Time And Sound – (Marlene Dietrich – 2)

Allen on Marlene Dietrich continues

AG:  Wanna hear some more Dietrich?

That sounds like an American movie. That was something more interesting earlier (“Naughty Lola‘)  – That (“Give Me The Man”) was kinda corny,  I thought, (but)… anything she does is interesting. She’s got that funny androgynous voice – that’s a tenor?

Student: Bass

AG: Bass, that’s bass, and that’s.. – alto and bass, she goes back and forth.

Student: (Over forty years)

AG:  Yes… This must have been by (19)34, (19)35 –  Actually, you know, Hitler called her in, and Leni Riefenstahl.. (Rife-enstahl? Reef-enstahl?),  and maybe one other woman, and wanted them to be the all-German woman, the representative of German womanhood , and she refused. (Leni Riefenstahl, who was very beautiful, did take it (Rife-enstahl? Rief-enstahl) accepted – and Marlene Dietrich left Germany right at that point.

[Allen returns to the record-player] – I’m afraid I  don’t know how this thing (the record-player) works. It goes the wrong way…[Allen plays next “Nimm’ Dich in acht vor blonden Frau’n“]

Now that was broken wine glasses barefoot smashed phonograph records of nostalgic European 1930s German jazz.  This is.. this is what I was talking about (and also there (with Lotte Lenya in Mahagony).

It’s the second song coming up now that I thought was one of the best songs:

AG: Does anybody know what that is?  In English, there’s a version of that in English  – What is it?
Student: “Falling In Love Again”
AG: (sings!) “Falling in Love Again /Don’t Know What to Do..” (“Falling in Love Again/Never Wanted To…”)
Student:  “I am from head to foot for love and that’s all I can do”  (“Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß/Auf Liebe eingestellt,/Denn das ist meine Welt)
AG:  “I can’t help it!” – Goodness!
Student  Then, she says, “Men are attracted to me like moths around the flame” (Männer umschwirr’n mich,/Wie Motten um das Licht)
AG: Yeah
Student: “And when they burn up, I can do nothing about it!” (Und wenn sie verbrennen,/Ja dafür kann ich nichts.)
AG: You know the German? How do you know German?
Student: Well, I’ve got the album.
AG: Ah, what is the album?
Student: The Blue Angel
AG: The music from The Blue Angel?.. the whole album.  Is it all music from the Blue Angel?
Student: I think practically all of what you’ve played today.

AG: Yeah I’ll finish this

Marlene Dietrich continues singing  “Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt” (“Falling In Love Again” in the original German version) 

Well, you can just see the movie fading, It’s too sad! …Yeah, I think the album was a collection of movie music. We’ll make copies of this and leave it around in the library for people to listen to.

to be continued

Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately thirty-five-and-a-half minutes in and continuing until approximately forty-seven minutes in.