
Irving Berlin
New York Genius
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Narrated by:
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L. J. Ganser
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By:
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James Kaplan
A fast-moving, musically astute portrait of arguably the greatest composer of American popular music
Irving Berlin (1888-1989) has been called - by George Gershwin, among others - the greatest songwriter of the golden age of the American popular song. "Berlin has no place in American music," legendary composer Jerome Kern wrote; "He is American music." In a career that spanned an astonishing nine decades, Berlin wrote some 1,500 tunes, including "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "God Bless America", and "White Christmas". From ragtime to the rock era, Berlin's work has endured in the very fiber of American national identity.
Exploring the intertwining of Berlin's life with the life of New York City, noted biographer James Kaplan offers a visceral narrative of Berlin as self-made man and witty, wily, tough Jewish immigrant. This fast-paced, musically opinionated biography uncovers Berlin's unique brilliance as a composer of music and lyrics. Masterfully written and psychologically penetrating, Kaplan's book underscores Berlin's continued relevance in American popular culture.
©2019 James Kaplan (P)2019 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...




















Reads like a chronology of song output
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Excellent Content
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Adequate but uninspired
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Excellent
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His celebration of ragtime in Alexander's Ragtime Band (which is NOT a ragtime number; it's a march) was such a huge hit that people in many places, especially Britain, thought that Irving Berlin had invented ragtime music. Within a few years, he found a way to write in every new genre that came along -- swing, country, and the pop standards of the Great American Songbook. Not until disco, punk, and rap did he decide that a sixty-plus-year career was long enough. Even then, his songs remain astonishingly popular: God Bless America. There's No Business Like Show Business. White Christmas. Songs that everybody knows, even if they don't know who wrote them.
James Kaplan captures Berlin's life and his music, and even though L.J. Ganser can only recite the song lyrics in this audiobook, that's enough; indeed, it's better, because we really hear the words when they're read to us rather than sung. And even though Berlin got a reputation for grumpiness later in life, we get to meet him during the years of his courageous and likeable spunk, attributes that brought him to success in a business that chewed up and spat out most talented newcomers. So by the end, we listeners love him and his music, and I, for one, was glad that he didn't die young like Lorenz Hart, Moss Hart, George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II; Irving Berlin got to live long enough to see the lasting impact of his work on American culture.
The Greatest Songwriter?
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