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The Man I Love

Kate McGarry • Girl Talk

Kate McGarry on retelling the story of “The Man I Love”

I think of it as a song about a woman who fell down a well, instead of a song about just a dream about a man I love.

We gave it a kind of funereal pace (rhythmically) and it kind of became a story for me about a woman who got lost in the waiting for someone to come and save her, which is a story that is relevant to a lot of us. The song ends by focusing on the lyric, “I’m waiting, I’m waiting …”

It starts with this sort of pulsing, slow, sad sounding beat. And it doesn’t just go along like a ballad would. I also changed the harmony - not necessarily adding more minor chords - but just re-harmonizing the (melody to the chords underneath). Added a few extra bars at the end of certain phrases. Added a part at the end of the song where I say, “I’m waiting, I’m waiting …”

In jazz, the whole thing is up for a grabs. For interpretation. And to me, all that freedom gives you a lot more space to tell a story that’s unique to you.

Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz
Sunday March 10 at the Rooster’s Wife

“Arthel’s Guitar,” a new record by Jack Lawrence set to release at Merlefest 2013 “This record is dedicated to my memory of learning how to play music. And the title comes from the record’s title track - an instrumental - about the 1945 D-18 Martin guitar that Doc gave me over 20 years ago. It’s the guitar that he used on a lot of his early records, so I grew up listening to that guitar on record, and I used it on all the (Arthel’s Guitar) recordings,” Jack Lawrence on his new record. Hear more about Jack’s new record Sunday night at the Rooster’s Wife Jack Lawrence & Tommy Edwards Sunday Feb. 17 at 6:46 pm

“Arthel’s Guitar,” a new record by Jack Lawrence set to release at Merlefest 2013

“This record is dedicated to my memory of learning how to play music. And the title comes from the record’s title track - an instrumental - about the 1945 D-18 Martin guitar that Doc gave me over 20 years ago. It’s the guitar that he used on a lot of his early records, so I grew up listening to that guitar on record, and I used it on all the (Arthel’s Guitar) recordings,” Jack Lawrence on his new record.
Hear more about Jack’s new record Sunday night at the Rooster’s Wife
Jack Lawrence & Tommy Edwards
Sunday Feb. 17 at 6:46 pm

Of course, Joe Craven made this holiday tune his own last night at the Rooster’s Wife with jazz man Matt Munisteri. But the original recording was made by Gayla Peevey, who, at the tender age of 10, signed a 5-year-contract with Columbia Records in 1953.

The song made its national television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, and was such a hit, folks sent in their nickels and dimes to buy a hippo for Gayla on Christmas Eve.

“ … live baby hippo, Matilda, arrived at the Will Roger’s Airport and was presented to me. What a fun and memorable event that was !! Of course, I donated her to the Zoo where she happily resided for over forty years and with mate, Norm, produced (I believe) 9 offspring,” Gayla Peevey writes on iwantahippotamusforchristmas.net

I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
by John Rox

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
Don’t want a doll, no dinky Tinker Toy
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
I don’t think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won’t have to use our dirty chimney flue
Just bring him through the front door, that’s the easy thing to do

I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses

And hippopotamuses like me too!

Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then
Teacher says a hippo is a vegeterian
There’s lots of room for him in our two-car garage
I’d feed him there and wash him there and give him his massage

Chorus

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses
I only like hippopotamuseses
And hippopotamuses like me too!