Well, did you ever!

Recently I have been enjoying a Cole Porter music revival. During the days following New Year's, I took advantage of some well deserved down time and watched all three of the Netflix movies I had on hand, practically back to back. I have this particularly bad habit of holding onto my Netflix movies for an embarrassingly long time before I get around to viewing them. But at the start of the New Year, I was pleased to overindulge myself.

One of the movies that comprised my New Year's film festival was De-Lovely, the Life of Cole Porter, staring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. After watching the film I couldn't get Cole Porter's music out of my head. So, in typical fashion, I ordered up the music CD and the songbook from Amazon, so that not only could I could listen to Porter's music but I could also serenade the family with Porter's tunes on the piano.

Cole Porter's music is beautiful, but his lyrics are what have me pausing in my tracks. How lovely is this: "Just one of those fabulous flights/a trip to the moon on gossamer wings." Or, "In love with the night mysterious/the night when you were first there." Or better yet, "You're the purple light of a summer night in Spain/You're the National Gallery/You're Garbo's salary/You're cellophane."

Listen to Cole Porter and you will also find audacious depths and a racy edge to his lyrics. "Electric eels do it although it shocks them I know/Let's do it!", or "Every night the set the smartest intruding on nudist parties/Anything goes!" "Bears have love affairs and even camels too/we'll mimic mammals/let's misbehave!" "Be Curious/Experiment!"

I get the feeling that Porter is ever so gleefully winking back at us, the seduced audience.