Any note you can reach, I can go higher.
I can sing anything higher than you.
No, you can't. (High)
Yes, I can. (Higher)
No, you can't. (Higher)
Yes, I can. (Higher)
No, you can't. (Higher)
Yes, I CAN! (Highest)
Any note you can hold, I can hold longer.
I can hold any note longer than you.
No, you can't.
Yes, I can
No, you can't.
Yes, I can
No, you can't.
Yes, I can....Yes, I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I CA-A-A-A-N!
Yes, you ca-a-a-an!
With thanks to Irving Berlin for some lines from one of his catchiest songs,
"Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)"
a show tune composed by Berlin
for the 1946 Broadway musical
Annie Get Your Gun.
I think Annie Get Your Tuba
would make a great show title too.
Especially if this brass quartet played in it.
The names of these four young women are unknown.
Such that we can judge from their hair style and attire
they could be from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Their instruments are typical brass designs from central Europe,
with rotary valves instead of piston valves
(A slide trombone is a slide trombone everywhere.)
However on the back of their small photo
is a faint imprint of an address
which has only one word clear enough to guess.
It reads Th..... Strasse.
So I'm going to say these Vier Damen
are from Germany.
It looks like a German sofa too.
They look like a merry group of friends
who knew how to have fun.
I bet they sounded much like
this German brass band,
Brassessoires,
who play for us
an old German brass band standard,
Alte Kameraden.
****
****
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone's trying to have a good time
while keeping their distance too.
6 comments:
I remember Annie Get Your Gun, and am trying to avoid the ear worm of "Everything You Can Do..." I did enjoy the young women's music from Germany. Very talented!
Great post! I enjoyed this so much. :) The German brass quintet was a very talented group of ladies, but I really had fun with the clip from "Annie Get Your Gun". I was only aware of the 1960s version starring Doris Day & Robert Goulet. I had no idea there was an earlier version with Howard Keel and Betty Grable. Actually, I had no idea Betty Grable could sing like that. And I love the song because I've done it before onstage and not only does it challenge a singer's voice, but there's so much opportunity for outrageous acting which is what I love best. :)
Annie Get Your Tube is a great title.
A German sofa?? I'm accustomed to your being able to detect a valve, a uniform, an epaulet, a moustache, a horn to pin down year and location. But a sofa?? Why aren't you on Jeopardy?
What a fun and uplifting post. Loved the vintage photo -- those women are really trowing themselves into whatever tune they are playing. And the video of the brass band is just great -- as is the last video from "Annie Get Your Gun." I was a huge Annie Oakley fan as a child -- my parents even bought me the official outfit. While the costume is long gone, I have carried Annie's can-do spirit through life. What better role model for a young girl?
That was fun! Like La Nightingail, I have only seen the Doris Day version of Annie Get your Gun. Impressed that all those women and their instruments fit on that German sofa!
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