"It's a lazy afternoon/ And the beetle bugs are zooming/ And the tulip trees are blooming/ And there's not another human in view,/ But us two./ It's a lazy afternoon/ And the farmer leaves his reaping/ And the meadow cows are sleeping/ And the speckled trouts stop leaping up stream/ As we dream./ A far pink cloud hangs over the hill/ Unfolding like a rose/ If you hold my hand and sit real still,/ You can hear the grass as it grows./ It's a hazy afternoon/ And I know a place that's quiet,/ except for daisies running riot/ And there's no one passing by it/ to see/ Come spend this lazy afternoon with me." - John Latouche (?1914-1956?)
Lyricist John Latouche worked with Vernon Duke and George Balanchine on the first all-black Broadway musical, the 1940 production of Cabin In The Sky. In 1954 he collaborated with Jerome Moross on the musical The Golden Apples that included the song Lazy Afternoon. Latouche wrote the libretto for Douglas Moore's 1956 opera The Ballad of Baby Doe. Image credits:
1. Albert Marquet - Island of the Swans, 1919, Pompidou Center, Paris.
2. Aristide Maillol - By the Seine, Museum of Fine Arts, Valenciennes, France.
4 comments:
Ahh ... I could read this poem/lyrical ballad several times while lying under this tree. I'm getting drowsy just thinking about it. - Jeanne
The melody is perfectly suited to the lyrics, what luck. Barbra Streisand's version, recorded in 1975, is available in several places, including on www.youtube.com. It is quite unusual for her repertoire.
It reminds me of my lovely weekend. Ah, if only it wasn't Monday...
Somewhere there is a swimming pool calling our names. I forgot to mention that Dianne Reeves recorded a nice version of "Lazy Afternoon" with Renee Rosnes at the piano.
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