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Title: Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot: The Formative Years, 1907-1914 by Charles Hamm ISBN: 0-19-507188-3 Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr on Demand Pub. Date: March, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $42.50

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Average Customer Rating: 2 (1 review)

Rating: 2
Summary: Read, enjoy and learn - but beware!
Comment: Here is a valuable book for anyong interested in the ragtime song or in the arly compositions of Irving Berlin. It includes in-depth discussions of Berlin's vaudeville songs including Glack, Irish, Jewish, Italian, German and "rube" songs. There are numerous sheet music covers, musical excerpts and lyrics to accompany the text. There are also extensive treatments of Berlin's ragtime songs for the musical stage. A valuable addition is an alphabetical list of Berlin songs published from 1907 to 1914 complete with copyright information. Anoother listing includes vintage recordings of the songs. Despite some real plusses, this is a flawed work. anyone using it should be aware of some of its more glaring shortcomings: The author did not know that "Harry Piano" was a pseudonym for Berlin, and he treats him as a real person! He continually makes assumptions that certain words and phrases mean more than they state -- often sexual references. These are pure speculation on his part, unsupported by fact. As an example in his discussion of the lyrics of "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'," he claims that a white person would hardly use the term "choo-choo" for a train and that he would not grab a conductor by the collar and "holler" at him. He further states, "The train's midnight departure time suggests that fares are cheaper then than on trains leaving at more convenient hours." Anyone who knows anything about railroads knows that this is ridiculous. It is far less likely that a black man would have accosted a conductor (most of them white) in any way. Hamm also makes a number of completely fallacious statements: He claims that the book, THEY ALL PLAYED RAGTIME, defined "ragtime" exclusively as piano music with the term "ragtime song" being an oxymoron. In reality the book frequently refers to and praises ragtime songs by such composers as Ben Harney, Joe Jordan and George Botsford. He claims that classic ragtime was intended to be played just as it was notated. The truth is that while a few composers played their scores as written, no good ragtime pianist ever played scores exactly as written, and composers did not expect them to. He claims that Berlin and Snyder never wrote a ballad together after 1911. In reality they penned the beautiful "Lead Me To Love" in 1914 for the musical show "Watch Your Step." Another blunder is is claim that the song "Hands Up" was composed by Joseph Lamb and J. Fred Helf. In reality it was Arthur J. Lamb who wrote the song's lyrics. His most serious error was in not interviewing the Ted Snyder family or reading the true story of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as printed in THE RAG TIMES, which was based upon information provided by the Snyder family. Despite all its errors the book does contain the most complete history of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to date with previously unearthed quotes and documentation. Read, enjoy and learn -- but beware.