Transcending the Nazis
Redeeming “My Favorite Things”
The sprawl: today is the fiftieth anniversary of my grandmother’s passing. Ellen Crowe Terry (my Nanny) was and always has been one of my favorite “things.” She bought my first three albums: O.C. Smith’s The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp; Tom Jones’ This Is Tom Jones; and The Beatles’ Yesterday and Today. A strange threesome, but not bad if you love, as I do, eclecticism. If she were the Jewish grandmother, I’d be lighting her Yarzheit.
Last night I recaptured some of my old vinyl and discovered that I took really good care of these discs. Among the reclaimed was John Coltrane’s seminal 1961 recording, My Favorite Things, likely the first jazz record I ever owned, given to me by a guy named Lee back in 1985 (he also gave me an Ornette Coleman record, too — such great birthday gifts, right?). I played the Coltrane record nonstop, wondering why such a giant would cover, or want to, that old Sound of Music tune, which I had to sing in sixth grade music class over and over, to the delight of all the girls in class and to the horror of all the boys (yep, pretty sexist of us but I digress).
You know how the song goes, right?
“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…”
That in itself is almost enough to drive an eleven year-old boy nuts.
