music, books, love and kindness

Glenn Miller, 1940. Associated Press

I'm just now reading the Sunday papers from this past weekend. I love this snippet from a WSJ article by James Ellroy on Glenn Miller's "Perfidia":

The song is about love and betrayal, and Miller's version fits this era perfectly. His rendition begins forcefully, all heavy brass. The reeds join, low and mournfully, with the clarinets on top. Then the Modernaires, the vocal group in Miller's band, sing the lyrics in tight harmony, like a whispered secret: "To you / My heart cries out 'Perfidia' / For I find you, the love of my life / In somebody else's arms." It's the song of the underdog.

 

Miller understood that music is elegiac. Other orchestras back then were hipper, but Miller knew that people would look back at "Perfidia" and say, "This is the Miller sound." He understood it was a romantic era.
 

"Perfidia" always takes me back to a time I never experienced—when L.A. had big gleaming cars and there wasn't a particle of smog in the sky. Women I know like the song, too. The sentiment is universal. It touches the gut of the jilted party and offers a supportive shrug. Hey, you love, you lose.