I FUCKING LOVE THIS SONG!!!
MARLENE DIETRICH SINGS "SUCH TRYING TIMES"

I've known New Orlean's public radio station WWOZ for years, and became a frequent listener once I moved to the Crescent City. I mean, there's no way I wouldn't be a bigtime fan of the station: no commercials, really intelligent programming of roots music, blues, jazz, zydeco, gospel, you name it, the sound of the Big Easy. But there was one show in particular, which appears to have been recently replaced with an equally good accoustic blues show, on Sunday afternoons. I don't even know how to describe the show's unifying theme, maybe "obscure and eclectic twentieth century music," but the song it always opened with blew me away, Marlene Dietrich singing "Such Trying Times."

Of course, I've loved Dietrich for longer than I've loved WWOZ. Her whole German cabaret thing drives me wild, and has been more than a bit influential to me as an artist. That she was one of the most beautiful and charismatic women ever to appear on the silver screen doesn't hurt either. So this song I'd never heard before instantly captivated me. It's totally in a Weimar style, sort of off-kilter, a bit weird, featuring both banjo and orchestra. I figured it was some gem from the twenties or early thirties before the Nazis started rounding up cabaret artists, communists, Jews, and homosexuals, but no: it's Dietrich's version of a song by John Addison from the early 60s British comedy film Tom Jones. I've never seen the film, but maybe I should, given the song's strength, and the fact that it got the Best Picture Oscar for 1963.

But really, this post isn't about the movie; it's about the song. Go check it out. I think I'm going to learn it for performance at open mike night. It's perfect for me.


Marlene Dietrich, 1930.

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