Someone once said that David Frishberg writes the lyrics that Noel Coward would have written if he been born Jewish in St. Paul, Minnesota:
“I’m too much, I’m a gas, I am anything but middle class.”
Frishberg writes in the song “I’m Hip”, his songwriting puts him in the league of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. He writes songs about being his attourney Bernie, Marilyn Monroe and Sweet Kentucky Ham. Other songs poke at social boredom, New York City and sometimes peers into an uglier world, too.
He writes songs that string lists of baseball players or cliches, or excuses rather than tell a story. In the song “Blizzard of Lies he sings”:
We’ll send someone right out /
this won’t hurt a bit /
He’s in a meeting now /
the coat’s a perfect fit.
The wry, witty, and sometimes lamenting music of David Frishberg in this hour.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
David Frishberg