{"id":1585,"date":"2016-07-03T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=1585"},"modified":"2017-02-13T17:47:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T22:47:01","slug":"porters-love-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/porters-love-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Porter&#8217;s Love Song to a Chambermaid (Andy Razaf)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w2dnCkijBXw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When I was seventeen, in the summer of 1976, I spent a month or so staying with my half-brother Dave in Moraga, California, and heard Fats Waller for the first time.<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1586 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Fats-Waller-double-LP.jpg?resize=300%2C300\" alt=\"Fats Waller double LP\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Fats-Waller-double-LP.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Fats-Waller-double-LP.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> As a teenager, I was naturally entranced, and Dave helped me work out the chords to &#8220;You&#8217;re Not the Only Oyster in the Stew,&#8221; and fairly soon thereafter I bought my first Fats Waller album, a two-LP set that included that, and &#8220;I Wish I Were Twins,&#8221; and &#8220;A Porter&#8217;s Love Song to a Chambermaid.&#8221; Most of the songs were too complicated for me to work out by ear, but by the time I&#8217;d finished that year with Van Ronk, this one was within my range, and it became a staple of my street sets when Rob and I began working in Harvard Square. It did not occur to me that there was anything markedly racial about the professions of the protagonists &#8212; I just thought of their jobs as a pretext for the cutely romantic lyric, which Rob notably parodied by adding his own variation on the lyrical theme: &#8220;I will do your chafing, if you&#8217;ll be my dish.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The original lyric was not far from that, and was penned by one of the great lyricists of the twenties and thirties, Andy Razaf &#8212; a frequent partner of Waller&#8217;s, though this particular melody was by Waller&#8217;s mentor and teacher, the dean of Harlem stride pianists, James P. Johnson. Razaf had a distinctly unusual background; to quote the first paragraph of his biography in the NY Public Library (which holds his collected papers):<\/p>\n<p><em><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1587 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/andy-razaf.jpg?resize=222%2C288\" alt=\"andy-razaf\" width=\"222\" height=\"288\" \/>Andy Razaf was born Andreamentania Paul Razafinkeriefo on December 16, 1895 in Washington D.C., months after his mother had fled Madagascar because the government there had been overthrown. His father Henri Razafkeriefo&#8230; was killed after the French captured the island, exiled his aunt, the Queen and abolished the nobility.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Razaf&#8217;s formal poetry sometimes suggested his elevated upbringing, but his song lyrics were most notable for their sharp, supple wit and clever wordplay. His numerous collaborations with Waller included &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/aint-misbehavin\/\">Ain&#8217;t Misbehavin&#8217;<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;Honeysuckle Rose,&#8221; &#8220;Keeping Out of Mischief Now,&#8221; and &#8220;Blue Turning Gray Over You&#8221;; a show with Eubie Blake produced &#8220;Memories of You&#8221;; and he also wrote the lyrics to &#8220;In the Mood,&#8221; &#8220;Stompin&#8217; at the Savoy,&#8221; &#8220;Christopher Columbus,&#8221; the naughty blues hit, &#8220;If I Can&#8217;t Sell It, I&#8217;ll Keep Sitting On It,&#8221; and roughly a thousand other songs. At one point Dave Van Ronk suggested we might collaborate on an album of Andy Razaf&#8217;s lyrics, and when he got to know Billy Novick and Guy Van Duser, who were far better suited to that task than I was, I suggested he do it with them and he was briefly enthusiastic, but it never happened. (Another of his concept albums that never happened was songs about food, with &#8220;Everybody Eats When They Come to My House&#8221; as the title song.)<\/p>\n<p>In any case, this was probably the first Razaf lyric I learned, and remains a favorite. And I wish Dave had done that album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was seventeen, in the summer of 1976, I spent a month or so staying with my half-brother Dave in Moraga, California, and heard Fats Waller for the first time. As a teenager, I was naturally entranced, and Dave helped me work out the chords to &#8220;You&#8217;re Not the Only Oyster in the Stew,&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/porters-love-song\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Porter&#8217;s Love Song to a Chambermaid (Andy Razaf)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Porter&#039;s Love Song to a Chambermaid (Andy Razaf) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/porters-love-song\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Porter&#039;s Love Song to a Chambermaid (Andy Razaf) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was seventeen, in the summer of 1976, I spent a month or so staying with my half-brother Dave in Moraga, California, and heard Fats Waller for the first time. As a teenager, I was naturally entranced, and Dave helped me work out the chords to &#8220;You&#8217;re Not the Only Oyster in the Stew,&#8221; &hellip; Continue reading Porter&#8217;s Love Song to a Chambermaid (Andy Razaf) &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/porters-love-song\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-03T11:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-13T22:47:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Fats-Waller-double-LP.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/porters-love-song\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/porters-love-song\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Porter&#8217;s Love Song to a Chambermaid (Andy Razaf)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-03T11:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-13T22:47:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/porters-love-song\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":525,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/porters-love-song\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/Fats-Waller-double-LP.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/porters-love-song\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/porters-love-song\\\/\",\"name\":\"Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid (Andy Razaf) - 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I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/harry-the-hipster-downbeat-227x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3320,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/shake-sugaree\/","url_meta":{"origin":1585,"position":2},"title":"Shake Sugaree (Elizabeth Cotten\/Peter Keane)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I learned this song from Peter Keane when we were exploring material to play as a duo. I had met Peter sometime in the early 1980s, by lucky happenstance: I was playing a street pitch on Holyoke Plaza in Harvard Square, he was a freshman in Harvard Yard, he'd been\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/EW-and-Peter-Keane-at-passim-poster-1987.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1347,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/friend-of-mine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1585,"position":3},"title":"He Was a Friend of Mine (Dave Van Ronk &#038;co)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This was one of the first songs I ever heard from Dave Van Ronk, and remained a staple of his repertoire throughout his career. When he recorded it in 1963 he credited it to Bob Dylan, but in later years would say, \"I learned this from Bob Dylan, who learned\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"von schmidt - cahn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/von-schmidt-cahn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1031,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/black-mountain-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":1585,"position":4},"title":"Black Mountain Blues (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I got this from Dave Van Ronk's first album -- once again, it was the kind of violent, bragging song that perfectly suited the tastes of a teenage boy who was getting into blues. Dave had learned it from Bessie Smith's recording, and had the bright idea of combining her\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Scrapper_Blackwell and Bessie Smith","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Scrapper_Blackwell-and-Bessie-Smith-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/saint-james-infirmary\/","url_meta":{"origin":1585,"position":5},"title":"Saint James Infirmary (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One of Dave Van Ronk's great flagwavers -- he generally called it \"Gambler's Blues\" -- this was my father's favorite out of his repertoire. They were friends from the moment I had Dave over to my folks' place and my father came out of the kitchen to ask if he\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-Gamblers-blues.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1585"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2548,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions\/2548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}