on a screen at the front of his classroom, and his choir performed a rousing version for them.
After class, the conductors stayed to talk about his choir participating in the concert. One of the maestros tactfully mentioned the importance of choosing songs with lyrics that would be apolitical. He suggested “What a Wonderful World,” my friend suggested “Singing in the Rain,” and they decided that a song in Chinese would be great, too.
The maestro again reinforced the necessity of choosing lyrics with an eye to political sensitivity.
My friend didn’t think too much about the maestro’s remarks until after they had left — and he went back into his classroom and saw my lyrics still up on the screen.
Lots of people ride double like this on their bike…
The two conductors had had time to study the message of “Let’s Go to the River,” and my friend realized that it may have made them nervous that he was teaching such ‘subversive’ messages to primary school students — and might even want to perform such a message at a public event.
I have typed the lyrics at the end of this blog post.
Perhaps they are a bit subversive for our ever-more-wired-and-plugged-in-and-distracted culture in the United Stated of America, too!
What do YOU think?
Thank you to my friends for flying me to Shanghai not once but twice during their years there.
Thank you to Steve for giving me a melody many years ago to which I set these lyrics.
Thank you to Kate for her lovely graphic design for the CD — BLAME THOS GERSHWINS — of Steve’s songs which we recorded a few years ago.
And thank YOU for reading (or re-reading) this blog post!
amusicalifeonplanetearth 